It has ARRIVED! I'm not sure if I wrote this in my previous blog but the magical day I was counting on was St. Patrick's Day. I used someone else's timeline to calculate when we should expect our Referral Approval. Looking back, I actually miscounted 71 days, but either way, my magical day was March 17th. Being an Irish Gal who celebrates St. Patrick's Day, I thought this was a good day to get a referral. On Monday, March 15th we got the call. Whoo Hoo! I wasn't nervous about our paperwork at all, but if Wednesday had come and gone with no word, I would have started worrying. Our family coordinator told me that she would mail the paperwork to us the following day and it would arrive on -you guessed it - St. Patrick's Day! There is a quick turnaround on this kind of paperwork. You need to sign & return quickly so that the agency can return it to China quickly. We also have paperwork that we have to submit to USCIS so that our Consulate appointment may be scheduled and immigration paperwork can get underway.
What's great is that we can now reach out to her daughter- work out her new American name and send care packages to her. Now is the time she will be prepared, by her caregivers, and by our packages, to make the transition to living in an orphanage to being a daughter in a family. Up until now, the orphanage wasn't even notified of a potential family. I can't wait to get her size information and pick out some new outfits for her for at least the time we are in China. I would like to have her with me when we round out her wardrobe.
So, we have lots to do - paperwork, working out finances, getting together our travel stuff, sending packages, making countdowns for the girls, getting a "travel meeting" dinner for our little travel group set, organizing our away from home details. Much to do, much excitement and we'll get it all together. The week I will be a crazy woman will be the week before we leave. Specifically the day before we leave. Thankfully my honey has promised to start his time off the day before we go so that we can get ourselves in gear and he can help keep me on track. And you better believe the girls will be in school that day!
So, with that said, I'm signing off to do some prep work.
We're closer to bringing home our JuneBug....YAY!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Any day now.....
We're still waiting for the RA and it could come any day. My calculations, determined by someone else's timeline, put us at St. Patrick's Day for getting our next milestone out of the way. If we don't get a call before then, well, then I'll be getting ancy. Right now Dave is the one who's ancy, but I have a loose timeline (that admittedly belonged to someone who is not me) and I'm sticking with it. So on the last blog entry I referred to our new daughter as SummerGirl - I take it back, it still didn't fit - I will refer to her as JuneBug. There, done. The good news is that this is just all random rambling, mostly to myself - I think I have only one person reading this and he lives here!
News in this house includes girls who are growing and blossoming in front of our very eyes. Ballerina is so interested in her faith and has become quite the biblical scholar. She has had two favorite books over the last 3 months and they are picture bibles. She is amazing me with her reading skills and is now reading the stories herself. She plays church and today after she finished her homework went off to her room to do her "church homework". When I asked she said she was a "lector" and needed to practice. That's my girl! She sees her mommy reading at mass and she is bolstered by her own reading skills. I think it won't be long before she informs me that she wants to read at church. She is so proud of herself!
Songbird is learning so much and becoming so articulate. She amazes us with her observations and the way she puts things together. She is starting to become a little comedian too and laughs the loudest at her own sense of humor. She is working on potty training. Its a long time in coming, but she is finally seeing some results when she sits on the toilet! She loves the cheering that she gets from her parents and her big sister. I think Ballerina is almost more excited than she is when it happens! Tonight I told her that I was so proud of her progress and she said "yeah, I'm proud of ME!" She is such a love! She has a new girl in her class and she is LOVING it. Finally another little girlie! Our Songbird appreciates the "pretty" and can now spend some time with another girl who wears "cute" clothes. That is the actuall phrase she used when she was shopping with me today. We were in the children's clothing section and she said - "let's look for cute clothes".
I'm really so proud of how both of them are getting along. There, of course, are sibling quarrels from time to time but they are getting along so well. I know that I need to cherish it now, as attitudes change over time, but its so lovely to see. Ballerina is protective towards Songbird and she is so thoughtful and will patiently sit with her to read a story. She also has moments of "instruction" where she attempts to teach Songbird something that she feels she needs to know now. Ballerina recently learned how to tie her own shoes - and she is EXCTATIC about this accomplishment. She also tried to teach Songbird this morning how to tie her shoes. I had to explain to her that Songbird might not be ready yet, lets work on other skills first. Songbird looks up to Ballerina, and also does her fair share of little sister meddling with Ballerina's toys/books. She seeks out her sister's hand when we're walking. That in and of itself is big news. She used to shrink from holding onto Ballerina's hand and that made Ballerina sad. Our little Songbird is firmly in the little sister mode and will welcome JuneBug with little problems. Ballerina, aka the BOSS, will most likely have a tougher adjustment. She expects big sisters to be a particular way, and some of those expecatations might be shattered when we adopt her sister. I am working on lowering those expecatations so that she can connect with JuneBug with few demands. So far I think she's listening. Dave overheard Ballerina and Songbird talking about JuneBug. Songbird said "yeah, JuneBug is going to give me a hug when I see her". Ballerina said "now Songbird, you know she might not give you a hug right away, because she doesn't know us yet." I hope that JuneBug is comforted to know that she will have little sisters. They already fiercely love her and are ready to lavish their love on her. I hope she is in a place that she feels able to freely accept their love and friendship when we first meet. I think it will be easier for her to connect to the little people in the beginning, and pray that we can all find a family bond come, if not easily, with some ease.
Lastly, on news outside our immediate family, I have a new nephew! I now have three nieces and 2 nephews. All such beautiful children. We look forward to meeting my youngest brother's little man!
More blogging when we get more news.....
News in this house includes girls who are growing and blossoming in front of our very eyes. Ballerina is so interested in her faith and has become quite the biblical scholar. She has had two favorite books over the last 3 months and they are picture bibles. She is amazing me with her reading skills and is now reading the stories herself. She plays church and today after she finished her homework went off to her room to do her "church homework". When I asked she said she was a "lector" and needed to practice. That's my girl! She sees her mommy reading at mass and she is bolstered by her own reading skills. I think it won't be long before she informs me that she wants to read at church. She is so proud of herself!
Songbird is learning so much and becoming so articulate. She amazes us with her observations and the way she puts things together. She is starting to become a little comedian too and laughs the loudest at her own sense of humor. She is working on potty training. Its a long time in coming, but she is finally seeing some results when she sits on the toilet! She loves the cheering that she gets from her parents and her big sister. I think Ballerina is almost more excited than she is when it happens! Tonight I told her that I was so proud of her progress and she said "yeah, I'm proud of ME!" She is such a love! She has a new girl in her class and she is LOVING it. Finally another little girlie! Our Songbird appreciates the "pretty" and can now spend some time with another girl who wears "cute" clothes. That is the actuall phrase she used when she was shopping with me today. We were in the children's clothing section and she said - "let's look for cute clothes".
I'm really so proud of how both of them are getting along. There, of course, are sibling quarrels from time to time but they are getting along so well. I know that I need to cherish it now, as attitudes change over time, but its so lovely to see. Ballerina is protective towards Songbird and she is so thoughtful and will patiently sit with her to read a story. She also has moments of "instruction" where she attempts to teach Songbird something that she feels she needs to know now. Ballerina recently learned how to tie her own shoes - and she is EXCTATIC about this accomplishment. She also tried to teach Songbird this morning how to tie her shoes. I had to explain to her that Songbird might not be ready yet, lets work on other skills first. Songbird looks up to Ballerina, and also does her fair share of little sister meddling with Ballerina's toys/books. She seeks out her sister's hand when we're walking. That in and of itself is big news. She used to shrink from holding onto Ballerina's hand and that made Ballerina sad. Our little Songbird is firmly in the little sister mode and will welcome JuneBug with little problems. Ballerina, aka the BOSS, will most likely have a tougher adjustment. She expects big sisters to be a particular way, and some of those expecatations might be shattered when we adopt her sister. I am working on lowering those expecatations so that she can connect with JuneBug with few demands. So far I think she's listening. Dave overheard Ballerina and Songbird talking about JuneBug. Songbird said "yeah, JuneBug is going to give me a hug when I see her". Ballerina said "now Songbird, you know she might not give you a hug right away, because she doesn't know us yet." I hope that JuneBug is comforted to know that she will have little sisters. They already fiercely love her and are ready to lavish their love on her. I hope she is in a place that she feels able to freely accept their love and friendship when we first meet. I think it will be easier for her to connect to the little people in the beginning, and pray that we can all find a family bond come, if not easily, with some ease.
Lastly, on news outside our immediate family, I have a new nephew! I now have three nieces and 2 nephews. All such beautiful children. We look forward to meeting my youngest brother's little man!
More blogging when we get more news.....
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Have you heard anything yet.....?
The short answer is no, not yet. We've been getting that question the most, and the longer answer is - I hope that we get the next bit of info in mid-march. That is not the end of the wait though, as we still need to file some more documentation and obtain travel approval (TA). But what the Referral Approval (RA) does is OFFICIALLY recognize the match between our family and our newest daughter. We have to say "yes" again, and this makes the match solid. What will change, however, is that once we are officially recognized as the prospective parents for our waiting daughter, we can send her care packages! I'm assembling a photo album with pictures of our family and home so that we can introduce ourselves to our girlie. Okay, so now I'm wondering if I've established a blog name for our girl. Its so hard because we know so little about her personality. Ballerina and Songbird are going to be joined pseudonymly (is that a word?!) on this blog with their big-sister-to-be: SummerGirl. I seriously sat here for 20 minutes trying to figure out a name - I'm still not satisfied with it, but I can use it for a little bit. Oops, I took too long, Songbird is awake from nap....later!
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