Travelin' in Style!

My mom and dad got Lili this luggage set. CUTE!!
There's a carry on with wheels, a regular size backpack and a cute little tiny backback just the perfect size for a toddler!
I can't wait to see her totin' these things around!

From "to do" to "TAH DAH"!!

From the hallway looking in thru the bedroom door
(notice Madeline in every picture. She thinks the room is hers and is SO glad we finally made it livable for her!)

Another angle through the bedroom door

The storage wall a go-go!

The same wall as the closet and bedroom door

The opposite wall
The headboard I made is there, but it's too short, so we're going to have to figure out a way to rig it up higher.

The Chinese take out light that I found at Wal Mart. LOVE IT!!

I still have some more pictures to hang and a roman shade for the large window. But, basically, we're done. whew!! The room is small, only 9x11 I think, so storage is a BIG deal. The closet is small (and filled with clothes for some reason!)

We're very happy with the way it turned out. We can't wait for Lili to come live in it!!

Guess What I Did?

I finished painting last night!! That means that Lili's room is DONE!!
I came home from work and started painting at 4:00. I finished the first coat around 5:30. The paint was dry by 6:30 and I decided to just go ahead and paint the 2nd coat and get it done and over with. I painted until 8:30 and I'm so glad it's done. Now I can start the fun stuff!
I woke up at 3:00 this morning raring to go start my day so I could get it over with and get home. It was like Christmas morning! (I told you I LOVE to decorate!!)
And, by the way, I did all that painting with a sore arm!! I got my 2nd Hep B shot yesterday. poor pitiful me! It stinkin' hurt. bad.
But I'm all better today!
Only 7 more hours till I can go home! :)

Our Timeline

I promised I'd do this awhile ago, so here it is, our adoption timeline:

• 1/4/06-Preapplication sent to our agency
• 1/23/06-Preapplication re-sent to our agency (they said they couldn't find part of it!)
• 1/24/06-Preapplication approved by our agency
• 2/1/06-Ordered immigration forms
• 2/2/06-Official application mailed to our agency
• 2/10/06-Application approved by our agency
• 2/17/06-Received immigration forms
• 2/20/06-Ordered birth certificates
• 2/23/06-Home Study Meeting #1
• 2/28/06-Mailed I600A forms to immigration office
• 3/2/06-Received our birth certificates from the state health dept.
• 3/3/06-Passport applications
• 3/6/06-Home Study visit #2
• 3/6/06-I600A logged in at USCIS Indy
• 3/15/06-Physicals
• 3/18/06-Home Study meeting #3
• 3/30/06-Home Study meeting #4 (final)
• 4/21/06-Home Study completed
• 4/21/06-Received passports
• 4/25/06-Home Study approved by our agency
• 5/11/06-Our Home Study approval letter and fees sent to our agency
• 5/30/06-Received fingerprint appointment letter
• 6/8/06-Fingerprint appointments at USCIS Indy
• 6/8/06-State seal dossier
• 6/29/06-Received I171H
• 6/30/06-State seal remaining documents in dossier
• 6/30/06-Submit completed dossier and remaining agency fees to our agency
• 7/5/06-Dossier received at our agency's main national office
• 7/17/06-Re-do CCAA application letter
• 8/11/06-All documents back from authentication
• 8/18/06-DTC!!
• 9/13/06-LID!! :)
• (10/26/06-Found out our LID date)
• 3/5/07-Home Study update interview with Social Worker
• 3/8/07-Received COP (Children of Promise) list from our agency
• 3/13/07-Sent application letter to our agency for Mei Xiu Yuan
• 3/15/07-OUR REFERRAL!! :) :) :)
• 3/26/07-LOI received at our agency's national office
• 4/2/07-LOI received at the CCAA

So, there you have it. The nitty gritty. Probably more than anyone ever wanted to know, but I know when I was starting out I appreciated seeing people's journeys in black and white to kind of compare.

Hope this helps someone!

Whew!

Well, we're done with the back breaking construction part of Lili's room. Now onto the fun part. The part where I get involved and take over.

Since I posted so many pics of the room in progress, I'll wait to post until it's completely done.

This week I'm going to paint all the wainscotting and trim. Jeff will hopefully install the chandelier (by the way I found a bulb today). THEN! I get to move everything back in and DECORATE!! :) :) :)

It's been a grueling weekend of non-stop work for Jeff. I'm sure he's actually glad to be going back to work tomorrow!

The room smells so good with all the new paint fumes and fresh wood---I love it! Smells like progress!

Pimp My Light!

Here's Lili's chandelier.

I wasn't crazy about the tear drop crystals that came on it, so I stole the crystals from another chandelier my mother in law got me for Christmas. (don't tell her!)

I got this baby at Lowes and I think it really looks antique. BUT! do you know how hard it is to find a candle bulb that you can install upside down!! I would think that Lowes would sell a bulb to fit since they sell the light. I've seen other "upside down bulb chandeliers" so I guess I just need to look harder. Oh no, more shopping!!

By the way, our social worker called yesterday and said that she thinks we'll be able to get more info. on Lili. She said that our agency's representative in China got permission to ask the orphanage some questions. So, we'll compile a list and send them in. (I wonder if asking what her shoe size is and if she likes pink are just too shallow to ask!!) :)

Gotta go, the slave driver beckons!

progress...

OK, here's our wainscotting. As of right now, we're about 1/2 way done.

It looks SO 70s! But, I promise you we're not going to walnut stain it!

I think it'll look better when it's painted white. I can't wait!

In the pink!!

I know, I know, isn't it pretty?

We only had to paint 1/2 way down the walls because we're putting wainscotting on the lower 1/2.

Jeff keeps saying "wow, it's pink". Yes, my dear it is!

Pink Walls By Friday ???

Well, Tuesday night we got the primer on the walls.
AFTER we found the primer. Jeff was in Lili's room sitting on the floor. He asked me where the primer was. He couldn't find it anywhere. He went in the basement, outside, I even called my parents to have them check to make sure we got it out of their truck. Jeff was outside looking in his car for some reason (??) when I found the primer. It was right behind where he had been sitting in Lili's room. He SWEARS that it wasn't there and some poltergeist must have been messing with him or something! (sure honey, that's way more logical than you just not being able to see it!) :)
Anyway, we have textured walls, so we need to scrape the walls where the wainscotting's going. So, we did 3/4 of that.
Tonight our plan is to get at least one coat of the pink paint up. We think we'll need 2 coats.
Jeff is planning on taking tomorrow off, so hopefully we'll get the final wall color up and start installing the wainscotting!!!!!!!!!
After that, we'll need to go get the trim. We're going to put a 5" or 6" shelf on top of the wainscotting all the way around the room. I think that will be really nice. We can put dolls, figurines and pictures up there. We don't want to put too many holes in the walls because they're plaster and that's not much fun.
So, MAYBE in a month or so we'll be finished and decorated.
I'll post pictures when things start to get pretty!

OK---so no pink walls by Monday!

Well, the good news is it didn't rain OR snow Saturday morning. So we were able to get most of the supplies for Lili's room.
We got the wainscotting, the storage cubes and baskets and even a mattress!
Here's the kicker. We spent $88 on the wainscotting (the other stuff I liked would've been $300---I gave in and agreed on the cheaper stuff. I'm an AWESOME woman!) BUT!! We spent almost $300 between the storage cubes and baskets! Holy moly the baskets cost like 100 bucks!!! AND I got them on clearance! They were only $5 a piece, but when you need to get 20 of them, it adds up fast!! So, now I HAVE to go buy a bunch of toys to fill them up!! What good are empty baskets, right? ;)
Yesterday we finished clearing the room and putting sheets down on the carpet. Jeff patched all the cracks in the plaster and tore out the trim around an old boarded up window.
So, now we get to prep and prime the walls.
Then paint.
Then install the chandelier.
Then install and paint the wainscotting and trim.
THEN DECORATE!! Oh yeah!
I'll post some pics of our progress. (when we actually start making progress!)

1 month down!

Well, it's been ONE MONTH since our referral!
One month pretty much to the minute as I type this.
One month closer to Lili!!
I really can't believe it's been a month already. Wow! I'm sooo happy it went by so quickly!
So now, since we shaved a month off of our wait time, we should be traveling in 2 to 4 months!
Yipee!

Lucky #7 on unlucky Friday the 13th!!

I cannot believe it's our 7 month LID and it almost passed me by without me even noticing!!

My how things have changed!

I guess it's normal. I mean, LID is a means to an end. LID=referral. So, since we already have our referral, what's the big deal with our LID?

It's just weird to give up on something that meant SO MUCH for SO LONG! Our LID was THE most important thing---waiting to get it, having it then watching it grow and grow....almost like a child or something!

So, little LID, you're on your own now. We took care of you as long as we could.

"Goodbye LID, Hello TA!!" :) (it's always something, isn't it?!)

Slowly but surely...

Well, this is Lili's room. I decided to come home yesterday after work and get done what I could. If I set my mind to do something--watch out! You can't stop me once I get my freak on! :) On the other hand, no amount of cajoling, threatening or encouragement can get me to do something I don't want to do (attractive trait, huh?) As my husband and I like to say about me: "it's all about extremes"!

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with what I got accomplished--all in under and hour and 1/2 I might add!

I know there's still stuff in the room but if you had seen the boxes, bags and tubs all over the entire floor, you'd be more impressed I'm sure.

Now, you may be wondering where all the stuff is now.

See below:

ACK!!

I will NOT be opening this closet again under fear for life and limb!!

But at least it's out of the way!

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

My son hasn't watched "Bob the Builder" in 5 years, but it's amazing how you just can't get the song out of your head!
This weekend we are starting work on Lili's room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I CANNOT wait to start decorating! That's my "thing". I LOVE to decorate.
I CANNOT wait to get all of her things out of boxes!! Things that have been boxed up for over a YEAR finally get to see daylight!!
Yes, I know, before I can start the decorating, we need to clear out the room and prep it. I'm hoping we can somehow do it in fast forward like they do on the home improvement shows. THAT would be nice!!
After we clear everything out (a monumental task, believe me!) We have to prep and prime and paint. Then we get to rip up the carpet and paint the floor (ooh!) Jealous, aren't you? Oh, and Jeff will probably install the chandelier. YES! My Lili is getting a chandelier :)
We still need to get the wainscotting and trim for the walls, but since it's ONLY mid-April, it's supposed to snow and/or rain on Saturday. And since we live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nowhere-ville, a trip to the home improvement store takes an ENTIRE DAY. So, we have to plan accordingly.
I'll be taking pics along the way.
Cross your fingers that we'll at least have pink walls by Monday!

So now when do we eat Chinese food?

OK, so we had been eating Chinese food on the 13th of every month in honor of our LID.

Does our LID really "count" anymore?

Should we eat it on the 15th of every month now to mark our referral?

Hmmm......

The 13th is fast approaching and my inner self is starting to crave Chinese food!

Any clever ideas? Like maybe splitting the difference and eating it on the 14th?

Should we really even eat Chinese food anymore at all? Should we just save it for when we're in China. Although, Chinese food is different in China than in America. Maybe the whole time we're in China we'll still be craving "our Chinese food".

What a dilemma! :)

I just read that the CCAA (allegedly) only referred TWO DAYS worth of LIDs for this month, which was actually for March because instead of referrals coming at the end of the month, they've been coming at the beginning of the next month.

HOLY STINKIN' COW!!!

This is HORRIFYING news to all waiting parents. I was just sick when I saw that. That means that all the people who were LID on 10/27/2005 have been thinking they were "next" for 2 months now. Those poor people thought for sure they'd see their daughters this month. I can't even begin to convey how sorry I am to all those people who are so close yet feel so far away.
And to think of what this means for people who were LID when we were (9/13/06) or after. We were joking about the wait being 3 years. Now that's just too scary to laugh about.
I'm really just down-hearted as I know so many others are.
I had held out so much hope for the CCAA to speed up. I really didn't think they'd want the wait to get past 12-18 months. Now, I'm not so sure. I know that they know the affect this is having on people. I'm pretty sure they care. But, I just don't know what they're thinking.
Are they trying to discourage people from applying without closing international adoption?
(kind of a "I can't break up with you so I'll MAKE you break up with me" scenario?)
Is the upcoming Olympics having that much of an affect on the way they do things?
Are there really too many parents and not enough babies? (it'll take ALOT of convincing for me to believe that!)
I just don't know. And that's the thing---we'll never really know what they're thinking or going to do. They have something we want and we just have to follow the rules.

****I do strongly want to encourage anyone waiting to adopt to consider adopting a special needs/waiting child****

Not as a means to an end or a quick fix. But maybe ONE good thing can come out of this: more children will be united with their forever families.

We really didn't think we'd be able to handle special needs.
We absolutely didn't think we'd be able to handle adopting an older child.
Granted, we haven't "been there, done that" yet, but we did change our way of thinking.
When we were discussing whether to apply to adopt Lili, we kept coming around to the same argument. "Doesn't she deserve a family/love/care?" And that's what it boiled down to.
Yep, we're going to have some issues. Not only dealing with medical issues, but emotional issues, developmental issues, attachment issues, language barrier issues. (crap, that's a lot of issues!!)
But you know what? Like we said in our application letter, EVERY child has "special needs" in their own way.
We're trading the diaper/formula/middle of the night feedings issues for language/developmental/educational issues. We're going to have some "worse" issues in certain aspects and some "easier" issues in others.
But, like Jeff said to me, isn't it amazing what God has done? We were going down one certain path and God was trying to gently lead us down another. Lili was alive for 2 years before we even considered adoption at all. Lili was there waiting for us. We were there waiting for her. And thanks be to God for leading us to each other!!

What Difference Does Easter Make?

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

So what if the Easter bunny wins the hearts of children everywhere? So why not strike "Easter vacation" from the vocabulary of our schools and substitute "Spring break"? What difference does Easter make anyway?
It makes a lot of difference to those who are in touch enough with reality to take life and death seriously. It made a lot of difference to a very real woman named Mary. Let me tell you her story.
Mary had the heart-wrenching honor of washing the dried blood from Jesus' lifeless body as two other followers prepared the tomb cut into Jerusalem's cold limestone. Mary wept as she washed--wept and remembered....
She had been born to luxury, heiress to a textile fortune, a native of Magdala, a town along the coast of Galilee. "Little good it did me," she mused. Money had brought the opposite of happiness. She look back at her teen years as a blur of painful, compulsive acting out. Her parents had thrown up their hands in despair, she recalled. She recollected the gnawing fear, the self-loathing that ate at her very core. And she could remember the caring boldness in Jesus' penetrating eyes as he had confronted the demons that tormented her and commanded them to be gone forever. That had been the last of the frantic, distraught Mary. A gentle, peace-filled Mary had taken her place. Until today.
Today she had seen her Lord die an excruciating death, his body weight hanging limp from the nails driven through his hands and feet, suspended from a cross like a common criminal.
Her heart caught in her throat as she remembered and wept and washed away the caked blood with her tears. She wept, too, as she watched the men lift Jesus' corpse onto the tomb's carved ledge, and roll a massive stone across the doorway.
Was all her hope for nothing? What of all the thousands of diseased bodies he had healed? The broken lives he had restored? The promises of the Kingdom of God?
But early Sunday morning she was back at the tomb to finish anointing his body. When she arrived the tomb stood open, stone pushed to the side, ashes of the Roman guards' watchfire still smoldering. "How can they be so cruel?" she cried as she ran to tell the apostles. So cruel.
But it wasn't cruelty that rolled away the stone that Easter morning. It was the powerful hand of God as Jesus Christ stepped forth brimming with Life.
Mary saw him, mistaking him for the gardener. But there was no mistaking his familiar voice--"Mary." She fell at his feet, tears of grief melting into tears of joy. "Rabboni," she said as she looked into his face. "Teacher."
Yes, Easter bunnies still capture the hearts of children and schools talk about Spring break, but you and I know what really happened on Easter.
In an instant history changed forever, because where once the human mortality rate had held steady at 100%, now it skipped a beat as Jesus, Savior of all mankind, stepped out of dead statistics into life. Death is the last word no longer for Jesus' followers, life is.
"Believe in Bhudda," some still insist amid the marketplace of the world religions. "Confucius," say the Chinese. "Mohammed," cry the Muslims. "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh," shout his followers, and on it goes.
"Jesus," Mary would tell us, "He changed my life." And millions around the globe would echo, "Mine, too. He touched my life, too."
For while religious leaders have come and gone, the fact remains: only One stepped forth from the tomb. Only One has risen from the dead. Only One has conquered death. Only One offers the promise of eternal life to those who follow him.
"I am the resurrection and the life," Jesus said. "He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
So why do Jesus' followers gather in churches on Easter morning? To show off their Easter finery? God forbid.
Rather :
To celebrate the victory of Life over death,
To help their children and grandchildren share their faith that Jesus is alive, and
To declare that Jesus Christ is Lord indeed!

http://www.joyfulheart.com/easter/whatdiff.htm

YAY!!

We found out our LOI (Letter of Intent) was received at the CCAA in China on Monday 4/2!
Yipee!
Now they can review us, approve us and get us to China ASAP!!!!

"Blurry"

"I wonder what you're doing, I wonder where you are.
There's oceans in between us, but that's not very far."
---"Blurry" by Puddle of Mudd
I heard that song today when I was at work.
UGH!! I really do try not to think about what Lili's doing at any given time of day. Like right now, she should just about be waking up. (we were told she wakes up at 7am) When we're getting ready for bed, what is she doing? When I get up in the middle of the night, it's the middle of the day where she is. What is she doing? When I'm getting ready for work, she's getting ready for bed.
But, really, I try not to think about it!! :)
I figured our care package will get there by the end of next week.
Dear God how I wish I was there to see her open it.
Will she smile? I don't even know what her smile looks like.
Will it make it harder on her to face the change that's coming? Will it make it harder on her to have to wait? Will she be scared? I'm scared.
I really am. If I was pregnant, I'd be scared. When I was pregnant, I was scared. You just get so used to the waiting. You get used to the journey and begin to fear the destination.
There's A LOT of adjustment ahead for every single person in our lives. Even our pets. And, to be honest, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night wondering why we're putting ourselves through this.
Wasn't our life pretty good the way it was?
And then I get up and I look at one of the 86 copies of our pictures of Lili and I realize why we're doing this! And it hits me. This isn't just some cute little anonymous girl. This is OUR DAUGHTER! It still knocks me flat. Unbelieveable!

Born Free!

Well, I did it. I officially submitted my resignation today. I really don't see it as resigning, I like to think of it as not renewing for next year!
I'm not up and quitting, I'm just not coming back next school year. To me, there's a difference. It's nice to follow a school calendar. There's a concrete beginning and end. So, I'm finishing to the end, I'm just not beginning again!! :)
And let me tell ya, I feel the love! I have never had so many people make me feel so good in one day! I'm grateful to have the job I've had for the last 4 years and to work with the people I have.
It's bittersweet, but by no means do I regret my decision to leave. Lili needs her mom at home and so does Brett. And so does mom!
39 more days. wow. I can't wait! :)

HOPE

People that were referred their children from our agency's January waiting children list got their LOA (Letter of Approval) today!! I'm very happy for them. And very happy for us (potentially) as well.

These people got their referrals on February 6th. Their LOA came on April 2nd.

I'm not sure how the LOA comes. If it comes in shipments with referrals, if it comes at the beginning of the month, I don't know. ???

So, if the Feb. people waited a little less than 2 months, and if that would be the same case for us, we could see our LOA in Mid May----maybe??

They did say that they expect to travel in May, so we could possibly be traveling in June if we get our LOA in May???

I'm glad to see that it's a month from LOA to expected travel. That makes it a LITTLE easier.

But, like I said before, this wait is HARD !!

I just want to get my daughter NOW!

I know, I know I'm a MILLION times closer than a lot of people. I'm a MILLION times closer than I would be if we were still waiting for a "regular" referral. I KNOW!

But I'm here to tell you, once you see that face and are told "that's your daughter" all bets are off!

And like I also said before, we really need this time to get everything together and done.

So, it's OK. I'll be all right. (in June when we're in China with our daughter!!!) :)