So close!!!! Article 5 Picked up yesterday!

So, the countdown is officially on!  Our Article 5 was picked up from the US consulate in Ch!na yesterday and overnighted to their childrens welfare office.  That means any time after today we can receive travel approval.  Which is basically an official invitation from Ch!na to come on over adn pick up our daughter!

SO now I really have to get my "stuff" in gear an get ready to jump as soon as that TA arrives.  I have explained in earlier posts - the Ch!na calendar for September and Oct is just nuts - filled with holiday after holday and then 3 weeks of trade shows...it is insane.  We have to get on a plane about 9/14-15 or we get stuck waiting to get on a plane about 10/6-7..or later - who knows!

However - we are going to just believe that the travel approval will come in the next 2 weeks and we will make it to Ch!na before Luci turns 4 and be home before Mac's 2nd birthday on 10/12.

So - what has been going on during the wait...uhhh...I turned 40...ughhhh!  It was a pretty nice birthday week though.  I was treated to lunch with a couple of friends at work, fun girltalk! My best friend Kristi babysat Mac that evening for us so we could go out to dinner at JCT Kitchen and enjoy a quiet peaceful meal - so nice!

Then I got some much needed therapy later in the week when my two girlfriends took me out to dinner and we got to catch up with each others lives over a pitcher of Sangria and lots of fun food.  That was a great time - just what I needed!

My mom is in town for a conference so Monday night I pichked her up and let her surprise Mac at school - he was pretty happy about his GiGi coming to rescue him!  We called in a pick-up order of Sushi and let Mac eat ice cream while we waited for it to be fixed.  Of course he had to dump my glass of diet coke as we were trying to wrangle him up to leave.

Went home, Brian arrived and we enjoyed our dinner while Mac proceeded to do what boys do...climb over and on top of every piece of furniture in the house and his favorite jumping on the bed and swinging off the bed post.  He is what we like to call a very ambitious and active child.  (Haaa...and his parents are old and tired)...that's it...he is AMBITIOUS  and DRIVEN and VERY MOTIVATED.....hey...those are very valuable qualities!  I should add that he is very artistic too...you should see his artwork all over the doors and walls.  I even bought him an easel this weekend that he immediately decorated....not really into the whole "paper " thing too boring,  his preferred medium is sheetrock and wooden doors, andhis arms and legs...You can't stifle a budding artist!

Apparently my mother called my father to inform him that Mac was just a wild man- all over the place...she just couldn't believe it!..Really LEE?  Uhmmm..I think Mac came by this honestly!  As he was hanging off the bedpost last night and she was telling him , "no, no, no, now we don't do that"....I looked at her and said...uhhh we did. 

I think she has somehow erased from her memory all the years of me and my 2 little brothers...I am sure all 3 of us would have been diagnsed with ADHD, ADD and any other acrynyms you could have found.  We were "adventurous children"!

I mean look at this little angel!

He would never be destructive..just not in his nature:

(maybe we need to reconsider the nightly baseball games in the den)

Oh Luci - this is going to be interesting!

Oh yeah - many of you know that we decided to name our little one Lucia (Luci for short) from the character in the Max Lucado book "You Are Special".  Well I was able to find that book printed in Ch!nese!  I received it last week and mailed it to Ann in Ch!na. 

She is going to translate the letter I wrote to Luci and then add some lollipops to share with her classmates and another pair of pink Crocs (Hello Kitty!) and send them to Luci.  I hope that her foster mom will read her the book before we get there to pick her up.  And if we are lucky maybe we will get a few more pics of Luci before we travel.

We are almost there!!!!

NVC Approval! Booyah!

I am so happy! All of these final steps have average wait times and they just make you stark raving crazy! I have tried to resist stepping off into crazy town during this process...some of you might disagree... (Brian!)

Anyway...once I realized that we might 1) miss Luci's birthday and 2) get tangled up in Ch!na's October holiday+ trade show mess...I dove right in, head first into the local crazy town lake and I have been swimming in it for about 2 weeks...

Aparently CRAZY works...at least for this process.  Our I800 approval came in a week ahead of average estimates and then I (sort of hesitantly)...stalked the crap out of the USCIS since last Sunday night.

Every day I sent the email, every day I got a response, 1) not in system, 2) you exist but we haven't put you in the system, 3) You are in the system but not approved yet 4) Here is your FREAKIN approval letter LADY!!!!! now stop emailing us.

It wasn't written that way but I know what they were thinking.

I need to use this crazy psycho stalking thing more often!

So what does this mean...that someone in china is going to do something with this approval letter and email us when we will get Article 5...can't remember what particular piece of red tape that is  - and really - does it matter???

So as it stands...about 2-3 weeks from today we get article 5, then about 2-3 weeks from then we get travel approval...and then about 2-3 days after that I buy some ungodly priced last minute round trip tickets to China and get on a plane with my mom and go get Luci!

So for the next 2 steps we really need them to come in at the 2 week mark...we really need to leave by Sept 15!!! 

I was so happy to get those pictures yesterday but man they have made me nutty - I just can't stand it any more - got to get her home!

Thanks everyone for your prayers and support through this adventure - we are on the last leg of the race!

Tara

New Pics of LuciQ! DIMPLES!!!

What a great way to wake up...I had an email waiting in my inbox from Ann! New pictures and measurements of our sweet LuciQ!  Ann also included that Luci knows that we are going to be her forever family and knows we are coming soon and she is very happy about it!  Her pictures have changed sooo much this set was nothing but smiles - and perfect little dimples!

I also received a reply back from the National Visa Center that they are processing the Visa request for Luci and they will email me a copy of the letter as soon as it is done...this piece is the lynch-pin - it has to happen soon in order for us to get her at the end of September...and we really need that to happen!

OK - I will shut up - I know you all just want to see the pics!

                                                 Perfect little dimples - love them!

                   Hey - that is my mamma! Those are teh family albums we have sent over in her care packages.

                                                                Picking flower blossoms...

                       More pink!  Check out the pink flower Croc's - we sent her those back in the spring.

                                            Sharing the cookies we sent her in her care package.
The update also said that she is currently right at 3 feet tall, weighs almost 32lbs, has 22 teeth and her foot is 5.6 in long.

The countdown/PANIC is officially ON!  I suddenly feel very happy, excited adn overwhelmed all at the same time!  I have a lot to do in the next 6 weeks!

Have a great week - I will!

I800 Approval! And the last days of just me and my Mac Man...

I am realizing now how special this last month or two is...I so love the time I get to spend just me and Mac and then on the weekends Me and Brian and Mac usually have a few fun adventures - yes this child gets a lot of attention - wow his world is about to change!  I know those good times will still happen on a daily basis. I guess though for now the only world I know is the one I live every day and I really love our mornings when me and Mac sit by ourselves in the rocking chair and share a yogurt and watch a little Curious George, then get ready for school/work and ride in the car and talk and listen to music and he tries to snap to the beat.
Oh and our evening gymnastic/wrestling sessions on the bed -yes I know stitches are probably in both of our futures! 

And every afternoon he drags me to the stool and says "sit" and brings me all of his balls and then stands there with his bat and I pitch to him...yes we play baseball in the house! - guess it is the luxury of having tired parents that dont feel like playing baseball outside in the 100 degree heat.  He will hit my ptches all night if I let him...and sometimes we do...hence the 10-11 o'clock bedtime - yeah I know - save your comments - it is what works for us for now.

He is my little buddy, my side kick and this time is coming to an end. I am crazy excited about getting Luci  - she is going to be such a gift to all three of us - I know Mac well enough to know that he will love having a sister to play with and I know I am going to more than love the one on one time Luci and I will get to have doing the girl stuff.  And Brian - I just think she is going to have him over a barrel in about 2 minutes - I see many tea parties in his future, maybe a pretty hat and scarf too!

Sunday afternoon Brian and I took Mac up to the Legacy Fountians at Piedmont Park.  We had so much fun - played in the water, played baseball, (God he can hit a baseball - it is kind of freaky for a 21 month old), played in the water some more, fell and busted his lip...cause he is a boy and that is what they do.

This morning I was looking at some pictures taken that afternoon and I guess it just hit me that me and my little buddy were about to add one more to our posse.

Get ready my little Mac Man!

The Adoption:

So last week I was getting kind of bitchy about all of this...mainly because I am new at this adoption gig and I like to do everything right and be in control of the process...HA!  What a joke.  Well I realized that because of trade shows and back to back Ch!na holidays that we could be on the verge of a total screw over and end up waiting until November to go get LuciQ....When we thought that we would be getting her in July...ughhh!

Well, my agency talked me off the ledge, told me that as soon as we got I800 approval that I could do this little trick to shave a couple of days off by getting the USCIS to email me the very important NVC Approval letter instead of sending it snail mail.  Every day counts at this point! 

Well yesterday we received our I800 approval in the mail about a week earlier that average wait time (thanks God, and sorry I was a whiney bitch last week).

So - we are still playing Red Tape Roulette  at this point.  I seriously need to get Travel approval on Sept 1 in order to travel Sept 15- Oct 2 - those are the only travel dates that work - IN MY MIND AT LEAST.

The week before this is a holiday - everything is shut dwn and the whole week after this is also shut down for holiday.  I am really hoping that God will give us a few more winks, we aren't talking about parting the Red Sea, just motivating a few government employees.

I am hung up on getting her before her 4th birthday or at least being there for it (Oct 2).  Not sure if a birthday crisis actually make Gods radar...ya never know! Maybe this is where I should start making deals like, Dear God if you just sped up this process I swear I will stop swearing!!!  HA - I can literally hear God laughing at me right now! Sure Tara - you do that and I will part the Red Sea again!

We all know that as soon as one of my kids gets called on the carpet at school for cursing that I will be instantly cured of my potty mouth...just hasn't happened yet.

I sent LuciQ a care package last week:

Love the pink Crocs!

Now I just can't wait to see if Ann is able to get me some new pictures of her.

OK - so now we wait a little more - and in the mean time I am going to soak in all the Mac time I can!

Tara