You Are Cordially Invited....

We received our invitation in the mail yesterday to have our fingerprints taken by the Dept of Homeland Security for our adoption of Zach. Some invitaion, they apparently never went to Peggy Post's school of manners and ediquette, since we are "invited" to have our fingerprints taken on This day, at This time and if we don't come our application will be thrown out. And, by the way, it is invitation only, so don't forget to bring your invitation or you will not be admitted. Good thing Mike has a few vaction days left that he has not managed to take this year since work has been so busy. Things are finally feeling like they are moving along again.

Pumpkin Smashing

A week after Halloween, the big boys, who carved their pumpkins, had to throw them into the garden - you know how they begin to look with wrinkled, sunken faces. They were protesting, until they found how squishy they already were. It might have been a challenge to get them to the garden in one piece if they waited any longer. Mike, Zach and I had used "Mr. Potatoe Head" parts, that were sold as Halloween costumes for Pumpkins this year. Since all we had done was drill holes for the pieces to stick into, our pumpkins lasted much longer. In fact, we just sent them out to the garden on Sunday. When we got home from church, I decided they had to go, bad spots were appearing. Pete thought he would be the cool teenager, and tried to jerk up the first one by the stem so he could take it, and chuck it into the garden. The look on his face when the stem just pulled off, along with the pumpkin skin around it was priceless as he looked at what he was holding in his hand. That was it, he grabbed it by the bottom, took it to the edge of the garden and chucked it, cheering as it smashed. Well, not be be out done, Zach wanted to smash his. These were big pumpkins so Pete helped him carry it to the garden and told him to throw it as hard as he could (not to worry, he could only send it in about 2 feet). Then was Mike's turn to dispose of his. Mike (never to be taken too seriously) did a granny throw, between his legs, straight up into the air, and down it came with a huge splat. Who knew.....I just would have tossed them into the garden. I didn't realize pumpkin smashing would become a competive sport in our house.

Eye Doctor

I don't think I mentioned the mishap we had with Zach and his glasses earlier this month. When Zach came to us, we were handed a pair of glasses and told they were reading glasses for him. Since it was summer, I put them up in a drawer, figuring I would get them out for him once school started. Then I took him for his pre-kindergarten well child visit for vaccanations and all that good stuff. When he was asked to read the eye chart, he could not see most of it. HHMMM. Maybe those glasses are for more than just reading, heck, who knows who got them for him or when. Mental note to check the perscription on them with the eye doctor, since again, who knows when he got them. He wears them, but he complains about it. In the beginning of November I called to make eye appointments for all 3 boys, Pete was due, Steve was complaining about his vision, and I wanted to check Zach's glasses. That very day, Zach comes home from school, minus his glasses. Now one of his coping techniques is to stare off into space with a blank look on his face. So, when I asked him where his glasses were, I got the blank look. After much prodding, someone knocked them off his face at recess, and since he doesn't like them, he didn't bother to pick them up. He and I went back to look for them on the leaf covered playground, with no success. The office and his teacher knew to watch for them, but there is not much hope at this point. Today was our appointment day. Zach has an astigmatism, and is very mildly far sighted. The eye doctor wasn't even positive he needed glasses other than to correct the astigmatism. Pete only had one eye change - yeah, only buying one lense for him, and Steve had both eyes change a lot. I was debating getting Zach the glasses, after all, if he doesn't like to wear them, and doesn't need a lot of correction, maybe he could skip them for a year or two. But NOOOO, Zach wanted glasses. So we had to pick him new frames - had to send the big boys away from us for that, they were just causing more confusion than was necessary. I had just told Mike we were about $800 away from qualifying for our medical tax deduction this year. We just went a long way towards being there now!! Guess I better be careful what I say from now on.

BRR

It has gotten cold!! We even had enough snow for the boys to go sledding last Thursday night. Zach was thrilled with the snow - even the new boots, snow pants, heavy gloves and ski mask - Steven had the job of getting him dressed for the outside and it was fun to watch. I think Steven will make a good dad some day - he has a lot of patience with Zach. This weekend the temps will go back up again, and I plan to use that time to get some of my outside Christmas decorating done- yes, Dad, I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

I am getting ready to host Thanksgiving this year. The last time I hosted Thanksgiving, Steven was 2 months old. I know my mom and sister will remember how chaotic things got after everyone had a chance to hold and feed the baby - I took him to bed and boy was he sick!! Let's hope this time is not so memorable.

Back To Work

I got called back to my part time receptionist job at H&R Block. It is only a couple of weeks for 2011, then 3 or 4 weeks in 2012, but all that money goes directly to our Chinese Adoption fund! I really like this job, wish I could find something like it to do all year long.

Swallowing our Pride

As the adoption of Zach procedes, the bills are adding up. I never realized the hefty expense assiciated with adoption. First is the adoption agency fees. Silly me, I thought this is all that there would be when we started this process. Next was a fee to China just to consider our pre-apporval. Then the cost of the Home Study to the agency that sent the social worker. Fees to the Chinese consulates and Currier services to take our documents in and save us the money of travel. I just sent off the check (ouch) to the Dept of Immigaration/Homeland security. Once that is apporved, there is another round of fees to China. Then our travel expenses for 3 of us for 16 days. When we get to China, there is the payment to make to the orphanage for raising Zach as long as they did.......taking a hard look into our financial situation, we decided to apply for some grants to see if we could get a little help. Unfortunately, many of those require we do community fundraising ourselves first, or pledge money we can get donated for matching grants. So, we are biting the bullet and putting together a couple of fundraisers. One strictly for the town we live in - flocks of flamingos will be landing in yards - people will then call us and pay us to take those ugly things away, or to place them in a yard of their choosing. Flamingo insurance can also be bought to make sure they don't land in your yard. This will require early mornings for me to move 2 flocks of birds around, but this should be lots of fun. I am also going to do a gift wrapping day for Christmas gifts and hoping to get some stores to offer me a reduced price on wrapping and then ask people to donate for the wrapping of their gifts- don't be surprised if I call on some of you to come help me wrap........I'll bring the cookies and Christmas music!!

My Resolution

I have been a bad, bad blogger. I am making my resolution now, instead of waiting until New Year's Eve, to blog at least 2 days every week. I had under estimated the toll it would take on me to add a child to the house hold. He may be 6 chronilogically, but emotionally he is more like 3 or 4. He tries to stuff all the love he didn't recieve up until now into the time he is spending with us. While I melt a little every time he sweetly asks me for a hug, it gets tiring having him hanging off my leg, holding onto the pocket of my jeans and following me around the house, wanting me to cuddle in the chair or read him a story. When he a couple of weeks after he came to live with us, Ke Ji seemed to bond with Mike. Everywhere that Mike went Zach would follow. That was fine with me, boys need a good male role model and Mike has infinate patience with kids. But the last month or so has turned that around and he is my little shadow. I know from past child rearing experience his parent of choice will flip flop many times, but isn't it Mike's turn again yet?

Adoption

I have added an item to the side of the Blog, documenting our adoption journey, so those of you asking how things are going, have a reference to refer to. It is a tedious job of gathering documents for each agency needing things, many of them redundent, but everyone needs their own copies. Several things had to be the official Court House copies, but the ones we had in our files weren't good enough, because they had to be dated within the last 6 months. Things then need to be notorized, then off to the appropriate Secretary of State to have the Notary Authenticated (credentials checked) by the State. Then they go off to the appropriate Chinese Consulate (different zones in the country must use certain Consulates). The Consulate will then Authenticate the Secretary of State's credentials. So, Mike's Ohio birth certificate needed to go off to the New York Consulate (which has been Consulate Authendicated now), and all our other documents will need to be sent off to the Chicago Consulate. I am getting ready to send everything I have ready off to the Secretary of State on Monday. Then the only thing that will need to be finished is our approval from the Dept of Immigration/Homeland Security, to State Authenticate and send everything off to the Chicago Consulate. After that, all our documents (our Dossier) get sent in to the Adoption Agency for final apporval, and translation to Chinese. They will then bind it all into a nice report and send it, along with several pictures of us, in to China. We then have a chance to breath while we wait for China to give us their final approval. We will then get 1-2 weeks notice that it is time to travel. Mike and I will then have to take Zach and head to China for approximately 16 days. When we come home, Zach will be adopted and a citizen of the United States of America. Wish us luck, and for speedy government agencies!!!