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Sunday, October 20, 2013

LID LID LID!!!!

 
Guess what?? We have our LID!!! Our adoption coordinator emailed me to tell us our dossier made it to China & we are officially logged in & ready to receive a referral-to be matched with a baby girl!! Soon we will finally see her face & learn about her special story. How awesome is that?? We hoped and prayed we'd be LID before the Oct. shared list of waiting children was released & it happened!! A new round of waiting begins now but we are celebrating this great news today! One step closer to our sweet little one... and we couldn't be happier today.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Mid Autumn Moon Festival

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On Sept. 25th we got together with the families we have met in town that have also adopted from China.  Every year they get together to celebrate the Mid Autumn Moon Festival(we were a week late but not a big deal!) and this year we were so happy and grateful to be included in the festivities!  The kids had a blast- we had a delicious meal, moon pies, craft time-the kids made their own Chinese lanterns, and then they all went on a lantern parade around the block.  It was really something seeing all of the kids together on the parade- there were 12 kids between all of us there- running around with glowing lanterns.  They loved it and the parents loved watching them.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Hot Mama Shopping Event {adoption fundraiser}

 
My sweet friend Michelle organized a fundraising shopping event for our adoption tonight.  What a perfect ending to our happy news day!  It was so fun- she brought wine, appetizers, and invited friends to shop at Hot Mama for some cute new clothes.  Our family received 15% of the amount they purchased that evening and guess what?  We will be adding $350 to our fund after tonight! Yay!  Another step closer... thank you dear friends!

We are DTC!!(dossier to China)... {adoption update}

 
 
 
Today was a full day.  Jeffrey had orchestra at the school in the morning, MB, Mickey and I had "coffee club", Jeffrey had a field trip with the 5th grade class he attends gym/music with, and tonight my friend Michelle organized a shopping event/adoption fundraiser at the store Hot Mama in the mall.  More to come on that- it was so great!!
Meanwhile, all day I was an absolute basket case inside- and so were the kids!  You see, our dossier was picked up from the Chinese Embassy on Wednesday(the Embassy was closed on Monday and Tuesday due to a Chinese holiday) and then overnight-ed to our agency that same day(cost: $57 to overnight it people!!- how crazy is that???).  We also had to overnight new cashier's checks to our agency the same day(long story but we sent the wrong amounts the first time which ended up being kind of a big deal since each check costs $5 and then we had to overnight it ($20) so that our coordinator got the correct ones in time).  Boo.  We got over it.  Stuff happens, right?
Now, our agency only mails dossiers to China on Fridays(not sure why, but that's the deal) and so it was VERY important to us that all of our stuff got to her by Thursday so she had time to make some copies, look it over and make sure everything was in order.  Everything got there on Thursday.  YAY!
There was always an off chance that our dossier would not get mailed on Friday... since she said she "should have enough time" to get it ready.  And what if there was something amiss?  So that is why we were so nervous all day today.  I checked my email 600 times at least, waiting to hear from her that it was sent.  The kids kept asking me if it was time to celebrate yet.  "Are we DTC, are we DTC?" is all I heard all day(that didn't help my nerves).  I started doing time zone figuring in my head... our agency is in CA so 2 hours behind... what if she goes home at 4pm today since it's a Friday?  What if she never emails us to let us know, assuming that we were assuming it would just go out?  I already emailed her once in the morning, should I do it again?  Would she hate me if I did?  Is she home sick?  Should I make John call?  If so, what time?  I decided for the sake of all of our sanity, that John would have to call her at 3:30 her time.  That seemed safe to me.  So he called... and she answered... and said yes, it was mailed(like it was no big deal! ha!!)  In the background MB was yelling "did she mail it? did she???"... oh my goodness- I wonder what our coordinator thinks of this family that emails her almost everyday(I'm exaggerating- but not much) with a million questions and screams like a nutcase over any news.  ugh...  Anyway- WE ARE DTC! WE ARE DTC! WE ARE DTC!!!!!!
This means dossier to China.  And THAT means that ALL the paperwork that we have been working on for 6 months, sending all over creation for notarizations, seals, and approvals, has FINALLY been put all together and mailed off to China!!!  This is a big milestone in the process.  HUGE.  And we are over the moon happy about it.  I was shaking and felt like a nervous wreck after we found out though- maybe because it suddenly felt so REAL, ya know?  Hard to explain...
So now what?  We wait to hear from China that they received it(happily, I don't think there's any holidays this coming week) and then we are officially LID.  Another HUGE milestone.  It stands for "log in date"- which is a really big deal because we cannot be matched with a child until we have our LID.  The sad news is that the next shared list(the list that only comes out once a month from China with all the new children that are available for adoption) is probably coming out this coming week.  I'm sure before we can even hope to be LID.  So that stinks.  But maybe, just maybe there's a chance we could find our daughter or be matched somehow this coming month???  Nothing is impossible, right?  I'm not getting my hopes up though... even though that is what our heart's desire is, we realize that it's a possibility that we could be waiting months for a match(our agency said it could be 3-8 months).  I'm assuming that's worst case scenario- ha!  It's been known to happen faster- our coordinator is actually known for being a really fast matcher- so we'll see!
It all depends on so many things...
We will keep you posted though!  So again, coming up next in this process is:
 LID and then:  our baby girl!  I can hardly believe we've come this far!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Nonna's Gardens

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Isn't my mom's yard gorgeous??

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

animal planet at Island Park {hawk excitment} ...part 1


In late July, after tennis in the morning, we had been noticing a large population of hawks hanging around in the trees at Island Park.  I decided to bring my good camera on this particular day(July 21st) so that I could get some close ups of what they were up to.  I'm going to warn you that there is some blood and guts involved so do not scroll down if that will bother you.  The hawks were busy eating...
 
 
 

Then, out of the blue, a tussle broke out.  It was quite exciting!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This guy won.  Are those intestines????