Have TA now, waiting on Consulate Appointment !

Our agency received our TA yesterday and requested our consulate appointment. Now we just wait and it can take up to 5 business days for the consulate to give us a date. Can you say excruciating wait ;-) Our first choice was 6/23 which could put us leaving for China 6/11, yikes ! Our 2nd choice was the week of 6/30 which is fine too, but of course we just want to bring our little guy home asap. I can't believe we are so close to being a family of 5. I'm posting some pics from the last week of the girls, these will be some of the last we will have with only them ;-)

Audrey's first graduation

Audrey isn't even 5 yet and she's had her first graduation from Preschool ! I kept making fun of the fact that her preschool was having a graduation ceremony but in the end I loved it ;-) The staff there did an amazing job and I was almost in tears by the end. Here are a few pics from the Ceremony. By the way, I wish I had video, but I was a bad mama and forgot the camcorder !

Updated Spring 2008 slideshow

I deleted the last slideshow because I updated it with new pics from April and May. So about half the pictures you may have already seen, but there are quite a few new ones and I really liked this Martina Mcbride song ;-)

Waiting for TA and Travel Plans

I'm here to tell ya, this is going to be one interesting trip ! I'm already going nuts trying to decide everything about our trip and our TA hasn't even arrived yet ;-) We should receive our TA in a couple of weeks if they arrive in the usual amount of time. Since the Olympics are right around the corner and we've already been to Beijing twice, we are opting to fly into Shanghai this time. Shanghai is also alot closer to Hangzhou where we will be adopting Paul Lei. Since our adoption agency's travel agency (BOIT) doesn't have a representative in Shanghai, we had to hire a guide. As luck would have it, we have been blessed to find a private guide who knows our son's orphanage director. We found this person through another family who has adopted from our son's orphanage in 2005. Long story short, we are hiring this Chinese guide to come to Shanghai and take us siteseeing, then he will ride with us by bus to Taizhou (4 hour trip to our sons hometown and orphanage). We will be able to site see in Taizhou and visit our son at the orphanage. Then, the orphanage director has suggested that we ride by bus with her and our new son up to Hangzhou (4hour drive) to carry out the adoption at the civil affairs bureau. Never did I imagine we would get to meet our son at his orphanage and ride to the main city with him and the director. We are really excited that we are going to have such a personal experience spending time with Paul and his caregivers.

We have LSC/LOA for Paul Lei !!!!!!!!!

We have our final confirmation that Lei is ours ! This is our "letter seeking confirmation" from CCAA. We should receive our TA in about 3-4 weeks and hopefully travel mid to late June. We are excited beyond belief and running around crazy trying to prepare. We didn't receive the call until 8:40 pm Friday night so we were really shocked. We just can't wait to meet our new son !

Latest on the girls and Paul's adoption

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but life is moving at warp speed lately ! Rachel is now potty trained and she has moved into Audreys room in her own big girl bed. The transition has been a little rough but overall much easier than we anticipated. Rachel is still not making it through the night dry but we are determined to have her potty trained at night as well so guess I'll just be doing a little extra laundry for awhile ;-) Rachel's crib is still sitting in Paul's room but I'm hoping to sell it soon and begin preparing his room for him. Since Paul seems to really like horses his room will have them as it's central theme. I recently received a few pictures of Paul receiving his care package. I am so amazed at how big our son is getting ! He looks a little sad in the pics but I'm hoping hes just irritated because he had to get dressed up and get a new haircut for the pics ;-)

This past weekend Wendy and Dan Bowyer came to visit and stayed with us. Both their daughters are from Audrey and Rachel's orphanages and we traveled together for both adoptions.

We are still waiting for our LOA or LSC (letter seeking confirmation) for Paul which is the main piece of paper we need before we can get ready to travel. The way things are moving now, we probably won't receive it until late May. I'll post as soon as we hear something.

Questions orphanage answered about Lei recently !

What is his personality like?

He is active, smart, industrious, and sensible.

When does the orphanage usually tell children they are being adopted and when is it ok to send a care package?

After we submit his file, we told him: “we’ll find a warm family for you. You’ll have Daddy and Mommy in the family.” After we received your pictures, we showed him the pictures right away, and told him it’s his parents. Please feel free to send care packages to him, we’ll definitely give them to him and tell him: Your Mommy and Daddy really care about you and love you very much.

Is there anything we can send for the children and caretakers of the orphanage ?

We have everything here, nothing needed in particular. Thank you for your kindness.

How does Lei feel about being adopted?

LeiLei hopes he has a real family. There are daddy and mommy love him. So when he heard there is a family is going to adopt him, he was very excited!

Is Lei close to any of his caretakers and if so, what are the names?

He lives in our big family. We all love him and he gets along well with everybody. And he is very close to us.

What are Lei's likes and dislikes? Does he have any favorite toys? Favorite Foods?
He is not picky. He loves remote airplane and cars. He loves KFC!

When Lei is upset, how do you comfort him?

Give him a hug and kiss him, usually he’ll be happy again.

Does Lei like animals? If so does he have a favorite?

He likes rabbit and kitty. He dreams he can ride horse and walk on grassland.

Celebrating Sisterhood

Thought it would be fun to create a slideshow with pics of Audrey and Rachel together since Rachel came home. A good friend is making a scrapbook for the girls and she is the one who gave me the idea to make a slideshow just celebrating their relationship. The song is definitely a little more country that I would prefer but I had to use it because the words were perfect ;-)

We will be Officially DTC Friday !!!!!

We just received an email from Terri at CHI and our dossier will be hand carried by Stefani Ellison on her trip to China this Friday. We are so excited and relieved that the paperchase is over and we are anticipating a February Login date. Now the wait begins. I think on average it is taking 90-100 days or so to get the LOA once you are DTC and have PA. If this comes true for us, we will probably travel early July, but of course this is only a guess. It will be a long Spring this year .........

Thanksgiving to Valentines Pics and Videos

Sisters and Friends

Just thought I'd post some recent pics of the girls playing. They truly are best friends although they spend alot of time abusing each other ;-)

I 171H finally received last week !!!

After nearly 9 weeks of waiting, we finally received our I-171H for Liu Lei, soon to be Paul Lei Price Hanna. What is really sad is that after 9 weeks of waiting, they didn't fill out the I-171H correctly. They forgot to mark that he is a special needs child. Fortunately our agency told us to go ahead and use the original I-171H for authentications and just take the updated I-171H to China with us with the original. So, we are finally about to be DTC. We should receive all of Paul's documents back from the courier in DC by the middle of next week and hopefully be logged in with a February LID. If we are logged in February, we are guessing we will travel late June or early July. This paperchase by far has been the worst of all 3 of our adoptions. I'm sure some of this is due to the fact that we know our son is waiting .
The girls are doing great and they are looking forward to having a big brother. The girls will be staying with Nai Nai and Papa while we travel so this will be our first trip to China with just Alex and I. We are looking forward to the trip even knowing it may be really rough with Paul's initial adjustment. We also know that we will miss the girls terribly. Niether of them has ever spent a night away from us since they were adopted....

Audrey's video Journal 2004 trip to China

I thought it would be fun to just make a video of clips from our trips to China that are not edited and have the actual audio so I made a video journal of Audrey's adoption and I plan to do one for Rachel this month as well. I think they will be nice keepsakes for the girls.

The Girls, Paul's adoption and Remodel

The past couple months have been crazy to say the least, but I'll try to do a little catching up. First, Audrey and Rachel are doing great and growing up way too fast. Rachel is finally starting to talk albeit a little slower than we would like. Just in the past month she has finally been able to say her name. She can say "I want that " of course lol. She says' "I eat", "that my momma", whenever she feels Audrey is getting too much attention. "Breakfast Bar" and many others. We've decided that Rachel is learning to talk on a "need to" basis. She never says anything without a purpose for saying it ............... and then there is the big sister who talks continuously 24/7 regardless of whether there is a need to communicate anything at all lol. It is no wonder Rachels speech has been a little slow in developing ;-)

There are so many funny things the girls do these days if only I could remember them all. Of course the one today is still fresh in my mind so I"ll share it. We were in the kitchen earlier this afternoon and I hear Audrey yell "No Rachel, Mom Look, she thinks it's Chapstick !" I turned around and Rachel was coating her lips real good with a glue stick sigh lol. I can only laugh now because it was made for kids and non-toxic of course. I was able to wash it off promptly too. It did teach me to be a little more careful about where I leave such items !

The other day Audrey was playing with one of her toy horses and she said it was a girl horse. I asked her how she knew it was a girl and she said emphatically "Because she has eyebrows". I was like "who knew" ;-) lol....

We tried potty training with Rachel in mid December and it was definitely a bust. Rachel had been holding it quite a bit in her pullup but for some reason when we put her in panties, she became a mad peeing machine. That girl went through 6 pairs of panties in 90 minutes and I'm not exaggerating. Needless to say that ended potty training 101 for a while. We are now in the phase of I want to use the potty whenever I feel like it but I will still pee in my pullup and I won't poop on the potty to save my life ! What is up with the fear of pooping on the potty I ask???? I've talked to so many moms and this seems to be a big issue. Ok, enough about potty training. It's bad enough to have to do it, much less write about it haha.

On to the paperchase ....... The paperchase for Liu Lei, soon to be known as Paul Lei Price Hanna has been exhausting to say the least. We are still waiting on the I-171H and have been for over 8 weeks. I called our congressman a week and a half ago and they called Memphis USCIS last week and were told it will still be 2 weeks before we have it. This makes the time from our homestudy and prints being received till we receive the I-171H 10 weeks which is insane. Long story short, we will probably end up DTC mid February and travel late June or early July.

As far as the remodel goes, its almost over and thank goodness ! Don't ever stay in your house while your kitchen is being remodeled with two sick kids and a husband out of town on business the whole week. It wasn't pretty and that's all I"ll say about that lol !

Lastly, make sure to watch the video clip I posted. My favorite part is where Rachel mimicks Audrey and says "Nai Nai and Papa" with the most serious southern draw you ever heard ;-)

My apologies that I rarely post, but I am going to try to do better, especially now that the holidays are over and this crazy remodel is too !

Audrey and Rachel Christmas 2007

I guess this is better late than never lol, but thought I'd share a few clips of the girls from December. Rachel can't even talk well yet and already has the serious southern draw going on ;-)

Home Improvements or Nesting ???

I have to laugh because everytime we start a new adoption and finish up the paperwork or come close to it we also begin furiously updating our home. With Rachel we ended up putting down hard wood floors in our entire upstairs and making our loft into a 4th bedroom. With Lei we are now adding a floor to ceiling bookshelf in our formal living room, Adding crown molding to 2 upstairs bedrooms and our upstairs bathroom, then the biggie is we are remodeling our Kitchen. We are replacing the tile, updating the hardware on the cabinets, replacing the countertops and replacing the appliances with stainless. We are also adding ceiling fans and some new lighting as well as updating some trim work downstairs. Ok, I'm now dizzy just thinking about all of it lol. When it is all said and done, we will then immediately proceed to the poorhouse ;-) The book shelf is almost done so once it is finished I will post a pic. It is awesome and I'm so glad we had it built. I know it will be a nice selling point one day when we sell. I definitely think there is a connection between our preadoption home improvements and Nesting .....

USCIS Memphis and Lei

I fed-ex'd our homestudy a second time on December 6th and Confirmed it was received on the 7th. Memphis USCIS did say that they will honor the original receipt date of November 16th so we shall see. If they take the maximum time they say it may take we may not have the I-171H until January 16th which seems like forever to me. We have all of Lei's docs back from being authenticated by the Sec of State's offices except my birth cert. which goes to California which is scary in and of itself lol. California charges 20.00 to authenticate one document. Thank goodness we live in TN where it cost 2.00 per doc !!! :-) Gotta love the Southeast.

The closer we get to the end of the paperchase the more I feel like this was meant to be and that Lei really is our son. I think we have all completely bonded to the few pictures we have of him. Now we are just preparing ourselves for the upcoming travel and all the trials and tribulations that will most likely follow. I'm currently reading a very good book called "Our Own", parenting the older adopted child". So far it seems like a very good reference and gives many scenarios as to what to expect when adopting an older child. I know this will be a comfort to have once Lei is home too.

A Blue Christmas Without You

It's amazing how fast time flies when you are paperchasing and trying to keep up with a 2 and 4 year old ! That may be why I'm finally posting at almost 3am lol. I just wanted to catch up briefly and share the events of the past couple days. First of all, we are in the final stages of our paperchase now and it's getting hairy to say the least. Yesterday I was sitting in the County Clerks office in downtown Chattanooga waiting to have all our dossier docs certified and all of the sudden I hear the song "It'll be a Blue Christmas without You". Wow, I was like, hmmmmm, this song couldn't have come at a worse time ;-). I thought I was going to burst into tears right there ! Now that we are almost DTC, suddenly I have this overwhelming need to have our son home. It has been so very different having a little face in our minds to think about constantly. Up until the past week though, I personally have just tried not to think too much about him and hyperfocus on the paperchase. But now that we are almost done, all I can seem to think about is him and what it will be like when he is with us. Well, while I was thinking about Lei yesterday, I decided that since our homestudy had gone to USCIS on November 16th and our social worker had not put a cover letter on our homestudy stating that we were adopting a "Waiting Child", that I would just email them (Memphis USCIS) to make sure they knew that Lei was waiting on them so that he could come home. So I emailed Memphis yesterday morning and when I returned from getting our docs authenticated in Chattanooga, I come home to an email that says they can't find our homestudy !!!! I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Of course then I was just so thankful that I had emailed them only two weeks after they received it instead of waiting weeks only to find out they never had it. Long story short is that we are fed-exing another homestudy to them tomorrow and I am hoping that since they LOST our first one, that they will expedite the processing of our I-171H.

Ok, I must sleep now !!! There is so much more to post and catch up on which I promise to very soon.

Gotcha Day Rachel in China and Home

I recently remade Rachel's Gotcha Day video and added some pics since she's been home. Hope you enjoy.

Audrey's Horseback riding Adventure

Ok, am I crazy putting Audrey on a horse at 4.5 yrs old? This was actually just one of those fateful things that happens. I really had thought she was too young, but I had talked to several different people recently who had experience with horses and all informed me that it's not uncommon at all for kids to start riding after age 3.5-4. We just happen to have a riding/boarding stable literally within walking distance of our house so I have been inundated with requests from Audrey to ride over the past year.

Long story short, she is a natural and she had the time of her life. I myself love horses as well so seeing her learn to ride was wonderful. She takes another lesson this Wednesday and we are really looking forward to it.