Where to go from here...

As you can tell, I haven't been around much. I am not sure where the blog fits in my life anymore. Part of me thinks that it is done..it served it's purpose as we dealt with everything & now that I am a mother it is no longer useful....then I stop & really think. This place has been such a home, a place of comfort, has been part of my life for so long & brought many wonderful people in my life & am I willing to just walk away from that?

What will I write about here? I love the fact that I am mostly anonymous  here & can say what I want...so you know, I think I will write about whatever I want :)

The blog will be taking a change, that is for sure...the post, I am sure will be few & far between, but I am just not completely ready to walk away yet.

For those of you that have been with me through everything, thank you. I do not want this to turn into a mommy blog that people will get hurt or upset about..I want this to just be a place where I can rant if I need to, vent..whatever. Having a 'special needs' kid results in a lot of ranting...along with the fact that he is a very normal toddler :)

So we will see what happens & were I go from here...the journey continues, just in a different way.

Crazy week

We leave on Thursday morning at 6:30am & 24 hours will end up in China. I still cannot believe it! This week has been a whirlwind..between hotels, planes, trains...starting to pack, it's nuts!

We received our itinerary for the trip the other day & I am surprised by the amount of free time. I am glad we have this time however. The first 3 days that we are in A's city it will just be the 2 of us. We will really get to know where he is from. We are hoping to go to where he was found, along with really taking in the city.

It still boggles my mind that soon we will have A in our arms. We meet him & become a family on the 14th. I cry at the thought of hugging him & seeing him in person for the first time. I just hope I don't cry too much when the time comes, don't wanna scare the poor guy.

We are just trying to pack, get things together & everything in place at home. I have his doctors appointments at Cincinnati Children's set for when we get back, our first post adoption visit made & the dentist...it will be a whole new world for all of us.

I will continue to try to blog while we are in country & keep everyone updated.

Travel!!!

All my pouting over the weekend paid off! Approx. 4pm eastern yesterday, we got the call that we were TA approved. We were told we had an hour to figure out if we could get flights that would get us to China by July 11th. Cue may parents booking flights like made people!! 

The Flights are booked & we are out of here next Thursday, July 10th!!!! I really thought a July travel date would not happen for us, as we were cutting it very close to get our travel acceptance, but it did & we are going.

I still cannot believe it..after nearly 9 and a half months, we are finally going to get our son. In just a few weeks his bed will have him in it...our house will have a child, our lives will forever change.

I am pretty sure I am in shock. I am going through the motions right now. Making sure everything is ready for us being gone both at work & for the trip. I am just so thankful that I started preparing 2 weeks ago when I found out we could possibly travel in July, that is turning out to be a huge help!!

I plan on trying to blog on here & tweet as much as possible, but none of this is for sure. G has our VPN in place, so fingers crossed we will be able to communicate while we are there.

As of now we will be getting home late the 25th, so just a bit over 2 weeks. We are so VERY thankful to my parents who pitched in miles & got us tickets in 1st class round trip! I know this will make the flight a tad bit easier :) They also may be flying to Seattle to meet us on a layover our way back to help us continue our journey home. I am sure at that point any help will be very welcomed!!

This is kinda a hodge lodge right now, I apologize, but it's 4am, Ive been up since 2 & my brain is going a mile a minute!

Until next time...

Waiting...

We sit here & there is nothing we can do. Nothing to hurry up this travel approval wait. I have been pretty good during this whole process. I don't really count the days from this to that, I try to go on with my daily life & just let things happen when they happen. But I cannot say that anymore...this last wait is h*$l.

When we found out we were start the TA wait & could still possibly leave in July I became so hopeful, probably too hopeful. We started our wait on 17th. I have seen people that have started their wait on the 19th, the 24th...all get their TA's. That makes this so much harder. We were before them, why not us?!

At this point, unless a miracle happens & we receive it tomorrow (which is still really pushing it to leave in July) we will not be going until mid August! This is so hard for me. He is over there & we are here & due to the fact that we do not have our last little paper, we cannot get him. Then due to the fact that our agency only travels to his province once a month...we have to wait longer. It's killing me & I hate that there is nothing I can do to change it...

Traveling to China

We found out yesterday that our Article 5 is complete & now all we are waiting on is our travel approval. These normally take about 2-3 weeks, however they have seen alot happening quickly lately, some as soon as 3 days. If we receive our approval in the next few weeks, we will be in the agency's July 11th group...yes, you read the right...as in we will be in China in a few weeks!

While I am excited, I am currently in freak out mode! I am starting to understand what pregnant woman feel right before they have their baby...that 'holy shit, I am really having a baby' moment. The, my life will never be the same..omg, what have I gotten into, there is no turning back now moment...yep, that is me right now, between the 50,000 list of things I need to do, pack & have ready before leaving.

I am so pumped at the idea of getting to go get our little boy a month before we planned...but wow, just wow, that is really fast, how will I ever get everything done at home & work in the next few weeks....crap!!

My friends keep telling me that this is all normal..I sure hope so!!

For those of you adopting, I will be keeping all my list & posting them in order to help you when it comes time to travel...any help you can get is worth it, at least that is how I feel!!

Facebook

Well, today, on our 6 year anniversary, we made A official on Facebook. We have kept our adoption quiet on social media this whole time. We wanted to make sure that we were close to the end before really putting the adoption out there. We have never made it hush, hush that we have fertility issues or would be adopting…but this was it & we didn't want to jinx it.

So here we are, it's out there!

LOA

At 4:23pm yesterday, my phone rang. My heart always skips a beat when I see a call from Oregon, as that is where our adoption agency is.

We were at day 60 of waiting. Day 60 of twiddling our thumbs & having the wait seem longer & longer as the days went by. We had no paperwork to work on, no fingerprints to do...nothing, just wait! I won't lie, it was starting to really get to me. I hated not being able to do anything as we waited for China to give us the official 'ok.'

When the phone rang, I knew what the call was...there was nothing else they would be calling for at this point in our journey to A.

Then, it was official...she said it. We have your letter of acceptance. China liked us!! A can be our child!! (cue tears)

So now, I wait today to receive an overnight package from the agency. Once it is received we sign a few things & send it back to them & then start more paperwork. We are hearing about 9 weeks now til travel, so possibly end of July or beginning of August.

It's getting real! Momma is coming!!