TA!!!TA!!!TA!!!TA!!!TA!!!TA!!!TA!!!TA!!!

IT'S HERE!!!! Our Travel Approval is finally here!!! I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk - running around screaming - The New Phone Books Are Here!!! Our agency is trying for a May 15 Consulate Appointment which means we would leave May 2 and return May 17. We won't have confirmation on the dates for another couple of days - they have to fax the Consulate in Guangzhou and deal with time difference, etc. But at least we know that we are going!!!

Frugal Craft

Yesterday I spent my lunch hour at school with the Kindergarten class. We made easter baskets out of milk jugs. I had alot of fun and I think the kids all liked it too! We will be using our new baskets for the Easter Egg Hunts this weekend. We have the Ralston Grange hunt - with hard boiled eggs Saturday morning and the Spokane FCC hunt with plastic filled eggs Saturday afternoon.

Nothing New!

I seriously considered just blanking out the entire blog and loading the sounds of crickets chirping!!! But what fun would that be? I saw this link posted somewhere the other day - it totally explains my van! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEFE3B0Rje0

Sunday

Today was a good day. We didn't have to go anywhere or do anything on a timeline. Just one of those great Sundays when you can play and cuddle and nap if the feeling takes you there. I don't know if I like Sunday afternoons so much when the kids take a nap because then they are so much more fun to be around in the evening or if it is because there is nothing that melts a Mom's heart like a warm tossled kid just waking up and cuddling on your lap! I know we won't have too many more years for this so I am certainly appreciating it while we have it!
Today Daddy also made paper airplanes for everyone and we had a great time flying them around the living room and even out around the garage. Ben decorated his all by himself. Talk about having a little fist tightly clasped around my heart! Ben is growing up so fast. Tonight he wanted to help with dinner and he actually did it all by himself. We also got a new Leapster game that is all about spelling. He breezed through the first level in no time. Some days I want to hold him tight and have him stay the cute, funny little boy that we met at the Miracle Hotel almost 4 years ago and other times I can't wait to see him as the wonderful grown up he will be someday.

Emma Through The Years

No News

Well no news today of Travel Approval. We did go through our list of documents to take to China and got all the final forms signed and notarized. Thanks Evelyn! Now I guess I can start obsessing about packing! At least we know it will be warm in China now so we won't have to pack heavy clothes.
We have been checking out places to see in Anhui. We have learned that there is a cool zoo that we can visit, some great parks and Marjie & I are looking into tea shops! Anhui is home to some great teas. I found this link to Anhui: http://www.chinaplanner.com/anhui/ We are planning on taking a large suitcase of blankets and orphanage donations so hopefully we can fill it with cool stuff from China for the trip home. We have never had a problem filling up an extra suitcase before!!!
Here's hoping we hear something on travel tomorrow!

Beautiful Weekend

Love this picture. It looks like that tube is trying to eat Ethan!!! Too funny!
It was a beautiful weekend this weekend. We had a picnic in the park in Kennewick with Sashi on Saturday and then we had a picnic in the park in Ritzville on Sunday. It is so good to finally be able to get outside and play. With all that fresh air and sunshine we all slept well.
No word on our travel approval yet. Hopefully it is in a DHL package winging its way to Indiana even as I type this!!! Even if we have to wait awhile to travel, it will be good to finally have a date that we can prepare for. But until then, we will just keep playing, working and enjoying our time as a family.

Just Hanging Out and Skipping Rope

I remember spending hours on the front walk skipping rope with my sister Dorothy. Daddy made us jump ropes out of cotton rope he bought at the Grange and put electrical tape on the ends. Sure wasn't fancy but definitely kept two little girls happy for a long time!!! Times haven't changed too much.

Check Two Things Off The List

Well, two more things to check off our list. Today we received our passports back with our Chinese Visas. If anyone ever needs a courier in the Washington DC area, check out Carol Fredericks at http://www.dependable-acs.com She was very nice and returned all my emails very promptly. Her prices are also the most reasonable I have seen - especially for the Visas. I also went to the pharmacy in Ritzville and got our prescription meds to take with us. I truly felt like a walking pharmacy!!! We have adult antibiotic, kid antibiotic, scabies meds, meds for pink eye, meds for earaches, meds to help us sleep & then I got some applets/cotlets & jelly bellies for a good price. We will take the candy to China to give as gifts to our guides or to orphanage officials or others who help us while we are there. It is kind of expected that adoptive parents will take these gifts. We try not to stress about it as it is just a gesture of good will and not like Christmas! In the past, we have taken things made in Washington and that are rather unique.
Last week I also hit a sale at Walmart and got three bags of hats and gloves to take as an orphanage donation. The hats were $.25 to $.50 and the gloves were two for $.50. Not bad prices and hopefully next winter they will keep some little heads and hands warm. We are also volunteering to take over a big suitcase full of quilts for Angel Covers. If you get a chance, check them at at: http://www.angelcovers.org They do great work helping orphans all over the world.
On another topic, last week the kindergarten class here started having Show and Tell. Bailey took two pictures of Emma and stood up and told her class that this was her little sister Emma. This is really big for Bailey because she tends to get shy in front of people. I was very proud of her. Of course, Ben has no problem doing something like this. In fact, I am kind of scared of what he will drag to school to Show. A couple of weeks ago I found two of my lingerie catalogs in his backpack. He wanted to take them to school to show his friends!!!! Sometimes I wonder if I will make it through the next 12 years!!LOL!!!

This Adoption Brought To You By Ag Co/Ag Chem

As some of you may know, Rod was entered into a contest for Operator of the Year last spring. It was a national contest sponsored by Ag Co/Ag Chem the company that makes the terragator (big fertilizer machine) that he drives. Last October we found out that he was one of the Operators selected to be a monthly finalist. Then in late November we found out that he was selected as one of the four finalists. He was asked to go to the convention in Florida where they would announce the winner. Wilbur-Ellis (where Rod works) offered to pay my way and Marjie offered to take care of the kids so the second week of December we were off to Florida. It was a great trip - we stayed at a really cool resort. On the last day of the convention Rod was announced as the Operator of the Year. The original advertised prize was a year's lease on a new pickup. After they made the award, they offered us the year's lease or a cash prize. The cash was the exact amount we needed to cover Emma's adoption. Talk about a moment that takes your breath away. Definitely a WOW moment! I think we floated all the way home!

More Fun - Disney Land or Sashie's House?

Saturday morning the kids and I took off for the Tri-Cities as usual. Just to do our normal Saturday shopping, visit Grandma and Judy and play at Sashie's House. The kids found Jason's old skateboard again. They discovered this fun game last year. I think they played at this for about an hour Saturday afternoon. Who says we need fancy equipment or big amusement parks to have fun!!!!

This is Emma's quilt that Aunt Susan made for her. It definitely passed the sister and brother test. We all love it and think Emma will love it too! Aunt Susan seems to always know just exactly the right thing for us all. We are so lucky to have so many wonderful people around us who will be welcoming Emma into our family! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Large Families

I just saw this excerpt on another website and just had to pass it on. I'm not sure what it is out of as the website just lists it as "excerpted from book." I always thought that 3 or 4 was a small family - but in the last couple of years I have heard remarks about my "large" family. I guess you have a whole different frame of reference when you are #9 in a family. Now to me, 12 is a large family!!!LOL!! A couple of these did hit really close to home - especially the scotch tape one. I think Ben would be as happy as a clam if someone gave him a whole box of scotch tape for a birthday present - he seems to be infatuated with it!

Emma News: We received our Letter of Acceptance from our agency on Wednesday - for some reason they sent it 2nd day FedEx and since it had to be back to them by Friday morning, I chased Rod down in the field, got him to sign it and then sped on into Moses Lake to get it in the FedEx box so it would definitely be there in time for them to send it to China today!!! The normal timeframe for Travel Approval has been running 2 weeks after Letter of Acceptance so we are hoping to hear something in the next two weeks!!

MOTHERING A MULTITUDE

The mother of a multitude has some characteristics not always seen or experienced in small-to-medium families.

Multiple mothering requires that you stockpile hand-me-downs until you could open your own thrift shop. It’s taking two carts and a husband to handle the overflow when you do your grocery shopping. It’s never having a problem with leftovers because there aren’t any.

It’s wondering what happened to your tulip bed but knowing better than to ask. It’s never being lonely, yet fighting for a moment of solitude. It’s peeling potatoes until you rue the day Idaho joined the Union. It’s wishing you could have just one roll of Scotch tape to call your own.

It’s giving repeated thanks for the services of electricity, running water, Frigidaire, General Mills, an all-weather house, a healthy body, and the indefatigability of the Holy Spirit.

(Excerpted from book)

A Red Letter Day!!!

WooHoo!!!! We got a call today from our agency - I saw their name on the caller ID at work and almost hurt myself trying to get to the phone first!! Our agency has received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA). This is something new that China has put into place for their Waiting Children programs. This is the time that we would have normally gotten our Travel Approval letter and could have begun to make our travel arrangements, now we get a letter that basically says - Are you sure you want to adopt Emma?!! Duh!!! Just get us there already!!! Oh well, its just another hoop. The really cool thing is that it means that our travel approval is only 2 weeks away. If everything proceeds as it should, our agency is telling us that they would like us to travel around the 24th or 25th of April. That kind of sucks for work, since it is our fiscal year end but if that is when we can go, we will go!! It does mean that we will miss the trade fair in Guangzhou which turns the city into a zoo and drives up the prices on hotel to double or triple their normal rates.

Happy Birthday Aunt Melanie!!

We had baby cupcakes and candles for Aunt Melanie's birthday. We only had one box of candles so had to go with that!!LOL!!! How sad is it that we now need more than one box of candles for our birthdays!

Only forward progress for Emma this week is that we sent for our Chinese Visas. They have to be taken to the Embassy in person so we sent them off to a courier in Washington DC. There is a 4 day processing time so we should have them back next Friday or the next Monday. At least we know where that part of our paperwork is!!