Summah Time

Amidst all this paperwork and craziness, summer is in full force here. The weather has been great and we are trying to get out and enjoy it every moment we can!

SweetPea, her suitor and her brother in the back. I could arrange this and lock in the deal now, I would jump at the chance!

I wish his eyes were open. I love the reflection off the sand in this.

We have some extra lovely flowers climbing over our fence this year courtesy of one of our neighbors!

Visas!

It isn't easy finding a day when ALL the people in this family are home and not imminently traveling overseas. Both my husband and my mother seem to live on airplanes and are often on trips requiring them to leave this country with passport in hand. So the thought of having to apply for a visa for China stressed me out a bit. The passports would be gone for about 10 days and frankly between those two, I wasn't sure I'd find a ten day stretch with them both home and NOT using their passports. Well interestingly enough, they both finished their international travel just in time and neither one has plans for an overseas trip until August. 

Perfect! 

Today, fresh off a plane from somewhere, my mother arrived at my house ready to tackle the visa application process. Simple, right? Just a few forms and we'd be at the pool by noon relaxing. 

Um. No. 

It was a 4 page form requiring detailed information we didn't have. It was complicated. I would fill out one section and then discover that either the visa courier or my agency would want me to put something different. I printed and reprinted these 4 page applications so many times.

I wanted to cry.

In the end I mailed them off with a hope and a prayer that they would be sufficient to get us visas.


UPDATE: They were submitted on Thursday and we hope to get them back next week. Cross your fingers!

Five Years.

Five years. I remember feeling stunned at the thought the wait would extend to 2 years. But 5? Whoa.

But damn, how fun that I got my referral just a few days shy of 5 years!

So, yes, time to celebrate...

HAPPY LIDVERSARY to me.

And hot diggity she's cute.

Lucky me!

And many thanks to the lovely cricket who hopped over with this the other day as we celebrated another wee one joining our clan!

Sparkles

Did you have a sparkly Fourth of July? 

We certainly did!!!

Celebrated not only this country's independence but also a dear friend's birthday. Luckily said friend has a prime location for firework viewing. We are lucky to live in a beautiful town with land surrounding a beautiful harbor. The firework barge drops anchor right outside the harbor so our town is really one of the best places for watching the night sky light up on the 4th! And just because I am all for supporting evidence proving my point {cuz yes, I shur luv to be right...just ask my husband}, I'll point out that Coastal Living also agrees that we have a spectacular show on the 4th of July.

Despite a little rain, we had a great night for sparklies in the sky. The rain cleared out right before the sun set so we had some pretty colors in the clouds before darkness set in. Here is SweetPea with one of her best friends, a cousin of sorts, sitting on a fence waiting for the fireworks. 

Once it got dark enough, the birthday girl handed out sparklers, which in this day and age of recalls, safety standards, and age/weight limits, my kids have not tried before! I checked over-protective mama at the door and just let them have fun. Hey, I survived them. It was sweet to watch their faces as the sparks flew in their little hands.

Back on track!

Over the years I've watched people receive referrals and then take a photo of the FedEx guy who delivers the package. I always thought I'd want one of those pictures. Unfortunately, yesterday's experience has left me wanting nothing to do with FedEx ever again. Knowing the package was on its way, I left and went to a friend's baby shower. Simon was a good sport and took a picture of the FedEx driver who delivered the package but it wasn't our regular nice guy. It was a dude with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth trying to toss the envelope out the window of the truck to Simon. Simon asked him to pose for the picture I think in part just to piss him off and he complied 

And inside the package were our beautiful pictures and all the files needed to keep this train moving!

For your child

If you are a parent you know that you'll scale walls and leap over mountains for any one of your children. There isn't anything that could prevent me from protecting any one of (I almost said "either" but now I have 3) my children no matter where they are. This adoption has been an amazing thing. Five years of waiting for a fantasy baby is a strange strange ride. You sort of know what to expect but you don't. The "when", the "where", the "what" is such a mystery until someday it just happens.


I only had Cici's photo for about 12 hours when I discovered her package was missing. About 6 hours later it seemed it was really missing and that is when I learned that this could prevent us from traveling as soon as possible to get her. The ferocious mama bear was out in full force yesterday to protect a daughter I had not yet met, but had only seen once in a single photograph. MY DAUGHTER. Mine! My daughter is sleeping on a wooden planked crib in an orphanage in southern China. From what I have learned she is in an orphanage that has great nannies and the children come to their families having been well taken care of. But that does not mean I want her to spend one single extra day sleeping on a wooden plank. No. I want her to start knowing that people care for her because she is a loved daughter and sister and not just a number in an orphanage. I do think that the nannies care for our babies but they are in charge of SO MANY babies at one time. I want Cici to learn as soon as possible that she doesn't have to compete or wait for attention and love. 


So yesterday was a nice little exercise in finding out exactly how I feel about this baby. It didn't take me long to make her "my kid" and as the other two know, watch out when someone makes mom mad!

I finally heard from my friend and travel mate who is away this weekend but also received a match on Thursday night. She didn't discover her package went missing until late yesterday and then she immediately called me. Luckily she has a friend very high up in FedEx management who went to bat for us last night. When her friend tracked our packages, she was impressed with all that I had done yesterday. I believe the words were "girl, your friend's been busy!" I guess there were pages and pages of notes in my file and I had managed to trigger some elite group of FedEx package finders. She said I had managed to get my package marked in a way that requires an overnight search of all 160+ planes. So Cici, if you are reading this someday, this was the very first time I had the PLEASURE to protect you my dear. Nobody, absolutely nobody, gets to mess with my kids without taking abuse from me!


And this morning I woke up to this tracking record...

So they apparently found it overnight in Memphis and it is on a plane right now up to Boston...I think.


And all of this leads to a question many of you China Moms maybe asking yourselves, "do I take the infamous FedEx picture or not?"

More pictures!

So it looks like my package is definitely NOT coming today. I seriously hope someone at Fed Ex can pull it together and find my referral by tonight or tomorrow. In the mean time CCAI has emailed me the photo copies of what was in the package and there were two extra pictures. She is even more beautiful in these!!! 

(I tried to enhance them in photoshop by lightening the dark spots and then dressed it up a little)

Fed Ex! Please find my referral package!!!!

My agency sent all the documents overnight via FedEx last night so I could take a look at Cici's whole file. They also sent extra pictures of her in addition to the ORIGINAL DOCUMENT from China that needs to be signed and returned to accept this referral.


FED EX HAS LOST MY PACKAGE!!!


I called CCAI and it seems that if the package does not surface, they will have to reissue the acceptance letter and I will then miss my travel group and have to travel alone. You can't even imagine how mad I am right now. If anyone knows anyone at Fed Ex I'd love an "in" to see if someone can move things along. With Monday being a holiday, I'm up against a wall right now.


Thanks!