Immigration Man...

So we got our passports back today with the China Visa stamps. The Fedex guy was less than thrilled apparently, that the package needed to be signed for... although he didn't stop his private conversation on his cell phone! How RUDE! oh well... we are one baby step closer to our daughter. At least now when we finally receive our TA's, we will be ALLOWED to go because we have our paperwork.

How Smart was Einstein

I recieved my order in the mail of the box set of Baby Einstein DVD's. I found it on Craigs List and even though I planned on putting them on our gift registry, I just couldn't resist the bargain. It was a sealed box set for $39. I had priced the individual DVD's and they were something like $15 each.. so this was a HUGE discount. I did register for a bunch of the B.E. CD's... so there is still something fun on there! :-)
No other real big news for today. Working more OT... the more I work now, the less I work after we come home! (I'm taking this as time off instead of pay... )

An Apple a Day

The pediatrician called this morning to say that they have prepared all the prescriptions for us to take to China. Hopefully we will have no need for any of it, but better safe than sorry. Two of the scripts are for powder forms of the meds so we only add water if we need to. Makes it easier to pack too...

Oh and our other Yippee news is that Rachel's Aunt Z will be coming to visit before we leave for China. She is going to relax by the pool and when it starts raining (as it does every day this time of year) she will be painting special things on the walls of the nursery. She is going to paint a sky and clouds on the ceiling (I've invisioned that forever) but I'm leaving the rest to her brilliant talents... Our main goal is to cut the PINK! I really love the color I painted the room, but it really is way more pink than I anticipated! so she will add some decorative things to make the pink less pink looking! LOL

And today I finally bought a camera! Chris at work will be thrilled to finally get his back, since he loaned it to me 3 long years ago (told me to keep it to take to China... didn't know then it would take this long!) I got a Canon G9, after one of the women on one of my adoption boards recommended it. It is really cool. It is a point and shoot, but you can actually add additional lenses to it! kind of the best of both worlds! a good point and shoot combined with a good DSLR. can't wait to play with it.

TA's Have Started...

Just not ours... well, not our agency, I should say... We are still waiting for our travel approvals. We also have to wait for the consulate to make our appointments, not to mention that we have not gotten our passports with the visas back from GW. So, we are still playing the waiting game. I really think we will be leaving around August 24th. That is my current prediction. So we probably won't be in China for Tommy's birthday, but we will almost definitely be there for our 9th wedding anniversary!

Let the photos begin

Got notification today that my care package arrived at the orphanage. No way of knowing for sure, but hopefully the cameras were still inside and the nannies will start taking lots and lots of pictures of my little dumpling... I sent 2 cameras as well as a list of question for them to answer... can't wait to see what we end up with when we finally go to pick her up!

Gotta Love Target

So went on another little shopping excursion yesterday... finally bought the crib mattress, some more cute little clothes, the baby monitors and a set of headphones for me to use on the plane with the laptop... Thank you Bart for letting me buy with your employee discount!! saved me $70 on my little trip!! :-) I figured I need to buy stuff that we would normally get at a shower, but since we are having our party after we get home, I know these are things I will need right away... save the shower for the toys and clothes, I guess! LOL... besides... I'm having WAY too much fun buying all these cute little girl clothes! from now on, I only buy 12 month size... I think I have enough 9 mos and I KNOW I have enough 6 months!

Visa or Mastercard

So I dropped off our Visa application at FEDEX today. It should arrive at Great Wall on Monday. Marla was going to drop off hers too, but the girl from the travel team at GW never called her back to answer her questions! looks like the travel dept is nowhere near as efficient as the referral team!!!
We still have not heard anything regarding our Travel Approval (TA). Once GW gets our TA, we will know when we are heading to pick up our little dumpling!!! This is going to be a miserable 6 weeks (roughly how long before we travel)

Care Package

So I FINALLY got Rachel's care package off to the post office on Tuesday. I went to Walmart in the morning and bought a journal. Then went home and carefully cut out all the questions I wanted the orphanage staff to answer about MY DAUGHTER... (gee, I like saying that...) Anyway, I glued one question on the right side of the page in Chinese and on the left side in English... if they answer them, I'll have someone translate their answers to the english side of the page! I also included a baby blanket that we have been sleeping with for a few weeks, an adorable little stuffy, (... a bear wearing a lady bug costume!), a few boxes of crayons for the other kiddos, some candy for the nannies, 2 disposable cameras with a note asking them to take lots of pics of Rachel and her friends, and a photo album full of pictures of our family and home... I sure hope she gets it...

First shopping day

Mom & I had our first baby shopping day. We both spent a little more than we should have for a first excursion... but it was fun... she is going to be one stylin baby!

Time to Shop

So all the paperwork has been Fedex'd to the agency... now we have to wait to get details about when we travel. It sure won't be soon enough for me! Today we picked up the baby pool fence from Nancy & Bill. They are letting us use theirs until they need it back! Tommy & Charlie are going to install it next week after they get the stuff they need for the job. While the boys were doing that, Margie & I hit the card store to get shower invitations & announcements. I was disappointed they didn't have any more of the ones mom bought last week... but we found others and we will just do 1/2 and 1/2. I finally decided they should wait till we come home for them to do the shower. That way everyone can meet Rachel!

WE HAVE A DAUGHTER!!!!!!!!

I don't have the words to say how absolutely overjoyed we are...
We have a daughter!

Chen Qun Xin
Born: 12/2/07
Last Medical 5/8/08 - Height: 63 cm / 24.8 in Weight: 7.2 kg / 15.87 lbs
Chenzhou CWI - Hunan Province

She was never in foster care... she can hold her head up while laying on her tummy, she laughs out loud, loves music, is very active and a very sound sleeper!

Pictures will be posted when we FINALLY get them!

Today SHOULD be the day?

So it is nearly 10am... I'm sitting here switching screens between my twentythirders group (all of us logged in on 1/23/06 with GWCA), the Rumor Queen, my Blog spot, and of course, my EMAIL... just waiting to get that all important "The Stork Has Landed" email... which, by the way, is what I titled the email I will be sending to all of our friends and family later...

One More Sleep

So it is Sunday... and tomorrow is supposedly our big day... and it's also Ringo's birthday, so I guess we ARE sticking with the "milestone for milestone" deal (each part of our adoption process has occured on another milestone... like mom & little Charlie's birthday being our log in date , just to name one)

So before referral and then again before travel, everyone on the message boards counts "how many sleeps until..."
On my twentythirders board (all logged in on 1/23/06 with Great Wall China Adoptions) we are all talking about "one more sleep till we see our babies faces"... every time I think about that, I start to cry... tomorrow is going to be a heck of a ride!!!

Happy 4th

Happy 4th of July
had a great time over at Margie & Charlie's - Tommy's gonna have a heck of a blister from lighting all those fireworks, but it was lots of fun! Too bad I had to leave early to come to work... and really sorry we had to leave Penny by herself because she has suddenly developed a fear of noises... she's always been a bit skiddish with really loud noises, but now it seems to be even minor loud noises... like not just the thunder but even just the strong rain bugs her... poor baby...

what a long day already

I have spent all day today cleaning out Fred's tank... and now the stupid filter wont work... I'm going NUTS... ok.. that's it... time for me to take a nap so I can go to work all bright eyed and bushy tailed.. yeah, right.. just doing what I can to take my mind off what's happening when this long weekend is over!

Another Update

So I'm determined not to get my hopes up again and NOT to lose any sleep this weekend... but we got an update from the agency today saying that another package has been shipped out of China and is due to arrive on Monday. They said this MUST be referrals because there is nothing else it can be... well, we'll see... I will be ready but I wont hold my breathe.. I know I can't take another totally stressed and sleepless weekend like this PAST one!

Braxton Hicks

So as it turns out, today was not our day either... we had our first real "false labor" day. seems the package that was enroute to our agency did NOT have our referrals after all... so we must continue to wait... I was SURE today was going to be our big day. Especially because it was Paulie's birthday. But unfortunately, it seems the CCAA has not yet finished matching all the families to all the babies... so we must wait some more... I guess we are back to hoping for the 7th. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper today.
Thanks to everyone that wrote/called/etc., but I was not in too much of a chatting mood... but I do appreciate you all thinking of us during this depressing day!
love you all...