Mommy Daughter Time

Yesterday, Brynn and I went to Le Golden Arches for supper since we had a haircut appointment at 6. We had so much fun, just the two of us. I found out that we don't do this nearly enough. This will be something I mark on my calendar to do.

You know that a 3 year old humor is really hard to beat. She cracks herself up all the time. She was looking at the expensive glassware that was holding her drink and asked who Ronald McDonald was. I explained the wierd looking, strange dressing man to her (Seriously, what grown man wears yellow and red while having red hair? More kids should have nightmares because of him.). Then she asked what a liitle girl on the cup was doing. I said that she was using a hula hoop. Brynn proceeded to say "hula poop" and cracked up. I thought only boys found bodily functions funny?

We then went for our haircuts. Brynn's hair needed cut so badly. It had started growing so oddly. The top was super long like actually touching her back and the underneath wasn't even touching her collar. And it had to be cut to match. Maybe by Chinapalooza 2008, it will be long enough for a pony tail.

Another LID-versary

Woo-Hoo 17 months. Just insane.

A Great Evening

Do you want to know what one of the best things in the world is? Seeing a 45 year old man play with your daughter knowing that in just a few short weeks, he will become a first time parent. He was wonderful with Brynn. He entertained her for hours and had such patience with our little 3 year old wonder. He is going to be such a wonderful daddy. And Amy is going to be such a blessing te her little girl.

Jim and Amy, please know how excited we are for you. We can not wait to meet Ilayna. And thanks for a wonderful evening.

Lucky?

Today at 8:08 in the morning, it was 8 degrees. Now, China may think that eights are lucky (hence the Olympics starting on 8/8/08), but I didn't feel at all lucky bundling up Brynn and hauling her to my mother-in-law's. With the wind chill, it was 2 below. Even Brynn asked this morning when it was going to warm up. She's tired of the coat, gloves and hat every time we leave the house. Frankly, I'm tired of her car seat and bulky winter coat. I am ready for spring!!




Yesterday was Teddy Bear Day at preschool. Brynn took Pooh Bear. We actually had to search for a bear. She's more of a farm animal kid. They did a craft and watched a movie. The craft says You're Beary Special. My obviously illiterate husband thought it said You're Barely Special. Yep, that's good self esteem boosting there, Daddy.

What is her fascination?

Brynn drew this last night. It is a picture of her and me. I am going to work with my lunch bag and she is going to school. I'm on the left. She is on the right. I'm thinking this is so special, just a picture of her and me. Then I ask what the round things are between my legs. Well, of course, it's my poop. I laugh hysterically. That's a funny 3 year old's mind. But, really, does she have to be fascinated with poop? Anything but poop.




Proud Mommy moment--Brynn was waiting for me to get ready this morning and wrote the letter A. Pretty good too if I may say so myself. She impresses me so much with her knowledge. Last night, she counted to 25 and only made one mistake.

By the way, are the moons misaligned? In the last 5 days, I have fallen in my house smacking my knee, chin and nose on the kitchen floor, tried to do a split on an iced over puddle with Brynn in my arms, and ran my inner ankle bone into Bitty Baby's suitcase pulling my inner thigh muscle (still sore from aforementioned split attempt). Seriously, what gods have I angered?

What Brynn's Reading

Brynn has now started reading her books to us. Right now Eric Carle's Panda Bear Panda Bear What Do You See is a favorite. The black panther is a kitty. The eagle is a peacock. You get the idea. Not perfect, but perfectly cute to us.

She is also reading Once Upon a Potty even though she has been potty trained for a while now. I just think she likes saying pee pee and wee wee. Poo Poo isn't not too bad to her either.

She loves reading, which pleases me to no end. Some days she picks baby books. Other days she loves pop-ups. Dr. Suess and Sandra Boynton are cool to her too. I don't care what she wants us to read as long as she is reading.

We "Hunkered"

The Siberian Express (That's what our weatherman was calling it.)definitely hit us. Holy crap, it was and still is cold. Kevin went out yesterday afternoon for about 5 minutes and came back in with very red, ice cold cheeks. So we stayed in most of the weekend.
Brynn got up yesterday asking what we were going to do. I told her we were going to hunker. She responded in her whiny, sassy 3 year old voice, "But I don't want to hunker." Once I pointed out that hunkering down meant eating snacks and chocolate from here (ah, chocolate covered pretzels and peanut butter meltaways--to die for) all day, she changed her mind and decided hunkering sounded like fun.



This is our tea party that we had in our living room. Surprise--it was Fudge's birthday. Fudge is her imaginary puppy that doesn't have a butt and poops out his head, so we had to sing "Happy Birthday" over and over. I truly love her imagination. It inspires us to be creative.

I hope that everyone stayed warm this past weekend. I can't wait til the thermometer hits 30 degrees. It will feel like a heat wave.

My PSA for the day

Did you know that you could search the internet and raise money for an organization. Go to goodsearch.com I always have Love Without Boundaries as my goodsearch organization. They are a great charity that helps orphans left behind in China. Anyway, go ahead and try it. There are many organizations listed.

Have a great weekend. It is supposed to be very, very cold here so we are going to "hunker" down in front of the fireplace most of the weekend.

Home Depot?

Brynn and I were taking a shower together. (Note to first time parents--sometimes it is just so much easier to do this than lean over the tub trying to scrub while the 3 year old is saying No, let me do. No soap. Watch the shampoo. Not in my eyes. Water is too hot. and on and on and on) She wanted to do something that people can't do--some backbend thingy-yes in the shower. This is the conversation from there.

B: But why can't I do it.
Me: Because people just can't.
B: Monsters can.
Me: There are no such things as monsters.
B: Yes there are.
Me: Where? (assuming that I was going to hear the closet or under my bed)
B: At Home Depot.

What did she just say? I obviously had way too much shampoo in my ears. Or maybe we have just been visiting Home Depot way too much.

I love the mind of the 3 year old. Although it does always keep me guessing.

Are we running out of cows?

Seriously, is there a reason that we have to eat meat from cloned cows? Is the US running so low on cattle that we have to rely on science to provide us with beef to eat? You can view the Good Morning America story here When did bulls stop doing what they are supposed to do? Are our cows becoming infertile? Do we need to start fertility treatments for them too? Call the bovine reproductive endocrinologists. This is a national emergency. Our cows are not doing what is necessary to feed us. Do we need to pay composers to write arousing cow music to get this problem fixed? I am not normally someone that makes any type of political statement, but come on, cloned meat is as safe as regularly grown (and bred) meat? This is just crazy.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Our whole family (minus just a couple) celebrated my grandma's 96th birthday last night at a restaurant owned by my cousin.

My grandma has to be one of the best loved people. Her heart is golden. She has been all over the US and is always away from home, yet has never driven a day in her life. She has never spoken a bad word against anyone, but does enjoy a little gossip every now and then. She has been a widow longer than she was married. She has survived the death of her husband and son.

Just imagine the things she has seen in her lifetime--indoor plumbing, electric, TV, a remote controlled TV, computers, telephone, party lines on the phone, rotary phone, push button phone, now cordless phones, and so many more things.

She was Grandma down the road to my niece since Grandma lives only a few hundred yards from our house. She was the grandma that always had a cookie and homemade lemonade for me whenever I was walking home from the bus stop. And the grandma that always watched Guiding Light at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

She is starting to age now. Her 96 years are slowly catching up to her. Her hearing is poor and she has macular degeneration in her eyes, but she still loves her family and loves life. She is one of the best role models I have in my life. I can only dream of being like her.

So, happy birthday Grandma. We love you.

The new estimate...

Can you believe it? 2010. That's when one agency projected we would get our referral and not early 2010. At the end of that year. Well, at least Brynn will remember China? She'll be six by then.

See, I can be positive in this mess.

Our Saturday

We had such a good day on Saturday. The weather was awesome so we went hiking through our woods. We put on some old clothes and just walked. Brynn loves playing in the creek behind our house. Watching the leaves float down it are just about the best thing to her.

One of my heroes

I am truly blessed in my life. My mom died when I was 21 years old. She was too young to die and I was too young for her to die. But sometimes you are provided with just what you need when you need it. To me this means one of the most special people in my life-my "work Mom", Janet. She was there for me whenever I needed her-through our infertility, my dad's kidney cancer and ultimate death, and the adoption of our Brynn. She is truly an amazing woman.

She retired 2 years ago when her mom was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Since her retirement her mom has died of the cancer, her mother-in-law died from breast cancer, her sister-in-law's stomach cancer has come back, and she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. But the worst part so far has got to be her 2.5 year old grandson's recent diagnosis of neuroblastoma, which is a childhood cancer. And it is Stage IV. It is such a sad diagnosis, yet the hope is great that he will survive. But throughout all of this, she has remained true to herself, her faith and her family. I am so blessed to have this woman in my life.

Some People

I was at the grocery store yesterday and ran into someone that I haven't seen for a while. She had heard that we were going back to China and I, of course, said whenever China tells us to come. She reminded me that her son and daughter-in-law had adopted a son from Russia and they were thinking of going back since Russia had reopened. (which I didn't know) I told her they should definitely go and get the girl they want. And she responded, "Well, you know they had one of their own." What, the adopted child isn't theirs? Only bio kids are ours? That kind of stuff drives me insane maybe because I am from one of "those families" that have adopted and bio kids and we are all siblings. There is no difference. And just as an aside--My brother's adoption was $25. My sister's was $50. Ours are costing us a little more than that:)

Not all Sunshine-y

I am normally a pretty upbeat person. Ask everyone around me. I don't let stuff bother me. The last two days have really beaten me up. People who are not part of the China adoption community just don't understand the upheaval that China is creating. And what is sad is that the children are the ones truly being hurt. China is a prideful country. I want Brynn to be proud of China. I respect the pride. But, this whole trying-to-save-face-in-front-of-the-whole-world thing is really tiresome. Most people in the civilized world know that China allows international adoption. This isn't big news. Now that the Olympics are only a few short months away, they decided that they don't want it to be known that they don't take care of their own, that many babies and children are in orphanages, that special needs kids (kids who aren't "perfect") aren't wanted. Well, guess what? Most people already know this. This isn't late breaking news.

Kevin and I are planning on sticking out the wait. We don't have the finances or the energy to start with another country. And, truly, we love China. We love the culture, the people, the beauty of the counrty. I'm just not in love with the higher ups in the Chinese government that are playing with my life. How dare they leave children in orphanages while there are 20,000 to 30,000 families wanting to take care of them. All children deserve love. How many are truly getting that? How many kids are going to "age out" in 10 years and be sold in slavery or prostitution or work in sweat shops their entire lives because some boss wanted to save face? It just plain sucks.

But my life does go on even if it is in limbo and probably will be for many years. Last night Brynn curled up on my lap under a blanket and played with her LeapFrog ClickStart computer. It was the best feeling in the world. My daughter loves me without question and Kevin and I can't imagine our world without her. If only #2 was here to complete our little family. We love her already. She is a part of our life, a part of our heart.

This is me right now

I am pissed and depressed and I am not a drinker. Not a good combination. China sent referrals for 5 days, 2 of which are the weekend, so really only 3 days of LIDs. This just sucks.

There are 255 days between December 19th and our LID. Divide that by 5 days and you get 51 months. That is over 4 years from now until our referral. That just can't be correct, right? Oh, and don't forget, March 2006 was a HUGE LID month. It will probably take a year to get through it alone.

I just want my daughter, Brynn's little sister. That's all. So glad we just refiled for our new 171. Woohoo--one free one from the US government. Too bad we'll need how many more before we get to China?

Maybe I will start drinking.

Congrats to Jim and Amy

China surprised many, many people. Our friends received their referral on New Year's Eve. Little Ilayna is 10 months old from Jiangxi Province. She is just too cute and we are so excited for them. They started the process when the wait was only 6 months and ended up waiting 2 years, 2 weeks from LID to referral. They will probably be traveling to NanChang within the next 8 weeks. Hopefully Chinese New Year doesn't prolong the wait that much. She needs to be home for her first birthday!! Again, congrats to them. Maybe China will surprise us again with quicker referrals!! Yeah, right.

Happy New Year...a day late

We had a great New Year's weekend although we are all sick with colds. This cold will not leave us. We have used so many Kleenex in the past 3 weeks.

We went bowling with a few friends and then back to one of their houses. Brynn made it to 11:59. As we were counting the ball down, she decided she was tired and wanted to go home. The wall had been hit. She was done. So, home for us at 12:01.

New Year's Day was spent with my stepmom and her beau. Brynn loves being at Grammy's. I'm hoping that Brynn will get to spend more time with Jean once she retires in March. Brynn would really enjoy that.

We wish a wonderful new year to everyone. May everyone's lives be wonderful and hopefully China will speed up the referral process so that many, many precious babies may come home.