great news!!!

Wootie woot woot!

More later...

rollercoaster {cont'd}

I sure do wish I could tell you that our TA was safe and sound
in the loving arms of our agency.

But, no.

However, it IS on its way.
That has been confirmed.

SO, Monday (or Tuesday) it will arrive.
Next, we gotta get our CA.

Then, like the crazy people we are, we are going
to put K-man on a plane next Friday
morning...if it kills us.

pray*pray*pray*pray*pray

Oh and Brenden is scheduled to get his wisdom teeth out
that day too.

So, you know...if you need me to babysit your kids
or wash your dog or something,
I'll be free in the afternoon.

No problem.

who is freaking out...?? {certainly not me}

I don't have anything especially special to blog about today.

Oh, I did notice that we didn't get TA today.

Just happened to notice that little tid-bit of info.

But really, who's worried?
Who is fretting?
Who is freaking out because things aren't working out exactly the
way she planned and now she's getting agitated
and completely annoyed and wondering when the heck her
husband will travel to get her boys and back home in time to see her
big boy graduate high school without the entire household
being in shambles over all the new changes....?

Who?

I don't know.

Certainly not me.

No, I'm cool, calm and very collected.



Everyone who believes that, stand on your head and
whistle Dixie.

The rest of you,
please leave me a nice and comforting comment.


Thank you.

no TA & no cold laundry folding

Well, shoot fire.

Our TA didn't come today.

I'm whining/rejoicing.

"Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, again I say, REJOICE!"

Right?

Yes.

But, woe is me.

The good news is, our agency didn't get any TAs today
so the way I see it, that means they
could get some tomorrow.

That settles it.

Tomorrow it is!!

****

In other news....

today Lucy asked me to play the Match Game with her.
I told her to set it all up and
I'd be there just as soon as I got the laundry folded.
I may be a slacker in many things but
I refuse to fold cold laundry.
Refuse.

Got that done and we started to play.

The oddest thing was,
she was getting matches right out of the gate.

I finally said,
"Lucy...are you being honest? Do you know where all the matches are
because you looked at them when you were setting them out?"

A very sheepishly-looking Lucy-girl said,
".....Yes, I know where they are."
*Giggle*Giggle*

Well, that little turkey.
She got a nice little lessons on why it's wrong to cheat.

I mixed up all the cards and we continued to play.

She still beat me.
By a long shot.

*****

Still other news,
tonight we are skyping with a certain little man.

That's all I'm saying.

hodge podge

Crazy day.

Actually, yesterday was crazy and today
I just recovered.

Long story short,
I fully expected to receive out TA on Monday
but we didn't.

Disappointment flooded my heart.

I actually did an entire blog post on it
this morning then decided against posting it.

It was whiney...and I wasn't looking for sympathy.
And if I heard one more time that God's
timing is perfect, I was going to scream.

Yes, I believe God's timing is perfect...
yes, yes, yes.

But let's face it,
there is an adversary who fights with
all his might to stop the things of God.

And just because something does,
or does not happen...

DOES NOT MEAN IT'S GOD'S WILL.

That's all I'm going to say.

Please forgive me for sounding grumpy...
I'm really not!
:)


*************************

I had finally decided I was giving up on waiting
for B's computer to start his school
(actually, he has been able to work on his Mandarin
and Pre-Calc).

I figured D*ll would eventually get around to
sending us his new computer
and in the meantime I would go ahead and
install his other subjects onto my computer then
transfer them over later to his computer.

Got it?

Well, when I went to install his English onto
my computer I couldn't find the disk...
ummm,
it was in his old (brand new) computer that
was no longer working.
I mean,
we weren't even able to turn the thing on!!
And the new fancy shmancy disk
holder thingymajig was too high-tech to just
pop open to retrieve the disk.


So...here is K-man and Brenden
working on dismantling the darn
non-working, brand new computer
trying to get the stinkin' disk out.
They got it!
Yay!

Oh and wouldn'tcha know...
we got his new computer today.

So far so good.

Life is never dull.


And here are a couple of pics of the
inside of our little school room.

It's coming along rather slowly,
which is OK because that means K-man
is busy with paying jobs.

**********************

Tomorrow morning is Lucy's dental
procedure that she is having done as an
outpatient at a children's hospital not too far away.

Poor lil' pumpkin!

busy-busy fun day

You guys crack me up.
My busyness yesterday wasn't exactly a
mysterious thing.
Karen, your comment made me laugh because
yes, I was on the phone last night (fuming mad) with D*ll.
My advice to you all...don't buy a D*ll.

But my day was exciting!
First and EARLY was Nick's big day at
the Kansas City Crusaders Junior Masters!
We left so early that I picked Lucy
up out of bed and put her in her car seat (PJ's & all) and
as we were driving down the drive-way she said,
"But it's not day time yet!"
Boy, I'll say.

Nick arriving at the fancy shmancy country club.

Waiting for his ride to take him to the driving range to warm up. Notice the socks? In keeping with tradition at this course, they strictly require crew socks. Nick thinks they are sexy.

And because Nick would rather die than have me on the course taking pics at such an event, the next pic is the end of the tournament where he is signing & turning in his score card.

Nick and his caddy/golf instructor. We are so grateful that he gave up most of his day to help Nick!

But unfortunately, this was a really difficult course
and it just wasn't Nick's best day.
It was an amazing experience for him though!

On the way home we stopped at Krispy Kreme to
bring home a dozen donuts.
Isn't that the way everyone celebrates a great
tournament?


***************

From there the day got even better!
The US Consulate sent
our 2nd LOA to the CCAA!!!
Which simply means...
everything is now done for our TA to be issued.
But that probably won't be for another
3-4 weeks.
The time will fly...cause I've got tons to do.
Oh, and our passports/visas are due to arrive
back today!!

a fun day

Sorry, I forgot that I told you I would check
in at the end of the day!

Our first day of HS went well,
albeit very, very short.

Brenden's brand new computer,
that he saved all summer for...
broke.
The screen malfunctioned and after a
pleasant 69 minutes on the phone
with D*ll,
trying to diagnose the problem,
it was concluded that the screen is defective
and they are ordering a new
one and will have someone replace it.

In the meantime,
all of Brenden's school work is on
his computer with a screen he can't see
anything on.


I had him do R*setta Stone on my
computer.
So he got a good dose of Mandarin
while Nick did his work...well,
part of it.


Truthfully, though it didn't exactly go
as planned, it was a great day.
We laughed a ton and had a great time together.
Golly, I love being their teacher!!

**************************

I talked to our agency and we are pretty much
at the very beginning of the TA process.
Meaning, even though it's been
about 5 weeks since our LOA, because
of an error, we are back to square one.

Nice, very nice.

Worse case scenario, we won't get our TA
for another 7 weeks.
Ugh...I know.
But, they are doing all they can to get each
step expedited from here on out so that we will get it
much sooner.

I'm really at peace about it.
I know there is a reason God is allowing this delay.
But would you please pray for us?

breaking out the ruler

Today's the day.
I'm breakin' out the ruler and the globe
and we're gonna have some
serious fun.

Right now I'm trying to work up the courage to
wake my sleeping bears teenagers so we
can hit this school thing hard.

And if K-man is lucky,
I'll dab a little chalk behind my ears at the end
of the day.

********************

I'll let you know how today goes.....
or if you don't hear from me, you may want to
form a search party.
You would do that for me...right?

I'll also let you know what I hear from
our agency about our TA.

No adoption is complete without some
major drama.
I think it's a rule.

Lucy's dentist appointment and a TA hold-up

Lucy's dentist appointment went well.
Let me tell you about it...

We went to a pediatric dentist,
which was new to me.

And let me just say this.....
I'm glad Lucy doesn't have any sensory issues
because the office was sensory OVER LOAD!
Of course their intent is to make the
kiddos excited about being there but good golly,
balloons, trinket toy vending machines,
TVs everywhere,

an ice cream machine right smack in the middle
of it all!!!

Far from calming but Lucy seemed fine with it all.
Thankfully!

The dentist (Dr. Jill) came in and the high-strung-sensory
theme continued.
My goodness...this doctor went overboard on "welcoming"
Lucy. I've never seen a grown-up so excited.
I wanted to say,
"Lady, BACK OFF."
And at first Lucy was a bit freaked out.
But then quickly thought she was funny.
I, on the other hand, wondered how in the world
she could maintain that level of enthusiasm all day long.
Perhaps she's dipping into the laughing gas.
Who can blame her.
On the other hand, if I was making the clams she is,
I could maintain giddiness for as long as necessary also.

Ok,
Lucy did let her look in her mouth.
Whew.
And Dr. Jill quickly saw the huge hole in her back
tooth, which I've been watching grow over the
past year.
It was decided that Lucy needs to have it fixed,
along with whatever else they find,
in an outpatient situation at our local
children's hospital where they can give her
anesthesia.
They will clean, x-ray, and put caps on
the teeth in need, all while she's asleep.

At first I was all for it.
And really, there's no other choice,
unless we want to try a mild sedative
and do it in the office,
which Lucy would still be awake and could fight it.

I'm just sad that she has to go through this at
all. It makes me really see (in a teeny tiny way) how
it must feel for those of you whose children have to
undergo surgery.
My heart goes out to you.
That must be so very difficult.

Anyway, we are scheduled for early October.
I hope we are back in the swing of things
having just returned from Ch*na.

And on that note,
I got an email from our agency last night saying
that there was a mistake with our immigration stuff.
Honestly, I don't understand it at all.
All I know is that our coordinator apologized
several times in the email and said they will
continue to make daily phone calls to USCIS until
it is resolved.

I'm a bit stressed...yet I really don't know what it all means.
I am still clueless about all these new procedures
so I'm not sure what is going on.
I will call our agency first thing Monday morning.

*Sigh*

Trusting the Lord. Trusting the Lord. Trusting the Lord.

leaving behind a neat and tidy house

Since it appears that our Travel Approval could
come...

any day now (??),

I've really been trying to prepare myself
for the fact that we could possibly
leave earlier than September.

It's not that I'm getting my hopes up...
it's more that I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row!
There is TONS to do before we leave.

Something that's really different this time
around is that instead of leaving my
house empty...it will be filled with my children
and my mom. Plus my in-laws are going
to come over a lot to fill in for my mom
when she needs (oh and she WILL need) to
get out of the house.

SO.....even though I always try to leave
my house clean when we leave to go
somewhere...it just rarely happens.
BUT,
I can't have my house messy for my mom
and Mom-in-law to see!!!
So on Saturday I cleaned out my refrigerator.
Ahhh. Nice, nice feeling having all those
science experiments tossed in the trash.
AND
I washed my windows and screens.
I never knew the world outside
was so clear and lovely.
AND
I mopped my floors.
Ok, that will definitely have to be done
again (and again) before we leave.



I'm feeling well on my way to having
a neat and tidy house.
And as long as the grandmas leave their
white gloves at home,
I'll be fine.

******************************

A BIG

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!

to my dear friend Angela!!
She turns 30 today!

30.
Ten years younger than me.
And she's skinnier.

Whateva.

Love you Ang!!
I hope you have a happy, happy day!

TA news....golf tourny....and Lucy cuteness

TA News!!

We got an email from our agency yesterday, with basically one sentence...

We found out that our representative in Guangzhou picked up and mailed your second Confirmation Letter to the CCAA at the end of last week.

Honest to goodness, this sounds like good news but
I have no idea what it means!!
All this is SO different from just over a year ago when
we got Lucy that I just don't know if our TA is
coming in a week....or 5!

Hopefully I will find out more today.

But, here's a sweet picture of Shu Li that we
received from my friend Patty!
She's the one with the glasses...isn't she darling?!
Smile, girl!

***************

Thanks for all your sweet comments from yesterday.
I had myself a pretty good pity party.
Not just over that but I (well, I'm not convinced it was me)
lost an important paper.
Not anything adoption related, just a lien release
letter that we needed.
You would have thought my life depended on it.
We got another one ordered easy enough
and then after reading Linn's blog post from yesterday
I got a pretty good attitude adjustment.

AND...
last evening Nick got an invitation (via email)
to the Jr. Championship Golf tournament!!
Even though he missed the
tournament on Monday,
he still (barely) qualified!!!
We were both elated!

****************************

I will leave you with some pics of Lucy helping
her daddy wash his jeep.

She LOVES being outside with him!

Such a good little helper!

And like any good woman, she's a multi-tasker!
(And look at those sexy calves! No chicken
legs on my man!)

Too darn cute.