Hour after hour after hour!!!! I just want to go to CHINA already!!!!!! Tomorrow will bring our Article 5!!! Then we just hunker down for two weeks and get that travel approval!!!!! Then I'm outta here!!!!!! So as of today the LEAST I have to wait to leave for China is 4 weeks!!!!! THAT"S 28 DAYS!!!!!!! I found a TON of things to do with you when we are in Beijing together. That is if you are up to it. We can go to this arts and crafts place and you can do some pottery on a wheel. We can also go to a toboggan ride if you are up to it!! That way you can feel China if you can't see it!!!! You'll remember that feeling of your first 'ride' as being done in China!!!! I'll stop here and go search for more for us to do... Love Mommy

Every Single strand of hair

Taeya - oh my this part of the wait is just like pulling out every single strand of my hair!!!  We had a lovely party for you this weekend.  It was splendid.  My besties (in order only by length known!!!  I love them all so much!!!)  Shelby, Lisa, and Michelle all made a tea party fit for a queen.  They made me feel so special and they did it all for our new daughter - you.  Then we went to Michelle's cabin for a really fun night of staying up late, drinking wine and watching a HILARIOUS girlie movie!!!  I thought my ears were going to burst I was laughing so hard!!!!!  It was so nice to be able to talk about you and plan for you and think about you nonstop for the whole weekend.
This week will bring forth our Article 5 on Friday then we just have to wait for my travel approval and I'm outta here!!!!!!!!  I can't wait to be with you.  I can't wait to finally have you and to be able to start our lives with you in it!!!!  I can't wait to make you laugh and smile.  I can't wait to see what you are like!!  Are you sassy like your big sister??  Are you introverted like your big brother?  Or are you someone completely different from them just like they are different from each other?
I look constantly at other people's blogs to see how long they waited for their TA after receiving their Article 5 and I can't really put it together.  I just have to have profound faith that God will make it happen and I WILL be to you November 15th!!!  My friend Julie Pettit said that it would be really cool if I could travel to you 11/11/11!!!!  That would be so cool!!!!!
Well I could ramble on forever but I'll stop here and try and go do something productive...
Love you dear
Mu chin

Taeya - this is one of the hardest parts of the wait...  so close,  so close that I am packing and repacking and unpacking and repacking.  I am not sleeping all through the nights or if I do I wake up SUPER early like 3am and I start thinking about you and I can't go back to sleep!!!!!!  I envision meeting you for the first time.  I envision you and I strolling about in Beijing together.  I can almost feel you reach for my hand as we would walk next to each other.
The two last things that I have to wait for are TOTALLY out of my hands and it kills me that I can't do ANYTHING to speed them up.  Just sitting on our hands waiting for China to give us our Article 5 and our Travel Approval.  Article 5 will be here Friday October 21st.  The Travel Approval I am positive thinking and PRAYING a WHOLE LOT that it gets here in two weeks after the 21st.  Which would put me to you by November 15th...  It's so hard to calm down once I get started daydreaming.  I can't focus on learning Chinese anymore.  Not until I can get the last two things down.  My mind is all over the place unable to light on anyone thing for very long.
I have started walking more.  I know that I am a far cry from being as in shape as I was when I was in China last time.  I know that I have to be up for LOTS and LOTS of walking for two weeks.  I got a back pack today for my only carry on.  In another week I'll start carrying that around with me when I go for my walks.  I am nervous about getting to China with just the one carry on...
I think about you all day, every day.  I hope that you are being well cared for and loved a lot today.  I hope that you know who we are by now but I know the chances are slim that you do.
Well it's a gorgeous day here and your big sister and I are going to go for another bike ride soon so I should get going.
Daydreaming of you
Mommy

Consuming my China

I'm finding that thinking about China consumes my every thought.  The fact that the time I spend there in comparison to the time that we will have Taeya is so infinitely small.  I am there and back in a blink.  The moment being over before I even knew it began.  Just like when I was there for Braelin.  I know that we did so much when I was there but I barely remember any of it.  I want it to go slow this time.  So I can savor every last moment in the country our daughters were born in.  I want to be able to experience being with Taeya in her country before bringing her to her new country.  I want to see the wonder on her face as I take her to the different sights and smells and sounds of China that she may have never been to.  


I think of it like this - no one wants to go through labor forever but who wouldn't go back to the anticipation that consumes you before you have a baby for the first time?  Who wouldn't want to go back to that wonderous time in life.  I remember the moment before we got our girls in GZ.  I thought my head was going to explode.  I was crying and a bundle of nerves.  They walked us past the room with the girls in it and I SWORE I saw Brae and it made my head spin!!!!!  Turns out it wasn't her that I saw but still.  


What is it going to feel like waiting for them to bring me Taeya?  What is she going to do when she sees me up close?  Is she going to smile that cute little smile of hers?  Is she going to have tears in her eyes from her loss of her foster family?  Is she going to have that cute little twitch of her lips and blink in her eyes?  Is she going to understand me when I try and tell her things that I learned to say to her in Chinese?


 I can't believe that we are only less than 8 weeks away from me being in China.  My head is just trying not to want to hurry because the anticipation of the event is bliss... but also wanting to hurry because I just want her to be here and for us to be all hers.

Provisional Approval granted from the US!!!!!!  9/26/11!!!!!!!!

Clarity that wasn't there yesterday

Dearest Taeya,  We just have a handful of things left to wait for before I can travel now.  I feel as though I am so close to you like if I opened my eyes wide enough I could see you.  I look at the last picture of you differently now.  It's like I see you in a clarity that wasn't there yesterday.  I look at the shape of your hands.  I look at the pretty little teeth in your mouth.  I look at your perfect eyes that look like a crescent moon when you are smiling super big like you seem to do a lot.  I am starting to think about the sound of your laugh.  Like can I hear it in the picture??  I can almost hear you speaking Chinese to me.  I can almost hear myself answer you in Chinese.  I wonder if you know of us yet.  I wonder what you are doing right now.  Is someone holding you?  Is someone telling you they love you? I went to the store today and bought the simplest of things - a toothbrush.  It was so simple that it hit me hard.  You are coming soon.  I can go to China soon to get you.  I can go to China soon.  Soon I will know the sound of your voice in my ears.  Soon I will know the smell of your breath when you talk to me really close.  Soon I will know what it feels like to have you reach for my hand as we are walking somewhere.  I will soon know what all those cute little facial twitches you do look like up close.  I will get to see you do that really cute blink you do with your eyes. I will get to smell your hair and touch it.  I can gently pull your hair back from your face and tuck it behind your ears.  I can read you a story.  I can kiss you goodnight and hold you until you fall asleep...  soon...

I suppose that I should update here!!!!!  WE HAVE OUR LOA!!!!  Letter of Acceptance!!!!  So I filled out all of our paperwork regarding this and our other forms that are due now and returned them to YuPing in less than 24 HOURS!!!!!!!  She was shocked!!!!!  So now This is where we are at!!!

 Terms and Notes:

• NBC-National Benefits Center
• NVC-National Visa Center
• I800-seeks approval to adopted a specific child

*Some agencies will send your I800, LOA and all supporting documents to the National Benefits Center (NBC).    Some agencies will send you all documents needed to file your I800 and you will have to send it to the NBC.

• I864W- Intending Immigrant's Affidavit of Support Exemption
• *DS230 -This is your child’s visa application. It doesn’t “have” to be sent with your LOA but don’t wait too long b/c it needs to go with your documents to GZ after your Provisional Approval arrives.
• In general agencies will send all your (LOA) paperwork and DS230 to the GZ consulate after your receive I800 Provisional Approval. Check with your agency for specific details as to how they assist you with your paperwork between LOA and TA.
• Timeframe-In general it is taking 2 to 3 months between LOA and TA; roughly 3 weeks from LOA to Provisional Approval, 1 week from Provisional Approval to NVC letter, 3 to 4 weeks from NVC letter to Article 5, and 2 to 3 weeks for Travel Approval

Which in my feeble brain translates into me being in China during thanksgiving!!!!!!!!  SO she would be here in time for Christmas!!!  With the latest surgery stuff for me going on this week coming up that is just the best news!!!!!!!

With this last step we are now able to send her things!!!!  You betcha we sent her stuff!!!!!  A sound book and a bumpy ball that lights up.  A stuffed horse and a photo album with like 200 pics in it of us!!!!!!  I sent it to someone in China who translates it for us...  SO if the SWI gives it to her before I get there I'll be so tickled!!!!!!  I can't believe that we are getting so close to it!!!  We are going to have a little mommy tea party fundraiser to try and get all the $$ we need for me to travel to China and back.  Can't wait to share in the joy that is our second adoption in China!!!!!!!