Tonight's Imagination Fair

Both projects were definitely a success. The volcano (Jessica's Mount Vesuvius) was great and really worked! One mom said I got the award for mom of the night because my girls ran off to play with their friends right after they had their interview and picture taken and I sat and showed off the volcano. People even liked the name. Again, I'm glad it's over and glad it worked out so well. I only wish I'd taken a picture of the volcano in action.

Everyone liked Anna's Tiger House too.

I'm exhausted, but my girls, who were running around most of the evening, are wired.

Imagination Fair

Tomorrow night is the Imagination and Inventors Fair at my girls school. Jessica wanted to do a volcano this year. We started Sunday trying the version made with flour, salt, oil & water. It fell off the bottle over night and was so, so heavy. So we scrapped it and last night tried the version made with paper mache. I think it turned out pretty good! "Jessica's Mount Vesuvius".

Anna wanted to do something with her tigers. After many, many failed attempts at something with clay, painting or drawing, I finally gave her some boxes and told her to make something for her tigers. She came up with her "Tiger House".

I'll be glad when this is done and we can move on to the next event.

Five Months

As of today, I've been logged in for five months. Wow. With the wait for Jessica, I would have been excited and scared because I might be next. With Amanda, I may have another 1.5-2.5 years or more to go.

Flat Ladybug & Flat Panda

Here's my Flat Ladybug and Flat Panda. My GWCA-Nov2006 group is doing the Flat Ladybug. My november06LID group currently has a poll to pick our flat friend, but the panda is in the lead right now. I figure if the final results show something other than panda (ladybug, meimei or other), I can use panda for the October list. Unless of course someone comes up with a great version. I just needed something to do in addition to cleaning and laundry today. The girls had an overnight with friends and then Jess went to dance and Anna to a birthday party today. Even the dogs were gone for awhile as they were at the groomers.

Wednesday

We got going late. I had to bring Jessica to school. Mailed a package, got the oil changed in my car, did some laundry & dishes, then went to Anna's classroom's school play. They did "The Golden Goose". It was cute and Anna enjoyed me coming. She got to be a princess, wear a pretty costume and makeup. What's not to like! That's about it. I thought I'd get so much done and didn't. It was nice to relax a little though.

7 Years Ago Today!

Seven years ago today, I awoke at 3 a.m. knowing that today was the day I would
finally get to hold and hug my daughter. The day my dream would come true.

A small group of 6 families boarded a plane from Beijing to Chongqing. I could tell when we got off the plane, we were all wondering and thinking the same thing - we were only maybe an hour from meeting our daughters for the first time. We loaded our luggage on to one bus and all of us on to another bus. We were going straight to the Civil Affairs Office to get our babies.

We pulled up to the Civil Affairs Office. It was a small two story building and we could see the babies with the nannies right inside the door. This is the part where I only remember images. I know I walked in the door and snapped a quick picture. I looked at the babies and wasn't sure. I pointed to one and our guide said no, that's not Wen He. As soon as she said that, the nanny right next to me and the nanny behind her broke into big grins and held up the tiniest little girl while nodding their heads. I think I pointed to her and then to me, they nodded their heads again and I remember they had the biggest grins on their faces.

They handed me this little girl, not even 15 lbs, dressed in a yellow sweatsuit with an orange hat and purple shoes. I picked up my Wen He, my Jessica Lin. She looked around - I could tell right away she was very curious. Then I gave her a hug. I totally lost it then. I realized I was holding my dream in my arms and she was real. From there I only remember a couple of people taking pictures - I don't know when everyone else got their babies - and I remember looking out the door and seeing one other mom sitting on the curb with her daughter.



Somewhere in this time, we took a family photo and then went upstairs to
complete the paperwork, complete the adoption. By this time all of the babies
were crying and hot and sweaty. It was over 80 degrees and very humid and as I
took off Jessie's clothes, I realized she had three layers of clothes on. I tried to feed her. I tried three different formulas, Jessie wouldn't eat any. Wouldn't even try. She just wanted to cry. She had obviously bonded with her foster mother and who was this strange person who kept hugging her and staring at her?

After that, we went to the notary's office, but we only had a few people (the men/boys) take up the paperwork since it was six flights of stairs. I remember that Jessie loved the bus ride, especially when we went over a bump.

I don't remember much after that. I know we went down to supper and neither of
us was very hungry. My journal says Jessie went to sleep after a very emotional
day.

Seven years later, Jessie is a happy, healthy, smart, spunky and talented 2nd grader. And I am truly blessed to be her mom!

WE FOUND ANOTHER TIGER!!!!!

Anna's Tiger means the world to her. I've always been afraid of what life might be like if Tiger ever got lost, so I've been searching for another identical one for years. Today we found one. Actually I found it on ebay, but I wasn't sure it was the same one. I knew I got Tiger at Toy's R Us, so it would be an Animal Alley brand. Tiger is about 18" long and floppy, so when I saw one listed as Animal Alley, 18" and floppy, I decided it was worth $13 to find out. Anna has quite the Tiger collection and always appreciates more. Today Tiger's sister came in the mail. I know it's hard to tell from the picture that it's the same tiger, but Tiger looked like this new one back when he was new. I'm so happy to have finally found her. Anna is thrilled as well. She figures Tiger would look like this if Anna hadn't cut her hair. She wanted me to mention that she is SO HAPPY!

Oct06DTC Secret Buddy Gift

How fun! I'm going to have to get a nice box or rubbermaid tub to keep all of the fun gifts I'm getting for Amanda. This is from my Secret Buddy from my October DTC group. Jessica and Anna got cute flowers, too. Amanda got a ladybut rain poncho, bag & gardening tools. The theme was "April showers bring May flowers".

MOVING AT A SNAIL'S PACE

Yesterday referrals came and they only covered 2 days worth of LID's (log-in dates). It was very disappointing. I believe it covered 2 weeks worth of submitted dossiers for my agency, but still, CCAA is just working on referrals for LID's in October, 2005! My LID is 11/22/06. So there are still almost 13 months worth of dossiers in front of me that need to receive referrals. I've heard that November is a huge month and then the number goes down. So maybe we'll see some catching up, or at least no further slow-down by the end of the summer. But lately it's taken 3 months to refer one month of dossiers, so if November has as large of numbers as people seem to think, it may take 4 months to get through November. Let's see, that would take us to August. I don't know, the December 05 DTC group has more members than the November group. Maybe that's just people being in more than one (like I'm a member of Oct, Nov & Dec). At this point, it looks like we'll be getting really close to that 2 year mark from LID to referral pretty soon. I hope it never gets there. I'd sure like to go get Amanda in 2008.

Ooh, and I just checked the Rumor Queen forums and people are thinking that they won't even finish the October 2005 LID's next month. CCAA referred through Oct. 26, 2005 LID's, but the current thinking is we'll only see another 2 days worth of LID's next month. YUK! I hope they're wrong!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Friday, the Easter Bunny left plastic eggs with candy in them all over our front yard. They were there when we got home from daycare/work. The girls noticed the eggs before I even pulled up in front of our house. Then they wondered if everyone got eggs. I told them I had written a letter to the Easter Bunny and said that my girls really liked finding the eggs in our yard, so if she/he had time, we'd love that.

Then yesterday we painted eggs. Or rather, I set everything up and let them color the eggs while I took a shower. You should have seen the lovely color of their hands when they were done. And the mess on the table. But, hey, they had fun, and I got a nice shower in. Before dance class I let them choose what to do. They wanted to go out for lunch and to the Humane Society even if I wouldn't be getting them another animal. Jessica is still thinking about the dog "Trixie" who was unavailable for adoption, but really needed Jessica's attention. Anna wanted a dog that was a rescue dog from a puppy mill which I wasn't ready to take on. And they both wanted Katrina the cat. Geez, I wouldn't even get them a bird, a rabbit, or a rat! Some mom I am.

Today, we went to my mom's house. My three brothers were there along with my sister-in-law and 2 nieces. We had a nice time. Now back to our regular schedule of school and activities.

Cybershower Present

Here's a shower present I got from Pam on my GWCA-Oct2006 list. It's my first item with Amanda's name on it. I love it!! A really cute little butterfly cooler. She also sent bunny boxes with hair dealies for Jessica & Anna. Thank you!!!

GO WITH THE FLOW

I've decided to go-with-the-flow and if our high school accepts this exchange student, I'll apply for her. I think it would be fun for us and hopefully fun for her. So now we have to wait for everyone to come back from Spring Break and see where it leads. If it's the right thing, it'll all work out and if it doesn't work out, I'm okay with that, too. Now, do I fill out the application in case, or wait until we hear from the school. I'm afraid if I fill out the application and write our letters, I'll be really bummed if it doesn't work out. Today I'm in the "this is going to be fun" phase.




Here's some pictures of Chongqing by chinapictures.org.

Latest Happenings

Jessica and her friends danced at the Minneapolis Children's Museum on Thursday night. It was part of their "Race" series. They danced two dances, the Candy Dance, and the Basket Dance. I'm sure they have official titles, but that's what we call them. I was mom-in-charge. I brought 3 of the girls since I had the evening free and the flexibility to get away from work early enough.

Afterward we spent a little time at the Science Museum, but since my girls had school the next day (the others were already off for Spring Break), we didn't spend too much time. Now, other than normal practices, I don't think they have any dance performances until the May recital.

Then Friday, on my november06LID list, someone posts some files of exchange students available for the coming school year. Imagine my surprise when the girls I looked at (just out of curiosity) all turned out to be from Chongqing. That's where Jessica is from. I've been going over the postives and negatives all weekend, switching between yes, I'll do it, to no, not now. I just can't get past the great opportunity it would be for Jessica to have someone from the city she was born in stay with us for the school year. If it was the summer, I don't think I'd hesitate. For 10 months, I need to think about it awhile. I did shoot off an email to the principal of our high school asking if they accepted exhange students. But it's Spring Break week and everyone is off this week. I've had people tell em they've had the best exchange students. But there's extra time and expense getting them to all their activities. Although they do come with their own spending money, insurance, etc. But I also wonder if we'll get too attached and have a really tough time letting them go (my same reason of not foster parenting). First of all though, I have to find out what kind of students and how many the school would accept. Then I'd have to be approved. I couldn't find out if the agency had reps in my area. Fool hardy idea. Yesterday I was in the "later" camp, today I'm debating again. It would pass my time (yea, what time?!). But it's a lot to leap into without a lot more thought.