All my Fed-Ex's are in Texas . . .

In the spirit of George Strait I made a little change to his well-known country song.  My paperwork that I mailed last Friday was delivered promptly and as planned to the two destinations in Texas, one to immigration and one to our agency.  Therefore, I can now say that all my Fed-Ex's are in Texas.  Thanks Fed-Ex, UPS and USPS for your devotion and safe keeping of all the materials you deliver!  I'm sure just with any job they have no idea of the impact or importance and how it effects others.   In this case, a Little Life is attached to all these envelopes and fees that I mail.  Now that the paperwork has safely made it, now we just wait to receive a receipt (matter of fact it may be in the mailbox) and a notice regarding our fingerprint appointment.

Headed To Texas! Our paperwork that is.

Well, today I dropped off our paperwork to Fed-Ex and our most recent updated documents are on their way.  I mailed our newest home study, copies of our old home studies, birth certificates, marriage license, some other forms and a big fat check to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Texas.  I also put updated copies of everything in the mail to our agency, Great Wall China Adoption, also in Texas.   I will spare you the prep work it took to placing these two precious packages in the mail, let's say the process began in October of last year with updating our home study and I'll leave it at that.  Here is another pic I snapped today at the Fed-Ex hub.  I found it interesting the one and only pic they had in the lobby was of an Asian Fed-Ex worker scaling the Great Wall with his boxes!!! 

Happy Father's Day to the Fathers-to-Be

So thankful that my God is a Father to the Fatherless.  He will love our child and provide for her most basic needs before we can care for her and hold her in our arms.  I love you Lord. 

Get on board the Roller Coaster!

Well, it looks like CCCWA won't be sending referrals until the end of the month so they can get all the glitches worked out of the computer system.  So we had gotten hopeful that we would see the next batch this week, nut that's not gonna happen.  So the coaster ride plummets and it looks like it'll be the end of June before we come out of the tunnel.  Hold on, enjoy the bumpy ride! 

Look what we're taking to China!

No, we're not floating or paddling our way to China!   Over the many years we've waited, I've read so many blogs of families' travels to China that I've made a list of the things we need or that came highly recommended by other families. 
And believe it or not, inflatable rafts made the list.  Now if you'd told me initially I needed to take a raft to China I'd have thought you were just as terrified as I am of flying and that your were being overly cautious in the event of an emergency water landing, er, uh crash.   Nope, these are to sleep on.  You see, even in the very nice westernized 5 star hotels the beds are reportedly VERY hard and uncomfortable.  These can be blown up quickly and tucked between the bed covers and the mattress.  Then you have an additional cushy layer so your bones don't ache.  Sounds good, huh?  Well for two people who are pretty spoiled; one with shoulder issues and the other just, well, spoiled.  We thought it was a good idea! 

What's the news? Where are the rumors?

Okay, the CCCWA was closed the last week of May to transistion to a new computer system and we were informed there wouldn't be any referrals last month.  So now the system should be up and running, how long are they gonna wait before they start the matching process this month?  I was online three times today but didn't see any rumors of when we might hear something or how many days they'll refer this month.  They say the closer you get the harder it is to wait.  Yup, they're right!  Looking forward to hearing some news.  Just to clarity, we won't be hearing anything personally this time but every month brings us closer!!! 

May 2012 Re-cap

See Meeka peeking around the post?

So to reflect on what was going on May of last year, oh, and why is it important?  Well. if you've been following at all, we are trying to document the events that occurred around the time of our baby's birth. We don't know when she will be born or was born so we have been trying to keep some archives.  So looking back, here's what I can remember.  Around the first weekend of May we bought a Chinese dogwood tree, well we didn't buy it,  it was given to us by the nursery owner once he realized we were adopting from China.  He said the only payment he wanted was for us to bring her to see he and his wife once we brought her home. He and his wife were Christians and had a heart for adoption.  His brother in fact had hosted an exchange student from China for the past year and their whole family had grown very fond of her.  Initially we went to the nursery to shop for a small ornamental tree and this is what he suggested. At the time he knew nothing about which country we were adopting from then suggested this species, a Kousa dogwood, or Chinese dogwood.  We thought we'd burst, how ironic!  We got the dogwood the day we took our sweet Meeka dog to the vet (once again).  We thought we were dealing with severe ear infections and received some reassurance from our vets.  We thought we were on the road to recovery once the antibiotics remedied our issue.  So the tree was a celebration of our dog's life and a promise of what was yet to come with our Little Girl.  The month progressed and our sweet Meeka dog got sicker.  Meanwhile Tonya's Uncle Jerry was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed toward the end of the month.  He was such a jokester and still sadly missed.  Aside from the negative things this month I continued with my interest in making natural household cleaners and lotions.  Larry was fully into mowing season and we started upgrading some landscaping and began thinking about a new rock walkway.