Taylor Hood, Spa Girl and The Omnivore

Every Summer, the local community extension program offers classes for school age kids that are amazing. The kids really look forward to them and can't wait for the schedule to come out so they can choose a class. This year Taylor chose Archery, hoping to get a scouting merit badge out of the deal. He had a great time and earned a red archery pin which is the second highest ranking or so I'm told. Audrey chose Summer Spa Gifts and made all sorts of girly things like bubble bath with flowers floating in it, colored bath salts, milk bath, a custom decorated bath brush, a sachet pillow and a bar of soap with a picture on it (fun craft and a great gift idea!) Noah took Dinosaurs and Fossils Exploration and had a great time learning about the different kinds of dinosaurs. He came home on the first day and proclaimed himself an omnivore at the dinner table. I wasn't able to get a picture of Noah in his class but here are a few of the other two.

And They're Off!!!

My braces, that is... I brought them home in a ziploc bag to show the kids and Xander was a bit freaked out. Audrey says she likes me better with braces. Thanks. Here's the scary before and after self-portraiture from this morning. My tongue is going to be sore tomorrow from scoping out the smooth teeth. It feels weird but great to be free! There is a chocolate caramel apple from Rocky Mountain Ch*colate Factory in the plans for a celebration this evening!

Before

After

Keep 'em crossed!

I did something crazy yesterday. I sent off an I-600a application WITHOUT A FEE! I don't know if we will get a free extension or not but this is the only way I know to find out for sure. When I called our USCIS orphan officer back when the fee increase and free renewal were announced and spoke to him and asked about whether the free renewal is effective immediately or only for those applicants whose forms expire after July 30th (ours expires on July 7th), it was the first he had heard of either. Nice. He said to send it in and 'see what happens' so I did. I also included a cover letter thanking them very kindly for listening to adoptive parents and attempting to streamline our process somewhat. I also quoted to them the part from the Press Release dated May 29th that states that adoptive parents may now receive one free extension of the I-600a approval if they have not yet filed an I-600. To me, that means us. Keep your fingers crossed! If I haven't heard anything by mid-July, I'll call and see what's up. Worst case, I'll send a check in before the fee increase takes effect on July 30th.

In other adoption preparation news, we applied for the kids' passports MONTHS ago and haven't seen them yet. We did receive our home study update yesterday, though, and went out and got round #2 of Hep B vaccinations to celebrate!!!

Clean Water Project Pictures

Someone shared a link to the A Child's Right/Clean Water Project website on a board yesterday and I had planned to share the link here today for those who may be interested. RQ posted it on her site today so this won't be news to anyone in China Adoption-land. But for friends and family members who aren't living and breathing all things China like we are, here is the link:
www.a-childs-right.org/projects.html (Click on the China Project and keep clicking the + to advance the pictures) If you have ever wondered what the inside of an orphanage looks like, this will give you a good idea. There are about 184 pictures of 8 orphanages on the site. The pictures show children from as young as a day old on up, probably to 13. I thought that the pictures of newborns would be tough to see knowing that Meili could be that age right now but what surprised me was how heartbreaking it is to see the older children. It makes no sense to me why they have to grow up in an orphanage when there are so many of us lined up and ready to parent children. We are already in line for an infant but if there is a next time, I think it would be for a waiting/older child. In fact, there are usually about 3 or 4 neighborhood kids over at the house at any given time, anyway. I don't see why we couldn't handle a few more...

Gotcha Video Song???

Little Wonders
Rob Thomas

Let it go,
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in,
Let your clarity define you
In the end
We will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain

Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And i don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by,
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain

All of my regret
Will wash away some how
But i can not forget
The way i feel right now

In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away but these small hours
These small hours, still remain,
Still remain

These little wonders
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These little wonders still remain

Porch Challenge

These things just crack me up. Who has time for this stuff? Apparently, I do.

Shelly tagged me so I'm fulfilling my duty to post pics of my front and back porch. The back porch is busy place as you can see. My Dad does concrete work and made a special trip from CA to pour and finish the patio for us after we moved in. Shade is a valuable commodity here in AZ so it gets used often. I collect windchimes and I've just about made my way around the patio with them. When the windstorms kick up, the neighbors must just LOVE me. ;o) We really enjoy grilling out here year-round and using the firepit to roast marshmallows when it is cooler. The patio's main function, though, is repository for dog hair!

Front Porch-Boring. I need a fun mat and some larger decor items, I think. Rabbits and javelina keep eating any plants that I try to put here. Ugh.
So tough to get all 4 kids to sit still for a picture! We tried to get the dog in on it,

but you can tell what he thought of the whole thing...

Ok, so now let's see how much time Dana, Ann, Heather, Lisa and Jennifer have on their hands. Tag, you're it!

Thanks, Shelly! This was fun. I especially loved seeing my husband's face
when he realized why I had persuaded him to clean off the back porch!!!

Dance Week

This year Audrey has taken Ballet and Hip Hop. She loves it! The recital was this past Saturday. Here are some pics:

In her hip hop gear-I had to bribe her to wear the hat sideways so we could see her face.

In Ballet attire, but with her hip hop teacher, Addison. He also teaches my Hip Hop for Moms (I call it Hip Hop for 'Has Beens') class. He reminds me of my brother, Jason, but with fewer tatoos!

The Hip Hop Girlz-Audrey's on the far right

and the ballerinas-Audrey is back-center.

You did a great job, Audrey. We are so proud of you!

15 Months LID

We've Waited Almost 12 Years for this day!

Well, motherhood comes with it's share of sacrifices and rewards. This one definitely falls in the reward category! Taylor is earning half of the cost for his summer activities this year and we are very proud of him. He decided that it was time for him to learn to mow the lawn so Matt gave him a lesson and he is doing a great job. I've always wanted a gardener! ;o)

PS-Mom of 5, does the corner of my patio that shows in the top picture satisfy your porch challenge? ;o)

That's my boy!

Just got Xander's portraits back from the studio. I just love this brown-eyed boy! I bribed him with candy during the shoot. It was a riot to see him concentrate so hard on doing what the photographer told him to do. The kid will do anything for a push pop! I can't believe that he will be turning 4 in a few months. We have never had a child turn 3 without a new baby, so to have one turn 4 will be really weird. Having him turn 5 before Meili comes home is an unfortunate possiblity. Trying to look on the bright side, I am really enjoying spending time with him and watching him learn and grow without any distractions. I thought I'd share a few things about him that I want to remember:

A few weeks ago, we were getting ready to go outside in the front yard to play. Xander asked for some help in finding his shoes because he wanted to be, "human foot, not 'bear' foot."

The other day, when he put his shoes on without socks he said, "it's okay Mom, my feet can just go commando!"



Sadly, Xander has now corrected most of the words that we used to enjoy hearing him mispronounce but I love that he still calls sunscreen, 'sunscream.'



Each morning when he wakes up, he will come and find me and say, "Good morning, sunshine!" and then climb into my lap for some cuddle time.

When I tell him that I love him, he reponds, "...and I double love you, Mommy."

I double love you too, Xanderbonie.

One Step Forward, 4 Steps Back.

The CCAA has sent referrals for dossiers logged in up until November 7th. That's only 6 days worth this month. With an LID of March 10, 2006, we are only 4 months and three days of LIDs away but at this rate, it could be another 20 months until we see Meili's face. Waaa!

Congratulations to all those who are seeing thier babies' faces for the first time this week! Sara has a great list of links on her blog if you want to check them out. There is one referral pic here with the baby sucking her thumb that is just precious!

Our friends, Dana and family, have a LID of November 18th. We are keeping our fingers crossed for them for next month! The Desert Dwellers need some good news!

I'm a Bargain Magnet!

When I first started researching China adoption several years ago I was a bit discouraged when I found people blogging about their vacations to Egypt less than a month after returning home with their daughter and how they were decorating their vacation homes. Great for them, but I figured that that meant we would never be able to afford to adopt from China ourselves. Happily, I was wrong. I strongly believe that if we can do it with four kids and (basically) one income, anybody can do it. It is a choice and you just have to be creative and know how to stretch a buck.

There are few things I love more that finding a good deal. I seriously believe that if I came into any money, my life would be ruined. It is just too much fun to hunt for the ultimate bargain. Here are some of my latest.

8 Shirts for the boys from Children's Pl*ce=$7.14 (That is total folks, including tax!)

Nike shoes for Meili=$7.99 Children's Pl*ce outfit=$3.98

I also bought jackets for the boys for $2.50 each and shirts for Audrey and dress shirts for the boys for .99! I only have a few things left to get and school shopping will be complete for 4 kiddos! My goal is to get it all done for less than $100.00.

One day I'll blog about how I stretch grocery dollars. I've thought about writing a book so that others could benefit from my psychosis several times but there are already too many out there... I'd love to hear what any of you do to save a buck. Or you are always free to share about your vacation to Egypt...;o)

Happiness is...

We have been waiting for a long time to get an In-n-Out here in town. One just opened up a couple of months ago that is about a half hour away. We have seen reports on the news about people lining up for 2-3 hours to get a burger so we hadn't made any special trips out to get one ourselves. We have been driving by whenever we have been in the area to check out the line and it has always been horrendous. Until today! We we were heading across town for a bike ride and noticed that there were only 4 cars in the drive-thru! It was only 10 am and we had just had a late breakfast but none of that mattered. It was heavenly. You just can't beat the grilled bun, melted cheese and sauce and can't find a better red, ripe tomato on a burger anywhere. I've been ranting about the place for months in anticipation only to have several friends try their first INO burger and comment that they didn't see what the big deal was. WHAT???!!! Maybe you have to be a California girl to appreciate it.

Thinking about this for the girls' room...

...and trying to decide if it coordinates well enough and what on earth we'll do with the walls and how long I can look and brown and pink before I've had enough of it...too funky???

Hodge Podge

Nothing happening that is worthy of it's own post, so here's the bullet list.

• Started taking Mandarin last Thursday night at the Chinese Cultural Center. Very cool! Comparing it to earning my Spanish minor, I'll trade 4 tones for conjugating verbs anyday! Our teacher is caucasian and speaks PERFECT Mandarin. I'm inspired!
• I was asked to speak in church on Mother's Day. Just what every mom wants, right? It went ok, glad it's over.
• Three weeks left of my hip hop for moms class. There's a bit too much hips in my hop and the English major in me has serious issues with the grammar in the song lyrics but it is a fun class. We come out sweating so that has to be burning a few calories at least, right?
• Xander commented out of the blue yesterday that he wants to have TWO baby sisters. Yikes!
• My 11 year-old has maturation clinics at school today. Seems like just yesterday that he was a zygote. Now he's learning about them. Makes me feel old...
• Rumor has it that we could see a big batch of referrals this time around-possibly 16-21 days worth. If that happens, it may light a fire under me to start making preparations for Meili again. I may even muster up enough energy to start renewing my home study and I-600a. Right now, it seems useless.
• The kids only have 6 more days of school left. Heaven help me! Actually, I'm excited. I've got tons of activities planned so every night by 8 o'clock, they should be begging for bedtime! I have lofty goals of completing Meili's quilt and catching up on all of the scrapbooks. We shall see...
• I'm getting very excited for a trip back east with my mom in July. We are doing a bus tour starting in DC. We'll also spend a couple of days in NYC. We'll see Wicked and The Color Purple on Broadway. The Idol freak in me is very excited to see Fantasia in that! Hopefully, my Letterman tickets will come through. Apparently, they will call and I'll have to answer a trivia question to claim my tickets. We'll also see some church sites and end up at Niagara Falls. It's nice to have a trip coming up that I can actually plan for!
• I'm trying to come up with some end of year teacher and bus driver gifts that are not too expensive (there are 15 between the 3 kids.) Any ideas?

Anyone know how come the bullets don't show up when I publish the post? They are there when I'm writing...argh.

Time for these again...

Referral Wait Brownies

Bring to boil in saucepan:

2/3 c. shortening (what we wish the wait times were doing)
5 T cocoa (in honor of the coveted brown envelope)
1/2 c. evaporated (like our hopes of having our babies home before Christmas)milk
2 c. sugar (how sweet it will be to finally see a picture of our little ones!)

Mix in a bowl:
4 eggs, beaten (what the next person who asks how long till referral will be :o) )
1 t. salt (in our wounds to see a two day referral batch!)
2 t. vanilla (or cherry juice-a touch of red for good luck)
1 c. flour (for our little cherry blossoms waiting for us in China)
1/2 t. baking powder (I know, we'd rather be working with baby powder...)
1 c. nuts (because that's where we are all headed if we don't start getting some good news!)

Add saucepan mixture to bowl and mix thoroughly.

Pour into un-greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Cool, frost, and top with halved maraschino cherries (pretend they're ladybugs and consider it your sighting for the day!)

Frosting: 3C powdered sugar, 1/3 c. butter, 1 t. cherry juice, 1-2 T. cocoa, 2 tsp. milk

Enjoy! …and hang in there everybody!!!

Next To Worst Conceivable Rumor May Be True *UPDATED

I received a call today from my SW (who is also an agency director, my boss and a friend.) She shared with me over the phone a post to a Russia adoption forum about a person who in speaking with their own adoption agency about their own Russian adoption was informed as an aside that China is 'shutting down' and may consider reopening in 2010. I assume that 'shutting down' was the person's attempt to summarize the CC*A's intent to stop accepting dossiers and not 'shutting down' meaning 'Go home. No baby for you' for those of us already logged in. Even so, CRAP.

My 2 cents: My agency has said and stated in emails repeatedly that they speak with CC*A daily and assure us that they intend to continue to participate in IA. BUT...IF there really is a backlog of dossiers as big as we hear, and IF there really aren't enough paper ready babies to put a dent in the backlog, and IF the wait to referral could get as big as is rumored (three years!), and IF the new requirements didn't discourage as many applicants as CC*A hoped (in fact it resulted in a huge influx of applicants trying to beat the deadline which must have really ticked them off), THEN you have to wonder how responsible it is for the CC*A to continue to accept dossiers and agencies to continue to accept applications (and $) and allow families to put their lives on hold indefinitely while they wait endlessly for a referral. The thought of putting dossiers on halt has to have at least crossed their minds.

Anyhoo, back to the roller coaster ride...I of course went straight to the RQ site to see if there was anything to it and if I might have been the last person to find out which is often the case. There was nothing. I tried to post to the forum but after writing the post just didn't have the heart to send it so I deleted it.

Later in the day, I called Shannon-my local(!) DTC buddy and dropped the bomb on her. Sorry Shannon! She recommended that I PM RQ and let her make a judgement call. I did. Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if it is tomorrow's post topic. It looks like I'm not the only one to come across this info. Looks like up is down and down is up in the world of China adoption. I dreamed a few weeks ago that we went to China and were given a unicorn! Today, a unicorn feels just as likely as getting a baby at the end of all this.

*RQ CONFIRMS THAT THE RUMOR IS THAT CCAA IS CONSIDERING NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS, NOT THAT THE PROGRAM WILL SHUT DOWN.

Sorry to have freaked you out, Heather.

14 Months Since LID

Still here...still waiting.

New Theme Song

Keep Holding On
Avril Levigne

You're not alone
Together we stand
I'll be by your side,
you know I'll take your hand
When it gets cold
And it feels like the end
There's no place to go
You know I won't give in
No I won't give in

Chorus:
Keep holding on
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through
Just stay strong
'Cause you know I'm here for you, I'm here for you
There's nothing you could say
Nothing you could do
There's no other way when it comes to the truth
So keep holding on
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through

So far away
I wish you were here
Before it's too late, this could all disappear
Before the doors close
And it comes to an end
With you by my side I will fight and defend
I'll fight and defend
Yeah, yeah

Chorus

Hear me when I say, when I say I believe
Nothing's gonna change, nothing's gonna change destiny
Whatever's meant to be will work out perfectly
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
La da da daLa da da da
La da da da da da da da da

Chorus

Keep holding on
Keep holding on

There's nothing you could say
Nothing you could do
There's no other way when it comes to the truth
So keep holding on
'Cause you know we'll make it through, we'll make it through..

My Graduate!...almost.

Have I ever told you that my husband is amazing? He works about 55-60 hours a week, plus commutes about a hour and a half each day round trip so we don't have to live in the ghetto. He gets up at about 4 am and gets home close to 6 at night. For the last couple years he has also been working on his MBA. After dinner, I'm sure he'd like to hit the sack and try to catch up on much needed sleep. Instead, he hits the computer and tackles his school work, often until well past midnight. I don't know how he does it.

Well, this past weekend he walked with his graduating class. He still has about 12 weeks of classes left, but qualified to participate in the graduation ceremonies. We are so proud of him! His brother, Todd, came out for the occasion which I know meant alot to Matt. The kids really enjoyed having Uncle Todd for a visit and fought over who got to sit by him wherever we went. I don't think I've participated in such thought provoking conversation for years (Todd's a Harvard Law grad.) My contributions to discussion lately have consisted of, "Where is your owie?" and "Do you need to go potty?" so it was a welcome change.

We took Todd to the Desert Museum yesterday so he could see all of the interesting creatures and vegetation that we are surrounded by here in the desert. I was sitting watching the kids dig for minerals in a little quarry area when a little Asian girl came up to me and started asking me about my braces. She kept trying to give me her rocks-what a sweetie. There were other Asian adults there so I was surprised when she took off with two caucasian ones. When my kids noticed, they just looked at me and smiled without missing a beat in the rock hunt they had before them. This is quite a development from the days when Noah in his unbridled excitement would see an Asian child with Caucasian parents and shout at the top of his lungs, "LOOK MOM, IT'S A CHINA GIRL!!!" Meili may be far away in distance and time, but she is real to all of us now. Even the little kids know that someday, that will be us.

Enjoy the pics from the weekend!

Matt and Todd

Kids with Uncle Todd

Cactus Bloom

Pretty in Its Own Way