Catching Up

If anyone actually read my blog, I would apologize for not keeping it up to date, but because this is mostly for my benefit I will just recap all that has happened in the last week.

Regarding the Snafu -- We got to N.O. almost late - so panic mode had begun. I went in before Brandt (he let me out and went to park). You have to put all items through the x-ray machine -- just before doing so, I remembered the camera in my purse. I took it out and was told that it could not be in there. They would not hold it either. Had to take the camera to Brandt and get him to put it in the car. In the meantime, I went to the first window for processing. The lady at the window, told me that she was the one who called me. I played ignorant. She took my paperwork, and asked where my letter was requesting a renewal. What?? Where is the copy of your 171 - H? What? I was told that I had to have both of these things before she could take my paperwork. She also informed me that they do not make copies there. I was close to tears, but asked if we could get fingerprinted when we returned with these things. No - we will make an appointment for you. What??? Last time we were able to do all of this on one day. We left, found a Kinkos, wrote a letter, made a copy, went back turned it all in, and did not get finger printed. They did, however, give us a fingerprint appointment for May 2. ARGH!! We were not able to go to the zoo as there were 5,000 school children there on a field trip. (slight exaggeration - maybe). We went to the aquarium instead. I did take pictures, but they have not been downloaded to the computer yet. I will add them one day.

Working - I have decreased my work hours, so that I may spend more time doing the things that I want to do. See earlier posts. I have gone back and begun to work on Zachary's quilt, even.

Lucy - Still waiting to hear the next steps in our journey.

The best thing about the past week has been spending more time with Zachary and finding bedding that will match Lucy's room decor.

Snafu??

The week has been progressing well until today. I will recap it all quickly. Monday was a fun day of perusing plant nurseries with Janee for the Mayfair plant sale. Tuesday -- thought I had to work, but did not so I did some errands for Janee, had lunch with Brandt, got a hair cut, and prepared to go to N.O. on Thursday to be re-fingerprinted for our 171-H (Petition to Adopt an Orphan). I got lots of forms ready, spent a lot of time on the phone in the past week with the social worker to make sure that our HS would be finished and ready. Everything was working out beautifully until about an hour ago. We were planning to go to McComb tonight so that the drive would not be as long in the morning (our appt is for 8:20 am -- my thinking is that we will wait less time the earlier we are there). I came home from work early to get ready to go. I stopped to listen to the messages. There was a message from a very unprofessional sounding woman that said, "Erica Dick. We'd be appreciative if you would cancel or change your appointment for USCIS tomorrow. I will call you back if I get a chance." That was it!! There was not a name given, not a telephone number given, nothing!!!!! Brandt thinks that someone hacked into the system and got our phone number and is trying to get us to cancel so that they can have our appt. time. : ) Not sure if that is the case, but this is CRAZY! On the caller ID the phone number says US Government, but if you try to call it, you get a disconnect message. I am so frustrated. We are still going to go tomorrow. We have taken off of work, and all is planned. I hope and pray that it works out!

The best thing about today is the hug from my sweet son and the hope of soon getting one from my daughter.

A Busy Weekend

I felt I needed to let the world in on our weekend -- such as it was. We stayed very busy! Friday, Brandt had to be at a wedding rehearsal for his brother's wife's sister (aka Roni). I went with him to the dinner. Although they are from Birmingham and her family lives in McComb, they wanted to have their wedding here in Natchez. They booked Dunleith for the occasion.
Nice place for a wedding, eh?! The dinner was wonderful, and it also gave us a chance to spend some time with Ken and Kim (Brandt's brother and his wife.) Saturday morning, we got up at the crack of dawn and went to Jackson for MS Chinese Cultural School. Z has been attending this once a month for the entire school year. This month was especially fun b/c we were able to take pictures of Lucy to show off. There was another mother there that has just recently received a referral and PA as well. I had the opportunity to meet her and share in her excitement as well. Several of the families are giving us (us as in my family and the other recently referred family) a shower next month after Cultural School. That will be soooo much fun. It has been quite a long time since I had a shower!! (Ok, you know what I mean!!) We rushed home from Jackson to go to the wedding and reception. Brandt did a fabulous job officiating the service. The wedding was beautiful. (See the above picture -- the bride even arrived in a horse drawn carriage.) The reception was fantastic -- great food, great band, and open bar! Since it had been such a long day for us we retired early -- I think we were home before 9. Today was our church's day to cook for Stewpot -- a place for people to come get a hot meal -- kinda like a soup kitchen. We served spaghetti. I always enjoy doing it, but often leave not wanting the meal that we served 100+ plates of. This afternoon, I bummed around with Janee and Jessa. I shopped, watched 3 week old goslings swim in a bathtub, and watched a documentary called China's Lost Girls. It is about the journey to adopt a daughter in China. It was really well done, and it helped to make the reality of our lives a little more real. Tonight I have been reading other blogs of families that are either in China as we speak or have just returned home. It still is a very surreal experience. I pray that Lucy (Fu Ni Hua) finds a bit of peace and comfort today and that she has a smooth transition into our family. ~Erica

The best part of today was imagining our "Gotcha Day" with Lucy as I watched the film and watching 3 week old goslings swim in a bathtub (that was awesome!!).

A Quiet Day

It was a fairly quiet day. It's beginnings were not so quiet, however. I was awakened oh about 4 minutes after dosing off last night. Z had an earache. It was pretty painful according to his tears and moans. About an hour and a half later (and Tylenol and ear drops and going downstairs to sleep in recliners - yes both of us), we finally were able to get some rest. Poor thing was just miserable. He was so sweet though. He apologized for waking me up and thanked me for taking care of him. I told him that was my job, and I was happy to do it. After an early morning visit to the pediatrician, we were able to spend the day together at home. He even kicked my butt at Leggo Star Wars! (He always does though!)

While at the ped. office I asked about immunizations for our trip to China. It turns out that he only needed one shot, and we were able to get that done today!!! I don't think Brandt and I will be so lucky, however.

On a sad note, my friend's cat died this afternoon. She had been sick after eating three colored pom poms that her daughter had been using to decorate a project. What made the cat eat these pom poms I will never know. Kitty will be truly missed.

I still haven't figured out all there is to know about this blogging. I have tried for the last hour almost to replace the map of China or Lucy's province on here, but it keeps turning out way too small. I will have to check into the issue again tomorrow. It has been a long day. Good night!

PS -- I have decided to have a best thing about the day post attached to each one.

The best thing about today was my sweet son thanking me for taking care of him and the spontaneous "I love you, Mommy" he gave me! I love that kid!!

A visit to Guatemala

It has been a busy day! The day began with countries day at Z's school. His country was Guatemala. Thankfully a church member has family who lives there, so Z was able to get lots of "things" from Guatemala for his presentation. I will try to post some pics of the morning. Other accomplishments today... we applied for Z's passport, I made an appointment for Lucy with a pediatric ophthalmologist (will explain this later on as I post more details about Lucy), I called the Health Dept to check to see which vaccines we will need to travel to China, and more stuff I am sure. I like having things like this to do, so the wait won't seem as long. Gotta go pick Z up from school.

Lots of catching up to do

As usual it has been quite a while since I have posted an update. I just reread my previous posts and realized how much I have to catch you up on. First of all -- I did not return to teaching or even Title 1 Tutoring. It did not work the way that I thought it would. It was ok, though. I was able to be the stay at home mom that I wanted to be for a while. The end of October I began working at a local jewelry store. What a change. I have never worked retail, and I started this job just in time for the Christmas rush! I survived, and had fun, too.

Let's see.... other changes... Oh yeah, we have a DAUGHTER!!!!! I called our agency late Jan. or early Feb. to "make sure we were still on the list". We were and were told that we were a little better than half way to the top. I did some quick calculations and decided that it would be June or July before we got our "call". Imagine my surprise when we got a call on March 19. ( I will do a separate post on the details of "the call". Her name is Fu Ni Hua, and she was born on August 14, 2006. That is just 2 months after we were approved to begin the adoption process! We are so in love with her. We were told that we could expect to travel in 3-4 months. I am hoping sooner rather than later.

It has been a wonderful few weeks, but the time has reverted to an absolute crawl. We received our Pre-approval from China today. That means that the Chinese government has received our Letter of Intent (LOI) saying that we want to adopt this child. They will now move our dossier to the match room so that we can be officially matched with her. This step usually takes several weeks. More waiting.... will it ever end??? Enjoy these pictures of our beautiful daughter!