Day 2

Yesterday afternoon we got word that we could move to the Ronald McDonald House.  Hotels are nice,  but pricey.  Funny, after working for McDonalds so long, and I know I took one trip to tour the new Ronald House that had opened about 20 years ago now, I didn't realize all the benifits.  I knew it was a low cost place for families to stay ($10 per night is the suggested donation) and families are asked to do household chores while they live there.  But they also have different people bring in dinner every night, so families get at least one, hot, healthy, home cooked meal a day.  For some it may be the only time all day to get out of your child's hospital room for food.  And today they had big stuffed bears free to our hospitalized kids donated by a local business.  They have Coke machines that have cans of soda for a quarter, game rooms for our other kids, a play room, several living rooms, a piano, laundry facilities with free soap and softener, a pantry and fridge we can get things out of to eat if we are hungry and fridge space to bring in our own things.  It's a very easy one block walk back to the children's hospital.

Today Zach seems much improved.  Last night he stayed up all night watching TV, the nurse and I both changing from unappropriate shows as we noticed during the night.  Today he has been up most of the day too.  Everytime we thought he might nap, someone came in to do or check something.  He had trouble with his NG tube (the one in his nose) and they tried several times to re-possition it, finally having to pull it out and put in a new one, taking bed side X-rays every time they moved it to see if this time it was in right.  They also had to change his dressings on his belly - not a happy process, Mike can tell you.  But he's got the flute Steven bought him, a bear from Grammy, a bear from the Ronald house and a bouquet of balloons.  Also he got to open his mystery envelope from Aunt Jenny and family to make him laugh and keep him occupied.  Hopefully he sleeps well tonight.  He has been asking to eat since last night.  Hopefully they can at least put him on liquids soon.

Zach Update

Yesterday Zach and I got to the hospital around noon to check in for his bowel prep before surgery the following day.  On Wednesday he had to begin a clear liquid diet and Wed night had to take some Magnesium Cloride to start the cleaning out process.  When we got to the hospital on Thur he had to begin drinking "Go Lightly", however he really disliked the taste, so he ended up with an NG tube in his nose and they just pumped it into his stomach.  This morning they came to get him around 7 AM for his 7:30 surgery time for his bladder augmentation and mitroffonoff (sp?)- anyway, the pathway to cath through.  After 8 hours in surgery and an hour in recovery, we got to go back and see him.  He has been so happy to have Grammy here with him today and keeps asking for her.  He even told me that he wants her to play with him tomorrow.  Good news if he thinks he will feel up to playing anything tomorrow.  They told us that if his recovery goes well, he could go home in 4-7 days, not the 14 we thought was going to be his hospital stay.  Keep praying, we would love to have him home recovering sooner than planned.

Christmas vacation has begun

A couple of weeks ago it was time for the annual "see if the winter gear still fits" night.

Zach- boots: don't fit, snow pants: still fit, winter coat: still fits, hats and mittens: need more

Steve- boots: can't find them, snow pants: little small, coat: still fits, hats and mittens: good

Pete- boots: good, snow pants (after sqeezing into them) they're fine mom - yeah, right, coat: wish he'd wear his instead of just hoodies, hat and mittens: those are for wimps

Molly- just bought her boots, snowpants, coat, mittens, and grandma made her lots of hats for Christmas.

OK, Steve, pass your snow pants down to Pete, made a list of everything else needed.

So, today is the first day of Christmas vacation.  Yesterday we got lots of rain and a little snow, and Zach couldn't wait to get out to play today.  After a half hour I went to check on him to find a very respectable snowman.  We took him out the "Snowman kit" that Great Grandpa made when Steven and Peter were little and he's now very proud.

Then it was time for Molly to experience her first snow..... with the snowpants and boots on, she didn't want to walk.  Mike absolutely LOVES the fuzzy hat Grandma made her for Christmas - he says she looks like a snowflake.  Out came the baby sled and she wasn't sure if that was fun or not.  And did I mention how silly Pete looked in boots, snowpants, and a sweatshirt???

It's Him!!

Zach is 7 this year and in first grade.  Yesterday was his class Christmas party, so when I picked him up from Boys and Girls Club he was full of news to share - first and most important was that THE REAL Santa was at his school today and gave all the kids a bag of popcorn.  And then later Zach saw him again at the Boys and Girls Club. Apparently it was the same Santa he saw up town a couple of weeks ago when I had assured him it was the real Santa and not a helper.  Then came the inevitable question......

Mom is Santa real?

Yes, Zach, why do you ask?

Some kids in my class said he's not real.

Oh, Honey, they were probably just being silly.

No, Mom, they were serious.

Darn, I guess this is the last year for Zach to believe.  He is at that age, but next Christmas Molly will be almost 3 and just starting too understand Santa.  It would be nice to have Zach as excited about it all when she understands too.

HHHUUUHHHH???

Why is it that when someone finally decides to help me out and clean the kitchen, they leave lots of cleaners out all over the counters (I almost always stick to my one standard multi-purpose cleaner)?  There is Lysol concentrate, there is scouring powder, there is spray cleaner, and several sponges.  OK, maybe if they stay out it will be easier for everyone to chip in.  So I leave them out for a few days.  And wait.  Nope, no one is helping, even though after dinner the counters are supposed to be empty and clean.   Fine, I will clean the kitchen good again, put away the cleaners, again.  Next time I go out to the kitchen, someone has cleaned 1 counter (of the 4 in the kitchen) and all the cleaners are out again.  I think they are just trying to make me crazy - and it's working.

To Snow, or Not To Snow

Chirstmas is almost here.  The decorating is done.  The shopping is done.  The gifts are wrapped.  In the 3 years we have been married we have not had a white Christmas.  This year looks like we may finally have one.  We have a snow storm coming through today and tomorrow, the weather man is saying 1-6 inches of snow..... maybe he should just come out and say he has no idea what we will get.  I'm actually hoping we get snowed in for a couple of days.  I can't wait to see what Molly thinks of the snow and her new sled.  We don't have to go anywhere this weekend.  And next week we won't be together because of Zach's surgery- Pete will be with his aunt and taking Sadie with him.  Mike has to come back home for work, although Steven, Molly and I will be at the hospital with Zach.  The packing for that has begun, but in secret as we are still not telling Zach about his surgery until after Christmas.

Just Thinking

 About 2 months ago I finally talked Mike into giving up the satelite TV.  There wasn't anything on day time TV that I wanted to watch while everyone is away at work and school.  We were not happy with the quality of the programs on for the kids and the values that even the Disney Channel was teaching.  And it was a lot of money to pay for something we were not happy with.  I happily report to you that the kids have survived watching free TV.  They may not have all the cartoon channels, and there still isn't stuff on all the time that we want to watch, but network TV is just fine.  I'm not saying there aren't channels we miss.  Mike loves Sci-Fi Channel.  Steven likes History Channel.  I miss my guilty pleasure shows of Swamp People (Mike hates that show and can't figure out why I like it-- there's just something about watching Jr. catching a big gator.....) and Sister Wives, and Zach wants to see cartoons when he gets home from school (about 10 minutes after he gets home Fat Albert comes on - some of those things I used to watch as a kid sure don't seem real correct these days...) and then no more cartoons.  I wish I could get PBS so Molly could watch Sesame Street.  But we have tons of videos and DVD's.  We will survive - maybe with absolutely NO TV sometime soon.

Ones for the Graduation Posters

 Molly emptied Mike's daiaper bag, opened the formula container, and shook it into her mouth.  Then kept rubbing her hands in what spilled and licking it off her fingers...... saying "Yum" the whole time.

Bath time followed - hey, how does YOUR hair look after it is towel dried???

Wish it was me

It's 2:40 in the morning and I'm awake.  I got up with the baby at 12:30.  As I am sitting here, playing solitare on my computer, I am struck by the irony.  I laid in bed for an hour wishing I would go back to sleep before I got up again.  Now I am listening to the baby snoring (loudly), the husband snoring (quietly), and the cat snoring (peacefully).

Santa Clause is coming to town!

 

Santa and Mrs. Clause arrived in town today on a fire truck.  We assured Zach last night that it would be the REAL Santa, and not one of his helpers and we was so excited.  He was so awed today that when Santa asked him what he wanted, it took him a while to remember.  Unfortunately, the fire truck was left running and the parents could not hear what their kids were asking Santa for.......

Molly did not cry, but she did not take her eyes off BaBa until he came back to get her off this guys lap!!

I love You More....

This year, Grammy (or my mom) made Zach a cool short sleeve cowboy shirt with pearl snaps and cowboy boot fabric.  It also has a matching vest and Pete passed on his Texas cowboy belt that he had outgrown.  For his birthday, real cowboy boots came into his wardrobe (did you  know the metal toe part of the boot may be for "Cow Kickin" but doe not hold up through "Football Kickin" at school recess?)  He loves that shirt so much he received a matching long sleeve shirt and for Christmas 2 more long sleeve ones in different western fabrics.  As soon as I do laundry he begins wearing them, and only them until they are all dirty then he will move on to his other shirts.  Since yesterday I did his laundry, he picked his cowboy shirt today.  I said I knew he would because he loves those shirts so much.

 I asked him - what do you love more, your shirts or Mommy?

Long pause for thought - Mommy (whew, he had me worried)

OK, how about your shirts or Daddy?

Long pause - my shirts (oopps, sorry daddy)

What about shirts or Sadie?  Shirts or Peter?  Shirts or Molly?  Shirts or Steven?

Sadie, shirts, shirts, both

At least Sadie and I both rank over his wardrobe!!

You Better Watch Out!!

Not because Santa is coming to town, but because over the weekend, I let Steven  behind the wheel of my car for the first time.  He's 15 and itching to begin drivers training.  So, Saturday I turned my car around so he did not have to reverse - I still love my car and don't want to temp fate!  I let him move the car from by the garage up the hill to the house.  Wow, was that a trip!!!  After giving him the run down of how the car works, he was in the driver's seat.  Steven, it just needs a LITTLE push on the gas pedal!!  Wait, not so much!!!  Stop!!!!  OK, now turn to go up the hill --- slowly push the gas.   Stop!!!!!  By the time we got there, I decided he will NOT ever practice with the baby in the car - until after driver's training anyway.  He decided it is much harder to drive a car than the riding lawn mower.  We were both a bit freaked out.  Mike's going to get his breaks fixed and told Steve that is the car he will practice in from now on, since his is a work car and mine is the family car.  I think that's a good idea....

Fa La La La.......

Yesterday started out pretty sadly....... my kids have been breaking a few of my Corelle plates this year,  well, yesterday was my turn.  Someone left one on the floor next to a chair and I dropped something on it to SHATTER it into a gazillion pieces.  Luckily Molly was in the Exosaucer, so she was not in harms way as I muttered and cleaned up the glass.  Then it was time to get the top of the Christmas tree ready.  We have a 14 foot tree, and last night was going to be decorating with the kids,  I wanted to get the high stuff done so there wouldn't be any ladder accidents...... I dropped 2 glass ornaments from these heights...... and Molly said "Uh-Oh"  good thing she doesn't have many words, I'd hate her to repeat what I really said by the time I broke my third thing in one day. 

Last night Zach and Pete helped me finish the tree.  Steve and Mike did one ornament each and went up to the rental house to finish a few things.  I love my kids...... but they tend to put 3 ornaments on one branch and leave bare spots on the tree.  Last night after the hugs and "Great Job"'s, the kids went to bed and I went back to work fixing the tree ornaments.  Glad we don't do ice-cicles on the tree like my mom did when we were little.  I remember getting told all the time to put on one at a time, NO CLUMPS!  Haaaa.  I'd have tons of clumps if that was part of our family tradition.

Catching Up

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged, and I was doing so well there for a week or so.....

Steven and his marching band went to state competition, and placed 6th.  That is a school best, so they were all very happy.   One thing I was very glad for was once they got there: the band director did not give them the "Let's give it your all and make the school proud" speech.  Instead he told them they were already winners making it to state competition, to soak in all the sights, smells, and sounds - and just enjoy the experience.  They left at 5:30 AM and got back home around 11 PM.  He is loving band, made a lot of new friends, and is excited about school.
 
Peter and Mike have been working hard on my shed these last 2 weeks.  My dad has been down here helping as needed and Pete is learning the basics of building.  Tonight they will finish what they need to so it is weather tight, then the siding will wait until spring.  Yeah!!  That means that this week I can start parking in the garage again.

Zach has a surgery date scheduled for Dec 28, arriving at the hospital on the 27th.  This is the big one, with a 2 week hospital stay before he is allowed to come home.  I think he will have 3 tubes left in his belly when he comes home, and the school is going to play it by ear if he feels good and everyone is behaving at school, he can return with the tubes in.  I don't want to have him miss too much.

Molly is making sounds now similar to words.  I think she tries to say "more", "uh-oh", "mom".  And uses them appropriately.  She is walking quickly holding our hands, pulling herself up on everything, and finally cut that tooth she was working on for so long.  2 teeth left to go.

And me?  Well it's a good day if I can get a shower, go into the bathroom without anyone knocking on the door bothering me, and staighten up the house.   The baby is definately keeping me busy.

Happy Halloween

Yesterday was a BUSY day.  First I met my mom at 8 AM for Christmas shopping -- I know, but our family Chirstmas is in just a couple of weeks, so the shopping had to start!!!  Then my sis came down to meet us for a fun day of just the girls - Molly shopped with us.  After getting the husbands and kiddos all shopped for it was off for home.   I had started chicken in the crock pot before I went shopping, but now what to make with it???  At this point I had an hour until we had to be off again to get Steven from band practice and then let the Trick or Treating begin!!!  OK---- rush, rush to finish cooking then make everyone eat - no you are not just going to have candy - EAT SOMETHING HEALTHY!!!  Then to get Zach into his Captain America costume - my little Chinaman, Captain Ameria.

 OK, time for a diaper change and Molly needed to get into her costume - pink baby zebra.

Get the treat buckets for Zach and Molly (and pry the treat buckets out of Pete's hands for the teenagers - you are bigger than most grown ups, no trick or treating for you!!!  Then  get Steven from practice, throw him the dinner we brought for him to eat in the car and we have about 20 minutes to relax now until the festivities begin.  We picked the neighborhood we wanted (Amish don't believe in Haloween or trick or treating so OUR neighborhood is out).  Then I had read about a parade downtown, let's let the kids do that.  I thought it would be down main street, but turns out the parade was for judges and Zach and Molly both won second place for funny costumes (actually I think Molly won, but since they were together, they get to split the prize of $5).  Then off to see Great Grandma.  By the time we got home, I went right upstairs to collapse in my bed - today I am exhausted!!!

And The Band Marches On!!!

Steven's marching band had semi-state competion on Saturday and they did well- 6th place, so on they go to State next Saturday.  The kids will be getting an overnight trip out of the deal, and they are SO excited.  They got back to town around 11:30 PM and the Police and Fire Departments met them outside the city limits and gave them an escourt through town (with sirens).  The band kids were yelling out the open bus windows.....  Now, you have to remember we live in a tiny town, and the streets roll up at 6 PM, so unfortunately, no one was up to see it.  They said no lights even came on in houses for people to be waking up and looking out the windows.  Oh well.  We will have to figure something out when they come home from state - it should be an earlier return time.

The Shed

Gotta love 'em.  My guys, Mike and Pete are out there in the dark right now (granted it is only 7:45) working on framing the floor of our new shed.  Mike salvaged a  bunch of building materials last year when a building at work was coming down, and we ear marked it for a new shed.  Our current shed (MAYBE 8x8) was just not cutting it and our garage was so full of stuff.......  Anyway, it is my turn to get something built, and the shed is going up!!   I was pushing for a shed of 16x32 (actually I suggested we just build a barn - something about building permits, and my barn was veto'd), Mike cut me off at 12x24--that was something about having big enough roof  trusses.....picky, picky.   Mike is out there with the halogen flood lights, van headlights and the radio on, building away with Peter.  I think if it gets much colder out he may fire up the salamander for heat.  I am in the house while Molly and Zach are in bed - hey, I've spent my fair share of time out there today already.. leveling the footings took a long time this afternoon.  Tomorrow, the walls go up!!!

 

 

 

We had family pictures taken this weekend.  How do you like my kids?

 

 

Do you all rememeber Nana?  That human-like Nufundland who took care of Wendy, John, and Michael.........yes, the kids in Peter Pan.  Nana was in charge of the children in the nursery.  I've taken to calling Sadie "Nana".  Woof, woof - the baby's fussing.   Woof, woof - Molly's crying.  Sniff, Woof - Princess Stinky Butt needs you.  But right now she's just waiting and hoping that Molly will share her animal crackers with her.

 

Peaceful Morning

I finally have a peaceful morning to sit down and blog.  I always seem to be looking after someone's needs lately and don't have more than a few minutes to myself.  Right now Molly is sleeping in, Zach is already off to school, and the big boys are downstairs getting ready to head off in a little while.

Let's see....

Steven and his marching band are heading off to Semi-State competition this Saturday.  Steve is pretty cofident they will move on to State the following weekend.  They have a good chance, I think, they have never placed less than 3rd in their competitions this fall.  It's great to have him so excited about something.

Peter is really growing up.  He's still 13, but he has matured a lot this last year.  He likes to help with his sister, and I have faith he will continue to do well this school year.  He loves math, likes band, and is really throwing himself into private reading time.

Molly and Zach have both had tests with our Bladder Exstrophy doctor.  I see surguries in their near futures, but I don't have details yet.

Zach is loving school still and he likes his teacher.  His reading is improving daily.  He is actually in 2 reading classes and English as a Second Language classes.  For someone who came to the USA about 2 1/2 years ago, he's doing amazing.

Molly improves daily.  She has now gained 5 lbs since we have had her.  She's gone from wearing 3-6 month clothes to 12 month.  She is walking when she is holding our hands and beginning to pull herself up on furniture.  She is now ok letting others hold her, as long as Mike or I are close.  She's eating most foods now, and only doing bottles at night and sometimes nap time.  I will be glad to know this girl when she is NOT cutting teeth - she has one more coming through now, that makes about 14 teeth she has cut in the last 2 months.  She only has 2 more teeth to come in and she will have them all for now.

I am almost done with my tax classes with H&R Block and will begin working for them again in November.  It will be nice to get out of the house for a while and my mother in law will watch Molly while I work.  I am glad it's a seasonal job, I still get to spend most of the year home with Molly - I have loved seeing all the "firsts" that I missed with the big boys while I was working full time.  

Moon Festival

Last night, the family and I celebrated the Chinese Moon Festival.  It is part of the Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the BIG Chinese holidays.  Grandma Joyce sent us some Moon Cakes to share, I did some research on line to get the reasons for celebrating the moon.  Tradition is to set out Moon Cakes and Watermelon, spend time with family and look at the moon.  So that is what we did.  I am sure the people driving by our house wondered why we were out on the porch at 8 PM in the dark.  And why Pete and Zach were silly dancing to the Chinese music CD that my sister got Molly for a baptism gift.  Or why Mike was searching the garden after dark for the last watermellon (can I just say we did not pre-plan well).  Then we just sat together, enjoying the night and our family.  We are blessed.  Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

It's Liquid Gold!

Mike and I sent to the grocery store last night.  After spending the afternoon with Zach's class doing "Johnny Appleseed Day" activities, when I saw the gallons of apple cider, I just had to have one.  Now, I remember last year, I thought the price was high at $4 per gallon.  I have heard about how hard the drought was on the apple crop this year, but I just about choked (I certainly thought twice abuot buying it) when I saw the $6 price tag for a gallon of cider.  Wow!  Steven, in his typical teenage moments of clarity, said, "That's more than a gallon of gas costs!"  He's right, and I complain about gas prices to Mike fairly often.  When we got home, Mike wrote all over the cider jug not to touch it under penality of death.  Pete asked me why this morning (from the boy who opened a 2 qt bottle of juice one afternoon and it was gone soon after).  Pete, it's so one person doesn't drink it all, and we all get some.  Oh, why would you think that would happen?   yeah, I wonder.

And The Award Goes To....

Hmmmm, wonder who will get that Mommy of the Year award.....not me. 

Yesterday I took Zach up to the Children's Hospital for some tests he needed to have done under anethesia.  Zach is still afraid of doctors, tests, and hospitals, so I did not tell him until the night before that he was having tests done on Monday.  So Monday, after our 3 hour drive to the hospital, I decided to tell him as we were walking through the corridors that he would be going under anethesia.  Now he's only 7, so I tried to put it in terms he would understand.

Zach, remember I told you that you are having tests done today by the doctor?

Yes

Well, the doctor is going to give you some medicine to put you to sleep while he does these tests

Why?

Because they don't want anything to hurt you while you have tests.

After that there was no more conversation about it and I assumed he was fine- Until........

Mom, are they putting me to sleep like our kitty was put to sleep?

Damn, I have the child worried that he's going to be put down, because I chose REALLY BAD words to try to explain something,

No, Baby, you are just going to take a little nap and after you wake up we will take you home tonight.  Lots of hugs, kisses, and reassuring was done by me and Grammy.   Think next time, Amy, think!!!!

What A Weekend!

This was a very busy weekend for us.  First, Friday night, Steven had a home football game to march in.  Molly came decked out in the school colors to cheer for her brother playing his trombone.  She liked the football game too.

 

 UUUGGGHHH.  The sun was right in our eyes behind the band at the begining of the game, so I could not get a good picture of Steven when he was right in the front row with no marchng hat on.  At half time it was dark and hard to get a good picutre of the band, let alone find my son and get his picture as he was marching around the field.

Then on Saturday night Molly and Zach were baptised into the Catholic church.  Jenny and Shane are Molly's Godparents and Jenny and Tim are Zach's.

Sunday started with celebrating Steven's birthday since he was gone all day Saturday, his actual birthday, at a band practice, then competition - they came in second, less than 3 points behind the band placing first!  Go Raider's Band!!

Immediately following Steven's party, we had an open house to welcome Zach and Molly into our family, and let people meet Molly.

After my mom fed Molly Chocolate pie and Mike fed her white cake, I wonder why she did not sleep well last night???  Today, I am exhausted!!

Taxes

I was in tax class Monday night, and we had to look something up in our government tax code, under hobby income.  As I was looking for the right information, I saw something that stopped me in my tracks as I re-read it.  The government requires that you report under income all BRIBES you receive.  Ok, nothing like some self incrimination, but hey, at least you won't go to jail for not paying taxes on all your income!  As I kept reading, looking for the right information that we were told to find, I see that all KICK BACKS also must be reported as income on line 1 of your 1040.  Alrighty then.  Keep looking for the right information, Amy, and stop laughing at the tax code.....  WAIT A MINUTE!!!  THE FAIR MARKET VALUE OF ALL STOLEN PROPERTY must also be reported as income.  As you can imagine, I am now laughing out loud pointing these things out to my 3 classmates, as they have all diligently been looking for (and found) the answer that Thelma had asked us for.  Not only do I find it ridiculous that the government says to report this as income, it is also classified as HOBBY INCOME.  Yes, sir, my hobby is being a cat burgerler, I need to deduct my hobby expenses of rope and gloves, and report my income of $ XXXX.

Is he sick?

Oldest son was mad at me yesterday - what's new, you ask, he is almost 15 afterall....  He woke up dizzy yesterday and was barely moving when he came upstairs for breakfast.  He said he had a headache and asked for asprin.  After he took some he also told me his skin hurt all over.  That's it, he wasn't looking good, so I made him stay home from school.  He was mad about missing his honors history class and band.  So we made a deal that if he felt better at lunch he could go in for the last half of the day.  That would get him to band and he could stay after for his band practice.  Nope.... he fell asleep on the floor while he was playing with his sister, then looked all over for a blanket (even though he knows where we keep them in the living room... can you say disorientation?)  Soon he was back to sleep in the chair until his brothers got home from school.  Then he didn't want to eat or drink anything at dinner time - now everyone was convinced he was sick!  After a hot shower he came back upstairs wearing a sweatshirt and burrowed back under his blanket.  That's it, Steven, off to bed.  After he sent Mike a text saying he felt like he might throw up, I decided not to wake him this morning for school, if after he woke up he felt ok, I would take him in.  Well, he woke up on his own in time to get ready for the bus, his old, perky self.  Glad he stayed home yesterday so his body rested when he was first getting sick.  I think he's not so mad anymore.

Back to Normal

So, we have all recovered from our jet lag.  And it was actually much easier than I anticipated to switch Molly's days and nights around.  She now even sleeps either all through the night, or just gets up once.  Life is beginning to settle into normal for us now.  The family has begun to realize just how much a baby changes a family dynamic.  In fact, right now, Molly is looking at me with a loving smile, holding out her arms wanting me to pick her up.  She has a cracker in each hand and her pink panda jammies on.  She wasn't nearly so cute from 4-6 this morning when she was up, inconsolable, with big tears and a snotty nose.  Or when the two times I did manage to get her to sleep she woke up as soon as she was put in her crib.  Or when at 6:15 this morning, Mike took over, and in 10 minutes had her sleeping in her crib.  Or just a minute ago when as the last of the  kids left for school and I was anticipating a nap of my own, she decided it was now time to get up and start the day.  She has to go with me later this morning to the hair salon, so I hope she stays happy.

The End Is Near

Guangzhou was the final step of our adoption journey.  This is where the US Consulate is located, and where we had to present all our adoption paperwork so the kids would be granted visas to enter the USA.  Saturday, we were the first family from our group to arrive, since the others had to wait for passports to be delivered.  So we got to get our medical exams for Zach and Molly out of the way first.  You can imagine, that since this is the city all the adoption agencies come to for visa, and all these kids need these exams here, it is a busy place.  They both needed basic exams of height, weight, listen to heart, temperature, vision, hearing, check the area of the birth defect.  Then off to another room for ears, nose and throat to be checked.  Since Zach is over 2, he also had to have a TB test.  2 days later he had to go back to the clinic with Mike so they could check the results of the TB test.  Good news, it was negative.  Tuesday was our Consulate appointment.  We waited in a room with several other families and took the immigration oath, swearing that all the information we provided was true to the best of our knowledge.  We then handed in all our paperwork then it was time to go back to our hotel.  Wednesday our visa packets were delivered to us at our hotel.  These were not to be opened until we gave them to the immigration officer when we arrived back in the US.  Thur we left by van for a 2 1/2 hour drive to Hong Kong, where we spent the night in a hotel next to the airport so we could leave early the next morning for the flight home.  If you ever wondered if the US is the only place where prices are gouged in places like that- nope.  We spent nearly $90 (US) for 2 meals of hamburgers and french fries, and one order of a club sandwich and fries, and 3 sodas at the restaurant inside the hotel.  How ridiculas, but what can you do?  It was the only thing close.  At least it was fairly good.  At 7:30 AM we left for the airport to come home!!!!  a 15 hour flight brought us into the US, where once we went through immigration the kids became citizens.  Then we had a half hour flight home. 

On to Nanning

Us with the director of Zach's orphanage (far right) and one of the nannies (far left)

As we signed official documents in China, every signature had to be sealed with a red ink thumb print

 

 

Our trip to Nanning started with a flight delay at the airport, of about an hour and a half.  Molly did great with the delay, sitting in her stroller, and Zach was only mildly annoyed.  We got to Nanning about bed time for the kids.  When we got into the hotel, we laid Molly on the bed to change her into her jammies and all of a sudden we had a different baby.  We had been getting a few smiles, and a small laugh here and there, but this night she started rolling all over the bed, playing with us.  She laughed and laughed great big baby belly giggles, especially when we would stop her rolls and then she would look at us, laugh and begin to roll away again.  We kept her up about a half hour past her bedtime just because she was so fun and this was a whole new side of our girl.  I just don't have a way to express what this meant to us.  Since we didn't have to go get Zach from his orphanage, we got to do most of our paperwork in our hotel with our CCAI guide.  He even got out of one long appointment by telling them we have a baby and it would be too hard on her to go to this on.  We did not get to visit Zach's orphanage, although we would have like to.  There was no quick way to get there and it was a 4 hour bus ride each way.  That would have been too hard on everyone with as much traveling as we have been doing.  One thing I noticed about Nanning, was how green it was.  Unlike the other cities we had visited, there were lots of trees and some grass.  It was still HOT - I don't think I've metioned that in a while, but at least it was pretty.  there was even a river view from our hotel room and they would light up the river at night with colored lights.  Mike and Zach had to go to an international health center to get Zach's orphange physical updated, since his had expired in the 2 years he has been in the USA, and Molly and I stayed in the hotel.  They met the director of Zach's orphange there, and she brought a bag of snacks for Zach that she remembered he liked from his time in the orphanage.  The following day, Aug 14, was Zach's adoption day at the registration office.  Just like with Molly, there was a set of families there from several different agencies.  As Mike walked around talking to other adoptive parents, we found one family who only lives about a half hour from us.  Small world.  His orphanage director was there again to sign papers and she brought Zach a gift of a "love ball" or "friendship ball" - something unique to his province.  It was confirmed for us that Zach's region is Cantonese, which was what Mike thought.  We went out for Cantonese food, and funny enough, Zach didn't seem to like it as well as the rest of us did.  Since we didn't have to wait for Zach's passport to be processed, we left for Guangzhou on Friday morning.

On To Zhengzhou

On the 5th, Mike's birthday, we left Beijng for the city in which we would receive Molly.  Our CCAI rep told the hotel it was Mike's birthday, and they brought him a birthday cake - a whole group of employees came to sing to him also... unforturnately, Mike had taken Zach to the pool so he wasn't there to see it.

The 6th, we went to the registration office with the 3 other families in our group to get our children. Much like labor, we were not exactly sure when our children would arrive. Mike and Zach passed the time in the play area, while I nervously watched the door.

Then our sweet girl arrived.  She was so brave, she didn't cry much and seemed to accept us alright.  Of course, I was in tears.   Such a tiny little thing, and so pretty.  We then signed gaurdianship papers, and had 24 hours to make sure we had the right child and that she did not have health problems we did not know about.  On the 7th we went back to the registration office and officially adopted our little Qiang Sheng Dang - soon to be Molly Qiang Lee.

On the 8th we went to Sanmenxia, the city in which Molly's orphanage is located.  We had to go there to apply for her passport.  We were asked questions by the passport officials, who were making sure we could support our child.  Then we went over to the orphanage.  We met her nannies, who told us what a serious girl she is, always thinking.  We saw her crib and when I sat her in it she cried.  She played one last time with her favorite playmate, who was himselft going to be heading to Sweden next month.

The 9th and 10th were waiting days for us.  We had nothing to do except enjoy our children, while our guide collected our notary paperwork on Thur and Molly's passport on Fri. 

Saturday afternoon we headed for Nanning to take care of Zach's adoption.

Photos from Beijing

Getting ready to take our tour of Ancient Beining in a bycicle rickshaw

Getting ready to tour the Forbidden City

Zach's new outfit we bought him at the silk factory

 

Beijing

Let me try to start at the beginning.  We left for China at 10 AM on Aug 1, and with the time change we arrived about 11 PM on Aug 2.  When we got to the airport the first thing I noticed was it was HOT in the airport.  After I asked Mike if it was really hot, or just me, he told me that most public buildings in China do not have air conditioning.  Mind you, summers in China are very hot and humid where we were.  We went through immigration coming through the airport and then went to get our bags.... only to find one was missing.  Now we flew out, with a layover in Atlanta, and another in Seatle before arriving in Beijing, so WHERE could our bag be?  Anywhere.  Good thing I took heed of some travel advice of packing a little for everyone in each suitcase so if any bags were lost, everyone would still have some clothes, thank goodness.  Now to report our missing bag in a country we didn't speak the language, or could even to read signs directing us...  and ours was the only plane load of people in the building at that hour, and all the others had already gotten their bags and left the area.  Mike finally found the right place, luckily they spoke some English and our bag was reported.  They were able to send someone out to tell our giude who met us that we were there, but delayed, so he waited for us to take care of that.  By the time we were ready to go through customs, we were the only family left and the  lady working just waved us through without checking anything.  I don't think she was supposed to do that.  Good for us though, as it saved us some time.

We got to the hotel around 1 AM on the 3rd.  We were exhausted, but we had a tour planned for the next morning (meeting in the lobby at 8:30 AM) to see Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, and one of the old parts of Beijing where we got to tour the neighborhood from the back of a bycicle rickshaw, and even go into someone's house to look around.  Very cool.  Although we were tired and did I mention how HOT it was there?  Many people in China carry umbrellas to keep the sun off them.  We ended up buying an umbrella hat from one of the venders in the square for Zach.  We learned a lot about the culture, especially while we viewed the old city.  Then we napped.

The next day we took a bullet train down to Tia'An City, where Mike was helping set up an RV factory while he was working in China, so he could see the progress that had been made.  His business associates took us to lunch at a Chinese restaurant and ordered a variety of food.  The dishes are all placed on a giant glass lazy suzan that covers most of a round table, only about a foot of the edge of the table is not taken up by the lazy suzan for our plates and cups.  This is the way the food was served in every restaurant we went to unless it was a place serving Western food.  Now, I am not particulary fond of Chinese food, but I was sitting by Zach helping him put food on his plate. I thought that would be my out, since I was busy with him, no one would notice what I didn't I did eat.  Not so.  Since I was busy and I was sitting next to Mrs, She, the president of the company, she was putting food on my plate for me.  It didn't look promising when the first thing out looked like a pig's foot.  I was able to find some things I liked though, and everyone took pity on my chopstick skills.  First they gave me toothpicks to stab the food with (you know I was bad, since stabbing your food in China is awful table manners - sorry Mom, I'm even an embarassment to you in a foreign country), then they found me a soup spoon to use, shaped more like a spoon rest in the US, only small, then finally someone from the restaurant brouoght me a Western spoon.    Have I mentioned it was hot?  I was felt sorry for there too, because I was simply melting.  The heat was bringing on hot flashes which just made it worse.  They gave me the best seat in the private room of the restaurant, where the air conditioning was blowing directly on me.  Oh, and in Tia'An, I had to do what no woman should have to do.....use a "Squatty Potty".  Basicly the toilet bowl is level with the floor and you must manage to squat over it to pee - with out peeing on your shoes or pants.  Luckily this was the only time in China I had to break down and do this.  Some other public places have Western pottys in the handicapped stall, or I would just wait - I am NOT to proud to be thought of as handicapped if it meant peeing with dignity).  And did I tell you that there is no toilet paper in these potties?  You either bring in your own, or you do without....... I won't tell you which I did.

The following day we left Beijing for our next destination.  We were getting worried since our bag had not yet shown up, but the night before we left,  we finally got ahold of someone from Delta who told us our bag would be arriving about 10 PM that night to the airport.  We would just pick it up the next morning before we boarded the plane to leave Beijing.

We had good quality time (when we weren't exhausted from the jet lag) with just Mike, Zach and Me.  Good thing to have before we picked up the baby.  More to come from our next destination...on anohter post.

We're Home!!

24 days away from home is way too many.  We had a good time in China, the best ones of course were - Gotcha Day for Molly, and Adoption Days for both kids.  Funny that even though Zach lived with us for a year, things worked out that we officially adopted Molly first.

Yesterday was a LONG day.  We left our hotel in Hong Kong about 7:30 AM Friday morning (or 7:30 PM Thursday night here).  Our plane took off at 10:25 and the journey home began.  Our flight from HK to Detroit was about 15 hours.  Molly did great, napping some, although never sleeping real well, even after I dosed her with Benadryl, she only did 3 hours.  Because of the US time, they kept the lights off in the plane most of our journey to allow people to sleep.  We were on one of the more modern planes (wish we had been on a modern one on the way to China,  but what can you do??) and at our seats were power outlets and USB outlets to charge our electronics.  We all also had a personal TV screen where we could pick movies, TV episodes, or even play games.  That was nice since Zach could watch Disney , while Mike picked his 'shoot em up" shows and I could do the chick flicks. 

Molly likes her food and it was touch and go at the end to see if her snacks would last all the way home.  They did.  She was pretty great through the flight, not much crying or fussing on that long plane ride, although the way she started out on the puddle jumper we took from Detroit home, we were afraid she would cry through that whole flight.  She didn't though.  By the time we got home, she was ready to be free on the floor and out of the confines of our laps or the car seat. 

We got through the airport to immigration in Detroit at  2:15, at which time Zach and Molly became US citizens.

We got to our home airport about 4:20 PM on Friday, and home by 5:30 - about 22 hours after we left the hotel.

We came home to the big boys at home, they made us biscuits and gravy for dinner, had signs up around the house welcoming us home, and big hugs for all.

We were exhausted, since none of us slept much on the plane, with the world travelers in bed by 7 PM.  Everyone slept through the night, except Molly who woke every 2 hours, but we were able to put her back to sleep  each time.  Molly is up from her nap now, so I will post more later!

My Vultures

With 2 teenage boys in the house, both about 6 feet tall, they are bottomless pits!  I did notice a difference with actually having leftovers while Steve was gone to camp, but they are back!  They know that after I dish out dinner they only get to take 1/5 of what is left if they want seconds, until they see if anyone else wants seconds.  If there is some left after that, they can split it.

So last night after the alfredo was served up, the big boys got their seconds.  Then they were slyly prowling around waiting to see who else wanted seconds.   Soon Zach announced he was full.  He had eaten all his pasta, and just had some chicken left in his bowl.  Pete was on that and before Zach could even get up from the table, had grabbed his plate and sucked up the rest of Zach's dinner.  Mike and I each announced we were done, so the feeding frenzy began. 

I hear Pete saying to Steve- you only get half! 

and Steve's reply - you ate the rest of Zach's so I should get more

Zach didn't have much left, I get half

Fine.  You can have half.

You'd think I never feed those boys.

To Cheese or Not To Chesse

First of all, I want to appologize in advance for any delays in my posts, I took my computer in to get fixed, pretty sure it had a virus, only to find out the hard drive is crashing.......  It will cost too much to be worth fixing, so I have been working hard to save everything I have on here onto a flash drive.  The computer is very unpredictable right now and does funky stuff on it's own so some days I can use it and other days, not so much.

Conversation with Zach after I made chicken alfredo ravioli for dinner:

MOM, I don't like cheese

I gave you mostly no cheese (well, ok, the sauce is cheesy, but he didn't know that!)

OK.  (tries it).  Mom this is good with cheese, thank you (right now his thing is to thank me for EVERYTHING I do for him)

I'm glad you like it.

But I still don't like cheese.

You eat other things with cheese on it.

What??

Let's see, macaronie and cheese and grilled cheese

NO!  I don't like grilled cheese..  Oh yeah, I ate it at the campout.  I do like that

And my mexican lasagna that dad made you try.  And pizza.   And you put parmasean cheese on spaghetti.

You're right Mom.  I do like cheese!!  (and off he went happily finishing his dinner)

IT'S HERE

OUR TRAVEL APPROVAL CAME TODAY.  WE LEAVE FOR CHINA ON AUGUST 2ND!!!!!  13 DAYS AWAY.

A Day At The Beach

Today is laundry day.  It's a beautiful day, a slight breeze, no humidity to speak of, and not so hot that just stepping out the door makes sweat drip from bad places.  I decided this made it a great day to use the clothes line for drying. 

On my first trip out back with wet laundry, Zach decided to go outside with me.  His "play ground" is behind the clothes line, and he headed straight for the sandbox.  Ooops.  Someone forgot to put the lid back on the sandbox last time they played out there (no, it was NOT me).  We finally got some rain yesterday and a bit more this morning, so his sandbox has a lot of water in it.  As soon as Zach got to it I heard "AAWWW, it's full of water", then in the next beat, "That's ok, I'll make a beach with sand and water".  Talk about turning lemons into lemonade, my new saying will be turning rain into a beach.  Zach has now been going in and out with me all day, playing in the beach everytime he goes out. 

He likes to hide "burried treasure" in the sand and he found a very soggy bandana that he hid a while back.   "It's all wet, Mom."  He watched me hanging laundry for a second and began to wring out the bandana, "This is my washer too, I'll just rinse it out"

And The Planning Never Ends

You all know that all this summer we have been "planning" for our trip to China.  This planning has envolved phone calls to family memebers for moral support, ideas, or help; with my sister and my mother getting most of the calls from me.  Mind you, my uber planner self comes by this trait honestly - my sister has it and so does my mother.  HHMMM, wonder how far up the chain this gene really goes????  That's research for another day.

Mike is always amazed at that wonderful day, usually during school shopping season when I come home, excited, because I was able to find next year's calendar, and begin to transfer all the birthdays and other important days on to it, as well as any of those nasty 6 month appointments, made before the calendar came home.  He usually just shakes his head and lets me have my fun. (note to self, add genetic research of the uber planner gene to my 2013 calendar when I get it).  Yesterday, I'm not even sure what he was doing, but Mike looked at me and asked if I had the new calendar yet (I think he was wanting to look up a date - there should be no reason for an appointment there yet).  First I simply said "No, not yet", and then I rememebered WHO I was talking to.... the man who is amazed at my compultion of planning ahead.... Let's hope our kids will get my Uber Planner gene and not his Procrastonater gene.... (Can adopted kids get our genes... add that to my research project...)

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

We are living in a rain bubble.  Our grass is so brown and crunchy, that when we heard rain forcasted for today we did a happy rain dance.  Mike went on break at work (he works about 3 miles from home) and called me.

"Isn't this rain beautiful?" he asked me

"What rain?"

"We've been getting a nice steady rain"

"HHMMM, we had a few sprinkles a while ago when I took Sadie out"

GGRRRRR, I was hoping for rain.  Now the sun is out, and the white, fluffy clouds are floating by.  I guess no rain for us again today

My Little Sweeties

I am remembering something about having small kids in the house.....  I never realize how much we say something until we hear it parroted back to us.  I have apparently gotten into the habbit of calling Zach "Sweetie".  The last couple of weeks, Zach has been "freaking out" Pete (his words) by calling him "Little Sweetie" whenever he can.  Knowing that Pete isn't real fond of the name, Zach says it in a teasing way...."Hi, Little Sweetie".  In trying to figure out where he got that phrase, I started watching our speech, and sure enough, when Zach says, "Hey, Mom..." I usually answer, "Yes, Sweetie?"

Zach has been trying out names for everyone.  Besides calling Pete "Sweetie"  he will ask me  "Mom, can I call you ________?"  So far it's been Mommy, Mom, MaMa, and Ma.  At this point, I really don't care what form of Mom he calls me, whatever makes him feel comfortable.  I know at the other house in Tenn, he called her Mom, so I am thinking that now he is trying to find a way to make my name different from her.

For all the picking Pete and Zach do to eachother, for all the naughty-ness and willfullness Zach shows Mike and me, for all the love and hugs everyone gets....  I think it was said best last night, by my cousin who was watching Zach and Pete interact  "It doesn't matter what biology says, those boys are brothers".  And we're all family.

I'm Back

We returned yesterday from our time away.  Mike had to work the National Rally and rather than have him gone for a week, we went with him, for a week in Virginia.  Zach loved his first official camping trip, and Pete had a good time too.  We get to relax and see Mike when he comes back to the camper for meals.  It was SO hot, we had a rule, everytime dad came by the camper, the boys ran a popcicle out to him (he preferes red ones).  The campground had a great pool/water park to use for free and we were there daily.  Zach is very comfortable swimming with his life jacket on now - Pete taught him to dog paddle before we left, when we went out to Great Grandma's house to play in the lake.  It was a nice, shady park.  It was very nice to see green grass.  In fact, we arrived between thunder storms - the campground office did not have power when we got there, but they had on paper who was coming in for the rally and we got all set up on our site before the next thunderstorm arrived.  We had 2 other storms overnight while we were there.  Luckily for Mike and the other service guy, the storms stopped before 8 AM when they had to be out and about in the campground doing repairs for the rally goers.

The way down was slow going.  We ran into 107 degree temperatures driving down, and that along with running the A/C on high and pulling the camper overheated our engine.  We stopped for the night before we planned, but then got up at 2 AM to begin our drive during the coolest part of the day and drove slow.  On the way home, we had 77 degree temps and the drive was much easier.

I missed Steven on this trip, but he's having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.  He had lots of fun at the Youth Rally and he is just loving helping navigate the motorhome on their trip.  (The one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa is an added bonus for him)

We stopped in Hershey PA on this trip too.  Zach loved the ride that took us on the factory tour to see how Hershy bars are made.  Pete and I loved the 5 pound chocolate bar that we bought.

Paybacks are Heck!!!

When Peter was little, we noticed that even though he has dark brown hair like I do, he had a spot of hair about the size of a quarter where his hair was darker.  Pete is now 13 and as he has gotten older, the spot blended and became the same color as the rest of his hair.  Yesterday Peter was sitting directly across from me, usually he sits to my left at the table.  I noticed some white in his hair, but knowing that earlier he was in the apartment we are building for my in-laws, and that there was white paint out being used, I told him to turn his head.  Nope, not paint.....he has a spot of about the size of a quarter, behind his ear, of WHITE hair!!!  And he talks about Mike and me being old!  Mike told him this means he will start balding soon .... time to get back at him for all those jokes he makes about Mike losing his hair.  I told him at this rate he will be the only kid in his graduating class to have gray hair AT his graduation.

Next Step

We received word today that our Article 5 has been issued.  This is our final approval from the US government to adopt our children.  Our paperwork is now on it's way back to the Chinese adoption authority.  We will wait 2-4 weeks now for them to issue our TA (travel approval).  That is our invitation from the Chinese government to come and adopt our children.  We then travel in 10-21 days.  Please pray for our speedy travel!!!

My life

My living room is not a family space anymore.  My dining room is not someplace we can sit at the table to eat.  The hallway is a storage facility, and the only way through the downstairs is through the kitchen.  The hallway is filled with half packed suit cases for our upcoming China trip (No, still no more news).  My dining room table is home base for packing whoever/whatever I am on to now.... Steven is all packed to go to his BE camp in Colorado, I have things sitting out all over the living room as I am preparing for our camping trip for Mike's work rally - I have all Zach and Pete's clothes ready to go, about half of mine, and Mike.....well he's next on my list......  My life right now is totally living in the future getting everyone prepared for everywhere they need to be.  When Steven gets back home, it should be time to hit the school sales for our back to school supplies.  Then I will begin packing everyone's backpacks for that......

FYI, my musical genious son, has created his own flute.  At camp they have a talent show. Somewhere along the line he decided that since computers are not allowed at BE camp, and his trombone and keyboards are too big and not allowed in Grandma's motorhome for the trip, he needed a smaller instrument to take with him.  So he looked measurements and requirements on line for flute making.  Not a flute like a recorder, a flute like in band.  He and Mike just finished cutting to length his pipe, and drilling the holes.  It plays.  Now today is Tuesday and camp starts on Monday.  That gives him 6 days to teach himself to play.  And ya know what?  I bet he does it.  And well enough to not embarass himself at the talent show.

Good Bye

About 10 years ago, we had 2 stray cats hanging around our house.  We would put out some food, since they were very thin.  One was very friendly, one was afraid of everything.  "Fraidy Cat" would not come near us, but would come up with the other cat to eat the food we put out.  The other cat would come up to us for attention too if we sat on the steps.  I decided to take in the friendly one.  The boys were 3 and 4, Shrek was the big movie of the day, so we named her "Princess Fiona".  She was starving because she had been declawed (all 4 paws), our vet estimated her age to be 5.  She became a much loved memeber of the family.  She would curl up quietly with me in my chair, sleep at the foot of the beds - she rotates a few weeks at a time on one bed, then move to another, giving everyone in the family some of her time.  She was my constant companion when I had my foot surgery and was confined to sitting around the house.  She has had digestive problems, that have been getting worse the last few years.  I have to rotate the dry food between brands or she throws it up all the time.  She recently had her top teeth fall out, we think from all the throwing up.  She has been moved to soft food from the can to help her toothless state, and it seemed to also help her digestion.  Until now.  She can't keep down her food and is always hungry.  It's time to do the humane thing and take her to the vet to put her down.  I will miss you, Old Friend.

The Mouths of Babes..

Conversation with Zach

(Looking out the window) Mom, is it gonna rain?

(Me) I sure hope so, we really need rain

I don't want it to rain (insert whine here)

Why not?

Because, we are going to swim at Great-Grandma's today, and I don't wanna get wet

HUUUUUHHHH??????

Milk Please

Mike had to go into work an hour early this morning.  I'd like to say it is because of the 100 + degree day we are supposed to have today so they get the guys out of the shop early, but he will probably end up working late again today like they have all week.  After he left for work, I curled up on the couch with Fiona and the computer for a couple hours until I decided it was time to go get showered and dressed.  As I stood up, first my ankle cracked-that has been happening a lot since I sprained it.  OOHHH, then my knee, but a catch in my hip stopped me in my tracks for a minute until that too popped.  Crack, crack, the bottom couple vertibrae of my spine completed my experience of getting off the couch.  I've heard that getting old is hell.  I was feeling like a bowl of Rice Crispy's this morning as my whole body was going snap, crackle, and pop.

The Eyes Of A Child

Small things make such a difference to small kids.....  I used to point out to Steven and Peter whenever we saw something that might interest them when we were driving.  I still point things out to them, but they don't care so much anymore.  Yesterday we were driving out in farm country - yeah, I know we live in farm country, but Amish farming is very different from "English" farming.  So, anyway, as I said we were driving and I saw a Crop Duster. 

Look, Zach, a plane!

Of course, just then, it flew below the tree line and he could not see it.  Pete and I were then on the look out so we could show Zach that low-flying plane.  Finally we turned the right corner, and there it was.  It even turned around to make another pass across the field right over our car!!!  Zach thought the noise was REALLY loud.  Then we saw it drop it's load while flying low across the field.  The big boys have seen this sight several times, although I still think it's kind of cool to watch.  It was Zach's first crop duster- guess they don't see them much in China. 

I love watching firsts through the eyes of a child.

No News Is.....

Frustrating!!!  I think my whole family will agree with that.  I sent an e-mail to the Consulate again to confirm that things are moving along with out Aritcle 5.  This time I have not heard anything back.  I am REALLY hoping that we are back on track.  My adoption agency has told us that when it comes to the CHINESE part of this, no news is good news, not sure what no news means means for the US part.  The good thing about our delay?  Ticket prices in August are MUCH lower than ticket prices in July.

My friend is coming over on Friday with her son for Zach to play with and her baby girl for me to love on since I want Molly to be home so badly.  I need my baby fix!!!! 

To Do or Not To Do?

Sister Wives, another of my guilty pleasures.  Watching the finale tonight....... I asked Mike if we should find us a sister wife, and got an emphatic NO!  I think he doesn't want to deal with PMS multiplied...  I just don't share well!!! Maybe Brother Husbands then.  Our "Honey Do" list would get done faster!!

The Luck of the Chinese!?!?!

On Mike's last trip to China he brought home a gold metal cat, with Chinese characters on it, it takes batteries and the arm waves.  I have never liked this cat, how it looks or the fact that every time the arm goes back, it clunks.  MIke told me that most businesses in China have these because they welcome money/good fortune.  Yeah, whatever, it was relegated to the top of his desk in the office, and forgotten about.

I have been a pretty lucky person in my adult years.  But there do seem to be some rules of the Gods with my luck.  Usually if I am going to win something (like when many prizes are going to be awarded) I will be the first name called.  If I am not the first, I do not win, but I have been first a few times.  Weird, I know, but who am I to argue?  This winter, when Mike and I put out all those applications for grants, and hoped to get 1 or 2, I didn't think much about it.  The first grant response that came in was a yes!!  Yep, my good luck holds true, I (we) won something in which more than one would  be awarded, and the first answer was a yes.  Thank goodness it was a nice size grant, because the way my luck goes, it is the only one we will get.  Several more responses came in, all sorry, but no's.  As we continued our process, it was time to turn the office into Molly's room.  Mike's desk went to the basement for the boys to use and he took over their homework desk since there wasn't enough room for both our desks in the living room.  My desk is BIGGER and HEAVIER and NO ONE wanted to haul it downstairs, so Mike's was the one voted off the island.  Since he lost desk space, the Chinese cat was placed on top of MY desk.  When I moved it, I noticed the batteries had died, so I placed in fresh batties and went about my day.  That very day, we recieved another answer on a grant request, this time a yes.  HHMMM, that's never happened before.   I patted the kitty and told Mike when he got home that I guess the cat can continue to stay in the place of honor on top my desk, there might be something to this.  We now only have 1 grant that has yet to answer us.  We were awarded more money than I thought we could possibly receive, from our fundraising, donations, and grants.  We have 2 beautiful children who will be ours soon and what could be luckier than that?

Just Another Frantic Thursday

It's a good thing my husband is a faithful blog reader.  Apparently, I forgot to let him know that I had gotten a call the other day about Zach's visa renewal being accepted.  Last night, I first heard my husband laughing at Pete's drill bit conversation, then ....... "Zach's Visa extension is approved???"  Ooooppps.  I thought I had called him and told him that, I must have gotten distracted by the children before I actually dialed the phone.  "yeah, sorry, it should be her via FedEx on Friday"  Let's just pretend I have pregnancy brain drain, from all the adoption chaos.

Last night, I had a meeting for the section I am teaching for vacation bible school.  As we talked about what everyone is doing, the lady in charge mentioned that she still needed a man to play a goofy guy in the opening skit every day.  A call home, and then I let her know that Steven may only be 14, but is taller than me and would be happy to be this goofy character.  Then he will come hang out with me in my room while I do my sessions.  I am a little worried about Zach's behavior during vacation bible school.  Not in most of it, but when he comes to my sessions.  This child is very attached to me - I call him my Velcro boy - he always wants to be cuddled by me, or hugging me, or have my undivided attention when I am talking to others- his interruptions are something we are working hard to break him of.  We will have to have a conversation with him before we start, about how he is expected to behave.  Last night he went with Mike to the gas station for lawn mower gas, and I asked him to have daddy bring me home a diet coke for my meeting.  They were gone about 20 minutes, and Zach came running into the house ahead of daddy, throwing himself into my arms "Mom, I MISSED you!!"   UUUHHH, I have a bad feeling about this.

Warning Kid With Power Tool

Mom, where does dad keep his hole saw for cutting door knob holes?  - Pete asked while holding my drill in his hand

I don't know, and if I did I wouldn't tell you until you ask your dad to use it

Then where are your spade bits?

WHY......

I need to cut holes in the tarp for under my tent to put stakes through

You don't use a drill to do that!!!

Then how can I make the holes (insert whiney, put out, lots of attitude here)

UMMMMM, scissors........

Good news..... Zach's visa extension was approved and is in the mail to us.  Now we can quit ducking the law - afterall, we HAVE been harboring an illegal alien since June 10.  You know how it is, the constant worrying that the INS will come knocking on our door, looking over your shoulder when you go out in public.....

This means that he definitely won't have to go back to China ahead of us.  And his passport will be back to us in plenty of time to travel (it will arrive back to us in the same envelope as his visa extention).  Another thing down.... and seems like a million more to go.  When we started this process, we asked our adoption agency and another mom who had adopted from China how long it would take, and were told about a year, if we really pushed things along maybe 9 months.  We rushed every process we could, even paying extra for some of that rushing, and are still looking at a year.  Sigh.  The earliest we will be able to go to China is Aug 1.   Grumble, grumble, grumble. 

Zach came to live with us last year on July 31.  It just doesn't seem like he has been with us that long, but seems like we have been in the adoption process FOREVER!!  Funny how the very same time is looked at in such different ways. 

By my calculation, that is one more step forward.......even with where we were 2 days ago.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

As I was re-reading my adoption paperwork two nights ago, I saw where we could contact the National Visa Center to check on the status of our case.  Being the Type A personality that I am, I feel totally helpless right now, in a process I have NO control over.  This gave me a much appreciated chance to be proactive, and have something to do during the adoption.  We knew that our case had already gone from the NVC to the US Consulate in China, and we knew that our paperwork would be at the consulate for 3-4 weeks.  According to my calculations, the paperwork should either have been done by last Friday or this Friday.  The NVC verified they sent the paperwork on already, and we needed to contact the Consulate for the status there.  Boy am I glad I did.  They e-mailed me back that they've had our paperwork, but are waiting on something from our adoption agency before they can begin to process it.   UUUUHHHHHGGGGG.  E-mails sent to the adoption agency revealed we needed to send them our paperwork from the NVC when we got it - I WISH SOMEONE HAD TOLD ME THAT WEEKS AND WEEKS AGO......I'VE HAD THE PAPERWORK FOR 3 WEEKS NOW!!!!!  A quick e-mail today and they got the necesarry paperwork, and will have our stuff all delivered to the Consulate tomorrow.  It will be 2 more weeks now added to our timeline.  How frustrating!!!!!

On a totally unrelated topic, Peter and Zach decided to camp outside in Pete's tent tonight.  I explained to them it was going to be HOT.  But no, they argued they would be fine.  Ok, Momma tried, learn the hard way.  Zach came up from his shower wearing a blanket sleeper - which is fine inside with the air conditioner on, not great for 90 degree weather.  (that was 2 hours ago, now it's 10:05 and still 84 degrees).  He tried to tell me he would be fine, with those jammies on, he would not need a blanket.   HHMMM, as hot as it is, you won't need a blanket at all.  We finally convinced him to change into PJ shorts and a short sleeve jammie shirt.  Off he went to the tent, happily camping for the first time in his life.  The rest of us went off to the garden to plant some late veggies that Mike picked up for a great deal at the local greenhouse on the way home from work.  Mike asked me to go down and fill a bucket with water, and the water spicket just happens to be by where the boys put their tent........ and Zach had all the window flaps zipped shut (he must have been roasting in there)........so being the good Mommy that I am, I had to shake the side of the tent and say GGGRRRRR.  After a huge yelp from inside the tent, I calmed him down and convinced him it was only me.  After that he was not going back to sleep while we were outside.  OOPS.

( Now comes the stall... )  Mom, I have a loose tooth......   Yes Zach, I know (it's been loose for about 6 weeks now) ........  Mom, it's bleeding.........  OK, get a kleenex from inside and go back to sleep.   When he came back out, I decided to check his tooth out, and oh, my, it WAS almost out.  He couldn't get ahold of it, and consented to let Mike try to pull it.  Mike started to reach for his small pliers he keeps in his back pocket.  No, Mike, you're going to scare him!!!  Mike then tried to pull it with his fingers and could not get a grip on it.  Zach then looked at Mike's pliers, checking them all out, and consented to letting Mike use those to pull on his tooth- MY dad used to threaten to use pliers to pull out our teeth to scare us into pulling out our loose teeth.  Unfortunately, Mike couldn't grip it with the pliers either.  Zach then worked and worked at it, until it came out.  We convinced him, since it was past his bed time, the tooth fairy has already passed by this neighborhood and he would be on tomorrow night's schedule.  He is so cute right now, with his Chinese accent and his slight lisp from his missing front tooth.

By the way, he then went back into the tent and saw a lightening bug inside, since he had forgotten to zip the door shut.  Off he went into the house with his pillow - camping over.  I think Pete is inside now too - he was too hot.

Our prayers have been answered

Today has been a great day.  Really great.  We got a phone call this afternoon telling us we received an adoption grant.  This grant has now put us over the hump for the last of the money needed to fund our adoptions.  Mike says that now I can relax and sleep at night.  That just shows what he knows......now I will lose sleep waiting to get Molly in my arms and make Zach our son forever.  The waiting is hard. 

Now I'm watching one of my favorite movies "The Blind Side".  I love Sandra Bullok's character Lou Ann Toulley.  Mike and I agree that she could be my sister, seperated at birth.  I just love her and my very favorite line of the whole movie, now that we are adopting, is when her friends tell her that she's changing "that boy's" life and she says "no, he's changing mine".  Amen to that,  we have been saying from the start that we need Zach as much as he needs us, and we are learning so much from him.

I've been running the numbers on our time line- the adoption agency gave us a handy dandy chart for this last part of our process, after our LOA (official approval from China to adopt).  From LOA it's about 3 weeks to our Provisional Approval (and it was three weeks exactly), then about 1 week to wire all our paperwork to the US National Visa Center in China (and it was 9 days),  then 3-4 weeks for the NVC to turn that Provisional Approval into our Article 5 (this is were we are now, today was 3 weeks, so we are waiting to hear this step is done), then we have 2-3 weeks for China to issue our Travel Approval.  We should travel within 2 weeks of getting our TA........... we could still make it home in time to register the kids for school the week before school starts..........Please, please, please........

We are still waiting for Zach's passport to come back to us.  We had to send it in to the Grace Children's Foundation for them to renew his medical visa.  Without that passport back, our travel date could be held up, since obviously he can't travel without it.  Again, please, please, please let that come back in time to not throw off our earliest possible travel date........

Today's Project

Darling Hubby had to work today, so Pete, Zach, and myself put together the big and small strollers, in anticipation of Molly coming home soon.  Pete had to be reminded several times to WAIT until I read the directions before he did something else, and that there are often reasons to follow a specific order when putting them together.......We did good I think!

 After the strollers were assembled, we were left with I big box and 1 fair-lee big box.  Pete started with the big box, making himself into a robot.  Zach of course had to be a robot too, so I helped him make his.  Zach has been playing with Molly's Chinese baby doll today, pretending it IS Molly.  We decided she needed to have a robot costume too.  Here are our final costumes.  We have named them Data (Pete), R2D2 (Molly) and C3PO (Zach).

I hope Zach babysits for real as well as he babysits Molly's doll

The Wrath of Mom

That's what Mike calls it when I get all angry at the kids.  Yup, hard to believe, I know, that the mother of 3 boys sometimes loses her cool.  But I do.  In spades. 2 days ago, all three boys were doing (or not doing) things to set me off.  After putting kids in corners, sending them away from me to clean rooms, and finding them playing instead........ I really lost it.  Mike came home from work to find me standing in the middle of Pete and Zach's room directing the cleaning efforts.  The simple concept of you each have half a room, keep your stuff on your side.....seems to not be so simple.  Steve was being trusted to work on his own room and clean the linen closet in the kids bathroom.   HHMMM, in checking his work, I will be standing in the middle of his room today....  He has been told to not even consider eating breakfast today until he cleans out the closet and under the bed - where he threw everything when he cleaned his room.  I heard his alarm going off at 6 AM this morning, guess he got an early start.  Why is it teenage boys believe that ALL their clothes (whether clean or dirty) belong on the floor of their room?  Mixed together.   So you have to use the sniff test to get dressed.  YUCK!  Hopefully, after all this, the wrath of Mom can be put to rest and we can have a good time together for the next few weeks.

Party Pooper

Last night we were watching the world championships of Irish dancing (think Lord of the Dance).  There were both boys and girls of several different ages, from all over the world.  I saw lots of blond or red haired girls dancing in their short dresses, curls bouncing.  I asked Mike if we should find Irish dance classes for our Asian children, since that was one ethnic group I did not see competing -wouldn't they be cute?  he was starting to comment on how cute they WOULD be but, just about that time they showed some of the back story of the reining world champ (20 years old) and it said the costume she wore tonight cost several thousand dollars.  Mike now says no, he doesn't think our kids need to take up this particular activity.

Just Keep Marching On

Steven has now finished his practice sessions for Marching Band.  First they learned to march, then they learned to march straight ahead with their bodies turned to the side and feet forward.  They have to memorize their music instead of having the little stands that fit on their horns like I remember my sister using when she did high school marching band.  Steven is so excited.  He is sore from all the marching muscles he is learning to use, but he likes the high school band kids.  He is having a lot of fun.

 He told me last night that he does not understand WHY they have to march forward with their bodies sideways, they could just side step. 

Steven, it would not look the same. 

Well, Mom, you have no idea how HARD marching band is with all the marching, and holding your arms up, your instrument steady, memorizing the songs.....

Steven, my sister and some friends did marching band.  I think I know what you are doing.  What you mean to say is that YOU had no idea how hard marching band would be.

Oh........yeah.

Now he is done for a month until Pre-Band Camp starts in July.  Then he has regular band camp in July.

Great!!

On most Saturday mornings, Mike and I get up and make breakfast for the kids.  It's the same thing every week, but they love it.  Whoever comes downstairs first puts biscuits in the oven then Mike makes sausage patties and I make the eggs.  Since most of us do biscuit sandwiches (Zach likes to keep all his food seperate), I scramble the eggs, but cook them more like an omlette, without the omlette ingredients, but the egg stays on sandwiches that way.  Last Saturday we decided to shake things up and make breakfast burrittos.  Mike crumbled the sausage and cooked it, and  I did scrambled eggs the traditional way.  Zach was really impressed.  He still did not mix his food to make a burritto, but he thought the "crumbley" eggs were really good.

Mom, you're a really good cook, right?

Yes, Zach, I am.

Good thing he's still young enough to be impressed by the little things, like a different way of cooking eggs.

You're Doing That NOW??

Every school day my routine was to get up with Mike when the alarm rings, go wake up the kids and then come up to make Mike's lunch and make sure everyone gets breakfast.  The kids are usually hard to wake up, especially Zach.  I come into bedrooms singing some kind of good morning, wake up song (I have 2 or 3 I switch between) and with some tickling, and threatening to decide for Zach what he will wear to school, it takes about 10 minutes to get kids out of bed.  Now that summer vacation is here, everyone's bed time got pushed back about an hour.  With that they get to sleep in.  The last 2 days, Zach has gotten out of bed before Mike and I and even come downstairs.  I come down to find Zach on the couch, under a blanket, playing his new game boy he got for his birthday.  Now WHY could he not have been so easy to wake up when he was going to school?  He used to complain that he was TIIIIERD (you have to put a little whine into that to get the true feeling for it) and wanted to go back to sleep.  Now I want to go back to sleep after I make Mike's lunch, and before I have an toddler in the house again - we all know they never sleep in.......

You Know, Those Moon Shaped Things

Yesterday afternoon I was trying to distract Zach from something he wanted to do, so I reminded him that we were going to the Chinese restaurant for dinner. 

What are you going to order, Zach, those steamed dumplings you always get? 

Yeah, and rice. 

MMMM that sounds good

And what are those orange, moon shaped things?

hhhhmmmm, I guess you and daddy will have to talk to the lady who runs the restaurant to see if they know what you want (sometimes he remembers stuff he ate while living in China, that's how he started eating dumplings, they figured out that was what he wanted after he described it to the lady who owns the restaurant.)

No, no.  Never mind, I don't want that.

So we go to the restuarant, order his dumplings and rice.  I then look at the menu trying to see what I want (you mommies know that you get the kids set, and THEN can figure out what you want) and Zach got really excited. 

I want THAT!!!  (pointing at a picture on the menu)

OH, shrimp.   Yep, orange and moon shaped.  He had talked about eating shrimp a couple of weeks ago when he saw a Red Lobster comercial on TV, telling us he likes those.

Cancell the dumplings, order the shrimp.  And because the owners of the restaurant like Zach (he's so cute, who doesn't like him?), they gave him a bag of  Chinese Almond cookies for his birthday.  He was a very happy camper on his birthday.