Insight

Every once in a while I get a jolt - a glimpse of one of my children that lets me see their inner-workings.  Through this adoption process, we have had many windows into our kids' psyches.  Last night, Jenna caught me a little off-guard.  I have to share - and for the record, she said it was fine for me to write about this - I felt I had to clear it with her first.

She told me not to laugh; I promised not to laugh.  She told me to not make fun of her (as if I do this all the time...); I said I would not.  She made me promise that I would not think what she was going to tell me was weird or stupid; I did promise.

Then she told me that soon after we decided to accept the referral for Zoey to be part of our Forever Family, she started up a gmail account for her.  Since December, she has done her own private blogging - by emailing Zoey letters to this account.  The letters were absolutely amazing.  Telling of Jenna's life, our family (in detail), our decision to make her part of our family, the long wait, the paperwork issues we've had, and the excitement throughout the process.  She wrote to Zoey about all of our personalities, our education, our hobbies and our interests.  She wrote to her about our family, how we get along, and how we spend time.  She also wrote about our reactions to the different steps through this adoption process - about how shocked we were when we received such a speedy travel approval, and how I lost my composure by jumping up and down screaming with excitement at the record-breaking speed which our paperwork was approved.  She wrote to her about how excited she is to be able to travel to Zoey's birth country and bring her home.  Despite her youth, Jenna's letters were incredibly insightful, not to mention that her explanations were so very sweet. 

As for Meg and Sam - every day they come home with new conversations to report about whom they have told about Zoey.  I don't think I give them enough credit - I sometimes feel as if I don't want to overshadow anything they do with talk about Zoey.  I am afraid they are going to think I am totally obsessed (which I might be, but cut me some slack - we are getting on a plane in one week and 8 hours, but who's counting...), or not concerned with what is going on in their lives at this moment because of that obsession (which is not the case - I am living swim, baseball, Seussical, Jesus Day and second grade multiplication).  I walk a fine line - I don't want them to be jealous of the attention Zoey is getting before she even gets here, but it is a big deal right now and I want to prepare them by discussing all kinds of information with them.  But I noticed lately that they bring it up - they are just as excited as Bryan and I are at any given moment.  They bring her into conversations.  They ask if we have received any updates (and my response is the same - "No.  If we did receive one, you'd hear me scream all the way to Pittsburgh.").   They talk about the trip.  They talk about "when Zoey is here..." I do as well, but usually after their lead. 

I think my point is...well, I am not really sure.  I guess it is that we are ALL excited - and I really am glad that this process has taken longer than expected because they all "get it."  They understand to an extent where she is coming from and how this is going to change our lives.  They have a working knowledge of what to expect.  They may not understand the reality (heck I don't either), but I think they have developed a deeper sense of compassion than I even expected at this point.

So, I think on that front I can relax a little - I have to trust that everything will be okay, this is meant to be and all will be just fine.  Hopefully these are more of those little signs that keep appearing on this journey.  But that is another story - for another day's entry.  Looking to get an itinerary tomorrow - we do have our travel conference tomorrow afternoon.  And we get to meet with Jenna's principal about pulling her out of school.  Fun, fun, fun. 

Diversion

While I should be focusing on finishing the room, editing my packing list, planning my packing strategy, we instead focused this weekend on our kids.  Sam "is forgiven"-he made his first reconciliation in prep for his First Communion.  Being the politician that he is at age 7, he focused his time with Father Ron not on his sins, but on the fact that he will soon be a big brother to a little sister from China.  (He gets this trait from his father.  Ha!)  Baseball, sleepovers, and First Four festival rounded out his weekend.

Jenna had the opening of Seussical-after many months of rehearsals, the show did go on-and was very cute.  She was the best zebra, cadet and bearded circus lady I've ever seen!  She took a little piece of Zoey with her this weekend to the show-she used some of Zoey's bows in her beard-needed to style it up, apparently. 

Meghan was ON FIRE at the swim meet-she started off last weekend at the first level of championships (the "A's") taking a first place overall in the 50 free and a third in the 50 breast (the only events she swam-had her AAs in all other events), and her relay team took firsts in both the free relay and the medley.  This weekend we went to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio for the AA's, the second level of championships.  She began the meet with 3 zones-one individual in the 50 back, which she earned in December (1 of 6 out of the total 136 swimmers to achieve an individual zone time at that point), and both relays.  She was hoping for a zone in the 50 fly-she needed to shave 0.03 to do it.  Not only did she make the zone time for fly, but she also made the zone times for the 200 free (beat her personal best by 13 seconds to do this!) and the 100 individual medley (IM)!  It was so exciting-she has worked soooo hard this year and I am so very proud of her.  She walked away from this meet with 4 overall medals (their relay placed 3rd and 6th, and she placed 7th overall in fly and back), and 3 ribbons (11th or 12th places for her other individual races).  Amazing!!!  So-Megs and I are off to Canton, Ohio for the Great Lakes Zone Championships on Friday for the weekend.  I calculated that from this Friday through our China trip, 22 days total, I will be sleeping in my bed twice.  Not exactly sure when I will be packing for China, but I am sure it will all fall into place...at least it took my mind off the wait this weekend.  Very cute-Megs can't wait to teach Zoey how to swim this summer.  She told me she is going to try to recruit her for the CFY team.  Ha!

At the meet, we heard the National Anthem 4 times-2 during the regular portion of her meets, and 2 for the championship finals in the evenings.  I have to admit that all 4 times I heard it, I teared up a little at the thought of us taking the oath for/with Zoey at our upcoming consulate appointment.  I am tearing up at a swim meet.  Can't wait to see how I hold it together at Gotcha Day...lol.

Going to try and beat this insomnia tonight-if my calculations are correct, we have about 14 sleeps til Gotcha Day.  Hopefully we'll get our finalized itinerary this week.  G'night.

CA!!!

I know I still haven't released this blog's website to too many people, based on my fear of posting on public forums, but for anyone out there who might be reading-

WE JUST GOT OUR CONSULATE APPOINTMENT!!!  April 3, 2012.  Apparently will be taking the oath early afternoon on that date.

Just realized that with the time change, this should be late night on April 2nd in Ohio-which is my dearly-missed Grandma's birthday and will be 4 years EXACTLY from the date we sent in our application to our first agency.  Coincidence?  I am thinking NOT.  Waiting for Todd the Travel Guy to call me back with info-woooohooooo!

CA??? Not yet...

Yesterday we received an email at 10:48 am with this:

Thank you so much for your patience as we continue to wait for a confirmed Consulate appointment.  Unfortunately we have not received Consulate appointment confirmations for your group today, but we are very hopeful that they will respond within the next 1-2 business days. 

We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as we wait to receive a confirmed appointment.  We know that everyone is anxious to purchase their international tickets, but know that we will email you as soon as we have a confirmed Consulate appointment.  Please feel free to contact the Travel Department at any time with questions.

They have 27 more minutes before I hit the ceiling (from bouncing off the walls, of course) today.  I think I need to lay off the caffeine a little.  Hopefully I will have something to report soon.  Keeping my fingers crossed...

Patriotism

You might think this post is about being proud of my American citizenship (which I am). 

Or maybe you would guess this post announces our news that after a little hiccup we did get our visas authorizing us, as US citizens, to enter China (they did indeed arrive).

You might even think that it addresses how exciting it is that the US government has authorized Zoey to become a US citizen, and because of this she will have a wonderful future, full of possibilities, promise, equalities she would never have known, not to mention a family who calls her their own (it is so amazing that we can give her these things just by bringing her home).  

Yes-those are all accurate, but they are not the subject of this post. 

It is this: for a country that prides itself on its patriotism, its freedom, and its humanitarianism, I find it quite ironic that it was so darn difficult to locate a RED, WHITE AND BLUE dress for Zoey to wear for her US Consulate appointment in Guangzhou.  Apparently red, white and blue dresses are "seasonal" and are only sold before July 4th. 

In my quest to assemble a wardrobe for her (especially since it is now likely I will be in China during the time my "celebrating Zoey" shower/party will be thrown), I went to a consignment shop near work today-JACKPOT!!!  I found 2 adorable RWB dresses.  Bought 'em both. 

Whew.  Check that off my list. 

Doing Our Part

I am testing my iPhone app to see if I can update the blog and post pics from my phone. Hopefully this will work. 

If the pictures loaded, they will tell the story of our crazy weekend. Fun evenings spent with friends, and days spent at swim championships (part 1 of 3), final weekend rehearsal for Seussical, volleyball game, soccer game, birthday parties, baseball batting camp, and a very expensive pilgrimage to Ikea (2 trips actually, which is standard for us as we never get it right on the first try-this time we picked up the wrong size desk). We did get some cute cute cute things for Zoey's room. Hoping Theresa will help me paint this week and we can finish off the details before we leave. (Insert big cheesy grin here-hope she reads this.)

Grabbed a bin of size 3t clothes from my sis Tamy. Some of those clothes were from Jenna, who is only 12, and have been worn by 3 kids, but I am sad to say this-

Apparently I am old enough to have kids whose clothing is old enough that the elastic is DISINTEGRATING.

Megs was Inspector 12-pulling on the waistbands to see if the piece of clothing would make that crackling sound. Not many items successfully passed her test. So much for recycling those clothes...Good excuse to go shop for cute girl clothing!

Still so much to do.  The next 2 weeks will be more championship swim meets (AAs and Zones), so the time is going to fly.  I will post an update soon-we were told that our agency has already requested dates for our consulate appointment, so we should have firm travel dates soon-that is the date from which they back up 2 weeks and that is when we leave for CHINA!  I cannot even believe it... actually I am trying not to think too hard-I will start to panic.

All in all-great weekend.  Checked some things off our list.  And I can say that without a doubt, we did our share in helping boost the economy. 

T------A-------!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got the word from the agency-we got our TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!!!

This is absolutely the BEST DAY EVER in this journey!  And in only TEN DAYS from the date that our Article 5 was picked up!
I am FLIPPING OUT.  Just called CCAI-gotta run to work with them on travel dates.