I was not just shouting for joy, but also jumping around the house cheering when Fedex delivered the approval letter! I was joined by 4 confused children who didn't know why Mommy was so happy, but were ready to join any impromptu party. The approval date put us on day 39 from the official receipt date. I was so happy recently to see families getting approval in the mid 40s, and hoped the trend would continue. It not only continued, but got even better for us. I hope that many other families who are waiting see speedy approvals as well!
Now we will expedite this last document through the authentication process, and hopefully have our dossier submitted very soon.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Adoption progress, and small emergencies
Today Mr. B. and I met at the USCIS office to be fingerprinted. Mine were OK, but they had trouble with his because of his dry hands. They took them several times, and now we just have to wait to see if they go through or not. I'm trying not to be upset, and hoping that one of the "takes" is good enough. I brought Jose with me, because the conflict level in the house required me to remove an instigator, so my mom could have some peace while she babysat the others. He was very impressed by the security routine at the USCIS office, going through the metal detector and taking off shoes. Afterwards, we had quite a lengthy conversation about that. He wanted to know why we had to take them off, and I told him that they wanted to make sure bad people didn't hide stuff in their shoes. So then of course he wanted to know what they would hide in their shoes, asking me if they would put a rifle in there. I assured him that they wouldn't be able to fit a rifle in their shoes. Our conversation became quite philosophical, as he wanted to know why they would want to do that. Even a chocolate chip granola bar didn't slow down the questions. I need to work on the not talking while chewing thing.
After the USCIS office, we went to the state capitol to get the bulk of our dossier documents authenticated. Jose was impressed at the building and while we waited the 20 minutes they told us it would take, I gave him a tour. I needed to distract him anyway, since he wanted to go on and on asking questions about rifles or whatever can be hidden in shoes, and that isn't the kind of thing you want to discuss in a government building, even if the person you are talking with is 5 years old. We peeked into the empty gallery of the state House of Representatives, climbed a lot of marble stairs, and looked and all the murals, paintings, busts of previous governors, and, his favorite, a bigger than life sized statue of a Native American. My little Mayan loves anything like that.
I was able to get all the documents copied and assembled, and off to the courier via Fedex before the drop box pickup time. Now they have to get the Chinese stamp of approval. It feels strange sending those precious documents away. I've worked for so long to collect all of them. Some of them required quite a lot of effort, diplomacy, begging, and of course, money. The medical form for me was the worst. They put the wrong date on it when they notarized it, and then wanted to charge me for another medical exam to fix it! All adoptive families have frustrations with the dossier. Getting those documents just right can be complicated when you involve multiple other people, who don't know why they have to be done this way. Now I will have to waitnervously to see if all the documents pass muster at the Chinese Consulate.
The children had a great time playing in mud puddles this afternoon. Then we had the exciting opportunity to play in clean water, because the city workers were flushing the fire hydrant on our block. We had a swift little river flowing down the street, perfect for getting very, very wet. So after they got wet and cold they had a warm bath. While they were waiting for dinner, Catherine fell asleep on the sofa. She really played hard today. We had a nice supper of dal soup and fresh bread.
After everyone was tucked into bed, there were outbreaks of talking and giggling in the boys' room. The small emergency of the day was Jose running to me as I was getting some computer time, his hands covered with blood. He had bashed the back of his head against the edge of the trundle bed, and blood was just dripping off his head. I was trying to stop the bleeding and assess the damage, and he kept crying and crying, and finally he choked out, "is there a really big hole in my head?" It was a small wound for all the drama, and after an application of ice he went to bed to sleep this time. I'm going to have to re-evaluate the trundle. It would probably be safer to get rid of the nice frame, and just have the mattress on the floor for now. Since we have laminate flooring it would be easy to slide out at night. I do think they could figure out how to hurt themselves even if we had a padded sleeping room, but if they are safer without the trundle frame, it would be worth it to sacrifice style for safety.
After the USCIS office, we went to the state capitol to get the bulk of our dossier documents authenticated. Jose was impressed at the building and while we waited the 20 minutes they told us it would take, I gave him a tour. I needed to distract him anyway, since he wanted to go on and on asking questions about rifles or whatever can be hidden in shoes, and that isn't the kind of thing you want to discuss in a government building, even if the person you are talking with is 5 years old. We peeked into the empty gallery of the state House of Representatives, climbed a lot of marble stairs, and looked and all the murals, paintings, busts of previous governors, and, his favorite, a bigger than life sized statue of a Native American. My little Mayan loves anything like that.
I was able to get all the documents copied and assembled, and off to the courier via Fedex before the drop box pickup time. Now they have to get the Chinese stamp of approval. It feels strange sending those precious documents away. I've worked for so long to collect all of them. Some of them required quite a lot of effort, diplomacy, begging, and of course, money. The medical form for me was the worst. They put the wrong date on it when they notarized it, and then wanted to charge me for another medical exam to fix it! All adoptive families have frustrations with the dossier. Getting those documents just right can be complicated when you involve multiple other people, who don't know why they have to be done this way. Now I will have to wait
The children had a great time playing in mud puddles this afternoon. Then we had the exciting opportunity to play in clean water, because the city workers were flushing the fire hydrant on our block. We had a swift little river flowing down the street, perfect for getting very, very wet. So after they got wet and cold they had a warm bath. While they were waiting for dinner, Catherine fell asleep on the sofa. She really played hard today. We had a nice supper of dal soup and fresh bread.
After everyone was tucked into bed, there were outbreaks of talking and giggling in the boys' room. The small emergency of the day was Jose running to me as I was getting some computer time, his hands covered with blood. He had bashed the back of his head against the edge of the trundle bed, and blood was just dripping off his head. I was trying to stop the bleeding and assess the damage, and he kept crying and crying, and finally he choked out, "is there a really big hole in my head?" It was a small wound for all the drama, and after an application of ice he went to bed to sleep this time. I'm going to have to re-evaluate the trundle. It would probably be safer to get rid of the nice frame, and just have the mattress on the floor for now. Since we have laminate flooring it would be easy to slide out at night. I do think they could figure out how to hurt themselves even if we had a padded sleeping room, but if they are safer without the trundle frame, it would be worth it to sacrifice style for safety.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Happy Chinese New Year!
Yesterday we went to our local FCC celebration for Chinese New Year. We have some good friends who already have 3 children home from China, and working on getting their 4th child home this year. We met a lot of other families and had a great time. My kids enjoyed the crafts that were set up. Their favorite was coloring a dragon mask. We have a lot of little dragons running around our house now! I got a couple of them to pose for a picture:
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Our 2nd PA!
Yesterday we got PA for a little boy, so sometime this year we will be a family of 8!
I can't post identifying details of him here until we get our LOA, but he is 3 years old, 6 months older than Thomas. He will turn 4 before we can go get him. We had to find a boy who would fit into our family, which already features 4 very loving and silly children. Here are my youngest two children:
I can't post identifying details of him here until we get our LOA, but he is 3 years old, 6 months older than Thomas. He will turn 4 before we can go get him. We had to find a boy who would fit into our family, which already features 4 very loving and silly children. Here are my youngest two children:
This picture was taken after they were entertaining themselves with paint. Instead of painting on the paper, they branched out into, should I call this body art?
Here is their future brother:
We are still trying to choose the first name we will give him when the adoption is finalized.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Studying Chinese
I have been trying to practice every day, saying "I am your mama," and trying to get the pronounciation of Therese's Chinese name. I bought a DVD called The River Dragon King, which is to teach Mandarin to children. The kids love it and have learned a few words from it. I have also learned how to say, not just apple in Chinese, but red, yellow, or green apple. I'm sure that will be a crucial skill in China! We have also learned the words for grapes, watermelon, mountain, and flying cloud. (There is a flying cloud in the story on the DVD, but I'm not sure how often it comes up in a normal conversation in China.) I ordered a book on Chinese, thinking I could study it a little bit every so often. The day it came I was so excited. After I got the kids to bed I sat down to study and read, "Chinese is charactarized by parataxis whereby grammatical elements such as phrases or clauses are coordinated without the use of conjunctions.... English relies on hypotaxis.... Sentences in paratactic languages such as Chinese are necessarily simpler and less embedded than those of hypotactic languages such as English...." I closed the book and went to bed. I think I will have to catch up on my sleep before I tackle it. I think I will have to use mime to communicate with Therese. Or I can always ask her whether she wants a red, yellow, or green apple.
Christmas 2011
The kids dressed for Mass on Christmas Day
Sitting by the tree ready to open presents
Mr. B with his new toy:
I got what I always want--more books!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
We are still here............
I know it has been a long time since I updated. Starting the day after violin recital everyone got sick--we (yes, I succumbed as well!) went down like dominoes. We have all had some variation of a bad cold several times. We just keep passing it around. When I tell my kids to share, I didn't have germs in mind! I served as a big human tissue and have been coughed and sneezed on for weeks. Catherine and Thomas got croup. Catherine had it so bad that I was up all night with her and was very close to taking her to the ER. We spent a lot of the night breathing steam in the bathroom and went to our pediatrician the next morning. She had a round of steroids so she could breathe and the next night was soooo much better. We have managed to celebrate Catherine and Mr. B's birthdays, and Christmas and New Year's, and tomorrow we have the Epiphany when we will let the kids open the last of their presents. I have some pictures from those things, and violin recital, which I will try to get posted soon. On the adoption front, we are on day 17 of the wait on our I800A. We got our fingerprint appointment letters from USCIS this week.
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