Almost 3 months LID

Hello All!

I have been thinking about posting for a few days now and our website is down at work so I finally have some time to think and write. BTW- Hi Germ! I just found out yesterday that you knew I had a blog from the grapevine and YES I
amazingly do know what a blog is - smart a**! :-)

So, on Saturday our neighbor Laura who went with her sister-in-law last year to pick up her nephew Zoe in China invited us over for a bbq and to meet Zoe. I couldn't help but touch her hair. She could be a poster baby for a beautiful Chinese baby. They also shared their pictures with me, that were so amazing. Lexi of course was a little jealous from all the attention I must have been giving Zoe, but it was so hard not too. I was just captivated by her and the thoughts of what was in store for our family!

I'm so glad that I have this blog! I just read my last entry and I had already forgotten about my grandma Elva story! Crazy, how life is just so full that it is hard to keep it all at the front of our minds.

Referral wait times have increased to 13-14 months as of last month. Therefore, I have decided to wait on setting up the girls rooms until we are only approx. 3 months out. I am still hoping to go to China next May but until then I am refusing to worry about it- atleast for now anyway :-) However, seeing little Zoe did make me sooooooo excited.

We have tried to explain to Lexi that you will come from China and that she is going to stay with Nanna while we bring you home. She LOVES her Nanna but for some reason does not want to stay home while we go and bring you HOME. I have always said that "I am on the fence" about taking Lexi with us and Dad keeps saying no-way but I know in my heart that if we have to stay in China 18-days and Lexi is close to 4 years old she'll be going with us. Start packing Nanna! It's really interesting that Lexi is so bent on going as she usually would always pick to go to Nanna's. Hmmmmm, maybe she is as excited as we are! I know it will be hard to travel with her, but this is such a "family" experience that I can't imagine not having her there! Plus, she really has traveled quite a bit for her age. Look at me convincing myself to take her! Hmmmm.....

My good friend Mette from Denmark is coming to visit us next week! We are so excited to meet her kids and see her again as it has been 10 years. Her kids do not speak English so I am really excited to see how Lexi interacts with them. What a great experience this will be for them all AND I am going to St. George to stay in a condo with them (just Lexi and I) for 2 days and then 2 days at Momma Johnny's! I haven't been to St. George for 4 days FOREVER- can't wait!

5 Oregonians came to visit us 2-weeks ago! Your Aunt Sara, Uncle Eric, Mat, Bevin and Marc. It was so fun! Sara is already planning when she will come to meet you for the 1st time. She is sooooo excited and Lexi loves her so much and I know you will too. Plus, she has agreed to be your godmother. :-) She has beautiful dark hair like you & I know she will always be your special friend!

O' I just remembered something Lexi said yestereday. We were at her playmate Megans and Krista was asking about China and I asked Lexi if she was getting a little sister and she said "NOT YET" like maybe you weren't born yet! She said it with determination like duh' Mom.... I wonder......

Well, Happy Fall to all! It is definately feeling like fall here although I'm sure it won't in St. George next week. I think that will be my farewell to summer weekend. Change is good and I am excited to see what it will bring us. I got out my scrapbooks yesterday and am making the plunge of getting caught up. I have this table in my office that is OVERFLOWING with scrapbook crap-it has got to the point of embarassing and overwhelming but should be a nice fall activity.

We have also decided to go to Eugene for a week for Thanksgiving! Wohoo - Plane tix are so expensive anymore that 4 days is just not enough to spend any quality time with all the people that we love there. I feel so fortunate that we are able to do all that we do- we truly are lucky.

Your great grandpa Larry is in the hospital but he is doing better now. He too is excited to meet you!

All my love,
MOM

Grandma Elva

I had a dream last night that we got your picture and you had a really round face and were o' so cute. The thing I want to remember most about this dream is that your middle name was Mei which was pronounced Mae and it was so cool because that was my Grandma Elva's middle name and your 2 cousins middle name now too! I wonder if that will really be part of your Chinese name......
I think you may also have had a club foot or something but in the dream I kept
forgetting to look and see which one it was. Everyone loved you so much!

We are almost LID for 2 months now! Yea- I can't believe it.
It has been a super hot summer up until this week and now it already feels like fall to me. I am looking forward to Halloween and even Sundance. I love summer and never look forward to it ending but I think it might be because it
will bring us closer to bringing you home.
Yesterday they stopped a terrorist attack with international flights.
Ukkkk-I can not even think about that. I know I will be so scared to fly so far
and leaving Lexi at home but I know it will all be worth it too. It's hard to picture what your country will really be like.

We are keeping busy with projects, projects, projects. I have decided we simply just need a hot tub so we are going to get one! Yea- you girls will have fun in it too.

More later,
Melissa

Friday 11/14/06

A short note today, I did NOT see Chloe on the WC list.
However, it is so neat to see that many of the children already
have REVIEWED under them. It is awesome that there are so many
people considering adopting these precious cuties! The whole list thing
is kind of a nightmare. There server went down, so people were going crazy
trying to see the kids. The system is that once you are approved by CHI you have a password to log in then whenever new WC are available they let you know a few days beforehand then when the time comes everyone tries to get on
to see the WC and it's first come 1st serve to REVIEW a file if there is a WC you are interested in. I guess one baby had 60 requests yesterday! Hmmm....
If we did find a WC I think we would probably be going over in about 5-6 months. Right now, I am just keeping this option open and will keep looking each month. :-)

Until I can figure out a better way, here are some precious video's
http://heartborn.blogspot.com/2006/07/star-thrower.html

and
http://heartborn.blogspot.com/2006/07/when-love-takes-you-in-steven-curtis.html

Well, it's Friday and we are working on our yard this weekend!
I feel like there is so much to do before our baby gets here and I have a year to do it! It is weird seing my sister-in-law pregant yesterday as she is already in her 3rd trimester and I knew we were "pregnant" before they did. However, I'm not feeling jealous at all right now which is good because I thought I might. I think because "the wait" is so long I just have not mentally prepared for our baby to get here yet. I can't imagine if she was coming in Oct.! Even though, I had those dreams, I still kind of think she has not been born yet.
It is great for Lexi to see her auntie's belly, so she doesn't think all babies come from the internet!

Love,
Melissa

11-months to go---maybe!

We have officially been LID for 1 month. Wohoo it went by fast!

So, last night I was showing Dad these awesome videos on adoption and then Lexi wanted to see and I explained that her sister was going to be from China like the girls in the video and she kept saying "is that my sister", - "is that my sister", when the babies would come up. Then, after a few minutes of looking at the babies, she said"where's my OTHER sister!" O my! does she know something we don't know? Dad was quick to say, don't you mean brother? :-) I am so excited for our journey that lies ahead. We truly are blessed.
Lexi -went to another birthday party last night and I was talking to our neighbor/friend about how much she LOVES birthdays and we concluded how fortunate all our kids are. It's almost not like real life on this street but luckily it is our life! However, I can't help but analyze the price we are paying to stay here. A house just went up across the street from us for a ridiculous amount! I wish there was somewhere we could all move that was reasonable and put that $ away for retirement. I brought this up last night, that everyone has a price but honestly I think I may be the only one that feels that way. (As I am playing poker on a Wed night 2 doors down.) :-)
Maybe I worry about $ too much -- O well, that's a whole other blog!

Back on the subject- Waiting Children come out today! (FYI- WC or "Waiting Children are children that have minor disabilities such as a club foot) I can't wait to see their faces. I am really considering looking into this further. I hear if you see your child "you will know".One of the reasons we originally chose international adoption was because we did not want to "fight" for a caucasion baby but give another baby in the world a chance to a better life-however with the wait for China babies getting longer and longer I feel again we are competing for a baby. Honestly, I am really interested in looking into a waiting child and Dad even said last night that he knew I was into it. He does listen to me after all!
Well, I want to figure out how to link to these precious video's so I'm off.
BTW- please feel free to leave me a comment if you read this. I am thinking of sharing this with others. It is extremely personal but I love looking back at where we've been in this process so maybe you will too.
Have a great day!
Love,
MM
PS Lexi is going to be late for school today- as I want her to see the waiting children with me!

Pregnant!

So, on the night of July 5th- I had a "Dream/nightmare" that I was pregnant and it was my due date and I was freaking out that I did not want to be "overdue" again and relentlessly pressuring everyone to give blood because I knew I was going to need it. :-(
It was really weird, because since the hysterectomy I really have not had any dreams/nightmares (that I can recall) about childbirth. Anyway, I wonder if it means that you have been born? Last week, I had a similar dream on 07/28 (again on a Wednesday) that you were born or I was pregnant or something. I can't believe I can't remember - Liz reminded me to write down this date and helped me figure out it was the night before we went to "My Girlfriends Kitchen" I'll have to ask her what I told her about the dream because I seriously can't remember. Weird!

I am feeling really grateful today that we have our LID. Our friend emailed me this AM that she has still not got her 171 back and she got fingerprinted just 3 weeks after us. We are so lucky that ours came back in just 8-weeks and hers has already been over 3-months! I hope her mailbox is filled with a surprise today!

Lexi & I finished her Mandarin classes yesterday. She finally started saying a few things in Chinese too! I hope that we can continue with this, however I have not yet come up with a plan to do so. I also found out our neighbor across the street speaks fluent Mandarin! So, cool...

This weekend we are running the Canyon to Canyon 10K. I am excited. Dad is super excited because he thinks he's going to kick my butt. I beat him last year in Eugene but I was training for a triathalon then and he is training harder than me now, so we'll see.....

We have also been kicking around the idea of doing a "team in training" Marathon in Honolulu. It is Dec. 10th. I think it would be great, but I am unwilling to fully commit right now as I have this weird "lung/allergy/cold" infection. I finally went to the Dr. on July 4th and got an inhaler. We think it may be from sanding those stupid chairs and not wearing a respirator. I'm so over the chairs. Poor Dad is going to have to finish yet another project that I started but did not complete :-(

Well, I best get to work- I can't believe next week we'll have 1 month behind us for our LID. Summer is going fast! I am busy just trying to enjoy myself :-)

LID June 13th!!!!

Well, we FINALLY got our LID and I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted. Quite a bit has been going on with Lexi and traveling so I think I just needed some "quiet time" to process it all....
Sorry, everyone for the delay!

However, we now only have "approximately 50 more weeks to wait! :-) For some reason, that sounds faster than a year.
I've spent a bunch of time watching other "gotcha day" videos online today- they are so amazing & make me really feel that this was meant for our family!

So here's an update on what we have been up too, now that we aren't paperchasing any more!

YOUR sister has been very challenging lately. It's like she knew to be good until we got all our paperwork done or I might have questioned our ability to ever parent 2 girls! However, it is not all her fault though..... At the suggestion of her teachers at school we had her throw away her binkey for good on Thursday 06/22. I'm still not really convinced that we made the right decision but we are certainly not going back now. It seems that now that she is "supposed" to take a nap at her summer school she has decided that "she doesn't want to" and the teachers thought it was because she didn't have her binkey there. I don't know- but I do feel mean for taking away her beloved bink AND I miss my restful nights, she was always such a fabulous sleeeper and now she is up several times each night. What have we done! I know she is getting to be a big girl but she is still my baby - another big event is that she now know's how to climb out of her crib AND we lost her favorite beloved Asian baby "Sara" that Grandma Marsha sent her from Oregon this weekend! Poor Lexi is having a hard week.

Uncle Chris said to me camping just wait when you have 2 kids everyone will run! Ukkk, I made Nanna promise that she would babysit you both just like she does Lexi and she reassured me that she will. Whew!

So, we went to Oregon for Father's Day and had a really good time. It is so weird to think next time we go swimming at Grandpa Larry's pool we will have you with us! Special Hi to Sara's Mom and Warren who dropped everything to come see Lexi for pizza and hear all about our adoption process! :-) I really appreciate their thoughts and support.

Well, that is all for today. It is really hot here & I'm so glad that it is finally summer! O and Aunt Sara and Uncle Eric are planning a trip out to visit us in August! We are very excited! We told them this summer would be best because next summer we will be so busy with you!

Lexi's new word this week is "already". She likes to use it when we ask her if she needs to go potty or we want her to do anything she is happy to inform us with simply "already"! :-) :-)
xoxoxo

June!!

Well we are officially DTC 05/26/06.
I am sooooo happy to be done with the initial"paperchase"!
Now, of course I'm obsessing a little about when our official LID will be.
They have been happening very fast so I'm hoping for 06/09 - I can't
believe it's been a week already!

I actually feel a little down right now. Not really sure why - might be Chris's
health issues or settling into the "official" wait or ?
We have a lot going on as usual- I'm currently trying to figure out how to make
a "playlist" for my IPOD for the slc 5k tomorrow AM (that I now have to do by
myself since Chris is unable and Jen is to busy with Braxtons birthday).

Lexi and I started Mandarin classes yesterday! As I knew it would be, it is very
hard and Lexi seems way to young but I think it is really good for her just to be
exposed to the language. She identified with who the teacher was right away and
when it was her turn she did try to say "she she" which is thank you (I'm sure I butchered
the spelling). It is actually a kids class but I'm going to go to as I really want to know how
to say a few things! However, I guess that Mandarin is not spoken all through China
so if we go to a village in the countryside it might not be the language but I imagine it
will be in the main cities that we will visit.

I have started looking at bath decor as I'm going to redecorate "the girls" bathroom
with ladybugs! Can't wait. Lexi is playing more and more with Abby next door and I
love to hear them giggling together- Lexi has brought us so much joy in our lives, I can't
even imagine life before her. I can't imagine having twice the fun with 2 little angels but
I know we are going too!
Love,
Mom