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

What a great surprise!

Yesterday I was sitting at my desk eating lunch scrolling through blog updates by other adoptive moms in various stages of the adoption process.  Mamma Lisa was journaling their whole adoption trip to get their second daughter, Savannah from the Wuhan orphanage.  Yep, the same orphanage where LuciQ is from!  Not all adoptive families choose to visit the orphanage but they did - and I am so glad!!!

Right there in the middle of her blog post I read: 

We were taken around the area orphanage that was similiar to clinic or mini hospital. Visited the room that housed the very sick babies. Many with heart conditions. We saw the therapy rooms and many other medical rooms. We did run into a group of children.. One of the little girls who have visiable burns on her head and face is being adopted.

That was our Luci! Of course I immediately emailed her and she got right back to me and said she met her and she was adorable and happy and sweet.  It was so great to know someone actually laid eyes on her and can confirm she is there and happy and waiting for us!  Unfortunately there is a non negotiable rule about taking pictures in the orphanage...DO NOT DO IT...or you will be asked to leave...so I knew there would be no pics but I was just thrilled to know that Lisa had met her. 

Hold the phone....Lisa must be a freakin ninja with her camera because look what landed in my inbox!

That is our Luci!, the little boy next to her is her foster brother.

These were taken May 25, that is just a few weeks ago!  Ohhh to be able to just jump on a plane!!!

Now that we can see her standing next to other people we can see how tiny she is! Can't wait to have her here with us!

THANK YOU LISA!!!!

If you want to check out Lisa and her two beautiful angels just click here: Savannah Smiles

On their trip they also visited their daughter Sienna's orphanage - they permitted her to take pictures so there are lots of sweet faces waiting on their mommies and daddies.

FINALLY!

 

Yep!  It is official - China has our stuff!  We sent our dossier to China on 4/18/2011 and I just got an email from our agency that tey received notification that China logged our dossier into their system on 4/29/2011.

Another milestone reached - a little closer to LuciQ!

So this date tells us that we are now 20 days into our wait for LOA...China officially approving us to specifically adopt LuciQ.  Loa can take anywhere from 45days+...likely around 60 days.  I know I am supposed to put a nice little timeline up on the side of my blog...not sure when-if that will happen!

Care package to LuciQ

OK - so we were DTC (Dossier to China) on 4/18...and now is the longest part of the wait...and I am seriously going buggy...it is too early to really do stuff, still waiting to decorate the room, got the bed spread, need to get the dressers and accessories...ughhhh...I hate waiting.  In the mean time we have been having fun adventures with Mac.  Last weekend we went to the Serenbe May Day Festival and it was great!  Not too crowded, great gourmet food truck TexsTaco (tried all 4 different tacos - it is like Taqueria del Sol on wheels! King of Pops had their little cart there - Georgia Peach popsicles! Mac got to pet some sheep adn a baby pig and see a horse that his mother and father were too impatient to wait in line for him to ride.  We said "bye bye horse".
They had really good bluegrass music and .really good margaritas and Mac's favorite - a dude that knew how to juggle!  I don't even know if he was part of the festival but as you may know a BALL is all that matters in Mac's world...that and squirrels.  So a dude that could take 3 colored balls and make them dance in teh air with out dropping them - I wish I could hire that guy to stand in my den and juggle while I cook dinner and do a load of laundry!

Maybe I can find a video of someone just standing there juggling...gotta check YouTube!

Sunday we went to Piedmont Park for a walk and let Mac play on the playground.  Lucky for him he also found a squirrel that wasn't too shy!

This little critter loves graham crackers and Mac was in heaven!

I sent LuciQ a care package this week and a letter telling her about our Easter fun.  I was going to only send care packages with stuff for the orphanage use or treats to be enjoyed at the orphanage and not stuff specifically for Luci...but I changed my mind (luxury of being a woman!).

Since we recently earned through the last pics and update that Luci has been in foster care since last Sept and not in the orphanage...and in every pic I have of her she is wearing something we sent in a previous care package or holding the doll we sent.  So now that I know she is actually being given the stuff we are sending and she is not in the general orphanage population I feel better about sending her packages specific for her use...with cookies to share with her foster family!  Here are the pics of the package we just sent...check out the precious Crocs!!!!

Picture Album with her cousins Molly and Cate, then a pic of her cousins Alex and Derrick and Baba and Mac, a pic of Mac and cousin Ty-Ty at Easter, and a pic of my family on the front porch at Easter.

Cute summer outfit - but I hear that the Chinese are notorious for bundling the crap out of their kids - even when it is sweltering outside so I am sure this cute little ensemble will get buried under a poofy coat.  The other adoptive parents call them the clothing police becasue when Americans go over to get their kids the Chinese always chastize them for not having enough clothes on the kids.  Luckily I don't know Chinese so I can just smile like a tourist!

So hopefuly she will this her package this week and hopefully we will get some pictures back in a few more weeks...so far we have been very lucky and gotten pics back with every care package.  Those pics are the key to my sanity during the wait!

This weekend I am so excited that we will be attending a picnic at Donna's house for adoptive parents from China that live here in the Atlanta area.  I can't wait to meet the amazing kiddos (and parents!) that I have only been able to read about in blog land!

Luci's Artwork...and DTC for us!

Well as of April 18th we are DTC!!! DOSSIER TO CHINA....everything is over there..it is in their hands all signed, sealed and delivered. 

So what does that mean...it means we are technically done with everything on our side over here and now China has to start their "processing".  Hopefully it will go quickly, but realistically if you take your DTC date and add 4 months...that is when you can expect your letter from China telling you that you are all cool to come on over.  Then you can travel any time after that...which means we are now looking at a September pick-up date for Luci-Q.  I was predicting August but secretly hoping for July...missed on both counts...unless someone over there in China decides to speed up the process...we are just going to have to sit here and wait patiently.

Luci's Artwork:  So, when I sent the cake to Luci last Month I also sent over a postage paid envelope addressed to the care package service.  Now, I never expected to actually get anything back...I have never heard of this working for anyone but hey - apparently it was our lucky day.  We got an email from the care package service :

Tara, Today I received the envelope that your sent in the order. There are two pictures that Luci colored. I have attached a picture of it. I will mail the original ones to you as soon as i can. On the back of a picture, it says that both pictures were colored by Wu Guo Qing on her own! She did a great job!

So of course I immediately sent the email to my mom...who I am sure got a good giggle before she brought to my attention that it is very unlikely that Luci actually did the coloring.

Aren't granparents supposed to blow smoke up your skirt at all times and say "wow...Luci at 3.5 years old is obviously an artistic genius - call Juliard NOW!!"

Ok, so I reviewed the pictures again...fine -whatever,  Grandma Buzzkill!

So for a moment I enjoyed the fact that our little Luci-Q was brilliantly talented for only 3.5..but yeah..if you look at the squiggles drawn on the pictures...Tthose are most likely her handywork...oh well...I am still so thrilled to get these and they are going up on the wall!

Later!

Apparently...this is a big day!

We got our I-797 in the mail Saturday and sent it to our agency this morning.  This form is our government giving us their official OK to adopt a foreign born orphan.  We passed!  Even with Brian's less than stellar diapering skills - they deem us OK to be Luci's parents.

So, this is about the end of paperwork for us...the rest is the US Govt and China and our Agency mailing things back and fourth to each other...and we just wait....

Have a great week!

NEW UPDATE AND PICS OF LUCI-Q

But first...for your sheer enjoyment - at the expense of my son and husband:

Look closely...notice anything interesting here???  Yes these are my men, and I love them dearly. 
I do have to wonder how this species made it to the moon, invented the lightbulb, ect...

Seriously - Moms..is there any circumstance (short of a house fire) that would compell you to just throw another diaper over your childs clothing??? Brian would say:  it is Saturday AM, it is too early for him to be up, maybe he will just go back to sleep...Does it look like any of that is relavent info?  NO...but then again - I get hours of comic relief out of these two!  I can't wait until Luci arrives on the scene...I hear from her last update that she is a pretty smart cookie...she will have a field day with them!

Which leads me to events of the week - I got more pics from Ann - out of the blue - and then she sent me the most recent CCAA update on our Luci.  It was still in Chinese but she got it to me - and Google Translate did the rest...sort ot.  Google Translate gives you a good general idea of the information but inserts weird words and gets choppy in places - but if you are already generally familiar with the information being translated then you can figure it out. 

Well after I did my Google Doc translation my adoption agency called and said they had an update from the CCAA (no kidding) and they were having their "Guy" translate it.  Well he did and it is all great news.  I will add that comparing his translation to what I got in Google Translate and one other translation program...the dude totally left some specific stuff out...apparently he was in a hurry and figures I will never know the difference.  Whatever Mr Under-Achiever - if you get a speeding ticket or a flat tire this week - you are welcome - golden rule..yadda, yadda...

The really great thing my agency sent me were two additional pictures of Luci that I had not previously seen so below are the pics from Ann and the ones from our Agency:

And now for the pics I just LOVE - you will see why I am sure:

The one in the middle - she is hugging the doll we sent her for Christmas and the hat she is wearing was also one we sent to her.  I am glad she is getting the care packages we are sending because we weren't sure for a while because as far as we knew Luci was living at the Orphanage.

Well we have found out recently that she is not!  She has been living with a foster family since last September!  It all makes sense now that the pics we received were always out at a park or playground...I figured they just got to go on a lot of field trips.

The little boy in the picture above is her foster brother and it makes me SOOOO happy!  Seeing these pictures along with the report we received we know that Luci has really taken well to being a part of a family with parents and brothers and sisters.

We are first time adoptive parents and we are educated from all directions to be prepared for an "institutionalized child" to not necessarily adapt well to a family environment and that if they have lived in the orphanage their whole life then they literally have no concept of the interworkings of real family relationships. 

I still expect there to be bumps in the road with her transition and all we can do is learn as much as possible about attachment parenting and then pray and love, love, love her!

These pictures and the update demonstrate that Luci has the ability to 1) develop bonds with her sibling and 2) that she has the ability to have feelings of empathy for her sibling (you will understand when you read the update).

They are little signs, but when you are waiting for a child that is living and breathing and developing daily  - across the ocean - this kind of update and the pictures are my equivalent of getting a 3-d ultrasound.

Translated Update from Agency:

In order to provide a better care and living standing to Luci, we decided to

send her to a foster family with a good family that has kind heart, so she can receive

love from a family orientated environment. The foster family sends her to our

welfare house to get education everyday and she goes back to her foster home everyday.

Luci loves her family very much. She likes the way that she can be a member of a

family and the feeling of home. She likes her foster mom and other brothers and sisters

that are in her family. She likes watching her foster mom cook and likes playing with other

family members. Every Monday to Friday, like other kids,Luci comes to welfare

house to study and goes back home during lunch time (12:00 to 2:00pm), take a

nap and go back home again after school around 4:00pm. After she gets back home,

she will be having dinner at 6:00 pm and go to bed around 8:30 pm

This fosterage program has been offering good living experience and helping her

improve her mental and physical development a lot. Now, she knows how to think

and analysis things. She is not only to be able to express herself and also has been

developed a very good heart and cares about others. She always gives her delicious

snacks and toys to her foster brother. One day, another foster brother was sick and

having treatment at hospital during the lunch time. The foster mom asked Luci if they can go to hospital and see her foster brother and deliver some food to him.

Luci answered immediately :"Yes,yes lets go see my brother", She used only 10

mins to finish the lunch which always takes her at least half a hour because she

wanted to see her brother so bad. When they finished lunch, they went to the

hospital, she was very excited to see her foster brother and hold her hand together

with her brothers and asked her brother:does it hurt to get these treatments?

Overall speaking, Luci has the best language skills, she says "how are you" to her

teachers every morning and expresses how she loves her new clothes every time she

wears new clothes.

She also has a outstanding ability to model and memory power. She likes to express

herself. Every time they have language activities at class, she raises her hand and

is always the first one to participate and sing songs with her classmates. During the

outdoor activity time. She always actively arranges games with others. Luci likes

to sit with her teachers and foster mom, she likes to be held sitting on their lap.

She also likes to ask her teachers and foster mom to tell her stories.

Luci likes to draw pictures, sing and tidy up her toys, especially the toys that

belong to her, she puts them back to the original place every time after she plays with these

toys. She puts her shoes in to the shoe cabinet everyday when she gets back home, she is

very smart and active kids among her peers.

Her physical condition is below:

Weight: 14 kg

Height: 90cm

head circumference : 48cm

Chest circumference: SOcm

Teeth: 20

She is very health and rarely get sick

Wuhan Welfare House

03/08/2011. When the weather is dry, we put babe cream on her face and she feels a lot more comfortable.

So...thingsthe translator guy left out that popped up in both of the other translations (bear with me - every it of info is important to a waiting mom!):

She likes to take baths and she likes for her foster mom to rub good smeling lotion on her skin - she enjoys doing things "like mom".

She is still participating in the "Little Sisters" of Half the Sky program and doing very well.

In Little Sisters language class she can be regarded as the strongest child. (yes - I am showing off my smart daughter - and I also realize that this information might be exaggerated for my benefit - but for now, let me enjoy it!)

Luci is a quiet and introverted girl, but with people familiar to her, she will be very talkative. When they praise her, she would bow to shy smile, when people like to talk with her, she will take the initiative to tell you a lot of things happening around.

She is a more sentimental, you need people to comfort the children, outdoors and in front of strangers, her little hands always take the initiative to hold their hand. Luci usually speaks Mandarin, Mandarin is the standard of her, and occasionally will say a little bit of Wuhan words.

Luci loves team games and activities and loves to play with a toy and she will share activities with other children.

She loves to help other children, she is the teacher's little helper. She likes poetry, "Three Character Classic", etc. She likes playing with toys, like to play with other children.

And compared to the same age children, and her performance is excellent. She is one of the best in class results kids.

Luci is a very obedient little child, she always listening to the teacher, the teacher says that she usually can remember things and  has good compliance.

She eats three meals a day, she likes to eat a new kind of food, does not like to eat the same food twice a day. Usually eat snacks, especially sweets.
 
She likes playing with toys, especially the new kind of toy, there is no favorite toys.
Sleeping: does not sleep with a toy, but like the little hands on the quilt top. She likes singing and dancing and drawing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, it was a long wonderful update and I am so very happy that everything is going great for her - just can't wait to hug that little munchkin! 

We have received out I800a approval which means our Agency should be able to get our Dossier to China by our April 11 deadline....insert prayer here!

Now if you take the current stats according to your DTC date...it is looking like (stop reading here Mamma) .....

possibly September.....Ughh!  I know I tell everyone August - but I have been secretly hoping and believing for July....and now reality is pulling us the other direction - towards September.

I hope our Govt and China for some reason decide to speed things up, but for those of you that have been down this road - I know you are shaking your head.

I just need to stop counting the days and just let this thing ride out...it will happen - it just seems so far away.

My mom will be coming into Atlanta next Monday to hang out with me and Mac and she is taking the large dresser out of Mac's room to her house to make room for new kiddie dressers and cubbie's for both Mac & Luci's clothes.  I am trying to hold off on going into full blown nesting mode because once I pull the trigger on that - I know me - I will want it all done quickly...and then I will be stuck sitting there with a perfectly decorated set up room for two and then still have months left to go before we can get Luci.  That would just be torture...so I am taking baby steps on the room.  Wish me luck!

Love you all!

Tara

 

Luci Loves Cake!

Which works our well for the Newton household.  And so cute - they are praying before they eat it - so precious!

OK - so she is precious and way more disciplined that anyone in our house.  There isn't a whole lot of praying "before cake" that I can remember... more like "Thank You God!" during and after the cake. 

And lets talk about this rocking sense of fashion this one has!  I have been picking up a few outfits here and there for her but I haven't stocked her wardrobe with things quite as wild as the fuschia pink fur sleeveless sweater. 

Now I am reconsidering the little "decorate your own shoes" kit I got her...just for fun.  It has a pair of little silver heels and it comes with all these jewels and glitter and feathers and stuff to decorate them with.  I am guessing that this child will want to wear them everywhere - what was I thinking!  I can see it now - our first big blow-out..."Cry all ya want Luci - ya still can't wear hooker shoes to church!

I love this last picture - apparently it is tradition over there to put icing all over the kids faces when they get a cake...hmm, Mac isn't Chinese and he does this every time he eats any food - no assistance needed.  And check out the little boy's hair cuts!  Think Mac would go for one of those?  Since his natural hair situation currently looks like he is wearing a toupe, it would probably be a big improvement.

So I hear there may be a few additional picures coming my way and some up dates from the orphanage so I am waiting - but not patiently.

We also sent her a little photo album with famly pics and a letter telling her what we have been up to. 

We are eagerly waiting our I800a approval so we are playing the mailbox game...after that comes then a week or so later we get the real letter we are waiting on I797C..or something like that.  Basically once we have that then everything can go over to China and start getting processed.  According to my calculations it still looks like it will be August when we go get our Luci and not July like we were hoping.

And lastly - Congrats to the Straight family (see their blog that I follow "Straight Talk"") because they are getting on a plane at midnight and heading to China to get their sweet Elise.  I can't wait to follow every step of their journey.  Donna and her family live here in Atlanta and have 2 handsome sons and 2 beautiful little girls from China.  She is a working mom like me - literally just like me, both of us are accountants- and she has been so helpful showing me the ropes of this adoption process.

Isn't she the most precious cupcake in the world!

And the paperchase continues...

So to give you a quick and dirty synopsis of this paperchase process...we gather a butt load of paperwork from various government and law enforcement agencies, employers, doctors and social workers...and they all have to be notarized.  Then we send that stack of blood sweat and tears (and several checks) to our agency and they turn around and sort them our based on what county they were notarized in and send them to the courthouse of said county - they check out the notary and give it the thumbs up that teh document is properly notarized.  Which means basically they send them right back to a place 10 miles up the road from where I am sitting.  The courthouse turns around and sends them to the Secretary f state and they check out the docs and give their final thumbs up - called Authentication...after that the docs are sent to the Chinese Consulate so they can Authenticate everything...yes - everyone is double checking everyone elses work over and over and over...

Now those that are more advanced than myself and usually have been down this road before...they do this authentication process themselves...but I suck and my agency rocks so they are doing it for us.  I have realized that we could have probably sped up the process and saved a little $$ by doing it ourselves but I only realized that about half way through the process...I told you - I kind of suck at this.

So...we get a call last week that there was a problem with 5 of our docs that were notarized in Cobb county...wonderful!  Get this...the notary stamp said her commission expired on 12/20/2012...their records said that her commission expired on 12/28/2012....yep - her stamp was made incorrectly...I don't thing the Chinese people would like us very much...we are unlucky!

So 4 of the docs were easy - just print out again, sign and have notarized again.  However...#4 was a biggie...it was Brian's employment letter...this was not easy to obtain and since his last day with VWR will be 3/15...it is not obtainable again!

However...God does the darndest little things and only later do we realize how important they are...and thank God I remembered!  The second time we requested Brian's corporate HR office to send us an employment letter on company letter head with an original signature for some reason - she sent 2!  We didn't ask for two - we didn't need two.....but someone up above knew we would be needing that second letter!

So...disaster averted...all 5 docs are back in the hands of my agency ready to be sent right back here to Georgia for Authentication....I know...it is just how it is done! 


On a good note - Brian and I recently received a letter from Homeland Security - Immigration saying that our appoint,emnt for biometric fingerprinting was on 3/14...being the crazy renegades that we are - we went in today - a week ahead of time...SUCCESS!

No questions, no problems, it took us less than 30 minutes and the people that worked there were so nice and upbeat and helpful...shocking - I know!

So...now we wait for the biggie...our I797C...that is the last piece of documentation that needs to go in our dossier so the whole thing can be translated and sent to Chine...God that will be a great day!

I am guessing that will happen around mid April...but sooner wouldn't bother me at all!