Not Today

Well, it's well past noon EST and we didn't get the call, so I was definatley wrong :-(. We're still O.K. for our dates though. Maybe it will be mailed from China this Friday and we'll see something next week.

In the meantime, you lurkers out there in cyberland who haven't left a comment need to do so. That is the price of admission to this ride people! Don't make me start naming names.

Will Sunday Never End?

This is the view these days from our kitchen window. Yes, I'm totally wishing my life away this week and next. Looking out the window, waiting for that darn TA to come. It has now been 16 days since our LOA arrived in China. Remember, the shortest time someone has waited for their TA is 15 days.

So, my hope is that we get a call tomorrow (highly unlikely, but I'm hoping). If the TA arrives we will get a call before 10:00 am our time because the agency closes at 12:00 EST. Jean-Pierre says he expects to get the call Thursday, Jan. 3rd or Friday the 4th. According to my calculations those are days 20 & 21. Remember, the average wait is 27 days. So his guess is more realistic than mine, but both of us are still a little pie-in-the-sky. A more realistic prediction is that it will come the week of the 7th since day 28 is Friday, January 11th. Any later than that and we likely wouldn't make it out by the 18th.....

More Pictures!!!

Our friend who lives in Montreal (who adopted the girl in pink) just published more pictures of Samuel on her blog! It was so shocking to open up her site and see him. The pictures were taken with a disposable camera that she had mailed to the orphanage when she sent the LOI for her daughter. It is SO, SO incredibly exciting to see our son! He is so gorgeous. The orphanage looks beautiful too. The woman in the pictures was also at Kaitlynn's (girl in pink) Gottcha moment so we expect to meet her when we meet Samuel.

I was also happy to see Sam with a few other kiddies. That means that although two of his friends left, he hasn't suddenly found himself all alone.

It so amazing to think that come April, the little guy in that picture is going to be eating his third year birthday cake at our kitchen table. I wonder if he likes vanilla or chocolate cake..... Oh my little Mingjie, your life is about to drastically change one more time.

Éva Last Year & This Year

My mother-in-law was exclaiming that Éva has changed so much since last year. That gave me the idea to compare her two Santa pictures:

Yep, this year she's changed from a baby to a little girl. Ahh (sigh). The time really does fly by. Last year she was still a little wobbly on her feet, she wasn't talking and she was so shy with strangers. Now she walks, runs, jumps, somersaults, usually all at the same time. She talks to people behind us, in front of us and ten feet away from us in the grocery store. She's a lively happy little soul who's gaining more and more confidence as the weeks go by.

There's a song in the Broadway show Mama Mia that captures beautifully my feelings about my baby growing up:

Slipping through my fingers all the time

I try to capture every minute

The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Do I really see what's in her mind

Each time I think I'm close to knowing

She keeps on growing

Slipping through my fingers all the time.

A year was a lifetime while we were waiting for Éva-Lynn and it is the same waiting for Samuel. Yet, once they arrive, a year goes by in the blink of an eye and we suddenly have a totally different child on our hands. Ahh (sigh). I just don't like it.

Eva and Santa

Here's what our family has been up to over the past little while as we wait for our little man.

Éva went to see Santa. She absolutely adores him, but was a little shy once she got up to meet him. When I sat her down beside him on the chair she got a little panicky and her eyes filled with tears, but she wasn't leaving there until she had asked for the gift she wants. This year she is asking for a pink clock (a digital one, not with hands). Why? Because she needs something in her room that tells her when it is 7:00. Why? So she knows when she can get up (7:00 am) and when it's time for bed 7:30 pm). About a month ago she started coming into our room in the mornings after Jean-Pierre had left for work. We'd lie around in bed talking, playing, etc. and Éva started pointing out everytime there was a 7 on our digital clocks. That's when she decided that she need a clock with 7's in her room too. Anyway, she wouldn't look at him, but she told him nice and clearly that she wanted a 'pink clock' for Christmas. He then took her on his knee and they took this picture. She really was very brave the whole time. We were so proud of her.

Grandma, Grandpa and Mama went to the Mandarin Playgroup's Christmas party. Éva love, love, loves parties. She was especially excited to be partying with her new very, very best friend Nina. She told everyone we met (cousins, aunties, grandparents, lady standing behind us in the supermarket checkout line, the cashier, EVERYONE) that she was going to a party and that Nina would be there. The night after the party, she called out Nina's name in her sleep.

Sam's Room

Just to remind you, here's what Samuel's room used to look like.

Now here's what he'll see when he goes into his room for the first time.

Well, he may have a closet organizer and curtins by the time he steps into his room for the first time, but you get the gist.

Éva and I like to go and sit in his room sometimes. We cuddle in his chair or play with toys on the floor. She's been told that she isn't allowed to sit on Sam's bed without his permission so whenever we go in Sam's room she says, 'No sit. Ask Sam. China, China.' I wonder if he is going to say yes once she finally gets to ask him.

Start Counting People!

The countdown has offically started. Our paperwork arrived in China today, today, today! That will make December 29th (a Saturday) the 15th day of our wait for the TA. The agency is open from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm (EST) on December 31st (day 17). Please, please, please let that be the day we get the call! Any day before that would work for us too, but I think hoping for the 17th day is already pushing it.

Here's what the infamous Notice of Coming To China for Adoption (A.K.A. Travel Approval) will look like. This little paper will make Samuel's parents laugh, cry, leap for joy and then panic to get everything done before they leave! Recognize the little face on the paper? Éva was around 9 months old when her TA picture was taken. Samuel was close to 2 years old when his would have been done. I expect to see one of these two pictures on his TA form:

The Eagle Has Landed

Yes, our LOA reached the agency this morning at 8:00. Better yet, we had an
e-mail from our sponsor saying that the agency is forwarding the LOA on to China today. Since they expect it to be there by Monday, we start counting our days from Monday, December 17th. That means that New Year's day will be day 16!!! I'm absolutely praying that we have news on January 3rd when the agency reopens after the New Year break so we can move on to the next wait :) - the wait to leave.

I packed Sam's clothes, toys and shoes over the weekend. The suitcase is waiting in his closet......It's pretty full already :-0.

The Wait - Part 2

We sent the signed LOA back to the agency today. They should have it by 10:30 Wednesday morning. Who knows, maybe it will be sent back to China Wednesday afternoon. I sure hope so. Because of Chinese New Year (Feb. 7th-15th), we are now working with a very tight timeline if we want to get Sam home before March.

The latest we can fly out to get to Sam before everything closes for Chinese New Year is Friday, January 18th. This date would mean we would get him the on 21st, stay that week in the province, fly to Beijing for the 28th, do the Canadian side of things and come home Feb. 1st. In order for this senerio to work, the TA needs to take no more than 24 days to get to us.

These days the average wait between LOA and TA is 27 days. Ahhhhh... There are people who have received their TA's after only 15 days and there are people who have waited 35 days. 15 days works for us, but once we pass the 24 day mark, it won't matter if it then takes 35 days because we won't be travelling then anyway.

So, if the timeline above doesn't work, we would likely leave to get Samuel on Feb. 15th with the Gottcha Day being Feb. 18th. Although it is sickening, I believe we will be travelling under this scenerio. Nothing has moved quickly for us so far and there isn't any reason to believe that things will suddenly change. So, we will all continue to wait......

Day 152 - LOA!

Yes, it finally arrived! Our sponsor called us this evening. Jean-Pierre answered the phone. When he said that it was our sponsor I didn't believe him. I was laughing and saying, "Yeah right. Good try. Say, 'Hi' to your mom from me.' He then put the phone on speaker so I could hear too and it really was our sponsor! First, I said a few very choice words concerning about how long everything had taken. Then I felt like crying, but didn't....much. (At one point in the conversation we had to give our sponsor our postal code. I broke down a little when I said, 's, like Sam'. Somehow saying his name made everything more real). As soon as we hung up from our sponsor we hugged, laughed and then we each called our parents with the good news.

Anyway, obviously we're happy, relieved, excited and cautiously optimistic for a January travel date. We now need to wait for our TA (Travel Approval) which is the final permission to enter China and pick up our son. We expect the TA to take about a month to get here. It could come faster, but...well...we haven't been too lucky with faster, so we're counting on it taking at least a month. So, a month for the TA, a week or two to get flights, etc. organized and away we go - that puts us in mid-January. I don't mind. I just want to get there before Chinese New Year which is the beginning of February.

Day 150 - No News

While I said I wouldn't post until we got the LOA, I wanted to mark the fifth month of our wait. Tomorrow (December 4th) will be day 150 since we sent in our LOI.

Samuel's room is pretty much ready. There are a few finishing touches left to do - a closet organizer, handles for his armoire, pictures to get into frames.

And so....we continue.....to wait......