Two adoptions, and I made my first big mistake....

I had a document sent back....I forgot a step...I sent the 800A approval to the courier and I didn't have it correctly notarized/county clerked/state sealed. It was my first mistake EVER! with our adoption paper work and I DID NOT TAKE IT WELL! Now, I am a logical, mature, educated adult. I know how complicated and how many steps there are in this process. Logically, I realized how easily it is for something to get missed, a mistake to get made. But, not me! I give support to others on the yahoo group when it happen to them, not me! Actually, I was so embarrased/upset I didn't even post about it. ILLOGICAL STUBBORN PERFECTIONIST PROUD. yep, I know...but let me tell you when YOU make a mistake that holds up progress, that holds up your baby coming home...it hurts.

Luckily, my logical side DID kick in after a few hours of bitter tears and I just did what had to be done to fix the situation and move on...no need of crying over spilled milk. The reality is, it only set back a week. One week. Yeah, deep down I'm still bitter - after the 7 week wait Will didn't need his mother adding one more.

Oh well!

IT CAME! IT CAME! IT CAME!

FINALLY! Our 800A approval came in the mail today!! Yeah! I do have a correction to make! I quit looking at the calander a few wees ago out of pure frustration, so I got off a alittle somewhere - it's NOT exactly 7 weeks, today marks 6 weeks and 6 days since we mailed our application so I'm off a little! I think for simplicity, I'm claiming a 7 week wait! But who cares?? Mike overnighted the approval to DC so HOPEFULLY we will be DTC (dossier to China) sometime next week! Keep your fingers crossed! We will be celebrating tonight my friends!!!

He did it again!!!

If you look back at my old blog (or you may just take my word) I remember so many times when I would get REALLY down about the process, teary, irritable, just had enough and then God would send me a sweet something or somebody to brighten my way. Sure enough, it's happened again!! I don't want to whine tooo much - my poor RQ friends have probably had enough - but we are into week 7 waiting for our 800A approval, this is the LAST step to send our paperwork to China, and that is WAY to long!

The good news? An "old" cyber friend from Huaian that I connected with during Sam's adoption discovered she had a bunch of pictures of Will and her daughter Leah taken when they were babies- and she emailed them to me last night...Let me tell you they were both just darling babies! My favorite is of Will and Leah sitting on the table Leah with flowers in her hair and Will glaring a hole through a bowl of meatballs! He's obviously a hungry boy! I know they were "Chinese" meatballs, but I can't help but think it's foreshadowing to his future as an Italian! :)

Hope these pictures make you smile like they have me!!! By the way, if you click on any of the pictures, it makes them alot bigger and even cuter!

Happy 1 Year Gotcha Day Sammy!

Time flies....boy does it! It's truly amazing to think back that's it's been a full year since Mike and I walked into Civil Affairs to find a very brave, happy little guy sitting there waiting to see what the heck was going on today. He was full of curiosity and concern for the other crying babies and really just wanted to play cars. It's amazing to think the transition he's been through, the transition we've all been through. Describing adoption is like describing childbirth or marriage to someone who's never been there, it's so unique and so powerful. I have not one regret, not one....he's yet another love of my life. Mike and I believe in our heart adopting is a calling God ment for us

Once our eyes are open we cannot pretend that we do not know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows we know, and holds us responsible to act.
Poverbs 24:12


It's a difficult thing for some to understand, but we decided long ago, we weren't doing this to please others, we were doing this to grow our family and please God. Some of those we love the most I don't think understand completely, but that's ok, we are all unique people, with unique experiences and values. With all things in life, there are no guarantees it will be easy, and adoption isn't always, it's just been sooo worth it!

Happy Gotcha Day!!! We couldn't love you any more!!!!

I don't know how....and I don't know why......

but our fingerprint appointment notice came yesterday from immigration!!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!! I so desperately want to get our dossier to China....and I realize when I really think about it that things have progressed pretty quickly, but I've been pretty stinkin impatient. I think it's part of it you can't help, we ALL want to get our children home ASAP. For us, we are waiting on immigration clearance right now to be DTC and they've been pretty slow processing our paperwork. I called Friday and they said we weren't even in the computer yet and it would be another 10 days or so before we received our appointment notice, so when I opened the mailbox and found it there, well....I did what anyone would do...I did the HAPPY DANCE!!!!!

Once upon a time.....

a few weeks ago at our local neighborhood pool, something magical happened!!!!! Brynn and Syndney happily played babydolls in the wadding pool. Mike contently played cornhole practicing for the upcoming tournament. Jessa and her friends, laughed, and dunked each other, and Sam and his pool buddy Ethan (whose just about the cutest little guy ever and I threatened to kidnap and take home every weekend) rolled their cars and boats around the edges of the pool and I SAT DOWN AND DRANK A MARGARETTA!!!! It was truly magical and I had to share and capture the moment in photos!!!

So much to share........

To start, the laptop crashed...so that's my primary reason for such a prolonged absence in my blogging, however, it has been a fun busy month!

First, we spent a fabulous 4th of July celebrating at our neighborhood pool. There was tons of food, friends and games. One highlight, I picked up a hoolahoop for the first time in decades and actually beat out a bunch of kids!!! It got down to me and an 8 year old! Of course she won, it would have been wrong in many ways for me to beat them all ;) Who knew?? We topped off the night with fireworks at Matt & Kristi's. Luckily Sam thought they were great, no fear and he even held a sparkler or two!

We took our annual Hilton Head vaction to spend time with Nanny and Pappy....*sigh* It was so relaxing,amazing and fun as always. We arrived the first day to celebrate Nanny's Bday!!! and it was Sam's first vacay. All the kids traveled well, he loved the beach, the super sized/super nice/kid friendly pool, the sand castles and sand toys, and all the time and attention 10 days with family gives you. His first walk out to the ocean was met with much anticipation by all. The entire family had their eyes glues to Sam. He clung to Jessa for awhile, but after a few minutes of jumping waves and splashing around, asked to go to the "deep end" of the ocean! :) Of course the girls are HHI experts by now..they love our resort the biking and the crabbbing. As usual, Pappy, Mike Jessa and Kenna adventured out into the mud and muck to bring home coolers full of hissing snapping crabs. They LOVE a crab boil and spend hours on the deck overlooking the ocean cracking and eating crabs (see picture above) I prefer NOT to have such an intimate relationship with my food. I like mine dead from Kroger's.

Our friends from Lexington, Carla, Issac and their sweet girls came for a fun day and, the last 2 days Uncle Tom, Aunt Terry, and Cousins Daniel,Michael and his new girlfriend Eddy came to visit. It was a blast to have all of us together in such a beautiful relaxing place. I wish we could have spent the whole week together!

On the way home we stopped in Charlotte NC to visit some new and dear friends we met during our wait to bring our sweet Sam home. Jackie and I were with the same agency and "chatted" endlessly via yahoo groups and email. We were lucky enough to travel together last summer and the experience was wonderful! The kids loved getting to play and Sweet Caileb was such a doll. He and Sam were just priceless together...it was instant friendship!

My last sweet surprise and to arrive home to find my HOMESTUDY FINISHED AND WAITING!!!! (insert angles singing) Boy is that a great feeling! Our immigration papers are officially mailed and we are waiting to hear about fingerprint appointment so we can get clearance! I got busy putting the final touches on grant applications and hope to have them mailed out next week. I notarized/county clerked/authenticated all remaining dossier documents so they would be ready for immigration clearance for their trip to Washington DC before the last leg to China. Bring on the LID so we can REALLY start waiting :)

and I want to send out a BIG congrats to Amie and Trey....YEAH BABIES!!!!
and to Cynthia and Adam....can't wait to meet Asher and follow your trip to Taiwan!!! It's so fabulous to see families grow!!!

As you know, summer flying by *sigh* we actually went to school for the uniform sale this week too.....school starts in @3 weeks....gotta go have more fun!!