Drum Roll Please! We have a LID!!!!!!!!!!

We FINALLY have a LID, what is a LID you ask? Well, that is your log in date, the date that China logs in your dossier into their system! This makes you official and the count down starts from this date! So, Nov 17, 2005 will be one of the most important dates of our journey to our sweet baby girl! The wait is looking like anywhere from 8 to 10 months but could speed up ( I am praying for that one) or slow down at any time! It seems that in one of the provinces that many internationally adopted babies come from, has had an issue with baby trafficking, so they have halted adoptions from that paticular province till they can have a resolution am not clear on all of the details just yet but hope to sort it all out and document it for Alexandra to have when she gets older. I am in the very early stages of starting a life book (similar to a scrapbook)for Alexandra to document our journey to her and to document her journey to us!
that's all for now, must go partake in my drug of choice these days, shopping of course! Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

I know, it's been a while!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, Ok, I know I have not bloged in a while but honestly I just have to sometimes pretend it is not really happening, the adoption that is ( call it self preservation)! You see, what we thought would be a 6 month wait, has turned into an 8 to 12 month wait! We were hoping to travel in late spring or early summer and it is looking more like fall or even winter! Sooooooo, in order to cope I have to put it in the back of my mind or I would totally loose it!
It seems the CCAA ( the powers that be in China) have slowed down the process a bit and depending on how many people you ask, you will get that many different explanations! So, I have passed the time with Christmas shopping!
Want to hear another Olivia story? We were in the car last week and Olivia says" Mom, do you feel married?" Me " Do I feel married?" Olivia, " yah, do you feel married?" Me " Yes, I do." Olivia, " I do too." Victoria " What is she talking about!" Me " I have no idea!"
Another one you say? Olivia " Mom where do babies come out?" Me, huge breath " well, they come out of your vagina." Olivia " what's that?" Me "Your tee tee." Olivia " Ohhhh, that's funny!"
Ummm, funny is not how I would describe it, but I did not feel the need to go into great detail on birthing babies with my 4 year old! That's all for now!

We are DTC!!!! (and other tid bits)

We are officially DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are soooo excited! Friday morning around 6:00 a.m I was down stairs in the living room doing my Bible study. I could hear little foot steps coming down the stairs, then Miss Olivia came around the corner with her blanket over her head ( this is an every morning ritual, she covers her head with her blanket, we pretend to be scared, she takes the blanket off and says " its just me! Olivia!" and we say "Ohhhh you scared us!") she crawled up in my lap. I told her we were going to Pei Wei tonight for Chinese food to celebrate. She looked like she didn't remember Pei Wei so I told her it was the place with the chop sticks. She looked puzzled for a minute then she said " Oh, the place with the crackers". I was trying to figure out what in the world she was talking about when she said " you know, the sweet crackers with tags in em!" Sooooooo, sweet!
We put up our Christmas tree Friday as well. I know its 80 freaking ( freaking is not a curse word is it?) degrees but I figured it was a great way to celebrate being DTC! Victoria broke out the Christmas music ( of which she listens to ALL year!) and we got busy! We decided to make our smaller tree in the dining room a Chinese tree! We have decorated it with chop sticks and with some of those sweet crackers with tags in em! It is so cute! Victoria makes little ornaments with notes to Alexandra on them! one said " To my Chinese sister, good luck!" I love her so much, she is such a sweet girl! I told her the other day that we would try to visit China when Alexandra is older and she wanted to know if we could get another baby when we went!

Not Very Interesting today!

Well, it has been kind of quite around here. We are hoping to be DTC tomorrow so it is another one of those hurry up and wait days! BUT, on a much happier note we are going to celebrate being DTC tomorrow by going out to eat at Pae Wae (sp) with the "P's" and the "E's"! I am so excited! After dinner we are going to go back to "Harriet's" ( come on "Harriet" you know who you are!) house for coffee and cake! Well, I better get to cleaning! The laundry continues to multiply somehow and ignoring it is not making it go away!

Halloween! I think not!LOL!

Ok, I know I am probably a bad mom. Last night it was somewhat cool and I really did not feel like taking the kids trick or treating so I did what any good mom would do. I went to Blockbuster rented Robots, came home ordered pizza, turned off all of the lights, went upstairs to our daughters room( she has a DVD player in her room, we do not, note to self: steal Victoria's DVD and give her the VHS), and told my 4 yo that Sat. was trick or treat day ( went to church fall fest). We all squished into Victoria's full sized bed and celebrated the fact that we had received out I-171 and that we would hopefully be DTC by Friday! We are one step closer to our new baby girl! Lord, please keep her safe and well.

Room For Baby?????????

Ok, I was just tucking Olivia in bed, and she was asking where our new baby was going to sleep. The conversation went something like this:
Olivia: "Where is the new baby going to sleep mommy?"

Me: "Well I guess she can sleep in your room" ( thinking she would think this was cool).

Olivia:" ummmmmm, I don't know."

Me: "Well she can sleep in Victorias room or in the extra bedroom." I said.Olivia just looks at me and I can see the wheels turning in her little head. You see, Victoria sleeps in Olivias room EVERY night. I can see the internal struggle of do I lose Victoria as a sleeping buddy and put all of my chips on this new baby or........

Me: "Well, Alexandra can sleep in your room with you AND Victoria." Her eyes lit up! That was the answer for her dilemma!

Olivia: Mom, that is a great idea! Lets do that!

Another crisis averted! A moms job never ends! Now how I am going to fit THREE little girls in one room is another dilemma in itself, but one dilemma I am sure glad to have!

Ladies and Gentlemen, We have it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok....... I ....am .....soooooo.... excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday I checked the mail before we went to our church fall fest, no mail. When we got in later in the evening I forgot because we had friends follow us home for dinner. Today went to church around 8:45 a.m. and returned around 8:30 p.m. When we pulled in I realized I had not checked the mail since yesterday! I went to the mail box and I think I heard angels singing when I saw the magic words " Homeland Security"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We now have the beloved I-171, after 5 weeks and 2 days! Hold on Alexandra Li, momma and daddy are on their way!

Addicted to blogs!

Yes, I have a problem I am absolutely and completely addicted to other peoples blogs. Mostly about their adoption experience! I found myself feeling rather nauseas with a sharp pain in my shoulder over the last week or so, could not for the life of me figure out why! Well eureka! I figured it out yesterday. It seems that if you spend several hours scrolling down you CAN get motion sickness! I am not kidding I think my nausea has been directly related to the continuous scrolling of other peoples blogs! As for the pain in my shoulder, I think it is from moving the mouse and having my arm constantly tense! I can see it now: Hi, my name is Shannon and I have an addiction! Great!

I officially Hate the wait!!!!!!!!

I have decided, I Hate the wait! We are waiting on the much coveted I-171 to no avail! I wake up every morning with the post man on my mind,why the post man you ask, because he will deliver one of the most important documents so far. Permission for us to bring in a foreign born child to the US. This is the last document we need before we can send our dossier ( the dossier is all of the paper work that china requires all bound together)to China. I am sure the poor post man thinks I am crazy. Every day I wait around the window till I see his old beaten up black and silver blazer, then I run to the mail box the minute he has pulled away ( a few feet)! So far no luck! And the really yucky part, our mail does not run till around 5:00 pm! Makes for a very nerve racking day! Sooooooooo, I continue to wait, to pray, to try and keep up with all of the endless chores that seem so irrelevant when someone I love so much is a world away.
I cant describe how odd it is to feel such a strong love for someone I have never seen, or possibly not even born yet. I wonder if she is born yet, and if she is, is she warm? Hungry? Loved? Played with? Lord I just pray you keep her safe till we can hold her in arms!
Well, I am off to begin the stalking process for day # 36!

Where does pee come from????????

Olivia is very interested in where pee and poop come from. She has asked me several times at which I have replied your tee tee and your heiny. Soooo, the other day I walk into MY bthroom where Miss Olivia is sitting on the potty,Olivia: "hey mom, I opened "it" up, and pee comes from the little hole and poop comes from the big hole and I am pooping rite now!" Mom "great" as I walk out of the bathroom shaking my head! "It", I have got to do a better job than this!

Must catch everyone up!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I (we, I am not smart enough to figure this whole blog thing out so Sean set it up for me,for people who know me this will not be such a surprise!) set up this blog so we could look back and remember all of the crazy, sad,happy...... stuff that went along with this process. Sooooooo, let me catch you up on what the girls think of Miss Alexandra Li. Victoria loves the idea of having a sister that she can carry around and love on ( Lord knows Olivia will have none of that!LOL). She totally gets the whole adoption thing and REALLY wants to go with us. Victoria (9)is my sweet loving mostly responsible child. Olivia (4) on the other hand thinks all babies come from China including herself ( my little blonde headed brown eyed girl thinks we got her in China!), loves the idea of a baby, but in reality will have a horrible time with the new addition! The other day we were in the car talking about the different states we were all born in, after Sean myself and Victoria had given our respective states Olivia said " I know where I was born" I looked at Sean, " ok honey where" "China" she responded, with a look of great pride!LOL! I love this age!

I-171 Wait

So, today we are on week 4 day 4 of our I-171 wait! It is driving me crazy! I really have not been anxious throughout this process so far till now. There is something about it being totally out of my control that really AGGRAVATES me. Oh well I will continue to stalk the mail man like every other adoptive mom does at this point in the journey!

Alexandra Li...Ready or Not Here We Come!

Hi. We are Sean and Shannon. We have been married for 11 years and have 2 bio girls 9 and 4! In November of 2004 a missionary visited our church and spoke on supporting orphans in India. After Sean and I began to talk about this for the next few weeks Sean said "maybe we should consider adoption". We started looking into international adoption and after a ton of research we decided on China. And so our journey began in April of 2005! Alexandra Li, here we come!