To Do List

One of the things on our adoption To Do List is to make sure that our passports are valid for more than 6 months at the time that we travel. I am not sure why this is but it is. Mine was due to expire so I dutifully sent if off a fortnight ago with 2 quite ghastly photos of myself to the British Embassy in Washington DC. I dont know why driving license and passport photos always make people look so frightful but I think it is really unfair! My last passport wasnt so bad so I even made sure I wore the same coloured clothes just to give myself a fighting chance but it didnt work this time! Anyway I was told by the trusty website to expect it to take 4 weeks so when FEDEX delivered a package yesterday I assumed that I had failed to fill out the form incorrectly and that everything was being returned to me with a "Dear Moron" letter but instead I received a new passport complete with some funny womans photo in it. At close examination it turns out the funny looking woman is indeed me! Have I really changed that much in 10 years............yikes. I just hope this adoption process doesnt take too much longer cos if I have to renew it again I shall be really old, oops I mean I shall be really upset.

What a face

This face is priceless.

Sour Face

Tonight our friends, Becky and Arielle, joined us for dinner and bought with them a Key Lime pie for dessert. Miss Lily decided that she had to have the lime from the centre of the pie. Look below to see just how much she regretted that decision. :) It isn't a very clear video because it is off of the still camera rather than the video camera but you can still get a pretty good idea.

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Swinging My Life Away.

The new luxury swing, updated for 2006.

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Party Time

This weekend Lily went to her friend Marcos birthday party. She calls him the Little Guy which is funny because he is only a year younger than her. She loves Marco and his big brother Nicolas to bits and insisted on wearing her favourite dress to the party even though she knew there was going to be a bounce house. She just had to be beautiful for the "Little Guy".


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Lilys party dress....for the Little Guy


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The Handsome Little Guy



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FUN FUN FUN

Referrals are Here

Woo Hoo. This months referrals are out and it is quite a big group. It is 18 days worth. This may not sound like a lot but it is cos things have been going very slowly. Congratulations to all the new families that saw their babies faces for the first time today. And congrats to us cos this means we are one month closer! When we adopted Lily in 2003 the CCAA was referring a months worth of dossiers at a time but now we are seeing things move much slower so it was great to see 18 days. So this gives you an idea of how much longer we have to wait. The referrals for this month were for files logged into the CCAA up until August 9th of last year and we are Feb 27th of this year. Keep on ploddin' along!

I'm wearing a zucchini

Earlier, as we were getting ready to go to the pool Lily announced that, she wanted to wear "zucchini" to the pool today. I was somewhat puzzled and said, a zucchini what do you mean? She of course replied in her ever helpful manner, you know mummy a zucchini. I told her that I was clueless, so with her hands on her hips she looked at me thoroughly disgusted and said, a two piece bathing suit not a one piece. Well it does rhyme with bikini. For all my family in the UK, a zucchini is a courgette. I love this kid, she cracks me up, every second of every day.

Posing

I love this photo of Lily even though when I saw her sitting on the statue I nearly had a cow but her dad had everything under control...ahem.

Off to work with daddy

Rubber Ducky

Look at that dirty, chocolatey face!

Lily Has A Lightbulb Moment

This morning as Lily was getting ready for school she suddenly came running into the kitchen squealing, 'Mummy, my name is Lily. Li-ly like Mrs Li in the orphanage". I told her that we had named her that on purpose since her Chinese name was Yu Ni Li and we had kept her Chinese name as her middle name and incorporated Li into her first name so that she would have her whole name in case she ever wanted to be called by that instead of her American name. She looked at me for a second and said, "Oh thank you mummy you are the greatest". And then she left and came back 2 seconds later, hairbrush in hand, demanding 2 pigtails and a clip! Life must go on.

I don't know if he said it first:

My big brother just happens to be one of the kindest people you could ever meet, he would give you the shirt off of his back. He left a comment on one of my posts the other day that I thought was so sweet that I am going to share it. The post was dealing with the uncertainty of the wait times and not really knowing how long everything is going to take and he wrote,

forever and ever and ever. What goes around comes around. Stay still and your
wishes will catch up with you.

I don't know if he said it first but he wrote it here first so he gets the credit and I just think that it is lovely.

Meet Bunny

This is Bunny. AKA: Bun, Bunnola, Bunnio. He is the most important part of Lily's life. Sure we are important but we know our place and it is right behind, "The Bun". This bunny used to be pink, he used to play music and he has traveled to just as many places as Lily. Planes, trains and automobiles never faze this pink thing.He has given us more heart attacks than Lily and that is hard. If Bun goes missing it is PANIC time. Once, and only once he got lost it was when we were staying with my parents in England and after searching high and low in their house Jacob decided he had better take a trip back to the restaurant where we ate dinner. Bunny was there still sitting on his chair. Lily has never as much as taken a nap without Bunny. We know the rules and go along with them. We figured eventually ( about the time she graduates college) she will give him up. Well on Monday evening she was all tucked in bed and had had her story and she told her daddy that he wasnt allowed to touch Bunny and she put him in his own little bed all by himself. And that is where he stayed..........all night. Out little girl spent the night with out her Bunny. This is huge. I nearly cried and so did her daddy. Last night she did the same thing again but when we went back to check on her Bunny was back in his rightful place, snuggled up close to Lily. Phew, she isn't so big after all. Oh, I have no idea why a pink Bunny with a pink bow that played cutesie music is a boy but you try and reason with Lily and her Bunny! I am just glad that her Auntie in Michigan that she has never met sent it to her when she first came home and then sent her an identical one for a back up when it became the "chosen one".

Hot Off The Press

The CCAA website updated their site today and it now reads:

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents
registered with our office before December 31, 2005.

This means that January is in there now and we are next. Now since you know that I am not the calmest member of planet earth this is going to mean that once the website changes next month I shall be going nuts and basically holding my breathe until we get the all clear. The review room is where our file is scrutinized by the CCAA to check that we are the kinds of people that Lily thinks we are! GULP! Just because we have done this once before doesnt make it any easier, in fact I think it is worse or as my mum would say, worser!

Cooking School

I am on snack patrol for Lilys class at school this week so that means I have to provide the snacks for the class for the week. Her teacher dropped a few hints that they liked bake goods. I didn't have the heart to tell her that they wouldn't like mine so we cheated and bought the ready made cookie dough. Hey, Lily thinks it is cooking and it beats the bricks that I turn out! Cakes I can handle and we are doing those on Thursday but my cookies could choke a horse. Every single step of the way Lily kept tasting the batter and saying, a great chef tastes her wares. I have no idea where she comes up with this stuff.

Junk Drawer

When we moved into this house one year ago we loved the fact that both of the kiddos would have their own bedrooms and we still could have a toy room for them. We renovated, actually the word is gutted this house entirely before we moved in and the spare bedroom was included in that makeover. We didn't decorate it as a kids room at that point but we did paint it add a chair rail and put in new carpet add new doors etc etc.

In your kitchen do you have a junk drawer? You know that little drawer with pens, old papers really amazing things that you could never ever part with? You do, well you will understand where I am coming from. Somehow the spare room which is designated for the baby has become the junk drawer for the house! Isn't that terrible. Everything and anything that doesn't have a home has somehow ended up in the middle of that room. Add to that all the stuff for the baby and you have one royal mess. Most of the little ones belongings are in the closet with the exception of her crib which sits in a million pieces against the wall. If anyone remembers how a crib goes together feel free to come over and help!

My hubby is very superstitious so we won't be doing anything to the room just yet but we are planning on starting soon. Well at least I am! He says we can get the paint. In my world that means we can paint the room.

Our Little Mermaid

Lily has been a water baby from day one and nothing can keep her out of the water. We knew that swimming lessons were a top priority as soon as we brought her home. Thankfully living in Florida we get lots of pool time.

Be Right Back. Gone Swimming!

Ancient Chinese Belief

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of
time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never
break.

Motorcycle Mama

Cruising off into the sunset.

Rumor Mill

The adoption world is filled with rumors, some we like and some we don't. It seems that lately most of the rumors that come true are the not so pleasant ones however this morning I heard a little bit of gossip that made my tender little ears pick right up. Apparently some people with the same LID as us are being asked to provide more information to the CCAA. This would mean that they have made it to the infamous review room which is a HUGE stepping stone along the way. The CCAA's website clearly states that they have just finished reviewing the people whose LID was November...............but I am gonna run with this rumor today cos it makes me happy. Today is a happy sort of day because as I drove Lily to school this morning we had a perfect rainbow above us in the sky and it was just beautiful.

blondes have more fun!

Lily was given this wig by a friend of ours and at first she was scared of it. Lily has never been scared of anything so it was really hysterically funny. Anyway she finally decided that wasn't the enemy after all and really got into it. What do you think?

Saying for Today

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
-- Lao-Tzu

Pretty Girl

Lily at a party this past weekend having lots of fun. She wouldnt let us wash her face when she got home so she slept with this paint on. Her pillowcase was just gorgeous in the morning!

This is a photo of us for those of you who dont know who we are. It was taken at Vizcaya, one of only a handful of historical homes that we have down here in unhistorical Miami.

Adoption Timeline

We decided just over 12 months ago that it was really time to get moving on our 2nd adoption. We had had a false start 12 months before that and had ended up remodeling our home and then decided to sell it and buy the house we are in now so that slowed everything down once. We didnt want to start the process and have to stop and re do tonnes of paperwork again so we waited until this house was remodelled and we were all settled in and then we started. So lets see the timeline. Homestudy began in August and and paperwork went to BCIS around the same time. Everything was going great barring 2 hurricanes and the usual paperwork hiccups. Everything finally came together over the holidays and our dossier made it to China in January just in time for Chinese New Year.....very handy. That crucial step of the way is called being DTC and the offical date was January 27 2oo6. The Chinese Centre for Adoption Affairs in Beijing (CCAA) logged our paperwork into their system exactly one month later on February 27th 2006, that is our official LID, also a very crucial date as everything now revolves around our LID. Back in February referrals were taking about 8 months. Bounce forward 7 months and we now see that referrals are taking ~FOREVER~! Oh well, we will get there is it just a matter of patience and as you sit back and read you will learn that I am not a patient person about many things but when it comes to my children I am. However I do not enjoy the uncertainty and I hate having to tell Lily that I dont know when she will have her brother or sister. But I promise her that it WILL happen.

only whispering at first.

After months and months of lurking on other peoples blogs and finally being brave enough to comment on a few I have decided to crawl out of the woodwork and sign us up on the dotted line. So get comfortable, or if you a member of this family, get uncomfortable, cos all the secrets will be told. This will chronicle our nutty lives as we pursue our journey back to China to adopt our second child. The ride will be bumpy at first cos heaven knows I can't even use a digital camera! And to think...............I have a child and a husband.