12 Days Til China

Happy Waiting Sister!

We are another day closer to meeting Delilah.

Last night I stayed up later than usual reading "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb. Then Cami woke up about 3:30 and said she couldn't sleep and she was thirsty. She was awake for about an hour. I still popped out of bed close to 6am, but I'm feeling tired and I'm reminded how important it will continue to be for me to get all the sleep I can in order to be a happy and energetic mom!

Cami slept in and Jillian was home with her so I could head out alone to do a few errands in the morning. I picked up our passports at the post office. We used a wonderful visa and document courier! Denise Hope of There's Always Hope came highly recommended and I couldn't have been more pleased with her service. She answered my questions quickly and everything on her end was like clockwork. If you are going to be needing your visas soon, you should contact Denise. She has an unbeatable deal for adopting families! You can also call Denise at (815)-690-7035.

After the post office, I had to visit two banks. Then I stopped at our salon to pick up the shampoo I had paid for and left sitting on the counter! Yes, I am slightly distracted these days. After that side trip, I trekked down to the public library and returned all our (overdue) library books and did not check anymore out!

While at the post office I purchased some of the new Simpson's stamps to add to the gift bags we are making up for the foster family, nannies, notary, etc. in China. I continued my run with a trip to Old Navy where I found matching swimsuits for the little girls. I also found two pairs of pants for myself so I have everything I need for packing my clothes.

This day passed quickly. I accomplish a few little things. There is still much to do.

I can hardly believe we will leave for China in 13 days.
Mark says we could leave tomorrow and be fine.
I say we have a thousand things still to be done!!!!

Yesterday I got my China hair cut.
I shopped for gifts for the orphanage director, foster family, and other people we will meet along the way.

I bought cute little assortment boxes of Jelly Belly Beans from Target. For the notary, I bought sticky notes, white out pens, and a smaller bag of jelly beans. I also bought a bag of Thor-Lo socks that will be tucked into the gift bags. They are made locally and my friends from China rave about them so maybe they don't have such comfortable socks in China.....? I still want to order some American Ginseng to add to gift bags.

Our visas and passports are being returned today. I think that is the last of the document work we need to do.

13 days. Every one of them will be busy. We have several more appointments on the calendar. And poor Mark is working long hours everyday, trying to get everything wrapped up so he can be gone for two weeks.

I wish I could just spend my days shopping for cute dresses like the ones below. The flowers are hair clips! I can't wait to take the picture again with two girls inside the dresses.

One is Missing

Our oldest daughter graduated from college this weekend. I treasure the rare photos we have of the entire family all together. We had hoped Delilah would be with us for the graduation. I remember thinking that it might be our first big outing. But she was missing and she was missed. Here is the whole big family waiting to bring Delilah home for good!

TRAVEL APPROVAL

It has been a long wait
but the days are suddenly fewer than I need
to make all the arrangements to travel.

Of course, you won't hear me complaining about that!
Our Travel Approval arrived on Friday, May 8th.

We had heard that with the pandemic threat of the Swine Flu
China might not be sending travel approvals out for a month or two.
Then when ours arrived
we had to wait and see if Inner Mongolia
would allow us in (again because of the flu)

As of this afternoon,
Inner Mongolia granted us entrance,

It is Written