Big weekend ahead

Well for me at least. I am headed up to Put-in-Bay for a weekend with 7 friends for an early birthday celebration. Four of the friends are former co-workers from the Dayton/Cincy area, one is my niece and very good friend and two current co-workers/friends. No way does it seem like it could already be 10 years since I celebrated my last big birthday with the former co-workers and niece.

Birthday plans for J are coming along. She has another b-day party to attend on her actual birthday but then we will go to the zoo and she can ride the rides. We'll continue the celebration on Sunday the 26th.

My niece Alyssa is moving into her first apt (non-college) this weekend..seems like she was just 6 herself. She has a job teaching music at a middle school in Springfield and will also be assisting the high school music director.

Justin is headed up to Toledo area to sail in Highlander Nationals with his dad Bruce. They sail the nationals race together every year and won the title two years ago. Bruce's dad was a big Highlander sailer and won the championship 5x. Jill is going along with Justin this time and will be taking care of a baby of fellow sailers plus I'm sure she will spend some time with Bruce and Debbie's girls. Sailing is such a great family sport and I'm glad that Justin has continued with his racing.

It's looking like Adam will be traveling in the next month. We still don't have travel approval but all things continue to point in that direction. We have been trying to figure out the best plan-where to stay, what flights, getting from Shanghai airport to the train station to catch the train to Nanjing-getting from the Nanjing train station to the hotel, arranging guides, etc. When we adopted in 2004 this was all taken care of so it's a bit nerve wracking. We continue to hope that he will travel with the two other families who are adopting children from the same orphanage but it may not happen. We are utlizing every resource we have to find out information and trying to decide what to do. Also just feeling totally stressed from everything-work is very busy for both of us and the weekends have been nuts. With the exception of one event on August 7th we are not doing ANYTHING in August...in other words, unless there is a death we are in seclusion!!! I imagine we'll keep a low profile the first few months after his return with S. J is registered for soccer and will do her chinese classes but otherwise we will keep activities to a minimum and may resurface by Halloween!!

4th of July come and gone

I remember when I was younger and the 4th of July meant that my best friend Tina was going to have her birthday and mine would be 6 weeks behind...boy, I sure hated that she was older than me! Well, Tina turned 50 this past weekend as did another good friend Julia...how did we get to be 50 already? And in just 6 weeks it will hit me and here I am adding to my family. Tina told me that she went to grandparents day for her 10 year old nieces and saw someone we went to high school with who was there for his grandchildren!!! While I do want grandkids in the near future I certainly would not want to have any that are in the 4th grade!!

We had a relaxing 4th of July weekend-relaxing meaning that we did not have to do TOO much...we did manage to make it to a parade and fireworks on the actual 4th. J loved the fireworks and I love her enthusiasm towards the celebration.

J's 6th b-day is coming up in a few weeks and we made the decision over the weekend that she could have a party at the local pottery studio. So we picked out the cake and invitations-High School Musical of course, and the party will be small but she'll be happy. She only wants HSM "stuff"...which leaves buying gifts wide open.

We should be receiving travel approval in a few weeks and we still are sitting on our rear ends doing nothing. I think we both thrive on the thrill of getting things done at the last minute. It's how my job functions and it has carried over into my personal life.

A busy week-getting ready for the second garage sale this weekend and will end with a pool party on Sunday.

Another week gone by

Here it is already the end of June...this past week flew by and nothing was accomplished on the homefront.

J is going to be gone for four days...she will have a great time but mom and dad will miss her. So wise for her age...she told me that she wants to spend 4 nights away and she knows it is a long time but she doesn't get to see her cousin Emma very often..Emma and family live in Bethesda, MD and are visiting my sister near Toledo.

I have two very good friends who will have their 50th birthdays next week...I am just six weeks behind. Wow...seems like we were just in college and dancing to Michael Jackson's Off the Wall at frat parties..most people over 60 or younger than 25 don't seem to understand the effect his music had on my generation in the 70's and 80's.....I was just showing J the Thriller dance on you tube a few months ago and listened to the Thriller cassette!

We're still here

I am horrible with keeping up a blog...I was never good at keeping a diary when I was young so I should not be too surprised. Life continues to be moving along...the summer is flying by and we haven't been swimming one time...just too much going on..still waiting for things to slow down.

We had our garage sale last week and made $425. We are having a second garage sale with the items that did not sell and with other items on July 11th-this time it will be at my mother in laws-she lives in a neighborhood...people just don't want to pay any money in the country...the prices were marked so low it was ridiculous.

JB and JB's wedding plans are moving along and they are also having a house built in Grove City-just south of the city of Columbus. It is an hour drive for me and is also an hour drive from her family.

Little J is enjoying her summer daycare program-they keep the kids so busy and go on field trips 2-3 times a week. Last week they took tours of Crew Stadium (where the soccer team plays) and to Nationwide Arena. This week they went to Build a Bear. We are going up to southern Michigan for my great nephew's graduation party and she will stay at my sisters for a few days to spend time with her cousin E from Bethesda, MD.

We received approval on our I800 which means we are now waiting for travel approval. We estmate that TA (travel approval) will come at the end of July and Adam could potentially travel in August. However there is a travel advisory until 9/30/09 to China due to the H1N1 virus and we have been advised that we may be given the option to travel after the advisory. Not sure what we will do at this time. I am happy to wait as I don't want to have to worry that Adam is stuck in a nasty quarantine hospital b/c someone who sat next to him on the plane has the flu. Plus the weather would be much nicer in October!

Happy summer to all.

another month has gone by

This picture was taken at the Daddy/Daughter dance held in February. They both had a great time. Here it is already the end of March...2009 seems to be flying by and before we know it summer will be here...J will be finishing her kindergarten year...which reminds me that I still need to get her registered for 1st grade at the elementary school.

We need to start on "project schwen"...which means we need to begin to tranform J's room into a room for J and S. J currently has a double bed and we are on the search for two white twin beds and night stands for the girls. I also need to start shopping for summer clothes for both of the girls.

J went to a bowling b-day party yesterday and had the highest score of 16 kids! She had a 96. This is only her 3rd time bowling and yes, it is bumper bowling but still pretty good for a 5 year old. We laugh b/c BV (the high school) has a really good bowling team....it could be J's ticket to college!!!!

It looks like referrals are coming close to 90 days from LID's which means we could potentially receive the ok from China at the end of May...I REALLY need to get my act together here and start on the forms that we will need to return to China. I also want to go ahead and get J a passport in the slim chance that the three of us could travel.

I'll try this one more time!

ok, it's been months but I'll give blogging one more try...I wrote down my log in and password so that I can actually access the blog...

We submitted our dossier to Hand In Hand the second week of February and it was sent to China (DTC) on 2/13/09. We found out the other day that our log in date is March 2, 2009...and so the countdown begins..


I so wish Adam, Jia and I could all travel but at this time our finances just will not allow it..so I am playing $2.00 a week on classic lotto and mega millions and just hoping that I hit even $10k!!!

In the mean time we enjoy this time with Jia and get the house ready for Schwen.

I'll try to make the blog a bit prettier and post pics next weekend.

tis the season

Tis the season where we are supposed to be jolly. Somehow I am just not feeling it. Part of the reason could be that I've been sick for over three weeks now-first bronchitis and now a cold on top of it. We don't have our christmas tree yet and the house is a mess. I am exhausted every night and just want to go to bed. Does it get any easier?
On the plus side. I will have the next 5 days off and hope to get a tree, get the house cleaned up, get gifts for my niece Alyssa to take to Toledo, make cookies with the Jie and visit with friends.