August 10, 2006 or August 17, 2010?

Our log in date (LID) for our first adoption was May 11, 2006. This is the date that our dossier, that pile of paperwork we had to do in order to adopt a child, was received in China and logged into their system.

Instead of waiting in the "regular" line to adopt a non-special-needs or "healthy" baby, which was the original plan, we found our sweet Evie on our agency's waiting child list. We came home with Evie four years ago this month, and six months ago we brought home Andy.

If we had not adopted Evie, and instead had chosen to wait for a "healthy" child with no known special needs, we would have received a referral last week, on August 17, 2010, which is when families with log in dates of May 11, 2006 to May 15, 2006 received referrals for their children. The original wait we were quoted was 6-9 months, by the way! How things have changed!

It is amazing to me that we have brought home two children in the same four years that some people have been waiting for one child, and I know several families in my May LID group who ended up dropping out of the adoption process altogether.

Exciting news!

I know, I've been very bad about posting for a long time. We have exciting news to share, though! Emily and Evie are going to have a new little brother!

We have been matched with a beautiful little boy from China. He is one year old.

I have started a new blog for our new little guy, so go check it out!
Waiting for Alexander

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Happy New Year again! It is the year of the Ox this year. Our Em is an Ox - those of you who know her can see the Ox personality in her!

It has been a very long time since I updated last.

Em is in 6th grade, Evie started preschool. Em is playing basketball again this year. I have a new niece, Gracen Rose. She is adorable and we are all in love with her. We've been busy and had a lot of fun this year.

I will try to be better about writing updates this year.

Meet Ida

She lived under our neighbor's bushes, now she lives with us. They said she was 6 weeks old, but I think she was younger.

Evie said, "Mama, I like that baby meowmeow!" Both girls begged. We said ok, Evie, what do you want to call the baby meowmeow? "Ida No, Mama" (I don't know) We thought it was cute, and Ida No stuck.







This is how Ida looks now a couple months later, when she is attacking the couch and getting ready to leap out from behind the cushions onto an unsuspecting passerby:





She is now in the phase we like to call "ballistic kitty" - she is either running around the house at 100mph and attacking anything and everything that moves, or she is sound asleep!

Her latest hobby is hiding under Evie's bed and attacking Evie's feet when she walks by. After a couple days of this, we had a slight breakdown where Evie refused to enter her room or would stand across the room from her bed and scream.

Our solution was to put a bell on Ida so at least Evie could have prior warning of the attack. Ida hates the bell with a passion. If you're holding her and you reach out and jingle it, she will growl and attack.

When our other cats were in this stage, they quickly figured out how to walk silently, without making the bell sound. Ida isn't there, yet. She runs all over the house at night, and the bell keeps me awake. Her new nickname (besides Chomper!) is Jingle Cat.









Our other two kitties:
Cleo, just lounging on the floor, and Bigfoot hiding in Ida's kitty tent.

Happy Fourth of July!

Our village has their fireworks display on the 3rd, and they put it on in the big park across the highway from our subdivision. I put Evie in the mei tai and grabbed a bag full of drinks and granola bars (and a blanket and OFF!) and Rich and Em carried the chairs. I always forget how long it takes to walk it! We went around 8ish to get set up.

Two years ago we were waiting for Evie (I crocheted little lace socks for her while we waited for it to get dark!) and last year we were at my parent's house and didn't get very close to their fireworks show (and Evie was super cranky), so this is really the first year that Evie has seen the show. I think she's a fan now!

The park fills up too fast, so the rest of us set up along the highway! It looks like a parking lot - a lot of people park their cars along the sides of the highway (even in the median!). We set up our chairs in the ditch/grassy area between the highway, the access road for our neighborhood, and the local pizza joint. (they do great business on the 4th selling pop, ice cream, and pizza by the slice!)

Rich got us ice cream to share while we were waiting for the show to begin. Evie got a little upset, and I finally figured out why - we told her we were going to a birthday party for the USA. Well, we had ice cream, but there wasn't any cake! I promised her that I would make a cake today, and she was back to her old happy self!

We got in just the right spot to see, the fireworks were almost directly across the highway (and set off up on a hill). Evie ooooohed and aaaaaaahed and loved it. She was naming off the colors in Mandarin and English, telling us "Mama likes the purple ones. Daddy likes the green ones. Emma likes the sparkly ones. Evie likes all of them!" They even had some that were smiley faces, and those made a big hit.

We also watched a pickup truck full of young men parked in the median set off bottle rockets. They were sitting in the bed and on the top of the cab. They would hold the stick in their hands and light them, then set them off. I think they each got burned more than once, but they kept setting them off! They also had some misfires and sent some flying toward cars, and I think it's a miracle that they didn't set a fire!

Evie was almost asleep by the time we walked back home (I put her in the mei tai on my front this time) and fell asleep as soon as we got her changed into pajamas and into bed. The people in our neigborhood are enthusiastic about their illegal fireworks, so I sat and watched for a while. They were going off all around us. I'm sure there will be more tonight. We could hear the fireworks long after we went to bed.

Today we're going to grill and roast marshmallows, and maybe go to the zoo. I hope you all have a Happy Independence Day!


(I know it's been a while since I've posted, and I have some pictures and other stories to tell later!)

More Earthquake News

The news from China just continues to get worse.

Half the Sky has set up a fund to help Chinese children affected by the earthquake. Please visit http://www.halfthesky.org/ for news and information.

Love Without Boundaries also has an Earthquake Relief Fund. http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/earthquake.cfm

Earthquake in China

The earthquake was in Sichuan province, Evie is from Guangdong province. From what we have heard, the earthquake could be felt in Guangdong, but I haven't heard reports of any damage there yet.

The latest news I have read is that the earthquake was a 7.9, and almost 10,000 people have been killed and many more injured. Parents have lost their children, children have lost their parents. I'm sure the news will only continue to get worse for a while.

Please keep the people of China in your thoughts and prayers.