Nice Night For A Parade

When I first moved to this country this was a line used by a coffee company to advertise coffee. I can't remember what the coffee was but Jacob and I are always saying, in a terrible impersonation of a southern accent, "Nice day for a parade". Tonight was a perfect night for a parade and so we went to the Jr. Orange Bowl Parade. We used to have a truly fabulous parade here on New Year's Eve but they stopped it recently, and I have no idea why as it rivaled all the really big ones that you see on the telly. The one this evening was very small but still tonnes of fun. I wasn't sure if we would make it or not as Lily still isn't quite right. She doesn't seem to have any thing wrong anymore but she just isn't herself......she actually fell asleep in the car on the way home.......unheard of.

A small glimpse at our fun.

Waiting for the first float.

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This One Was great. Ii was from The Dalmatian Rescue and in addition to the float they had people walking ahead of them and each person had a dog there must have been close to 101 Dalmatians. Lily loved it.

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This Grinch fella is downright scary.

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Lily, Mesmerised and our friend Richard who appears to be describing the one that got away.

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22 months.

Our dossier has been registered with the CCAA for 22 months today.

We want our Rosie home with us where she belongs. We have been waiting for one month since we were matched with her and it has been a very long month.

Talking of Rosie: allow your eyes to wander to the right of this post........Yes, that is our little peanut, cute isn't she?

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas is so much more fun now than it has ever been. To be perfectly honest I don't know who was more excited on Christmas Eve, Jacob and I or Lily. We went to visit with some friends and then we came home and got ready for church. The church that Jacob attended growing up is really beautiful and on Christmas Eve the children of the parish put on a play so we wanted Lily to see it. She was not impressed......typical! I was, I love singing carols but since I cannot carry a tune in a bucket I have to sing very softly.

Once we got home Lily made herself a little check list of everything she had to do before going to bed and carried her list around with her until everything was checked off.

This video is quite long but you can really see her excitement and just how thorough she was.

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Once we were sure that she was asleep we started to bring down the presents.

What the tree looked like when Lily went to bed.

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And what it looked like a couple of hours later.

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One of my favourite things to do it stuff the stockings. I love it. We always put her stocking up in her bedroom so that she sees it first thing in the morning. The shrieks of delight give us warning that she is up and that we need to grab the video and head for the stairs.

Her face as she saw the presents was priceless. Before she made a dash for them she needed to be sure that Santa had found his cookies and that the Reindeer had eaten their carrots. In the kitchen next to the cookie plate was a letter to her from Santa, (way to go Daddy). The last line of it said, when I was in China I gave Rosie a kiss from you. Lily's face lit up and she said, "how does he know that she is my sister? Mommy you said Rosie wouldn't get any presents this year but she got a kiss from me and love is better than presents ." She is so kind and sweet is it any wonder that I love this kid to bits.

Then it was off to the tree and the fun really began. I was so wrapped up in her that I didn't even notice the box that Jacob placed next to me. I finally opened it and was thrilled to find a Wii game. We have had so much fun with it. Lily is getting quite good too.


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Bunny's Stocking

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All in all we had a beautiful Christmas. This is our last holiday as a family of 3 and in many ways that made it even more special. I don't know what I did to get this life but I must have been very, very good because I am so happy I could scream from the rooftops.

However all good things must come to an end and this morning a certain little girl woke up with a temperature, a headache, a tummy ache and a sore throat. Lily has a very high pain threshold so I know she must really feel awful cos she has said something about it. So we are off to see our wonderful pediatrician in a couple of hours and until then we are hunkering down on the couch together because she is quite clingy and as much as I am sorry she feels rotten I love the clingy part.

Ho Ho Ho

From our home to yours we wish you a wonderful Christmas filled with love, laughter, health and happiness.

With Love,
Jacob, Dawn and Lily.



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These are not the photos we wanted to share because we have the worlds most beautiful photo of Lily with Santa however being so computer savvy we cannot figure out how to blog them. OY VEY!

Friends, Fun, Food and Festivities

Last night we met up with our friends, Ed, Jenny and Ebby and we took the kiddos out for hamburgers and then off to see the Christmas lights. We met up at their house, since it was on the way, and the kiddies exchanged Christmas gifts. As Ebby opened up his gift my heart sank because I had absent mindedly picked up the wrong gift for him and this toy was completely inappropriate for a 3 yr old. Jenny realised something was wrong by the look of pure horror on my face and handled it in a way that impressed the heck out of me and little Ebby handed over the gift. Jenny is one of the most amazing parents that I know. This morning bright and early we righted the wrong and the little guy got his gift and thankfully he loved it. Man that was a true blonde moment. (note to self: read the tag you MORON.)

Back to last night. We stopped for dinner and the kids had fun. No, don't let this photo fool you they really did have a great time together.

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Then it was off to see the same house that we go to each year. These people do a truly incredible job decorating their home and thousands of people visit each year. Sadly the man who lived here died a couple of months ago but his son wants to continue the tradition. They have collection boxes scattered around and they raise money for one of our local cancer hospitals. I hope that everyone donates because so much time and effort is involved in the display and it is such a worthy cause. When you put money in a box they hand you a candy cane. Do you have any idea how many candy canes we had to buy for the kids last night. LOL. I love a good cause.

One small part of it but it has penguins and it seems that many people love pengy's.


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Midget Sucking A Candy Cane

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And last but not least I found out just how hard taking photos is going to be from here on out. I hear so many of you saying how hard it is to get 2 kids to look at the camera at the same time and last night I got to experience your pain.

Take 1

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Take 2

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Take 3

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Take 4.......thankfully just as I was about to try again Jenny yelled, I got it! She managed to get both kids to look at her and smile. I told you she was good.

The excitement level has risen another 1,000,000,000 points again today. I can't wait until Christmas. I actually think Jacob and I are even worse than Lily.

A Little Slice Of Heaven

Today in the mail we received a DVD of Rosie. I ran to the DVD player at full speed put it in hit play and the display in the screen read: cannot read disc. My heart sank but I bounded up the stairs and ran to our bedroom, put the disc in and on the screen appeared the words: wrong kind of disc. I came bounding back downstairs and shoved and I mean shoved, it into the computer this time I was greeted with the message: windows media player cannot play this type of disc. My mouth fell open and I was close to tears. Jacob, cos he knows me so well, was grabbing the Notebook out of it's case and took the disc from me. This was it if we didn't have success this time we would be out of luck.

It took a bit longer than usual but all of a sudden we got to see our little girl. She has changed so much. She has hair now. Oddly enough she looks alot like Lily did when she was little. The disc was comprised of 3 short clips, one of her in the bath, one of her eating, boy can she pack it away and one of her playing. Her nanny was trying very hard to elicit a smile but she wasn't having any of it. At one point she almost smiled but changed her mind. She was very intently playing with her toys and was not about to do what anybody wanted her to do which was clap her hands. She sat very still and just looked bewildered.

I cried. I cried because she is mine and I can't have her, I cried because she looks so sad, I cried because she just looks lost and lastly I cried because it is what I do!

If anybody wants me I will have my face attached to the Apple and will not be moving until someone says I can get on the plane.

Our very own little slice of heaven and we cannot wait to share her. I must go now, I have my favourite movie to watch.

Palpable Excitement

Today is Lily's last day of school before winter break and she is so excited. She is having a Polar Expre.ss Christmas party and in honour of the occasion she was required to wear her jammies to school.

Last night before she went to bed she picked out her jammies and her slippers and as I bent down to kiss her she said, "I just wish it was tomorrow already". I told her to close her eyes and when she opened them again it would be time for school. Yes, silly me because she just blinked really fast and leapt out of bed yelling it's tomorrow, it's tomorrow, let's go to school in pajamas.

I expected her to get up at 3 but she managed to stay asleep until 5am. She may have slept later if my hubby hadn't just walked in the door from work. He was supposed to be home shortly after midnight but he didn't arrive until 5.13. Darn winter snow storms are messing up all the flights! I tried so hard to get her to fall back to sleep but it was hopeless so as Jacob crawled into bed we got up. She wanted to get dressed immediately but I was able to convince her that if she had her brekky all down the front of her P.J's they wouldn't look very nice.

We have one very excited pajama girl and I think the excitement level is just going to increase until there is a bad case of spontaneous human combustion. I love this time of year. I love to see her getting so excited it is just plain old PHUN. I can't wait until Christmas morning.......I hope she isn't up at 3.

Don't you just LURVE her slippers. Nannis gave them to her and the little Rudolph nose lights up as she walks.

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Family

Two years ago today I was in England for the worst reason possible. My Mother had died very suddenly and very unexpectedly. Receiving that phone call was without a doubt the worst moment of my life. Lily and I were playing in the park and I left my cellphone in my car when we returned to the car my cellphone was lighting up like a Christmas tree with all the missed calls and voice messages. I rang Jacob first and he told me to, "Come Home NOW". I knew something was wrong and I told him I would not even put the keys in the ignition unless he told me what was going on. He told me that my Mother had been rushed to hospital and that things didn't look good. I headed home fast.

Three phone calls later and I was packing a case to leave. Jacob got Lily and I on a plane and we arrived in London early on the 18th. Dazed and confused I went to the hospital and made it in time to say good bye. She never regained consciousness. How could the person that I talked to 2 days early be gone forever.

Family is so important. Without them we are nothing. Don't forget to say, I love you. Don't put it off because you think you have time because I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, that nothing is certain and they may not be anymore time. We always told each other, I love you.

To my sister and brother: I love you both very much and know you love me too. I am so happy that I have you both. Don't be sad today cos you know Mummy wouldn't want that.

To my Mummy. I miss you and I love you. Love never stops. I hope the Christmas lights are pretty where you are. You always loved this time of year and made it so wonderful.
P.S. Isn't Rosie beautiful?

Christmas Is Coming

This time of year is always quite high energy in this house and this year is no exception. Lily loves everything about the holidays, the lights, the cookies that we bake together, the tree, the decorations, well you get the idea. Each morning she charges downstairs to open another door on her advent calendar and announces how many days are left until the chubby guy arrives.

When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas she thought about it for awhile and then said, "Mummy, I don't really want anything, I have everything that I need". I was so proud of her. She decided to ask Santa to bring her whatever he thinks she would like. On Sunday whilst as a Christmas party she sat on Santa's lap and she told him she had been good and would like something but I couldn't hear what she said. He handed her a little gift and she ran back over to me to open it. She ripped open the paper and declared, "He didn't listen to me this isn't what I asked for!" After I contained my hysterical giggling fit I explained that he is just one of Santa's helpers and that he would go back to the North Pole and tell Santa what she wanted and that the gift was just a little surprise for her. She looked at me and said" Oh, well in that case, I like this."

I let Lily decorate the tree this year. The whole tree. She used a little ladder and had a wonderful time. I think we all have theories about how trees should look and I have mine. Miss Lil had her own ideas so as I twitched and nervously rocked back and forth she went to town. I have to say she did a great job and we only had one ornament casualty this year. Once she was done with the tree she hung the stockings. Since we don't have a fireplace, they are somewhat redundant in this part of the world, she hung them on the stairs. She called me over to look and my heart became all warm and fuzzy because she had hung 4. I said to her, "Oh how sweet you hung one for your baby sister". Her reply put me back into the real world really quick, "No I haven't that one is for Bunny". Hmm silly me. I, like many of you, have been waiting forever to have Christmas stockings monogrammed but I am waiting now until next year. I know exactly which ones I want and I am thinking I should get one that says Bunny as well.

Bunny's Stocking


Goofy Girl and HER Tree

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We ordered matching, Jie Jie and Mei Mei t-shirts yesterday. Lily got to choose them and they are really adorable. She is so excited about being a big sister. For now we are trying to stay in Christmas mode but it is so hard. Once the holidays are over we are going on a baby buying blitz. Lily was older than Rose at referral, although depending how long it takes to bring her home they could be the same age, but Rose is so much smaller so we need to get the little peanut some clothes that will fit her. I can't wait to go shopping for her.

Lily wants to wear clothes that match her sister on adoption day but I can't find anywhere that sells matching clothes from age 9mos -5. Most places have 2t -5 but nothing for babies that match bigger sizes.. Anyone got any favourite places? I will even go with coordinating patterns at this point.

One Small Step.

We received word yesterday from our agency that they have received our pre-approval from the CCAA to go ahead with the adoption of Rosie. WOOHOO, it was fast we were told anywhere from 2 weeks to a month.

So what comes next? We wait for our LOA and TA. For those of you who don't what what that means, our letter of acceptance and our travel approval.

Keep sending those happy thoughts, good vibes and prayers that we get all of those FAST too please.

They didn't like our passport photos so we have to have them redone. I didn't like mine either!

Lily has no passport at the minute as it has been sent off to be renewed. It is so scary to send all her original documents off in a brown envelope.

A Christmas Kiss

Today we finished off our Christmas shopping. Lily and I went out early this evening and managed to get everything else we needed. As we were standing in line at a register in Crate and Barre*l she spotted some mistletoe and ask me this: "Mummy, why do people kiss under the bristletoe?" I found it so hard not to laugh. The man in front of me cracked up. I decided that since there are so few Lilyisms left that I am not touching this one. I have corrected her a few times but it isn't sinking in so from now on Bristletoe it is. Something about the thought of bristley toes makes me want to gag rather than pucker up but oh well.

Hope your day was merry and bright.

Our baby girl is going to spend Christmas in the orphanage all alone with no Father Christmas to spread the Christmas cheer. This one is killing me. We bought her some gifts today and plan on sending them to her. But it hurts all the way into the middle of my heart.

Trying To Stay Focused

Becoming a mummy of 2 has really done a number on my brain. I can't sleep and my amazing skills as a multi tasker have been reduced to "can't do anything at all skills". I start a job and then via off in a completely different direction and half do something else. I am so happy and I can't concentrate.

This morning I remembered that Christmas is just around the corner. I didn't actually forget this but I have not done anything about preparing for it for 2 weeks. I would head out to do some shopping and get sucked in to a strange vortex that only allowed me to shop for baby things.

This is not going to work! As of today "Her Cuteness" is being placed on the "To Do" list and Christmas is being placed on the "Priority List". I have to focus on one thing and one thing only. This afternoon Lily and I went to the Hallmark shop and picked out some Asian themed ornaments thanks to RMJ and Steffie B who showed them off on their blogs. When we came home we put up the tree, well we started to at least. I am not working tomorrow so that I can get ahead of the game again and not dither about like I am suffering from the blonde flu.

Thank you all for your kind words about Rosie. We cannot wait to go and get her and we are keeping everything crossed that it will be in 8 weeks time.

Ahem, Your Attention. Please watch video

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So that is our news in a nutshell, Lily has a baby sister!

Now if you have the time, get yourselves comfy and I will give you the long version cos I have been quiet for so long I have loads to tell.

Shortly we after we logged in for our second adoption we started peeking at the waiting child lists. We fell in love with a little girl, we requested her information from our agency and took her all over town seeking out medical opinions. Her medical needs were complex, but oh how we loved her. We knew deep down inside that we were not the right family for her. So as we mailed her back to WACAP I sealed the envelope with my tears, tears that wouldn't stop. We were hurt, raw and vowed to never do that to ourselves again. We never mentioned any of it to Lily. I still see that little face everyday in my head but it helps to know she has her forever family now.

Many many months zoomed by and 3 weeks ago I said to Jacob on a Friday morning, "I think we need to look at the SN lists again". He agreed. Many of our personal friends have gone this route and they have the most beautiful children and each journey has touched us so very much. One story very recently touched me so much I cried their whole trip. Then there are our friends Marc and Lori who have just bought home their beautiful son. I shouldn't really point out certain families cos there are so many blogs I have seen lately that have moved me. That evening we received an email from our coordinator letting us know that they were about to receive a new waiting child list and if we were interested to let her know. Hmmmm, that is odd we were just talking about it. I emailed back and told her we were. The following week she rang me to see what needs we were interested in. I told her and we chatted for ages. 2 days later she rang to tell us about a little girl who had a heart condition. I said, "send her".

Her profile arrived the day before Thanksgiving. I opened the package and there was our daughter, I just knew it and when Jacob saw her he knew it. So cute it was ridiculous. I rang Jacob, I rang the pediatrician, I rang a few surgeon friends of mine and the wheels started to turn. Then it was Thanksgiving and everyone took a long weekend.....zoinks. We hid her photos in my desk because we knew if we kept looking at her we would grow attached and we needed the facts on her cute little self before we dared to let down our guard. Did I mention how cute she is? Thankfully Andie was with us and she is an ICU nurse so between the 2 of us we were able to decipher some of the records. I am also thankful she was here cos we were able to share it all with her.

The first Dr's visit ended like this, Go for it, she will be fine this is a non issue. Then we went to the second DR and he told us the same story. Even DR Google concurred. We visited more Dr.s and finally wound up with an appointment to see the head of cardiology at our local pediatric hospital. He explained everything and we left there knowing that all that was left was for us to do was ring our agency and tell them yes.

But not so fast cos every good story has a plot. Our agency gives waiting families the first look at all their new SN lists. They send 2 or 3 profiles to each family and if more than one family is interested it comes down to LID and resource plan. We had to fill out 11 questions to show that we knew what we were getting in to. 11 measly questions...that would never work. I put together a package for them and once we left the last Dr's office we went straight to FEDE*x.

And then I came home and emailed them. One hour later they hadn't responded which is most unusual. A second hour past and still nothing. I just need to add here that I kept my father and Jeanne abreast of every single move nobody else knew anything. Andie only found out when she arrived in the thick of it. I rang my folks to tell them it was a go. Feeling very anxious, yes me anxious hard to imagine, NOT, I rang our coordinator cos I was about to die of waiting. We spoke to our lady and she said, I have some good news, you have been matched. I nearly fell over, how could this be. I know FED*ex is quick but seriously how could we be matched? Then it sank in and in front of Lily I said, "so can we tell Lily she has a sister?" The answer was, yes you can. Lily of course heard this and shrieked, "I have a sister?". All I could think was no, don't tell her yet we still have hoops to jump through. So I looked at her and said, "Oh Honey I am sorry, we are talking about what happens when you get your sister". She went back to doing her homework. After we hung up I realised that I had just received, the call" but in fact I had made the call. Very odd way of receiving your referral.

I rang Jacob and told him. He was so happy and then I said, "shall we tell Lily"?
He said, Yes, No, I mean Yes"
I said,laughing "I shall try this again, Shall we tell Lil?"
He said, "Yes".
I wanted to wait for him but he wanted me to do it so I video taped it all for him to see.

I picked up the DHS package and walked up to lily and told her that I had something very important to tell and that I needed to video tape her. She was fine with it. She sat down very still and I handed her the package and told her that it came for her today in the post. She looked puzzled and then opened it up. She stared in disbelief and ever so gently pulled out her sisters pictures and asked if this was her sister. When I said it was she kissed the photo. She has been floating on the big sister cloud ever since.

I called back my parents and told my father and he said, "I know she is ours with that name she couldn't belong to anyone else".
It just so happens that her Chinese name is part of maiden name and the part that we ALL got called as a nickname. See it was fate. I was unable to talk about it because it wasn't certain but now it is. The CCAA has our LOI and we are moving forward. We are all so excited.

Our little girl is 9 months old and is waiting for us in Guangdong. She has a very mild heart condition that we will take care of once she comes home. We are calling her Rose but we seem to use Rosie more than Rose. Lily saw her face, saw one rosey cheek and said, "Lets call her Rosie". It doesn't matter what name we call her as long as we can call her ours.

Now for the bad news: I cannot post her photos as she is not officially ours yet in the eyes of the CCAA. We have a confidentiality agreement with our agency. I am so sorry. She is gorgeous, just gorgeous and we love her to bits. Once I get the Ok I will slap her cuteness all over this blog.
We hope to travel within the next 2-5 months. Our agency is working at warped speed ditto our social worker. We still have a few hoops and hurdles but we are on our way.

I am the luckiest person in the world. I have the 2 most beautiful girls in the world.......don't we all.

I'm Under A Gag Order.

I have to take a tiny weiny little break from the blog. It won't be for long but we have some stuff going on that I must deal with. It is all good but I can't get into here, at least not for the time being. Since I am notorious for opening my mouth and blabbing it will be lots better if I walk away for a bit instead of accidentally telling the whole damn world.

Once I am back I will spill the beans. Dear lord how do people keep secrets???? I could never be a spy, I would suck.

I'm Late, I'm Late For A Very Important Date.

I was sitting here minding my own business and catching up with all the happenings of Bloggyville when I perused the 3d's blog and suddenly realised that yesterday was our 21 month LIDversary and I hadn't noticed either, DUH. Is anybody still counting anymore? The months just float by almost unnoticed but we know in the end we will win the prize, the Grand Prize.

My cousin left yesterday. We are sad. Lily is quite miserable and first thing this morning she carefully opened Andie's bedroom door and peeked in. I asked her what she was looking for and she told me that she was just checking to see if she had come back cos she misses her so much. All day yesterday her little voice kept saying, I don't want Andie to leave. It was sad. I don't like my little girl to be sad but she will be fine shortly.