Jumping for Joy!!!

There is little to get excited about during this freakin wait and wait some more for Sophie, but it looks like we will be able to renew our I600-A without HAVING TO WRITE ANOTHER CHECK FOR SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS!!!! Go to this link to read the government's statement. http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/FinalFeeRuleQsAs052907.pdf

This is how I understand it but I will be calling our agency tomorrow to double check. If your I71-H expires after Aug. 1st and later, the renewal is free, if they receive it after the 1st of Aug. So before July 31st, you still get the lower fee, After July 31st, it's free. You only have to pay the new finger print fee.

Hmmmm now what will I spend the $650 on now.......

Doggie Birthday Party!

Well it's official I have lost my mind....or I will do anything to get out of doing laundry. Hannah wanted to have a party for Daisy and my SIL's dog Sarah, they are litter mates. I told Hannah if she could find a doggie cake recipe we would have a party. She is a quite the computer gal and she found a recipe so the party was on for today. We had the family over for some dinner and cake. The dogs seemed to enjoy their cake, and Aunite Amy brought the people cake! It was a good day spent with family......well I gotta go finish that laundry!

TGIF.....Seriously!

Only 15 days of school left. I usually don't keep a close count, but today was not a great day. I won't share any details except to say that people who feel it is ok to be rude, disrespectful, and unprofessional SUCK! Anyhoo, it's Friday, the hubs is taking me out to dinner, I will be enjoying some adult conversation along with some adult beverages. I hope that everyone has a great weekend. C'mon summer vacation.......

YOU might be a school employee if....

...you believe the playground should be equipped with Ritalin salt lick

...you want to slap the next person who says, "Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have summers off

..it is difficult to name your own child because there's no name you can come up with that doesn't bring high blood pressure as it is uttered

...you can tell it's a full moon or if it going to rain, snow, hail....anything!!! Without ever looking outside

...you believe, "shallow gene pool" should have its own box on a report card

...you believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

...when out in public, you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior

...you have no social life between August and June

...you think people should have a government permit before being allowed to reproduce

...you wonder how some parents MANAGED to reproduce

...you encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling and are willing to donate the UHAUL boxes should they decided to move out of district

...meeting a child's parent instantly answers the question, "Why is this kid like this?"

...the words "I have college debt for this?" has ever come out of your mouth

AND LAST BUT NO LEAST....
.... you know how many days, minutes, and seconds are left in the school year !

Happy Mother's day to all you yummy mummy's! I am thankful for your friendship and support. I appreciate you sharing your experiences and thoughts, I have learned so much from all you! Enjoy your day. Relax and have fun....next year we will all be busy trying to eat our Mother's day brunch while trying to entertain our beautiful daughters from China.

Honor Thy Mother and Father.....

Mothers day brings with it lots of discussion in the adoption community on how to best honor our children’s birth mothers. (Regardless of Mother’s day this topic tends to spring up from time to time.) I have read the many different ways that families honor their child’s birth mother…..but not many about honoring birth fathers. Hmmmm I wonder why? As women do we feel that it had to be more difficult for the birth mother than the birth father?? In some ways I guess we have visualized the birth mother leaving their baby, watching to be sure she is found and is safe. But what about the birth father? He surely grieves this loss, won’t he provide comfort and strength as well as reassurance. I watch Chris with our kids; he loves them as completely as I do. He waited, hoped and prayed for their safe births. He worries, encourages and disciplines them with love. Now he waits for Sophie, dreams of her, and surely loves our daughter who has grown in both our hearts.

I think that the best way for our family to honor Sophie’s birth parents will be to celebrate a special day each year for her birth parents in China, something separate from Mother’s or Father’s day. We will take time to thank the man and woman who hoped for something more for their daughter, something that they could not give. We will send them our thankful thoughts, and reassurance that we love the daughter born to them.

Boy Magic

Apparently Ben has “boy magic”. See this post about Ben’s reference to “women magic.” We went to planet middle school today to meet with Ben’s math teacher. Chris’s first impression of Ms. J way back in August was that she was serious and meant business! Ummmm well she is a math teacher. Anyway we went to see her with Ben to discuss his current math performance. We started by explaining that we were concerned that Ben was not doing his best and was getting by with minimal effort. We were hoping that his serious math teacher would agree completely with us, which she did to a point. She did say that Ben could improve and that he understood the material but is careless with his class work. This is where Ben’s boy magic starts to kick in. As she is telling us this she moved closer to Ben as if to protect him from his crazy parents and then adds what a great kid he is, that he has lots of friends even though he did not attend the same elementary school as his classmates, that he is polite and an enjoyable student. Ok….we will agree with most of that, but he is still slacking off and not giving his best effort, and his teacher seems to be dazzled by Ben’s “boy magic”. I was laughing as we left the building; it was a ridiculous conference and it had minimal impact on Ben. We wanted Ben to take more ownership of his learning and buckle down; instead we were all blinded by his boy magic!!

Trophy Trouble

Our kids have been played on some kind of sports team since they were five years old. Some of the sports they have stuck with others weren't their cup of tea. We have a lot of trophies. When the kids are little, (in second grade and younger) it really is all about the trophy and party at the end of the season. We think that once you reach the age when the score is recorded it is time to earn that trophy. Oddly enough we find ourselves in the minority. Why do I have my panties in such a wad about this????

Hannah's soccer team had a good season, but did not finish in first place. Her soccer party is this Saturday and I just got an email reminding me to bring $10 bucks for her trophy. WTF!!! These girls are in 4th and 5th grade! They know damn well that they are not in first place! Their coach is ridiculously competitive. (That would be a separate venting post). But for the record Hannah's coach is the coach other parents and teams don't like because he is yelling and calling the came the entire time from the sidelines. The first season that Hannah was on this team they came in last place and the coach asked if we wanted to get Hannah a trophy, we said no that we didn't think it was necessary (this was fine with Hannah too...she actually said why are we getting trophies we didn't win!) Doesn't he go ahead and buy Hannah a trophy any way!!! Like we couldn't pay the 10 bucks!!??!! So now he goes ahead and does it again! He has ordered the trophies. So, I will give the jerk his $10 bucks and Hannah can add another trophy to the top shelf of her closet! We are saving a special place for when her team actually "earns" their trophy and comes in first place. GRRRRRR!!!

And a Baby Makes Three....

Congrats to Colleen and Jim the proud new parents to Miss Hannah!!

I Would Like to Thank the Academy....

I was going to start the post quoting Sally Field “ you like me you really really like me…” But Krista beat me to it! I guess great minds think alike! This award has been bestowed on the TBG blog by Kristine. Thanks Kristine for your kind words, and for finding me writing amusing. I am supposed to nominate the blogs that I like to read that have yet to be nominated. So without any further ado…..

Amanda at Chinese Starfish. Here is a woman who is doing amazing things for children with special needs in China. She reminds us that we can all make a difference!

Stephanie over at Zoey's Adoption Journey. Stephanie is a talented artist. I love her work at Jiinikins Kids, and I am so glad that her agency has the “pay for info” system from the CCAA. She post updates from her agency so even if your agency doesn't have this system yet, you can find out the latest referral dates on Stephanie's blog.

Another great blogger is Lisa over at Confucius says…,Lisa is a thought provoking writer. Check out her archives and read the “Pain Olympics”. She has the uncanny ability to always hit the nail right on the head!

Thanks again Kristine!

Just a Few Things......

Congratulations to Colleen and Jim on their daughter! They will have a Hannah now too!

Ben placed number FIRST in the state for a building competition. He will be going to the national technology student association competition in Nashville.

Hannah had her last soccer game this week and scored a goal! She also performed with our school clogging team at a festival this past weekend. I am trying to figure out how to download the video so I can post it for all the world to see.

I only have four more Monday’s of school left!

I found someone to make Sophie’s quilt for a reasonable price! I still need about 20 more squares. It would be nice to get a square from my mother and from my brother and his family, oh and from Chris’s sister and her kids. ( I had to “out” them now lets see who gets me a square first!)

We still have not planned our summer vacation. Any suggestions?? Are there any blogger beach houses available??

We are still waiting for Sophie……