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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Radio Silence

For those of you who've been asking, here is the short and condensed version of our trip:



July 11, fly out of Alabama,USA, north to Michigan.

Fly from Michigan, west to Washington State.

From Washington State fly north west for a LONG time ...






...land in Beijing, China ( north eastern China - green area with star, inside of Hebei Province - Beijing is the capital of China,) spend a few nights and see some stuff that one day I will be glad that I have pictures of. :)

From Beijing fly almost straight south (veer a bit to the west) to Nanning, Guangxi. (Guangxi borders the South China Sea and Nanning is actually to the east of the top of Vietnam.)


Receive Lyric!!!!!!


And, then spend about a week doing adoption stuff for China.

From Guangxi fly due east to the city of  Guangzhou in the province of Guangdong, spend about a week doing American consulate stuff.

Done? Ready to go home? Yes, please!

Fly a bit south east to Hong Kong. ( The status of Hong Kong is more than a little confusing. Hong Kong is an island off of mainland China and, according to Wiki Answers, "Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China; therefore, it is a part of China, but not physically "in" China. It falls under the slogan "One country, two systems" because of the differences between China and Hong Kong." The short version? The British had a ninety-nine year "lease" of Hong Kong that ended in 1997 when they returned it to China. )


From Hong Kong fly alllllll the way back to Michigan, USA ( in Michigan, Lyric will become a US citizen- my Ohio State University fan husband is NOT too excited that she'll become a US citizen in Michigan, hahaha) and then to Alabama, arriving July 27. 


( It's really sorta strange, China is a day ahead of the States so we leave on July 27 in China at 10:25am, fly 15 + hours, and land in the USA (Michigan,) at 1:40pm also on July 27. Good thing I took that "New Math" that they forced on us in the 1980's.  hahahahaha)


I have been told that I CAN access my blog from China so pictures and updates to come when I have the energy.  I can NOT access Facebook so if that's how you find out about blog posts, you may want to figure something else out.  


We're outta here!


Over and out.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

So, Let's Review

Late February 2011:
We sent in our adoption application and started the process.

Paperwork and waiting followed. Much paperwork. Much waiting.

Early July 2011:
We received Q-Boo's referral packet via email and the "Oh, yes!" picture came scrolling across our computer screen.


The "Oh, yes!" photo
- the first pic we saw of Lyric.
We think she was about 6 months old, here

July 8, 2011 :
We accepted Q-Boo's referral on her first birthday.  We have a daughter! 



Q-Boo, on her first birthday.


Pretty cool first birthday present - the promise of a family.





Half-way around the world, we celebrated Q-Boo's birthday.


More paperwork. More waiting. Seriously, just MORE.


November 11, 2011:
We received an update on our little Q.


She's about 16 months, here.























End of December 2011:
DTC  -Dossier To China

January 12, 2012:
LID - Logged In Date


January 17, 2012:
Another update of Lyric!



About 18 months old.
























Not to break the theme - More paperwork. More waiting.

April 3, 2012:
LOA -Letter of Approval

You guessed it. More paperwork.  More waiting.


May 11, 2012:
Update!



22 months


Ack! She's getting so growny-looking!
(That's Southern-ese for "big.")


June 18, 2012:
Article 5  

June 25, 2012:
TA - Travel Approval

July 8, 2012:
I requested another update because on this day, Lyric turned two.

I can NOT believe that we got it but here it its! There are just too many cute pictures!




Happy 2nd Birthday, Q-Boo!



今天我把两岁
"Today, I turned two years old!"





















Birthday chicken leg




 
<sigh>



And, here are the photos of us celebrating her second birthday  ...

























... yep, still 1/2 way around the world.










But we won't be 1/2 way around the world for long because ...
 
... July 16, 2012?

That's Gotcha Day!


Pretty cool (almost) second birthday present - becoming someone's daughter.



See this spot here ...





... yeah, right here?  
 



This is where I add the picture of  me and my baby girl with this caption: 


"And finally, here is the picture of me 'listening' to my sweet little Lyric for the first time."




6 days from today.

17 months we've been waiting.

The waiting ends 6 days from today.



Friday, July 6, 2012

*Arbitrary Thoughts at the End

I have no idea where these are coming from ... but here's what keeps going through my head on this, the final stretch of time before we leave for China. Well, going through my mind in between all the DETAILS that have to be worked out. I have no idea what to do with any of these thoughts ... my brain slows down for two seconds and there they are.  Enjoy! <sarcasm>

* I dreamed about Q-Boo all one night recently - stress dreams mostly.  She was taller than I expected but so small-boned that she still wore a 24 months. Her pants were "floodin' " up around her ankles.  I kept forgetting her when we went places, "This is Middle Child and Wild Child and ... oh, yeah! Lyric."   I dreamed that I was still in high school and couldn't carry her and all my books.  But no matter the circumstance, the joy in my dreams always overwhelmed the "stress."

* I keep thinking about a lady, whose blog comments I read.  In an effort to appear younger, she'd colored her hair blonde right before leaving to go to China to pick up her child.  Her new Chinese daughter had fought and screamed and cried so much and for so long that, in the middle of the night, they'd finally called the interpreter back to the hotel. Eventually, the interpreter had gotten the little girl calmed down enough to figure out what was wrong.  Seems that, in the orphanage, the kids were threatened with a witch coming to get them if they didn't behave -kinda like our version of the boogieman. It also seems that, in Chinese folk tales, witches always have blonde hair.  That poor new mom had had the best intentions but had gotten slapped around by a culture that she didn't understand. Worse, that terrified little girl had been faced with living an actual nightmare and had been screaming at her new mother, "You will NOT eat me!" 








* I read an update on a little girl on the Love without Boundaries site. But it was the story that they'd included, in passing, about the young woman in the photo who was holding the little girl, that still haunts me.  The young woman had grown up in the orphanage and the orphanage had scraped together enough money through sponsorships to send her to school and then to college. After going to college and becoming an accountant, she'd done the impossible.  Then, she tried to get a job and found out that, because she'd grown up as an orphan, no one would hire her. All the companies that she'd interviewed with were afraid that she'd bring them bad luck.  So, the orphanage had hired her as their accountant because no one else would. Seems, in China, once an orphan always an orphan.

* I keep thinking about another little girl whose picture was also on the Love Without Boundaries site (my agency's site?  I forget.)  She'd grown up in a foster family but did not know that she was a foster child. She'd thought that she was a biological child of her foster parents until, at the age of ten, someone else in the family (an aunt? an uncle?) had told her the truth, you're an orphan.  When she was twelve, her foster family took her back to the orphanage and said that they couldn't afford to keep her any longer.
  
The orphanage had discussed options with her, you can stay here in the orphanage or we can try to find you a family - it would probably be an overseas family. What do you want to do? What she wanted to do was go back home with her foster mom. That was not an option. (The foster mom did stay and try to help with the transition, so she was the one who said, "You can't come home with me.")   So, finally the little girl agreed, "find me a home." The orphanage was scrambling to find her a family before she turned 14 and aged out of the system. She'd be stuck in the orphanage permanently if they couldn't find and place her in an adoptive home within two years and IF they could find one, it would probably be thousands of miles away in a country and culture totally different than her own. I can NOT imagine that poor little girl's heart.

* Every one who should know is telling me that Q-Boo will be TINY -other adoptive parents, my very, very good friend Thao who also just happens to be Vietnamese, (even my in-laws,) everyone. They should know. But the measurements that I've received for her repeatedly from China do not agree with this, they say that she is a normal (for an American kid) sized 2T.  But the one thing that I've figured out is that these measurements could be canned.  They could just be sending me "normal American kid" measurements but haven't really actually checked her.  So, I dug out my "Growth Chart for Southern Chinese Girls" - amazing what you can find on the Internet, huh?

According to this growth chart, Q-Boo is in the 50th percentile for height (in other words, about average for kids her age and ethnicity) but  literally off the charts everywhere else. I mean OFF the charts, BIG!  Which basically means that she'd have to be short(er) and fat with a big head - <giggle> she doesn't look like this in the photos. Hmmmmmmmm ...  This should be interesting.  Any body want to take bets?  Tiny or BIG?  I'm betting tiny.  I'll let you know.


*There is a way that the knife cuts and I bleed poetry. It may not be good poetry but it's mine- sometimes, the deeper the emotion, the easier it is to express myself in snatches of phrases instead of paragraphs.






Bird-Daughters


Flea-bitten and weak
Pelted by rain
Huddled down in my darkness
Naked and feeble
My ankles fused in place like sticks


Pressed against the wall of the nest
Resolutely refusing to peek
Past the rough edge, afraid
To trust that the air would keep me
From the stony ground


The wind whispered lies
And I believed
Because it was easier


Arms outstretched
like wings, sinews scarred and toughened
wrapping tighter than I'd thought possible,
muscles pulled and plucked
but tempered, from lifting myself
toward the sound of you
singing to me over miles of ocean
and piles of paperwork.


Gotcha!


And, we both fly free.



Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Par-tay!

(Yes, any time this many middle-aged women get together - with wine - it is called, a "par-tay!'  Roll your eyes, if you must. THIS is how we roll.)


Names are pretty important to me. I have a freaking English degree, words mean something. I always pay attention to the names of the streets where I live, I can't help it, it's just one of my many adorable quirks.  (Right after the whole Lorena Bobbitt thing, we were considering a house on "Babbet Dr" and I told my,  now, ex-husband I CAN NOT live there,  I'm sorry, I am quirky ... and adorable. hahahaha)  Anyway, so when I found out that the mountain where we live, Monte Sano, is Italian for "Mountain of Health," (it says so right here, I don't speak Italian) well, after my long rocky past, it was significant to me. Honey, we've moved to the "Mountain of Health,"  in so many ways.


Last night, the ladies of Monte Santo threw Lyric a baby shower. All of these beautiful photos are by Sandy Allbee ( a REAL name, I used a REAL name on this blog -besides Lyric's :)  ) and since she did such a great job, I'm just gonna post some of my favorites.









 












 




















 
 


















 




























Seriously ladies, thank you. It meant so much.


I actually painted my toenails for the occasion.  The last time ANY nail on me was painted was 6 1/2 years ago, right before Middle Child was born. For some reason, it was important to me to have painted fingernails when he was born. Apparently, this time, it's the toenails.  



 

Wild Child (who did not create within me the need to paint nails right before he was born,) stood over me, watching intently, "What are you doing?"
"Painting my toenails."
Wild Child studied this situation for a moment.
"WHY are you painting your toenails?"
" 'Cause it's pretty. Don't you think it's pretty?"
"No. It looks like pirate toes."

 
PS There is another "par-tay" in play (but you'll have to bring your own wine.)  Another one of my treasured friends, "Gorgeous Garcia," has requested to throw Lyric an online baby shower for all those people who want to be a part of one but live far away. 

In my gypsy-like-life, that's quite a few people. 

If you want to be a part of this online baby shower, please go to my page on Facebook and click on my only friend with the last name "Garcia," then private message her.  Tell her a bit about how we know each other so that she can be sure that you're not a freak. (Why would you be? You're one of MY Fb friends.)

hahahahaha 

No, seriously, no freaks allowed.  

Other than the "no freaks" mandate, I have no idea about the particulars -  I and my pirate toes are going to China!



Sunday, July 1, 2012

Whoa!


Shhhhh ...


...  come here.


I want you to see something.


It's really weird!






There is pink stuff in my washer!





There's girly stuff in my truck, too.


(Oldest Child has pretty much been squeezed out of the backseat
but I don't really think that he's sorry about that!)




 Oh, my.