The Required New Years Eve Reflection Post

So, do you ever get to the end of a year and wonder, "What the *&#($* just happened?"  This year is coming to a close and I'm not sure where it all went.
In the world of Lucy, she grew up more this year than I can believe:

• Reading
• Spelling
• Math
• Riding her bike
• Swimming
• Gymnastics
• Ballet
• Reading music
• Playing the piano

While I realize that every kid learns to do these (more of less), I'm just stunned at the level of independence she achieved in just one year.  We spent so much effort in 2009 "hand-holding" with her activities; this year, she's let go and stepped up confidently.  We're very proud of her.


We got adopted by a cat, Ariel, in August while on vacation in Emerald Isle, NC.

We sold our condo in Blacksburg this year and, for the first time in a very long time, we did not attend any Virginia Tech football games this year.


Mel had her tonsils removed in early December and she's still not 100% recovered from that. Mel and our friend Todd refinished/remodeled our basement and our den over the summer.


I took and passed all three CGFM exams and became certified.  I also competed in my first triathlon.


Most importantly, we finally got our referral for Penny, but you already knew that.

Busy Birthday for Lucy

I just dropped off our Chinese Visa applications, some additional travel paperwork, and of course another check with our adoption agency.

{Begin Minor Rant}

I don't want to sound too down, but at times it smacks of "insult to injury" to have waited this long and now see how the fees for everything have almost doubled. There's an end result of this process that is just out of our reach - and it (she) is more valuable than anything monetary. Yet I get frustrated to see my family penalized financially for someone else's sloth (and no, it's not our agency, btw).

{End Minor Rant}

We're still waiting to hear about our travel dates.  The best guess at the moment seems to be mid-February, but that's a rough estimate.  Once we have firm dates, we'll put them up on the blog.

So, as I posted previously, today is Lucy's 7th birthday. We (Mel, Lucy, & I) had lunch together at P.F. Chang's. Then the girls went to Elizabeth Arden's for manicures and pedicures, while I made the aforementioned document run. And later tonight we're going to the Kennedy Center to see South Pacific. It's sure to be a fun-filled day for Lucy!  I hope she can hold out all night!

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Today our eldest daughter turned 7!  Wow!  Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Planning to Plan (or How to Make Your Brain Explode in 739 Easy Steps!)

Plan a trip.  
Plan a trip to China.  
Plan a trip to China to adopt an infant daughter.  
Plan a trip to China to adopt an infant daughter and take your 7 year-old daughter (also adopted from China) along with you.  
Do this planning in six weeks three weeks.  Over the major holidays in both the US and China.  Sprinkle lightly with delayed furniture shipments. Fold in work deadlines, pets, birthdays, vaccinations, and changing travel regulations.  Mix with the possibility of having to choose how we want the TSA to humiliate our daughter.  Pour into a blender labelled "HowAreWeGoingToPayForAllThis?" and hit "Liquefy" for 30 seconds.  ("Wow! That's terrific bass!")


And yet, I wouldn't trade all this chaos and headache for the world... I love my new daughter. My family loves our new little girl.  And we can't wait!

Referral Update, Photos, and Sundries

We received a "referral package update" today.  For a fee, we got two previously unreleased photos of BSP and medical information that is "updated".  I use the term "updated" loosely as we don't know the date of the information, and the only things that seem to have changed are Penny's weight and length. *sigh*  So while I grouse about not getting more information, the extra photos are worth the fee alone.

New photos:

 
So we see that: 

• BSP still is being dressed like the Michelin Man (but that's to be expected)
• She now has more hair than her Dad
• There's a creepy stuffed animal behind her... watching...
• She knows how to drool
• She belongs to a gang called, "Hong Dou", and
• She wears Mickey Mouse pants

In other news, Mel found a onesie that says "Baby Sister" on it, so we're going to get it embroidered with "Penny".


I've got more on my mind to blog, but it's late and I need to get some shut-eye.

Christmas Photos

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas Day 2010:

Merry Christmas Baby!

I hope you all have had as merry a Christmas as we have had!  This one has been extra special for many reasons.  Obviously, our referral for BSP tops off the list.  That has made this Christmas wonderful beyond words!  We've also been enjoying how Lucy has been thinking of Penny.  Lucy's always finding clothes and gifts for her baby sister and points out everything she sees that "BabySisterPenny" might like.  I always get a little sappy when I think of how big of a heart our daughter has.

This is also our first Christmas with Ariel - our young cat we brought home from our beach vacation in August.  While it's been a real challenge to bring her over to the "Nice List", Lucy has been loving all the cat-themed presents that apparently Ariel has been buying.  :-) 


Even though they're already on FaceBook, I'm going to insert Lucy's letter to Santa and his letter to Lucy so we have them here too.  I'll post some Christmas photos in a separate entry.

I love the artwork! Lucy in bed with Ariel meowing near her and the Christmas presents downstairs - very precious.

We've watched both the Grinch and Muppet Christmas Carol, so it's just a little bit before we head to Grandma and Grandpa Jones' for a gift exchange.

Again, here's hoping you've had the merriest of Christmases!

Good News! A Clean Bill of Health!

We just got the translation results from the detailed Chinese medical records for BSP.  She's been given thumbs up from all aspects and we're excited about the news!

Included in the translated information was a little bit of "back story", where she was found and who brought her to the orphanage.  These will be about all of the details we'll be able to give her later on in her life.  We're just going to do our best to make sure that when she's old enough to notice that there's information missing, she'll have no doubts about the love her "forever family" has for her.

Here on the home front, we're trying to get ready for Christmas, Lucy's birthday, New Years, and all things BSP (nursery, playroom, child-proofing, clothing, toys, travel, care packages, etc.). I had the realization today, that if I don't get some rest very soon, I'm not going to get any for a long, long time.  But of course, it's all so very worth the exhaustion in the end.

Thank you all

I just wanted to post a quick note of thanks for all the kind words and congratulations around our referral. 

We're all extremely excited and a touch overwhelmed by all that needs to be done to get ready.  These next few months will be a wild mix of harried preparations, mild panic, and painful waiting.  I'm sure that any of you who have gone through the adoption process know, once you have a referral, your child is "real" - and she (or he) is waiting.  In our case, waiting in an orphanage, waiting for her "forever family".  Knowing that there is a real little girl waiting on us can make the passing time cut like a dull knife.  The time since our LID (Log In Date), May 2006, was long and difficult, but it was anonymous waiting - like holding a number at the DMV. Now she is waiting. Each and every day we look at her pictures, we wonder what she's doing, and we pray our hearts out for her.

Thank you again for your kindness. Please keep BabySisterPenny in your prayers.  Thank you all.

Referral Photos

Here are the photos we got with the referral package:

To Post, or not to Post... (or TMI?)

So in the course of authoring my very first blog post, it occurred to me that the world of Algore's Amazing Internetz has become a tad more scary over the years; in terms of personal privacy that is.  In layman's English, I was posting the information we have received about our new daughter and it hit me that I might be putting too much personal info online.  Could someone use this information for nefarious purposes?

I know I could get around a lot of my concerns by restricting access to the blog, but I'm trying to intentionally leave it "open".  When we went to get Lucy, our blog was open only to "authorized users" and it meant that some people never got to our blog.  In the years since, many of our technology-phobic friends have gingerly entered the waters of Facebook and other social media.  We want to reach as many of these friends as possible, so restricting access isn't the preferred control method.

Another method of keeping information private is to use code for the individuals mentioned. DH, DW, DD, etc. are used on many blogs.  Heck, even the Secret Service uses code names for the people they protect (despite the fact that the code names are public information about 30 seconds after they're first assigned).  Yet, I don't think I want to require anyone reading this to have to use a decoder ring.  My everyday rantings confuse most everyone as it is.  Using "CB handles" or "call signs" would border on absurd.  And not on the good side of absurd either.

That leaves the old-fashioned approach of just keeping some information private - an almost heretical notion on the Information Superhighway.  Thus the challenge becomes how to share as much information as possible with the world with neither restricting the blog to "members only", nor writing in some weird code language.

For right now, I'm choosing to use first names for my family, but nothing more. I have to presume that you already know a little of who we are, especially if you are taking the time to suffer through my ramblings.  If you need more details, let me know.  I'll post the extra information, if I'm comfortable; otherwise, I'll email you the answers.  If I decide to alter my blog security strategery, I'll let you know in advance so I can start compiling a user list. Hopefully we can avoid that nuisance. 

Here We Go Again!

Welcome to our new adoption blog.  It's with great joy that we start our preparations for BabySisterPenny, aka BSP.  We received our referral on Friday, December 16th; our dossier Log In Date (LID) with China was May 26, 2006, so it's been a little bit more than 4 1/2 years of waiting for our referral.  Right now, it looks like we'll be travelling in mid-February, but our travel dates aren't set yet.

With any luck, we'll be able to update this blog from China throughout our trip and share some stories, photos, and maybe even videos of our adventure.

Please feel free to pass our blog link around to anyone who is interested in meeting BSP and following our travels.