Pumpkin Carving

We started Halloween celebrations this weekend. I really love Halloween! Some Christians don't (which is fine, not that there's anything wrong with that...just sayin') I try not to think too much about the un-dead, vampire/werewolf element and focus on the fun. Even though Landon will be a zombie skeleton this year... We actually let the boys carve their own pumkins this year, which thankfully only resulted in one minor band aid level casualty. The top picture is mummy crackers (Club Sticks with white chocolate) and the bottom photo is matchstick carrot spider web with black olive spiders. We also had mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll strips) and swamp (green Ramen noodles). Yes, maybe that meal was a little low on nutrition. Yum!

No adoption news as of yet...our homestudy is being written and we have collected all of our documents for our dossier, just need to now take them to the county courthouse, Secretary of State and then send them to the Chinese Consulate to get all the proper stamps and seals on everything. Once our homestudy is done, we will be officially "waiting" for a match.

As for the lovely Bell's Palsy...I really look okay (unless you catch me laughing really hard in which case I look lopsided) except that I can't wear eye make up because it is irritating. Which I normally like to wear, even to the grocery store. Yes, pride goes before destruction and all that. Having an eye that doesn't blink is very bad though as it is so dry that I have to put these baby oil like drops in, which make everything look a tad cloudy. And I am so tired I can't stand myself. I normally like to bustle around being busy (or wasting time, depending on the task) and I have enjoyed quite a bit of daytime TV lately, which is depressing. I would work on my digital scrapbooking but I have found that being on the computer makes me nauseous! Ah, joy. I have no Bible verses of wisdom this week. Maybe someone could send me one :-).

As for my mom, she had chemo today. She and my dad leave for Boston this weekend for her visit to get a second opinion on what to do about her liver, which is suffering from all the tumors. Please keep praying for that!

Ahhhh...my face!!

So who knows if anyone is reading :-) but I mentioned yesterday I think that I couldn't taste anything sweet, which was a total bummer...that progressed to a numb feeling on my face and mouth, a twitching lip and finally today my right eye doesn't close! Needless to say, I was getting a little worried and my wise friend said I should go to the doctor. I was thinking I should ignore it, but that got kind of hard. Of course, I am thinking the worst and imagining that we will have to put our adoption on hold. But thankfully, it is something not very serious, despite the scary symptoms. It is called Bell's Palsy and it should go away within a month or so. I don't really look too bad so far, just the disconcerting non blinking eye. Taking steroids and hoping it doesn't progress!

Landon's tooth

Landon finally lost his first tooth at age 7!

We had our final homestudy visit today and the social worker will start writing our homestudy soon. Just waiting for our FBI fingerprints to clear (the Georgia ones--the immigration ones will be in a few months). Feeling pretty confident we will be okayed there.

I am having a very weird day. Suddenly I can't taste anything sweet. It has really cut down on snacking though. I realized I pretty much eat because things taste good. When they don't taste good, why bother? Landon asked if I can still taste umami. lol.

More important news, my mom saw her doctor today and had chemo. The doctor gave her Lasix today for the fluid so let's pray that helps. Their trip to Hawaii sounded great and she was particularly thrilled to see lava! It has been a much thwarted quest of hers. And I know I joked about it before, but you really can bike down the volcano! They didn't this time.

a good picture!

So, I finally took a good picture (in my own very humble opinion!) with my new to me camera. It was a fluke, I think. But still...This is Lilla, age 4, our Jiangxi beauty.

Getting tagged and a cool blog

So, someone told me I was tagged. That would be Jen of The M's Have It. I met her online as we are with the same adoption agency at nearly the same phase of the process. I am supposed to list 7 things about myself:

(in no particular order)

1. I love RockBand. I can do expert as singer, Hard on Bass, Medium on Guitar and Easy for Drums.

2. I don't like things that are neither drink nor food (ie buttermilk, V-8, chunky smoothies...)

3. I always wear slippers in my house because of the crumbs.

4. I eat peanut butter every day, sometimes twice.

5. I can't fall asleep unless I read.

6. I would like to homeschool my kids at least one year and travel the US in a Winnebago.

7. I wish I could grow my own food, and raise animals for food too.

Those last two lead to part 2 of this post...

I will now Tag...

Melanie, Donna, Scott (who doesn't have time for this) and Jeri and well, that's it for now.

So the blog I just found via Jeri's blog is this: http://eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/

I am not putting it here just so I can win a gift basket, although that would be nice. I must confess, I have dreams of living this way. If it weren't for the fact that a farm is EVERY DAY, no holidays. I could be like a Monday, Wednesday, Friday farmer.

Thanks to my friend Karen, I recently read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which made me admire this way of living described in aforementioned blog), which I highly recommend, as well as Omnivore's Dilemma and Fast Food Nation. Of course, check them out of your library, save a tree and all that. I think about my food more than I used to now and have been trying to grow things to eat, as well as buy locally when I can.

I am not an all or nothing person, so I just do what I can. Plus, I like to go to Target, Starbucks and Chick Fil A, and I live in a city, so don't worry that I am going to get all holier than thou. But we could all be doing a little more thoughtful buying and eating probably, is all I'm saying....

Where we are

So, my mom is in Hawaii! I'm so glad that my mom and dad got to go. She said her swelling legs got kind of bad on the plane, but has improved since. She is going to Boston for a second opinion next month. She also sees her doctor at Emory next Monday, and hopefully I will get to go too.

As for our paperwork, I feel like we are making progress! I meet with our social worker tomorrow for my "alone" meeting. We have almost all the paperwork done for her to be able to write the homestudy. We've gotten our medical check ups, been drug tested, filled out many financial forms, gotten letters of recommendation, proved that we have health insurance and car insurance, and that we were married and born. All that's left is for Mark to get cleared by the local police (pretty sure he will be fine there!) and get fingerprinted. We have to get fingerprinted by the FBI twice! Once for the homestudy, once for immigration later on. Oh, we also have to finish our parenting class via DVD and online testing! No, it is not easier the second time. But it is still worth it and I understand why they have all the requirements.

So, after the social worker writes our homestudy, we submit that to U.S. immigration and WAIT for them to approve us. In the meantime, we prepare additional documents for China and our agency. There's a lot of overlap! At this point we will be "in line" to be matched. And I can't believe it, but a lot of families are being matched within a few months. So we could know who our child is by early 2009! Then while we're waiting for China to approve us for the child, we have to be sure to have all the documents for China notarized, sent to the county and state for certification and then to the consulate for authentication. It's a LOT of papers and it's called a dossier.

After our dossier gets to China and we get our initial approval from China, we can expect to wait 4-8 months until we travel. That's where I get "sometime in 2009" as my answer for "when are you going to China?" I'm guessing late 2009, just so I don't get my hopes up.

Right now I am researching medical conditions (in my free time between taking care of my family and home, worrying about my mom and doing paperwork, sometimes not in that order!) and trying to find doctors who will be ready to review files for us when we are matched. Did I mention that when we accept our referral within 8 hours we also have to have a doctor already lined up as well as a written treatment and care plan?! Okay, my blood pressure is going up.

Let me pause and take a deep breath (bold for my own reminding of myself!):

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34 (Jesus)

Okay, everyone needs a snack and Jake wants to play basketball now....

Check the "Room for at Least One More" blog on the right if you have a chance. So much about God's faithfulness.

A few prayer requests

My mom is doing well and was awesome in a fashion show at Macy's this past weekend. It was a little who's who of Atlanta celebs, including Vicki Locke, Monica Pearson (who will always be Monica Kauffman to me!) and Mara Davis. But please pray for some extra fluid she has in her body to leave! It is a side effect of liver issues. She and my dad are going to Hawaii this week, and I'm sure she has some volcano climbing planned as well as a bike around the perimeter of Maui and maybe some parasailing on her agenda. If you know my mom, you know that I may or may not be joking there.

On another note, I have recently met a new friend and sister in Christ who is going with her husband on a very long plane ride to visit their daughter this week. They have been trying to adopt this little girl from a foreign country for the past THREE YEARS. I can't imagine waiting that long, especially when they already know who she is and know that she needs certain things that she is not getting. But I know God knows her too, and he is the helper of the fatherless and he is mighty. I am leaving it anonymous for many reasons, but just please lift this family up as they travel, that doors will open, papers will be signed, care will be given and mountains will be moved. God will know who you are talking about.

As for our family, after a long weekend with the kids having Mark gone, Landon and I had a fun time at the pet store last night. Poor thing is allergic to cats and dogs and really paid the price afterwards but it was worth it!! The boy loves animals. We stayed at the pet store for about an hour and a half, visiting and holding the animals. He really wants a gerbil, but I have visions of a tiny furry body in a very loving, squeezing hand, so not sure about that. Here's a picture of his turtle habitat he built a few weeks ago for Turty (yes, sounds like turdy), an unsuspecting box turtle who finally escaped after several attempts and recaptures. Sorry so shady but I'm still learning to use my new camera.

sweet Lilla and the name of the blog

So this morning, Lilla and I were chatting a little and she was telling me all about how she loved to eat grits when she was a baby in China. Lol! (there are no grits in China that I know of--she just likes to talk about when she was a baby and it more often comes in handy for her to turn something down she doesn't want to eat by saying, oh, I didn't eat that in China!)

So the conversation turned to all her moms: me, foster mom, birthmother, other things she likes to talk about more than you could imagine. And she said "Mom, if you get sad during this conversation, feel free to use my bib to wipe your face."

Another thing I thought I'd share is where the name of the blog comes from....my favorite Switchfoot song! Yes, I may be the one China adoption blogger with no Steven Curtis Chapman song. Sorry to disappoint! By the way, if you are bored at the dentist's office this week, be sure to read the People Magazine article about SCC's family and how they are dealing with the death of their daughter Maria. Speaking of needing a bib to wipe my face on....

Anyway, back to the Switchfoot song, I'll try to put it on here somewhere but that may take me awhile to figure out. Anyway, it's a song called "Head Over Heels" and it seems like a love song, guy/girl love mixed in with a little God love. My favorite line is:

In this life, you’re the one place I call home
In this life, you’re the feeling I belong

It helps me remember that this place is not my true home, heaven is. But in THIS life, my family (by blood, adoption and faith) is the one place that feels anywhere close to "home."

I just can't resist. Give me a public forum and I will keep talking! So, I just wanted to share a few comments the kids have made about this adoption. Keep in mind that when we told the boys we were going to adopt a girl from China (who turned out to be Lilla) they both raised their amrs up and said "yea!!" When we told them this time, they said "what??!!"

This is what we have heard this time around....

Jake (9) said "well, it's about 85% good because Lilla will play with her instead of trying to play with us. And 15% bad because I hope she will be peace-loving unlike SOME people" (looking at Lilla).

Landon (7) said to the social worker yesterday, when asked what he thought, "it will be annoying."

Lilla (4) said to me the other day, "I can't WAIT to hold her in my arms! She will be called baby Kate."

Now the boys love Lilla and she loves them and they enjoy wrestling together and watching movies and playing outside together. But a certain one of them is always bothering other people's things and "accidentally" tripping over Lego creations, reducing them to rubble. I leave the deductions up to you.