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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.

Sophie 4k

I haven't had a chance to post about Sophie starting 4K. She absolutely loves it! She is going 3 days a week from 9-2. She is such a little social butterfly and loves her teacher and class to pieces! It really helps me focus on school with the older 3 while she is at her pre-school. We still do some home school work with her here at home. She loves counting and doing different things with her daddy! She even got to do homework to make up what she missed while we were at Disney. I haven't decided if she will go to K-5 next year or if she will join the homeschool pack here at home. I guess it really just depends on Jax adjustment and how everything is going with that.
Uhh check out the pics,,,can you tell she is a poser??

Sophie-Fett

Chengdu Gals

One of the highlights of our trip to Orlando was meeting up with two Chengdu adoption families. My friend Marye who lives in Atlanta was in Orlando w/ her family and had us come to their condo and enjoy pizza and swimming. We were also able to meet Diana and her sweet daughter Robiana who is also from Chengdu. Diana and Robiana live in the Orlando area. Robiana was adopted in March 2006 and Sophie in Dec 2006. So the girls were most likely in the orphanage together although Robiana is a year older. Marye's 2 girls are also both from Chengdu. She has a sweet 3 yr old son and is currently adopting another son from Chengdu and we are about in the same place in our paper chasing. The kids all had a blast together and I was so glad for Sophie to meet her Chengdu "cousins"!

Disney 2009

We had a wonderful trip to Disney. This was our first time to go in over 10 years. The older three were so little the first time they don't remember the trip. Bert and I wish we didn't remember..lol. The kids were 9 weeks, 21 mos and 3. WHAT WERE WE THINKING? We had a side by side double stroller and it rained every day. We never wanted to go back. Well, it took us 10 years to get up the nerve to try again and it was so worth it! If you have never been to touringplans.com it is worth going and using them to plan your trip. We did not waste a moment and were able to see and do everything that we wanted. I was able to get a great deal on our room at mousesavers.com and get our tickets cheaper through undercover tourists. I really tried to budget out the trip since we are also in the middle of an adoption. For a family of 6 it was cheaper for us to stay off site...and our hotel had a free shuttle to the parks everyday. The kids had a blast! Sophie loved wearing her Belle dress to the park and being called princess...it definitely fits her. We had so much fun but now we need a vacation from our vacation!

Jax gets his birthday cake!

Birthday giggles!

Sorry about the grainy video, I had my camera on the wrong setting. I don't know what made Sophie get so tickled...but I love it!