Children

I'm so excited that we're adopting again. Just the thought of bringing in another child into our home to shape them and mold them into a wonderful person is so exciting for me.

Afterall, I think we've done such a great job with Zac. He's so wonderful, smart and amazingly.... normal.

See for yourself!

Homestudy

Well, the check cleared for our homestudy. (Our first big check) We still have a few police clearances to come back before they can start. I guess they don't want to waste their time if it turns out I'm a convicted felon.

But assuming I have not committed any known crimes, we should be starting the homestudy in the next few weeks. We've still got our fire extinguisher from the last time we went through this.

Ironically enough, we almost had to use the fire extinguisher just the other day as something that Katie was cooking caught on fire. :)

Zac-ism

A few days ago, Zac was saying a little prayer for his meal. It went something like this:

Dear God - Thank you for my food and I hope Melia likes Chinese food.... because she's Chinese. Amen.

Did you know?

Still in the early stages of paperwork. I'm guessing the paperwork thing will be going on for several months....

"Why" you ask?

Because a lot of our paperwork is dependent on government agencies getting back to us. For example, right now we're waiting for the State to send us back a letter that states that we don't have a criminal record. Apparently, this takes a month.


In the mean time, let me tell you what I've learned about Chinese. For those of you who don't know, Chinese is a TONAL language. This means that pitch, inflection and HOW you say a word is just as important as WHAT you say.

For example: "Ma" could mean "mother". But if you raise or lower your pitch incorrectly, "Ma" can also mean "horse" or "punish".

Oh great. We meet Melia and tell her "This is your horse" or worse yet, "This is your punishment". I'm sure she'll love that introduction!

More stuff

A few more things to add:

Our last 3 years of 1040's (to make sure we have enough money)
A picture of the whole family (to make sure we're pretty enough?)
A picture of the outside of our house (to make sure I've raked the leaves.... and put up Christmas lights)

Our homestudy should start within a few weeks.

Thinking ahead

Katie and I are already thinking ahead to where we take our trip to China. (Yea!) The big debate is: Should we or should we not take the kiddo's along with us? It may be the greatest family trip ever..... or it may be the biggest disaster ever. :)

Also, our debate may be a non-issue as the kids could all be in school and unable to go with us. Missing two weeks is generally frowned upon. I'd feel kinda bad if all my kids had to repeat a grade.

I welcome any of your thoughts...

Status Update

Accomplishments for the week:

Finger prints - check
TB test - check
HIV test - check
17 page application - check
Notarized contract with agency - check
$300 check - check

We celebrated by taking the whole family ice skating last night. Very fun!

Learning the language

Holy cow! Learning Chinese is not an easy endeavor. Not easy.... but necessary. (In my opinion) When we traveled to Russia on our first trip, Katie and I collectively knew ONE WORD in Russian. (Thank you). It was quite a helpless feeling. I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't even say the word "water".

On our second trip, (because we had to wait almost a year) we had managed to learn quite a bit of Russian. This not only helped us get along in the country, but also helped tremendously with the bonding and parenting of Zac. Learning the phrase "please don't touch that" proved invaluable when traveling home with a 2 year old.

Our little secret? This book:


Therefore, it only makes sense that we ran out and bought the Chinese version of this same book. The problem is that not only do I have to learn this very-hard-to-learn language, but I also have to "unlearn" all the Russian that I worked so hard to memorize a few years ago.

No worries though. I'm happy (and quite excited) to do it!

再见 (Zàijiàn) - That means "good-bye" ... I think....

Progress

Adopting a second time is so much different already! I feel like Katie and I are about as laid back as can be. We know what we're getting into. We're ready for the wait. We know there will be surprises. (Big ones!) And we're totally okay with that.

We haven't gotten very far yet. Some paperwork. Send out some money. Some more paperwork. Taking fingerprints. A little more paperwork. And of course, getting to know our local Notary.

Ahhhh.... it's good to be back into adoption mode.

We're BACK!

Big announcement: We've decided to adopt again! Therefore, this blog will be brought back to life. I know I've got some work to do. (Update the profile, update the pictures, etc). All in good time.

What I can tell you is this: We're adopting a girl. She'll be from China. We're pretty sure her name will be Melia.

More info to come when I'm not trying to get my kids fed and sent off to school!

Video Link

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