Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who read this blog. Some of you are family, some are old friends, some are new friends, and some of you I don't know. I just wanted to wish each of you a Blessed Thanksgiving. I am grateful to each of you for the love and interest you show by following along in our journey. Happy Thanksgiving!

85 Days......and Counting

Today marks 85 days waiting for LOA. Great Wall has said that they usually get LOA's between 85-90 days. So does this mean we're truly in the home stretch?????? Can I say with confidence "any day now"??????? This has all taken so much longer then anticipated and yet there's still a little part of me thinking "wait, I'm not ready yet!!!!" Not that I'm not dying to finally see that sweet little face in person, because I sure am. Not that I'm not longing to met the son I already feel is mine. There's just that little voice pestering me with all the things that still need to get done. For example, A NAME!!!!! I know it is driving some of you crazy that we haven't decided on what we will be calling our little guy. Please be assured that it's driving me crazy too!! I'm waiting, and waiting, and waiting to say a name and have it feel just right. Maybe with LOA will come some sort of divine inspiration. I can only hope! In the meantime, in case there is a name that I haven't come across in the two baby name books I have, I up for suggestions!

85 days......and counting! Any day now!

Magical Memories

Over the summer our vacation planned were suddenly derailed when the timing would have prevented me from having our dossier documents Certified and Authenticated as soon as I possibly could! Out of guilt for turning our vacation into a day trip into the city while I went to the State Department and the Consulate, we told the kids that we would take them to FL in November. So off we went on Saturday as promised. Of course, out of everyone, Ella enjoyed this trip the most. She loved EVERY minute of. She loved the landing on the plane, she loved the shuttle ride to the baggage claim, she loved the hotel room, she LOVED EVERYTHING. It was so much fun watching her take in everything, living in the moment, and getting pleasure out of things others wouldn't even notice. We crammed A LOT into four days, and did as much as we possibly could in that time. Needless to say we were all exhusted by the time we arrived home at 11:45pm Tuesday night. Here's our trip in photos!

A couple of "weird things" happened while we were away! The first was while we were on our flight to Orlando. Sitting next to Brianna was a woman and sitting behind Brian was her husband. They were VERY friendly and told us all about their college aged children and their current vacation plans. During our conversation the wife mentions that they live in the town where I used to work and she asks us where we live. We told her we live about 40 minutes away from them in @*#&$%. She then says "I think I was just in @*#&$% on Tuesday". She tells us that she was on her way to another town with a client and made a wrong turn and remembered seeing a sign saying @*#&$%. She then goes on to describe the development she turned into and guess what---it was OUR development!!! As she's describing the neighborhood Brian is sitting there smiling and she says "you live there, don't you???" Yes we do!!, Brian tells her!! With that I take Ella to the bathroom. I get back and Brian turns to me and says "Melis, she's a speech pathologist". I look at her and say "Oh, I'm an Audiologist and I used to work in your neighborhood" (for those of you who don't know as an undergraduate your degree is in Speech Pathology and Audiology and you then chose one of those for your Master's degree). She then says to me "I took a little bit of a different route and mostly teach sign language now". Shocked, I say "Oh, we're adopting a little boy from China who may be deaf, I might need you!" She then replies "Oh wow, I do private work too. I go to people's houses and teach the child as well as the family sign language. We do things like go to the park, or out to a restaurant and learn all the relevant signs---and now I know where you live!" Needless to say I was temporarily speechless. All along I have always strongly felt that Wen was probably hearing impaired, but not deaf. I compose myself, turn to Brian and say "Well, I guess maybe he is deaf". What are the chances????? Did God just plop this person into my life because I really am going to need her??? And she drove past my house just the other day????

Second "weird" thing--later the same day we're on line to see the famous mouse. I look behind us and see a women with a little Chinese girl. I point her out to Brian and as I do I realize the mother looks really familiar. I'm trying to place her and then realize it was a women, who I don't know, but who's blog I followed the entire time she was in China!!! I remembered her whole story, and both of her children's names. Of course I went over to her to let her know that although she's not a celebrity, she's been "spotted" and tell her that her daughter is just as beautiful in person as she was on her blog! Brian just stood there shaking his head. Again---what are the chances????

Being my first attempt at a slide show, please forgive any spelling/grammatical errors in this post. It's taken me too long to finish it and I just can't proof read and "fix" another thing!!! Off to make dinner for a hungry family!

Happy Halloween!!

This year Ella had a very difficult time deciding what she would be for Halloween. She changed her mind several times! She finally decided that she'd be a giraffe. She LOVES giraffes. We had a beautiful day to trick-or-treat and as always we did it with Ella's best friend and boyfriend Mikey. Jason went around with a group of his friends and came back with a sack full of candy. Brianna who is too old to get dressed up, but apparently not to old to want candy, did go out with her friends dressed basically like themselves!

Ella stood still two days in a row, first for her school Halloween party and then for Halloween, while her face was painted
The cutest giraffe ever!!!



They're all ready to go get some candy!
The boys. J is the one with the B@rt mask on. He kept it on for about one block!
El sharing a ride with her best friend
Poor Meg trailing behind!
Ella asked Mikey to hold her hand as they walked back toward the street. He always takes such good care of her!

Mom and Dad with their little "Giraffie"