Travel Dates

              I thought I would fill everyone one in on our travel dates!  We haven't booked our flights yet because it is already Saturday in China and our liaison( Ms. Cai)  needs to look at the flights before we for sure buy them.  We will do this probably Monday.  BUT, we are to be in China by Sunday November 18th so we will most likely fly out on Friday, November 16th and arrive in Shanghai on the 17th.  Depending on the time of day we arrive, we will take a train(gulp) along with our guide to our hotel in Hangzhou either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, it will be about a two hour ride I believe.  This is the capital city of the province were Kai is from and this is where we get Kai and we will complete the Chinese end of the adoption.  I will have more information on our actual stay in China and our itinerary when Ms. Cai sends it to us next week.
             As far as our trip home, we will be taking a van, along with our guide to Hong Kong on Thursday afternoon, November 29th.  I think it's about a three hour drive from Guangzhou, the city we will be at by then because this is where the US Consulate is located and the American end of the adoption will be completed.  We will probably be spending the night at the Hong Kong airport( Reuben says there is a Holiday Inn at the airport so hopefully at an actual hotel and not IN the airport!) We will then fly out Friday morning and arrive home the same day due to the time difference.
 More details to come but this is what we know so far!  Just so Glad to have actual dates that are FOR SURE.  Our consulate appointment is the 28th.  Happy Thanksgiving in China!

Another update and pics:)

We got an update today!  Lord willing our last update before we actually get to meet this little guy.

We asked our agency to see if they could get a little bit more information about Kai and also pictures.  When we got Kai's referral there was a little bit of info about his personality and his interests but we figure that was 6 months ago and kids grow up quickly at this age.   

 
                              So we didn't get a ton of feedback from the orphanage, they did say that Kai is talkative, alert, social and smiles a lot.  However, he is not showing that willing smile in any of these pictures:(

          They told us that this little fella enjoys imitating (oh boy), toys, outdoor activities, and music. 

              The funny thing about this update is that in the first 4 months Kai's height and weight has stayed some what the same,  in the last 2 months he has grown almost 3 inches!  Wow if he keeps that up we might have a basketball player on our hands!  No I looked up a normal growth rate for boys his age and it said 2-2.5 inches a YEAR! Obviously they had to make a mistake somehow:)  Well I'll keep everyone in the loop if anything else goes on!  4-5 more weeks (hopefully)  and we are China bound!!!!

Coping....

 
              Well I'm back with an update...kinda.  We got an email from our agency this morning saying that the consulate is closed today, again, for Columbus Day.  Yes apparently they celebrate Chinese and American Holidays over there.  So we are looking at the END of the week instead of the beginning for our article five.  The Agency says we can expect our TA around the 26th of October (we will see)and they will contact the liaison in China to set up our consulate appointment.  Our entire trip will be built backwards from that appointment date.  It will be one of our last days in China so it all depends on Thanksgiving and if or when or how stinking long they are closed for that.  Lets just say that, that email did not really bring us comfort.   My oh so patient husband is now a raging bull. ha
         I had to take Drew to his groomer appointment today so I had some time to kill.  I went to the mall since I need to get new tennis shoes before we go to China and thought I'd look for a long sleeve shirt or two for Kai and I also wanted to get a binky and a bottle with fast flow nipple just in case.  Usually shopping for Kai is a great way for me to lift my mood and even feel closer to him or our trip or whatever but today I just felt like I was suffocating or about to hyperventilate or something so I ditched that idea and headed to walmart to grab some groceries. 
     I did that and did get him the Binky etc and some snack/food items to take along.  I grabbed Drew and headed home to wash and sanitize every sippy, snack container, bottle, binky in the house and go through Kai's closet and drawers four times at least.  Sadly I'm feeling a little better now!  lol  I guess we all cope differently.
    Well I will give a heads up when we get our Article 5, hopefully sooner than we think!!!

A kinda, sorta, pretty much bad day!

       
                Well I'm really glad it's friday.  Warning- this blog post will probably be more information than most people really care to know but I'm in the mood to vent and it's getting to be time to ditch the niceties and get real.  LOL Here we go!
               Today I had to leave work early to go to my Hematologist appointment at Aultman Hospital.  For  those of you that don't know I have a history of DVT(Deep Vein Thrombosis) or blood clots.   I will be giving myself an injection of blood thinner on the day we fly to China and on the day we fly home.  I've also had to see a vascular surgeon to get a recommendation about compression stockings which I will have to wear on the plane and pretty much all the time according to him:)  This all was very trying and took a lot of time I don't have, but I'm happy to say it's done!  I have my script for my blood thinner and my compression hose so we are good to go!!  yay  One big thing to cross off my to do list. (Did I mention I had to have 17, yes 17 vials of blood drawn before I left the hematologist office!)
               This week we have also been not so patiently waiting on our article 5.  We did not receive that.  Reuben contacted our adoption agency this morning and they said that this week was a holiday in China and everything was closed all week!  Everything is a week behind so basically we will not be able to fly out on the 2nd of November like we had hoped:(  We are just so bummed and feeling like everything takes so much longer than it should. Who knows how long we will have to wait on our TA??  Not us.  
          Reuben also got a phone call on his way home from work from the dude with the Courier service we hired in NY to hand carry our Visa ap to the Chinese Consulate.  Apparently they kicked out our Visa ap because Reuben booked our Hotel in China in his name only, which was the only option it gave him and just said two people coming.  We had to hurry and book another room in my 
name only and are still waiting on a confirmation e-mail form this Chinese Hotel so we can send it to the courier guy who can take it to the consulate and hopefully get our Visa ap approved tomorrow morning since they are closed Monday for Columbus day or whatever! AHHH

     Other than that we've had several hurdles we have been trying to work out over the last several months.  Well I have anyway.  The first is trying to find someone to work for me while we are in China and then work two days a week once I come back  since I am hoping to work only three days a week. That is a very specific order to fill.  I have a prospect but nothing is set in stone and it's kinda hard since I don't know exactly when we are leaving. The second is my health issues.  I seem to have developed Gall Bladder problems in the last couple of months.  My best guess as to why that is is STRESS!  That too is somewhat under control but I'm still dealing with pain pretty much daily.  I've really tried to get a 
handle on my stress level but that is easier said than done with all this going on.  So that is pretty much the run down on what is going on with us/ me.  I know I sound very negative and that is probably because at this very moment that is how I'm feeling.  We know in our brains that God's got this and his timing is perfect but it is still hard to feel that way when your little boy is half way across the world.  Tomorrow will be a better day:)

Patience Please!

               Well I'm afraid I dont have too much new information to hand out, but there is a few things and I just wanted to let everyone know whats going on in our heads! LOL  I have now become pretty much officially lost as to whats going on, what we are waiting on etc.  I also have officially almost run out of patience!  Even my Husband we has remained cool as a cucumber for the most part is getting a little ouchy. ha  It just seems like we cant catch a break.  Every little step is like pulling teeth and every thing is taking longer than we where told.    Every one told us the last few months are the worst and boy were they right!!!  Ok I got that out of my system:)

             WE have had SUCH a busy summer!  I finally feel like I am getting a handle on my job and have started to really enjoy it.  I also am close to hiring someone to work with me and for me while I am off for 6 weeks.  That will be a huge burden lifted.  I have been having some health problems which  are now also close to being taken care of we hope.  Stress  can do awful things to your body thats for sure.  I have  boughten quite a lot of things for Kai:)  This weekend we are planning on going to buy car seats and a booster seat for at the table.  I'm also getting things I need to take along on our trip like OTC meds since the are hard to get in China.  It seems like a lot of people end up with bad colds over there.  This week I made a big batches of chicken noodle soup, vegatable soup, and beef and noodles to freeze.  We also tore out a lot of flowers and cut off perenials and such just so we dont have to worry about it closer to travel time.
                                            We Did learn the Kai's Chinese name is not Hu Peng, it's Peng Hu.  I guess they write it backwards from us.  It caused a near disaster with imigration paper work and an almost setback but luckily someone caught it for us!  Whew  Well We are still hoping to travel either the end of October or the first of November.  It's funny I was looking back at old blog posts and I saw where back in November 2011 I put that I was bummed because it could be another year until we travel, I didnt really think it would be but I was right!  I just can't believe how long this process takes but am thankful that we are able to do it and still trust in Gods timing.  We ask that you continue to pray for us in this journey, we are still trying to come up with the last few thousand dollars for our trip and such, and also my health would continue to improve.

New Pics!!

                                         So here are the promised pictures of little Kai!

                              I love this picture!  He looks like he is so up to something naughty:)

                   We hear that Kai is talking a lot more and improving with his motor skills

                        I think his little friends are so cute!  I 'm sure he is going to miss them.

             So this is weird but Kai is shorter, lighter, and has smaller feet than before! lol

                  Dont think he is digging having that bowl on his head!  A couple more months and we get to meet this little guy:)  Lots to do before then!

No News

I Don't know about you guys but I could not be more happy that the oppressive heat has finally left us! I don't know if I could have taken one more day! Well I'm enjoying my Monday off before the start of my work week tomorrow. I wish I could say I'm looking forward to it but unfortunetly I'm not. Dealing with the elderly and overworked nurses and aides doesn't get easier but I do my best! I'm sorry to say we still havn't heard anything from China about the adoption. We where origially told 2-3 month's from refferral to our formal letter of acceptance from China. We were later told up to 4 months. Today marks 12 weeks since we got the referral for Kai and 11 weeks since we got the preliminary letter of acceptance. I guess the purpose of this post is really a prayer request. Could you all join us in praying that we recieve our letter of approval(LOA) from China and that the rest of this proccess will move quickly? We have just waited so very long! My husband is doing much better at the waiting part than I am! In the end I know that God's timing is perfect and I accept that. Thank you all:)