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.

Time for an update

It's been over two years and if I am going to do this thing I better catch up! Life is good-my son Justin is engaged to his girlfriend of over 5 years, Jia is in kindergarten and we are in the process of adopting another girl from China. Her name is Yan Qi Xuan and we refer to her as Schwen. She is in the Nanjing SWI and is 4.5 years old. We are using a different agency this time-Hand in Hand is one of two agencies that adopts children out of a specific orphanage. I am hoping to be able to travel in the spring but more than likely it will be the hot hot summer.

We just celebrated our 4th year of having Jia in our family. Adam wishes she still had the innocence of a baby! They do grow up fast.