LID

Whoo hoo, we found out our LID was Christmas day!! 12-25-2009. I am hoping we will travel no later than the beginning of May at this point. It is usually 2.5 mos to LOA and then about 6-8 more weeks after that to TA. I would have no problem if any of these things came sooner!! :)

3 year gotcha and DTC!!

3 years ago we were handed a precious beautiful gift and our lives have never been the same! Sophie has opened our hearts and eyes to so much. She is truly a gem. I cannot imagine our home with out her and she it truly a blessing to everyone she meets. We have a little "gotcha day" tradition where the older kids all write a letter, poem anything they would like and then they read it to Sophie. She LOVES it!! The undivided attention of her 3 older siblings is like heaven to her! Then of course we are off to lunch at the local chinese buffet where we are met by Lala, Uncle Bart, KK and Nick...Kaydence has joined us the past two years also. And we were happy that grandma joined us this year too, but she had to leave before we got the camera out.

Is it just coincidence that we are also..... DTC today?? (our paperwork is on its way too China) WOO HOO... One step closer to Jax...can't wait to start our gotcha day celebrations with him too!

SNOW!!!!

Sophie was so excite to wake up to snow this morning. She was sneaking down to our room at 7:30 this morning and when she came in our room I told her to look out the window. "HOLY SMOKES" is what she said in her best country accent! She ran upstairs and woke up EG and out they went!! The boys had spent the night at their cousins so they missed out on our fun.

Well, our tree is up and the house is decorated. We had to do a lot of running around today for things actually not related to the adoption...I know *gasp*. Kids had dentist appointments, then had to return stuff to the store, then chinese food..I was hoping for a great fortune cookie that would say "you will travel to distant land soon"...but NO, mine said "you will find something you lost next week"...the only thing I have lost lately is my mind and I don't think it will be returning next week. Then off to the library and the kids are now at karate. I am waiting to hear from my courier if she has sent my forms on to my agency...*fingers crossed*

Sigh...of relief

Well, after going to the courthouse in Ashville, we went to Montgomery then back to Trussville..mailed everything off so it is out of my hands! All this accomplished before 3pm and with the whole gang in tow. HOORAY!!! I am hoping to be DTC by Dec 7th at the lastest.

4k Thanksgiving

Sophie's school put on a great Thanksgiving feast for all the classes. Bert and I were suppose to go with her, but unfortunately he had a stomach bug. I told Sophie she could pick one of her brothers to go in his place and she picked Tyler. He was such a sport to join us among all those adoring 4 year olds!

CIS approval

Thankfully "it" finally came yesterday!!! So Monday I am off to get my final two forms certified and then driving to Montgomery, then mailing it all off to Houston and then off to California and then finally off to CHINA!!! Maybe by the end of next week this dossier will be out of my hands.
We did get an update on Jax. No measurements though and I am dying to know how big(or small) he is. We found out his favorite color is purple(just like mom). His favorite foods are crackers, apples and chocolate. He is in first grade and his favorite subjects are math, PE and art.

Approval

Ohhhh I SO WANT MY APPROVAL TO COME IN!! I talked to my very nice officer (for real she is so kind). And she approved me last week it has just not come yet. I am daily stalking the mailman. Today I was like, uhh are you sure you only have 20 magazines and not 1 envelope for me? ARGGHHH I never thought I would so desperately want approval..I feel so needy! :)

Update

Still no I800 approval. I received a letter in the mail Friday that said my HS has still not made it to NBC even though it was suppose to have been sent on Oct 30th. I even got an email today from NBC confirming the fact they do not have my HS. I so thought I would be DTC by our anniversary and now I don't know when we will be. I am hoping this will all get straightened out this week.
On the other hand I hate to post without any pictures. Here are some pics of Sophie and her friends playing dress up last week.

15 years..

Yesterday was our 15th wedding anniversary! I was more than surprised to walk into my kitchen and see 15 DOZEN beautiful roses!! I love my husband so much. I am so blessed and humbled that God has blessed my life w/ such a wonderful husband and father to my children. I know of no man that is more patient and kind and long suffering than Bert! We had a sweet day together. After we checked the mailbox a million times(for our adoption paper), we went for a walk. Then we loaded up all the kids and went to Sam's and had an icee and a piece of pizza, then on to Wal-mart and then we came home and played Disney Princess Memory with Sophie and Tyler. It was really a fun day! Tonight we will go out for our anniversary dinner. I love you so much babe and I thank God for giving you to me!!!

Even our animals "got skills"

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We got skills..

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Don't usually get political on here, but...

"One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. . . . Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it." - Ronald Reagan

So, on my third trip to the mailbox today, I have to say I was more than thrilled when I saw an envelope that had US department of Homeland Security up in the left hand corner. I have to say I was less than thrilled when I opened it and it said I "get" to go re-do MY fingerprints. Of course this will be done at no additional cost to me....YEAH RIGHT! My new appointment is not until Nov 16th and I am seriously frustrated.

*update, 2 hours later*

Ok so, I thought "Oh well I might as well try". I hurriedly got ready and drove down to the Bham US*IS office they closed at 4:00 and I made it at 3:00. I was the ONLY customer there!! They went ahead and re-fingerprinted me right then.. Thank you Lord!!

苟发可

So that is Jax's name in Ch*nese characaters, Gou Fa Ke. My friend Amber was able to get in touch w/ some of her friends from Taiwan. They translated the name to mean: drum roll please...............

Gou- Year of the dog and last name (we already knew that thanks to Rosetta Stone Mandarin)

Fa-Rich or Success

Ke- OK

Another of hers friends sent this:

"苟发可, or 苟發可 in traditional chinese


This name sounds a little bit weird to me though :P


fa = to prosper, to gain wealth, to become rich
ke = to be able to, will be, will do


To sum up, I would say it means this boy "can be rich", "will make a fortune" :)


So maybe they can call him "Rich" or "Richard (richer)" for example :P


haha, just some of my thoughts"
-
So...hmm, Rich OK... Please give us some help here. We might just name Jax, Jax...not Jaxin, not Jaxon....maybe just Jax...but now the middle name. If we keep FaKe...it looks like Fake...which here in the states would not be an acceptable middle name. So what to do, what to do. So what sounds good w/ Jax... ANY suggestions?

Thank you Amber, Jenny and Jill for checking this out for us.

Also, my I800 approval has not come yet. No matter how many lucky horse shoes and rabbits feet I have, I keep throwing salt over my shoulder, have not walked under ANY ladders, nor have any black cats crossed my path. I try to open the mailbox very slowly w/ my tongue held just right...but guess what? IT IS STILL NOT HERE!! Like my mom reminded me again for the millionth time today, "God's timing is perfect"...I just wish I could peek at His calendar!

Pumpkin Patch 09'

Sophie's class went to the Pumpkin Patch at Camp Coleman last week and she wanted her sissy to join her. We had a great girls day!
Still waiting on I800 approval. Running to the mailbox every day HOPING it will be in there. 'grumble"

Our home study is finally on its way to NBC/CIS after a very long month at DHR. We have our fingerprint appointment tomorrow and I am really hoping we will get our 797 next week. That is the FINAL piece of paper that we need to send off our dossier. My goal was to be DTC by Nov 12th..chances are slim but I think it could happen.
I am constantly checking other adopting family timelines and it looks like from the time you are DTC/LID to travel time is somewhere close to 5 months give or take a month or two.
We took the kids to get their passports today so that is one more thing checked off our list!! Woo Hoo

Look mom...NO WHEELS..training wheels.

We were so excited that Sophie learned to ride her bike w/ out training wheels while we were camping. Her siblings were cheering her on like crazy it was so cute to see how happy they were for her. EG took a lot of great videos for us.

No News

Unfortunately, I have no new adoption news. I am waiting until we are DTC to send Jax another package and to try and get more pics of him. Our HS is still at DHR and I can't remember the exact time frame (I think my brain is in denial) but I think my SW said it could take up to 6 weeks. :( Then from DHR our HS(home study) has to go to CIS where they will match it up w/ my I800A application and then send us an appointment to get fingerprinted and then we wait for our final form we need for our dossier. So to be honest our "official" wait has not even began. I was really hoping to be DTC by our Anniversary Nov 12th.
Whoa is me. :(

Camping again

Last Wednesday we headed over to Lake Guntersville to do some camping. It was sooooo nice! Our new favorite campsite. The kids enjoyed a lot of biking, fishing..didn't enjoy hiking, enjoyed reading and playing A LOT of cards..and eating a lot of s'mores! On Friday Amber came and joined us and actually stayed with the kids so Bert and I could go to our church married's retreat which just happened to be at The Lodge at Guntersville state park which worked out perfectly. We were all sad to come home Monday and get back to the daily grind.
Amber feel free to add your pics on here!!

Button Bear

Two weeks ago Sophie had the privilege of bringing Button Bear home from pre-school. We were to take Button with us everyday and let him share in our daily activities. Well, our first trip was to the grocery store where Sophie and Button helped me pick out yummy treats. Then we went home and made some fall crafts with grandma and siblings. The next day we took Button with us for Sophie's 4 year check up. She had to get 3 shots (Button declined his shots). Then we got to take Button with us to celebrate grandpa's 65th birthday!! Button also was able to meet Sophie's Great Uncle and Aunt from Wisconsin(who also brought us yummy veggies from their garden). We are sure Button was pretty exhausted when he headed back to school on Tuesday.