The Big Day

Four hours of flying time down.  Thirty-one to go.

The three of us - and our 200 lbs. of luggage - arrived in California Thursday evening.  We have had an awesome weekend filled with special memories (and a few things we'd rather not remember...more on that later).  My little brother is now a married man.  Crazy. 

The wedding was wonderful.  Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day, about 79 degrees when the wedding started.  (Yes, my Midwest friends, that really says 7-9 degrees.)  My little flower girl looked adorable, and the bride (my new sister, Laura) was stunning.

The ceremony went well.  Matt and Laura had asked Jeremy to officiate.  Unfortunately, he started feeling a little gross after the rehearsal on Friday.  He fell asleep Friday at 3:00pm and slept until 6:00am Saturday morning.  He woke up pale, lightheaded, and feverish.  I spent half the morning frantically wondering who you call in for back-up when the pastor gets sick the morning of the wedding.  Thankfully, he felt a bit better by the afternoon and managed not to throw up...until 15 minutes after the ceremony.  (Yup, Jeremy making a quick exit during family pictures would be one of those moments we'd like to forget.)

The only snag in the ceremony was that a certain-flower-girl-wh0-won't-be-named decided that she was parched right in the middle.  Her mother (who definitely won't be named) tried very hard to ignore her as she loudly whispered,

"Mom, I'm thirsty."

"Mom, I'm really thirsty." 

(Emphasizes her point by pulling on her lower lip with both hands.)

"Mom, I'm SOO-PER thirsty."  (This part may or may not have actually been whispered.)

Whose kid does that in the middle of a wedding, anyway?

Thankfully most wedding guests are awfully forgiving when you're four and looking pretty adorable in a poofy white dress and ringlet curls.

Matt and Laura said I do with a flourish.

The beautiful day turned into a beautiful night.  We had a blast at the rehearsal.  Li'l Miss danced...

...and danced...

...and danced...

...and danced...

...and danced.

She pretty much had a blast.   

I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to be part of Matt and Laura's special day.  The wedding was gorgeous, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for them as Mr. & Mrs.

As for my crazy Li'l Dancer...she stayed on her feet until almost 10:00 and crashed hard when we got home.  She slept until midnight, when she woke up...puking.

I so hope I'm not next.

The Things I Might Have Said...

I haven't been blogging this month.  Life has been oh-so-crazy, and my mind has been going in a million different directions.  (Packing for 29 days, 4 climates, and 5 people is really not easy.)  If I had taken time to post, there are many things I might have said.

I might have said that Li'l Miss created an adorably cute mini-version of our family using her math manipulatives.

Yup. that's us.  Li'l Miss, Li'l Man, Li'l Dude, Mommy, and Daddy.

I might have said that we got the awesome opportunity to have dinner with a sweetie from Li'l Man's orphanage and his wonderful family.

This adorable little guy used to sleep two cribs over from our Li'l Man, and they're less than two weeks apart in age.  I can't wait for our next dinner date, when both boys will be running around together!

I might have said that we went to the fair (yes, AGAIN) with one of my bestest buddies from college and that our little cowgirls had a blast together.

I might have said that we went camping with our good friends, and that we survived a whole weekend with three girlies in the wilderness woods.

I might have said that Li'l Miss is suddenly 4 going on 14 and that she had a blast at her friend's Fancy Nancy party.

(Yup, that'd be what she does now when I ask her to pose.)

But...I didn't say any of those things.  All of those posts got lost amidst the floor-scrubbing, list-making, Target-raiding, goodbye-saying, cookbook-alphabetizing craziness that comes with getting ready to fly across the ocean and meet two members of your family for the first time ever.

Although I didn't take time to say those things, there is one thing I had to stop and say.

We're outta' here!!!  We'll be in California this afternoon and Beijing next Wednesday!

It's Official!!!

Life has been crazy-cray over here: painting, shopping, freaking out over the 10,000 tiny things I forgot to put on my list (like, um, toothbrushes for the boys).  BUT...I had to take a minute to share that WE HAVE PLANE TICKETS TO CH*NA!!!

We got confirmation of our Consulate Appointment last night (woohoo!), so I was able to book tickets this morning.  Living 2,000 miles away from my family, I have booked plenty of plane tickets.  But, I have to tell you, I think I almost puked about seven times while I was making our reservations this morning.  It didn't help that I had to book three separate reservations through three separate means (four roundtrips with real money, one child-in-seat one way with miles, one child-on-lap one way over the phone).  Stress.ful.

 We had an awesome friend donate miles for Li'l Man's one-way ticket home.  (We love you, world-traveling friend.)  Li'l Man's one way cost almost exactly the same as an adult roundtrip ticket, so getting it for free was huge.  (And, riddle me this, why does a child's roundtrip ticket cost less than a child's one way?  Yup, Li'l Miss totally got a cheaper ticket than Li'l Man.) 

So, let the countdown begin: 26 days until we get on that plane (if I spelled all our names correctly on the reservations, that is ;).

Almost There

I just had to take a moment to make sure everyone knows that it is officially October.  We meet our boys next month.  I have to say that again because I can't shout at the top of my lungs on a keyboard.  We meet our boys next month.  I honestly can't believe it.

At this point, a week after Travel Approval, we should have our hotels booked and a flight to Ch*na on the calendar.  Unfortunately, we ran into a little bump last week.  (A bump?  In this process?  No way!  I can say that with a smile at this point.  Seriously.  I'm smiling.)  In order to schedule our appointment with the U.S. Consulate in Ch*na (which is the last tiny step after getting TA and before booking plane tickets), a family has to have current fingerprints for U.S. Immigration.  We have been fingerprinted before.  In fact, we've been fingerprinted twice.  (If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember our last way-too-early trip to be fingerprinted.)

Fingerprints for Immigration expire after 15 months.  Ours expired last Monday.  Yup, that'd be the exact day we got our Travel Approval.  No fingerprints = No Consulate appointment.

Thankfully, we'd already scheduled a new fingerprint appointment for last Wednesday.  We'd been told that the two-day lapse would be no big deal.  Because, you know, most people don't get their Travel Approval on one of the two days in fifteen months that their fingerprints are expired.  (Insert dripping sarcasm here.)  Oh, just wait, this bump gets even more interesting.

We went to our fingerprint appointment on Wednesday.  After our appointment, our fingerprint results had to be sent to our Immigration Officer who then had to send our renewed Immigration approval to the U.S. Consulate in Ch*na and our U.S. adoption agency.  With that new approval in hand, our agency would be able to request our appointment at the Consulate in Ch*na.  (That last tiny step I mentioned above.)

(If you're confused at this point, it's totally okay.  I'm feeling confused, and I've been trying to explain this to people all week.)

I got an email today saying that our Officer had received our fingerprint results and forwarded our approval along to the appropriate parties.  Good news...except for one little thing.  Ch*na is celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.  So the Consulate where we need to schedule that ever-so-important appointment?  Yup, it's closed until Thursday or Friday.  Oh yeah, and they're also closed for Columbus Day on Monday.

I'm still smiling.  Really.

As much as the OCD planner in me wants to have tickets bought and hotels booked, I can live in the uncertainty a little longer.  Because we've come so, so far.  And we're almost there.  (And, amazingly, plane tickets have actually gone down $100 since the last time I checked.)  Regardless of whether we receive our appointment date this Friday or next, we are still going to Ch*na next month.

And I'm pretty stinkin' excited.

WE GOT TA!!!

See, I knew I was alphabetizing my cookbooks for a reason. :)

Ch*na, here we come!

There's Something Wrong with Me

There is something very wrong with me.  I suddenly have an obsessive compulsion to clean and organize EV.RY.THING.  We're talking a baseboard-scrubbing, attic-emptying, bookshelf-alphabetizing obsession.  Ir's not normal.

I spent last night sequestered in Li'l Miss's new closet.  (Do you know how long it takes to organize a closet?  Pretty much forever.)  It looks like someone puked fall clothes all over my upstairs bedrooms, and I have a stack of paint chips about a foot high sitting on the kitchen counter.  Because, you know, it's absolutely necessary to repaint your entire house before adopting a child.  (That last sentence was 100% serious.)

I think my nesting instinct has kicked into overdrive, and it's a little scary.  But, it also means that we're finally getting close.  Close to getting on a plane.  Close to flying across the ocean.  Close to holding our boys.  According to my countdown, we're headed to Ch*na in 43 days.  November 6 can't get here soon enough.  (Well, as long as I have time to clean out my crisper first, that is.)

Today is Day 10 of our wait for TA (Travel Approval).  TA is pretty much the Golden Ticket in the Ch*na adoption process.  PA is pretty amazing, LOA/LSC is exciting, but TA is the shining light at the end of the paperwork jungle.  Someone on our timeline got TA on Friday.  We are that close.  (If you call my phone this week and I answer in a breathless/crazy-excited voice, it just means I thought you were the adoption agency.  On that note, maybe you should all avoid calling me this week.  Every time the phone rings, I just want to reorganize a dresser drawer or something.)

Alright, gotta' run.  My neverending to-do list is calling my name.

Li'l Party Man

I have to start this post with a huge I love you to my amazing friend Erin.  She hangs out with Li'l Miss every other Tuesday so I can have five hours of grown-up time.  

Five hours. All. By. Myself.

I know; Erin totally rocks. 

Right now I'm sitting in a certain no-so-healthy restaurant alone.  Just me.  Well, me and my $1 sweet tea...because I'm addicted.  It's not so bad to have a six-month summertime addiction, right?  (And I know I just told you which not-so-healthy restaurant I've chosen to patronize today.  Pretend you didn't notice.  K?)

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind.  I think I've waved to my husband once or twice as we passed in the driveway; do those count as date nights?  And I actually went four days without checking my email.  Seriously.  That can happen when you have a 1997 phone that doesn't get email or talk to you or other cool things like that.  (I could go on a little rampage here about the fact that one member of our family has a phone that does cool things like that, but I won't.  Dropping it.  Letting it go.  Really.)  

I have a ton of half-written posts swirling around in my brain that I will get written and shared soon.  But today I just had to share some surprise pictures of Li'l Man.  A sweet mama I met on FB sent me eight (yes, eight!) pictures of our cutie boy at her daughter's birthday party.  She totally made my day and pretty much tripled my picture collection.

Here's our boy.  (He's in the bottom left corner, rocking the adorable overalls.)

I love this one.  I swear I've seen his dad look at dessert in the exact same way.

Aaaaahhhh, he uses a fork.  

(Yes, I'm for real excited about this.  But I missed Aaaaahhhh, he smiled! and Aaaaahhhh, he rolled over! and Aaaaahhhh, he took his first step! so I've got to do something with all my mama pride.)

 

And he's looking at the cake again.

 Here's a great shot of the "orphanage 'do".  Definite make-over happening when this boy gets home.

 

So there's our Li'l Party Man.  We are going to have some fun at our house when he gets a cake all to himself next April.  I absolutely can't wait.

Reader, beware: This is a happy post, but I'm about to get mildly depressing.

 

I have to confess that the rows upon rows of cribs are possibly my least favorite thing about any orphanage picture ever.  (I HATE YOU, bedtime assembly line.)  If you missed the crib metropolis, please go back and look.

 I almost cried once looking at a picture of empty beds in Alex's orphanage in Eastern Europe.  There were little outfits laid out at the foot of each bed.  There were no kids in the picture, but it shattered me.  

Bedtime is not meant to be an assembly line.  Kids should not sleep in rows.  These little ones need mamas and daddies and bedtime stories and kisses and monster-chasing and nightlights and 57 that's-really-the-last-one sips of water.  

Think about it.