Ah, technology!

A few weeks ago, my old clunker of a computer got a very nasty virus and basically became unusable. Even though I really wanted a new computer, I had decided that I would let it limp along until it didn't work anymore before I would get a new one. I have to admit that I wasn't too sad to turn the old thing off and order a new one. I actually splurged. I ordered a nice desktop, and I also ordered a new mini netbook. I have wanted one since I saw someone at a meeting last year with one, and decided that it would be the easiest and most portable way to update the blog from China when we finally go. The last time we went to China, our families ran up enormously large phone bills by calling us everyday to get updates on their new grand-daughter (and I suppose they wanted to check on us as well). This time, I am hoping that if I keep everyone updated with a blog, I can hopefully save them hundreds of dollars. Anyway, I cannot believe how quickly the blog page just loaded. I feel like I have been living in the dark ages, and now finally have technology that WORKS! I am actually giddy because I just uploaded a photo from the built-in card reader. That is probably standard for most of you, but after the convoluted way that I had to upload photos with my old computer, the card reader is like a dream. Sometimes the photos never showed up at all, or it would take so long to upload that I eventually would give up. Is it any wonder that I have been so bad at updating this blog? Anyway, I am very happy with my new toys!

Now it is 2009....

So the latest news I guess is that there really is no news for now as far as our adoption goes. We are still waiting for Brian's surgery to be scheduled. The nerves have recovered all the way down his arm, but his hand is still a little tingly/numb. It has really been pretty amazing to see how the nerves regenerate from the shoulder down, but it has taken so long. Brian is planning to call his doctor and ask if he is ready for surgery yet.

I called our agency the other day to let them know that we were still waiting for the surgery and that we still aren't ready to see any files. I was excited to hear that we are actually #19 on the list, and the agency's social worker thinks that we could potentially be matched fairly quickly once we let them know that we are ready, especially since we probably won't be ready to view files until the late spring.

The other exciting news is that Amelia is now very excited about the possibility of a little brother. From the moment we put our paperwork in, I couldn't shake the feeling that we would be adopting a boy this time, but Amelia has been completely set on getting a little sister and would not even talk about the possibility of a brother. A few weeks ago I was feeling really frustrated with the whole adoption and was talking to Brian about how I felt like we should really be preparing for a boy, but that I also knew that Amelia only wanted a sister. Not two minutes later, out of the blue, Amelia came up to me and said, "Mom, I have been thinking. I think I really want a brother." I don't know what prompted that because she couldn't hear us talking, but I am so glad that she is excited too.

The funniest thing is that we have been talking for two years about girl's names and have not been able to find a single name that we all like and agree on. However, we can come up with a long list of boy's names that we all like. Right now the front runner is Owen, which we all love. I am a big believer in signs since we had so many signs while we were waiting for Amelia that really showed us that we were on the right path. I was on the phone with my friend telling her that we all really like the name Owen, and a few minutes later she said, "You aren't going to believe this, but J (her two-year old), just brought me a book to read called Owen's Blanket!" It was a book that my friend's mother had picked up for the kids and J had never asked to read it until that moment. What are the chances?

Otherwise, we all had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to 2009! One of my resolutions - update this blog more often!

Signs of Fall

Fall is my absolutely favorite time of year, and yesterday was a perfectly glorious fall day. We went pumpkin picking and the weather was so nice that Amelia actually wore shorts. We won't have that kind of beautiful weather too much longer, so we really need to enjoy it while we can before winter comes. I also managed to take a picture of these geese as they flew overhead. Fall is here!

Back up and running

I made the blog unavailable for a while because of some concerns I was having about privacy, but I couldn't locate the blog when I searched for it, so I am opening it back up (and hopefully keeping it more up-to-date)!

The family on Cadillac Mountain

Amelia and I in the Azalea Gardens
Spencer (or maybe Charlie?)

The saga continues....

So, it has been a long time since I've updated. I really need to start posting more often... About a month and a half ago, we contacted our wonderful agency and let them know that we are open to adopting either a boy or a girl. We realize that since most families are waiting for girls, this means we most likely will be matched with a little boy. We are absolutely thrilled with the possibility, and our agency director was very happy too and told us that things could go "quickly" for us. We decided to take a nice, relaxing family vacation to Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park. It was wonderful, but unfortunately on the very last day we were there, Brian dislocated his shoulder (on the top of South Bubble, no less). He has had problems with his shoulder dislocating since the injury first happened in high school (he was a gymnast), but this time he couldn't get his shoulder to go back in by himself. We ended up having the park ranger and some EMTs help him hike back down the mountain with his shoulder still dislocated. He spent the last evening of our vacation heavily medicated in the local hospital. His shoulder was dislocated for about three hours, and because of that, he now has some nerve damage that could take a few months to heal. Once the nerves are back to normal, he needs to schedule surgery to repair his shoulder and hopefully prevent it from dislocating again. The good news is that the surgeon expects him to make a full recovery. The bad news is that we asked our agency not to show us any files until 2009. Hopefully by then his surgery and physical therapy will be behind us.... We are trying to stay optimistic. We knew that this was a surgery that he would need to have at some point in time, and I know that someday I will look back and be grateful that we needed to wait so that the child that is right for our family can join us when the time is right.

In other sad news for our family, we lost our beloved cat Oliver to cancer. He was such a big part of our family for thirteen years. It is amazing to me how much one little being can fill a house while he is here, and leave it feeling so empty after he is gone. We miss him so much. Our cat Emmy has been very clingy since Oliver died, and she is alone in the house all day (and sometimes all evening), so we know that she misses him too. We know that we will never be able to replace Oliver, but we also knew that we would look for another cat to join our family in the near future. Last week Amelia and I stopped at the Humane Society to ask for an application and was told that we could only fill out an application once we found a cat that we were interested in. We decided to take a look around and visit all the cats, but I never expected to find a cat that I was interested in. Long story short, Amelia and I fell in love with a orange cat that the shelter had named Truxton. Brian went to meet him the next day at lunchtime, and he filled out an application for him on the spot. We were approved (and no one even needed to fingerprint us!), and I picked him up that afternoon. We renamed him Spencer, and he seems to be exactly what we all needed. He and Emmy still have to officially meet since Spence has been sequestered in our guest bedroom for the past few days. Today I took him to the vet for a checkup, and when Emmy saw him in the carrier, she ran and hid behind the curtains in our family room. I am sure that with time they will be friends.
Stay tuned... I will add pictures, but I can't seem to get that function to work right now.

Updates....

We have had a very busy few months, and I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted an update. Lots of things have been going on...

First, I called our homestudy agency a few months ago to request that we get started on our homestudy update so that we could update our USCIS paperwork which will expire in June. They are a very small local agency that deals mainly with domestic adoption, and when I called them they told me that they are no longer working with families who are adopting internationally because they don't have enough IA families to make it worth their while to become Hague compliant. They weren't sure that they could provide us with an update that would be acceptable under the new Hague guidelines. I contaced USCIS, and was told that they also did not know and were awaiting guidance. Well, we certainly didn't want to wait around to find out that a homestudy from this agency wouldn't be acceptable, so we decided to switch homestudy agencies. The great news is that now we will be able to work with the same social worker that provided our homestudy for Amelia's adoption (she was not able to work with us when we first started this second adoption, but now is working with an agency that will allow her to provide a homestudy for another agency). We are thrilled to be able to work with her again. The bad news is that we have had to do a lot of the paperwork AGAIN for the new agency. We are also required to take the 10 hours of adoption courses, which we have never done before. They are actually really good. SO hopefully we will be done with the homestudy process and get our USCIS paperwork updated soon and be able to put it behind us for another 15-18 months!

We have also been talking for quite a while about special needs adoption, but I always was the one to say that I would not switch to special needs unless I felt strongly pulled toward a specific need. Well, for the last year or so, I have definitely felt a pull, and finally I felt like we just really needed to take action. We were added to our agency's list of families waiting for a waiting child on Feb. 28. We were told that it will still be at least a year, based on the needs that we said we would be willing to consider and the age of the child we requested. With our agency, we are also able to stay in the NSN line. I will say that I feel like we have made the right choice for our family, and putting ourselves on the waiting list has just felt like what we were supposed to do.

Tonight I helped with a fundraiser/silent auction/dinner that our local FCC group does every year, and I won two of the auctions that I bid on (unlike last year where I was severely outbid on everything). We have now added another gorgeous mooncake mold to our collection (above), and a basket that contained an awesome cookbook of food from Hunan Province. It even has a recipe for the famous steamed eggs that Amelia ate until we thought she would pop. I can't wait to test out some recipes! Best of all, the money all goes to provide medical care for children in China. I already can't wait until next year!