Flip Flops with Socks

My emotions have been like a roller coaster the past couple of days. It's been coming in waves. Not waves like certain emotions coming and going, but like when you drink something really warm and you can feel it going all the way down. It's a physical reaction to the emotions. Pacing from room to room going over lists in my head of things I still need to do before we leave has been a favorite lately.

Last night I went to the mall to get a new pair of jeans. It appears that I have split the crotch on all of my jeans with all of this "paper pregnancy" weight I put on this winter. Now that I have lost the weight, I felt like I deserved some new clothes. That was the plan anyways. Apparently, the style I like is no longer available in stores and can only be ordered on line. Even if I paid for "overnight" shipping, they still wouldn't arrive before we leave.

I feel like I am rambling about things no one would care about. I think I am just trying to get some of the things swirling in my mind out of my mind. Then maybe I can focus on the important things? Just bare with me.

We leave Friday morning and we meet Ben on Sunday. I had my fingers and toes done today. In my head, I thought that if I look pretty, maybe he will like me? Haircut tomorrow. So silly, huh?

I spoke with a friend today and she said that he has probably never seen anyone that looked like us. She thought it was a good idea if I tried to dress like the women there do. Even so, I refuse to wear socks with flip-flops. That just goes against everything I believe in.

I tried it out. This is not happening.

Oh, I can't forget to mention that on top of everything between work and traveling, my daughter got her driver's permit yesterday. Going from one who is driving to one in a car seat. Oy Vey!

I probably wont blog again until we arrive in China. If I have done everything correctly, I should be able to have access. If not, my friend Melissa has agreed to keep everyone posted and I can just email her directly. Most of my updates (hopefully) will be through pictures.

Calm Before the Storm

We are traveling in six days and I can hardly believe it.  As crazy as the entire process has been, I have a weird calm this past week. I started to try to count the emotions we've experienced on this journey as a family and it was overwhelming.

I have done my best to pack my schedule and keep as busy as possible, while J has stepped in to book the air fair.  This week we celebrated Payton's 15th birthday (twice), celebrated Ben's 4th birthday, worked, cleaned the garage, filmed for Pawn Stars, went to Nashville for the Vandy game, and Payton has her Homecoming dance tonight! I am hoping that keeping busy will help the time pass by faster.

Remaining items on my To-do list:

Walgreens trip (There is a long list of over-the-counter meds that are strongly suggested you bring with you).
Pack
Prepare gift bags for the SWI
Pick up Payton's game she pre-ordered from Game Stop
Shut down the pool for the winter
Get my fingers done and toes did


This week's recap:

Payton's Hair for Homecoming

Payton's hair an hour later (BEFORE the dance!) But, I enjoy naps too

And Payton with her date, Andy.

Some of the goodies for the gifts I will be bringing for Ben's caregivers (Candies, chocolates, candles, homemade bars of soap, lotions, and other stuff)

Cory and me after filming for  Pawn Stars

J and me at one of our favorite places to eat in Nashville

Happy Birthday to the most amazing daughter!

Happy Birthday my Beautiful Boy Ben!

Midnight showing of Gravity in 3D

Consulate Appointment Confirmed!

Today was a great day. We received the email telling us that our requested Consulate Appointment has been approved! Now we get to book plane tickets and go get our son, Ben, in 11 days. ELEVEN DAYS! This has been such a long journey, I can hardly believe it is real! Someone pinch me please?

It's happy dance time! After I read my email, I did the happy dance all the way through the office. I got a screen shot of myself in action. Oh, what? You think I'm joking? Nope!

See the red arrow? That's me gettin' down!

Our appointment has been confirmed for October 29th. This means we will most likely be heading home on October 31st, which of course you know is also Halloween! J will be at the airport with four of Ben's brothers and sisters to pick us up. I suggested that it might not be a good idea for the kids to be dressed in their Halloween costumes when they come to pick us up. Can you imagine? Big signs and posters broadcasting "Welcome Home Ben" being help by a bunch of zombies and witches? Poor little guy.

TA!!!

I received a very exciting phone call this morning notifying me that our Travel Approval has been issued! I woke up this morning and had a feeling that today was going to be the day. For what ever reason, I just knew!

So what happens now you ask? Now, we need to wait for the hard copy to come in the mail. It will get mailed by the CCCWA directly to our adoption agency, Children's House International. Once they receive the hard copy they will call and schedule my U.S. Consulate Appointment (CA) in Guangzhou, China. Once our CA has been confirmed, we can travel to bring Ben home!

We are officially on step 13 of our little adoption road map.

Moon Festival

Unfortunately, because of the Mid Autumn/ Moon Festival, my A5 wasn't picked up until yesterday, 9/23/13. I thought we were 5 days in to our 10-14 day wait for Travel Approval when actually the wait hadn't even started yet. It was a little disappointing to find out, but it's not the end of the world. We are just very excited now that we are so close to the finish line.

However, this past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with my friend, Nancy, who I have mentioned in previous posts. We enjoyed attending the VU vs. UMASS game on Saturday at the Patriot's stadium. Go Dores!  After the game we drove in to Boston so she could introduce me to China Town. We had an amazing dinner and bopped in to a Chinese bakery after. I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, so we bought a lotus seed moon cake. It was a heavy, dense pastry with a filling that tasted similar to peanut butter. I am not a huge fan of peanut butter, so it was OK. Put some chocolate in it and I am on board!

The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. It's also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.
The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. With the full moon, the legend, the family and the poems, you can't help thinking that this is really a perfect world. That is why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival.
The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without a silk of cloud and with a little mild breeze from the sea. Lovers spend such a romatic night together tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine while watching the full moon. Even for a couple who can't be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time so it seems that they are together at that hour. A great number of poetry has been devoted to this romantic festival. Hope the Moon Festival will bring you happiness.
The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. The Chinese eat the moon cake at night with the full moon in the sky. Here are a few pictures of the typical moon cake.

You've Got Mail!

I received the following email tonight (this morning), which is tomorrow in China. You with me? This was the final stage before Travel Approval (TA). TA is the final stage before my consulate appointment when everything comes together and the power that be say, "You are good to go! Come get your son!" Come on TA!!!

Dear Adoptive Parent,

The Adopted Children's Immigrant Visa Unit (ACIVU) at U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou has finished processing your child's Article 5, and your file is ready to be returned to your adoption agency's facilitator today. 

Next, your agency will deliver the Article 5 and Letter of Seeking Confirmation to the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA), which will issue the Travel Approval (TA).  The TA allows you to come to China to finalize the adoption, so once the CCCWA issues the TA, your agency can email us to request an immigrant visa appointment at the Consulate.  When your agency requests an appointment, they are required to submit your five choices in rank order.  The ACIVU strives to schedule every family for their top appointment choice on which we still have available visa appointments.  We do not reserve certain days for children of certain ages.  All appointments are open to adopted children of any age and medical condition, and they are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.  We then notify your agency of the scheduled date and time. 

We understand that plans change and occasionally an agency must request to change an appointment, but we ask them to minimize such requests and only make them in the case of true emergencies because frequent appointment changes impede our ability to give other families their top choices.   In order to avoid the need to reschedule, please coordinate closely with your agency in formulating your list of five preferred appointment dates. Regarding booking flights to return to the United States: Please be aware that difficulties that are completely beyond our control often arise in the approval and printing of visas.

When you book flights for your return travel, please be aware that while we make every effort to issue visas the afternoon following the immigrant visa interview, from time to time issues beyond our control prevent us from keeping to this schedule.  Guangzhou’s  Consular Section issues thousands of visas each business day, and problems, while rare, do occur.  In order to avoid the costly need to change your travel plans, we strongly recommend that you allow at least 48 hours after the time of your visa interview to depart Guangzhou.

Please visit our website at http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/adoption.html and the Department of State's official resource for adoptions http://adoption.state.gov to learn more.

We look forward to meeting you and your new family member when you come to the Consulate for your visa appointment!

Best regards,

Adoptions Team

Immigrant Visa Unit
U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou

Melissa, Nancy, Honour, Stefani, and Amanda

It would be wrong if I didn't give a "shout-out" to some of my friends and fellow adoptive moms that I have met during this journey.

Melissa and I know no such thing as TMI. If we think it, we say it. Or, we text it. Or, Facebook it. She is my fun-loving, over-the-top mom, who is in a race to get her son, Benjamin Li, home.

Nancy is a rock! Clever? yes.  Wise? yes. Sense of humor? YES!  No, I am not describing myself, I am describing the soon to be mom of Sean Gavin. This gal has the sense of humor that only matches mine. I so look forward to our conversations, because I am going to learn something AND laugh my butt off. We are neck and neck with our paperwork, and are looking forward to traveling together to pick up our boys next month! Next month, Nancy! I am so happy that whatever stars aligned that brought this person into my life.

Honour is truly an honor. I bet you've never heard that before? :-) A lot of people don't know (maybe including Honour) that she and I went to the same high school in Louisiana. Now you know how smart she is, and that's not just because she is my friend. Honour is one of the strongest people I know. She has been on quite the roller coaster the past few months and has shown a tremendous amount of strength that fascinates me and makes me proud to be her friend. I will be following her journey as she brings Lincoln home.

Stefani simply leaves me in awe. I have spoken of her in one of my previous posts and have trouble coming up with words that even come close to expressing the magnitude and impact this woman has had on my life.  When I grow up, I want to be just like her. A Lorax.

Amanda P. has the most amazing son, Jordy, who just came home with last month. I have followed their journey the whole way, and I am so thankful for the inspiration she has provided to our family. I will continue to follow her journey as well as Jordy's.

Ladies, you are the wind beneath my wings!