Scary Jelly Beans!

Maddie and I went to Market Street (grocery store) tonight, she asked for some Jelly Beans. Me not wanting her to have a lot of them spotted a small box of which I thought was a small assortment of Jelly Beans as it had the Jelly Belly logo on the box.

As soon as we got in the car she asked for them, so I found them and handed them to her. All of a sudden she started freaking out saying, "Mommy, they are hot, my mouth is burning." I said, "Maddie, hand them to me and let me find you one that is not hot". So I turned the box around to look at the flavor guide only to be shocked that we had picked up Harry Potter Jelly Beans with the following flavors:
Bacon
Black Pepper
Boogers
Earthworm
Earwax
Rotten Egg
Sardines
Soap
Vomit
I was shocked...that is SO disgusting. Maddie had eaten the Black Pepper one...GAG! The guy at the check-out said "those Jelly Beans really taste like their description" and I was like "Yeah" as I thought to myself, they are Jelly Belly jelly beans everyone knows they taste like their description. I now know he was trying to warn me, but instead I looked at him like he was crazy.

Maddie's comment to the whole thing was "that is a BAD Market Street, Mommy".

Has It Really Been That Long?

Wow...I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. Time sure does fly. Well we have been having a busy summer thus far. Brian and I recently returned from a trip to Cancun. Brian was invited to his company's President Club this year in Cancun due to having a great sales year. We had a great time and feel blessed to be honored with a free vacation.

We became DTC (Dossier to China) on March 1st and we became LID (Log In Date in China) on March 17th. If things in China keep progressing we should have our referral (picture and medical report of our girl) mid to late September and will be traveling sometime before Thanksgiving. We can't wait. It's hard to wait 14 months for a baby...and I thought 9 was hard.

Maddie is doing well, she is really enjoying swimming this summer. She is growing up too fast. We recently had photos taken so I have attached one of our sweet girl.

Flip Flop Wearin' Girl!

My sweet little three year old looks SO big in her flip flops the new shoe of choice around here!

Park Days Are Here Again

Maddie's so happy to be back at the park with her Daddy!

HAPPY GIRL

I'm so happy I went to see the Princess and the Priate today at Casa Manana!

ADOPTION PAPERWORK ALL DONE

We are FINALLY completed with all the adoption paperwork. Our adoption papers have safely arrived in New York (Adoption Agency). We are waiting to hear when Gladney will be sending our dossier (paperwork) to China. It will be either this week or next. This is such a huge relief and milestone. Now the waiting begins.

We should receive a picture and medical report in about six months. We can't wait...in the mean time we will just continue to pray and prepare for our sweet baby girl! We will let you know once our papers are logged in safely at the China Center for Adoption Affairs.

BUSTED!

Uh-Oh...I have officially been busted out for throwing Maddie's art work away. I have implemented a rule of thumb with her work from school and church....if it does not have a hand print or a foot print on it or if it didn't win a prize or have something cute written on it about her...it must go in the thrash. Otherwise, our entire house would become a repository for all Maddie's school and church papers.

So on Tuesday, I threw away the groundhog cut out that had a cute poem about shadows attached to it. A little while later a small voice from the pantry (where the trash is located) says, "Who did it, they didn't like...who did it?". BUSTED! I felt awful, I denied it and said it must have been an accident.

Looks like I will have to alter my rule of thumb or use a different trash can until she understand the philosophy behind throwing away miscellaneous art work.

I can't sleep- my hands have germs on them!!!

Maddie cracks me up! Frequently when Jamie or I put Maddie to bed there are 100 things she needs before she sleeps. Well tonight Jamie and I were talking in the other room and we heard from Maddie's room, "I bit my lip, ooh Mommy I bit my lip". I said, "Maddie, is it ok?" She said it was. A minute later she said, "Ohhh, I can't sleep- my hands have germs on them!" I laughed so hard I literally doubled over crying and fell on the couch laughing. (alright so that is a little extra funny to a clean freak like me that I am raising a little germ fearing girl)

WOO-HOO

Our long awaited oh-so important I-171H form has arrived from the United States Citizenship and Immigration office. This is the form that allows us to bring a foreign orphan into the United States to become a citizen. As you know with any government office you are at their mercy with little to no information on whether they received your documents and where you are in the stack. We sent our documents to request the form on November 17, along with a big check, they then sent us a fingerprinting appointment for December 22nd which we went to, and we have been anxiously awaiting the mail since. It finally arrived on Friday. This is our last document that we needed to complete the 5 month paper chase.

There are three parts to the China adoption process:

1. The Paper Chase-I don't even know if I have the energy to even to began telling you how much paperwork is involved. Every document (birth certificates, marriage license, medical exams, good conduct certificates, adoption letter of intent, employment letters, financial statement, home study and I'm sure I'm missing a few) has to be obtained as well as go through what they call an "authentication" process. Authentication means it has to go back to the Secretary of State where the form originated to receive a seal and then it has to go the Chinese Consulate in the state that has jurisdiction over the state where the form was originated to receive yet another seal. This has been an exhausting process and somewhat stressful one as you are constantly crossing your fingers (or in our case praying) that nothing gets lost in the transition.

2. The Referral-Once the paperwork is complete it is sent to China by our adoption agency (The Gladney Center) and logged into the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) system. The CCAA (God) will match us up with our daughter and will send us a picture and a medical report. Currently the wait time is at 6 months. So in about 6 months we will have in our possession a picture of our daughter...we can hardly wait!

3. Travel Approval-Once we accept the referral, we will be sent our travel approval to go to China and get our girl. Typically, you receive the travel approval 6-8 weeks after the accepting the referral.

Our best guess is that we will be traveling to China to pick up our sweet daughter next September. It definitely is a tough process and the waiting is definitely going to be the most difficult, but we know God will see us through and will have waiting for our family a precious baby girl.

Maddie Howard and Jamie

Oh to be a fly on the wall inside of a three year old's brain. Today Maddie woke up and at some point between getting out of her bed and coming and getting in my bed she decided she would refer to herself as Maddie Howard and she would refer to me as Jamie. Her first question of the day was "What are Maddie Howard and Jamie going to do today?". I thought to myself how did I get such a cute little girl, but after an hour of her mentally keeping up with the references I was getting a little annoyed, but was very impressed that she could keep this up for so long.

Here's a small sampling of our conversation this morning:
Jamie, Maddie Howard wants to watch Cinderella. Jamie come look at Prince Charming he's taking Cinderella away with the mouses. Why did Daddy leave Maddie Howard and go to work? Jamie I don't like that red jacket. Maddie Howard wants to go to the donut shop.
Maddie Howard likes white donuts not pink ones. Jamie, what color of donuts do you like? Jamie, don't forget to buckle my seatbelt or you will get a ticket from the police. Maddie Howard speaks nicely to her parents so the blue lady does not have to come to our house. (This one comes from her watching Super Nanny last night)

So in the car on the way to school, I said "Maddie, I would really like to be called Mommy instead of Jamie...is that OK?" Her response, "Mommy I was just pretending and having fun."

What's an annoyed Mommy suppose to say to that?