Just another week in paradise

This week has honestly been fantastic! I am waking up each morning and pretty much the first thought that pops into my head is ..... Elizabeth! Work has been great, chores have been great, daily drama of just life has been great. I think everyone needs to either have a child or get the news that their adopted child is now theirs. Somehow just getting a phone call about our baby girl has made life in general much more tolerable.

We have gotten alot of questions over the last week that I thought I would take a minute to answer a few:

1. We requested a child, boy or girl, didn't matter, but we did request preferably younger than 12 months of age. As you all know Miss Elizabeth is, obviously, a girl, and she turned 10 months old yesterday!
2. We are in the process of completing ALOT of paperwork to get our visas to travel to China and to be allowed to bring Elizabeth back to the US. Each nite this week has been about 1.5 to 2 hours each nite of paperwork, photocopies, etc trying to get everything squared away.
3. We will probably travel sometime in July. Until our visas are issued and the consulate in China issues us a date to be there, we just do not know when we will travel. Once the visas are issued and the consulate gives us an appointment then we get what is called TA (also known as travel approval) and we will be able to make travel arrangements, etc. We will also know our exact travel dates at that time.
4. Yes, we are going to register for things that we need when she comes home and in fact, will be doing that this weekend at both Babies R Us and Target.
5. Yes I am going to take some time off from work, hopefully about 8 weeks to bond and get to know our baby girl.

That seems to top the most frequent questions we have received this week. Hopefully this answers any questions our readers may have.

Now for a bit of a reflection over the last 3 years:
Shortly after we decided to adopt and told our parents, I was down visiting my parents for the weekend and decided to look at a JCPenney catalog my mom had sitting around. The very first page I turned to was the nursery bedding sets and the exact page I turned to was the Fly Away Home page which is a ladybug nursery set, and happens to be the exact one I ordered. I took that as a sign that we were supposed to have that set.
A few weeks ago Patrick went to get his haircut and when he walked into the barbershop his barber was watching a video on where to eat in Guangzhou, China. That just happens to be where we will be ending our trip to China and at that time we did not have any clue as to when our referral would be coming.
Several days after Patrick's haircut he was walking out our front door and there were 4 ladybugs on one of the shrubs against the walkway, and he turned around and walked in and said "I think we may be getting a referral soon because I just saw 4 ladybugs."

These are just a very few things that have happened over the course of the last few weeks and 3 years. We had faith that this little girl was going to be the one chosen just for us, and that as soon as we saw her face this long wait would suddenly be forgotten. All of this is true. Elizabeth has been chosen just for us, and will be loved immensely and nurtured to be the very best she can be. We have both fallen just head over heels in love and can not wait to meet her face to face and finally get to hold her once and for all. Our life is a fixin to change, but in a way that will be a change for the good!!!

Please keep checking back for updates here about our travel arrangements. It will probably be a little quiet for the next couple of weeks and then once we get notice we have been issued a travel approval then things will really get moving at lightening pace.

Until next time.....