New Purse

Since my travel purse has received a bad wrap, I have entered to win a new purse and you can too.

Visit www.handbagplanet.com for a chance. Good luck.

Thank You Heather and Hubs!!!

My dear friend turned personal assistant and I were chatting about the lost passports at lunch today when Hubs stopped by for a little gab fest. As we were walking down the hall, Heather said "you know that ugly purse you were carrying for a while after you cruise?"

Say what? "What ugly purse?"

"You know the green one that looks like you are backpacking through Europe that is a travel purse. You know, the one you used for a good 2 months after you returned from your trip?"

"Yes, I like that purse."

"It's ugly. Anyway, see if the passports are in there since you went out of the country TWO MONTHS before you changed your purse back."

So, I sent Hubs home with a mission. Where the purse was I had no idea. Just got a call that Hubs found it in the back of the closet, on the shelves, inside another bag.

Guess what was in it....

OUR PASSPORTS!

Thank You Heather (for making the mean yet oh-so-helpful comments), Thank You Hubs (for being my at-home personal assistant), Thank You God (for everything) and Thank You ME - for carrying such a memorable purse for so long that is geared solely towards international travel and apparently disturbs those close to me!

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P.S. After telling Heather she did a moonwalk in my office and asked that I add how beautiful she is.

Good News!

I found the camera! Yippee. It was way way way under my car seat. Batteries are dead, but I picked up a new pack this morning.

Mike also just phoned and said he found Harrison's passport in storage. I am very happy, but ours were not with his. I know that I pulled them out for the adoption stuff and for a trip I took in January. At least with 1 found it will cut down the reproduction costs, if needed.

Tonight I will start my hunt again for the others!

Qing Qing

I received this email from the foster group, COAT, that Baby Sissy is living with. These are an amazing group of people that are doing everything possible to give the kids there love and support. Jenny and Linda said we could email or distribute this information around. The story is beautiful, couragous, and heartbreaking. Then, you see the picture and those descriptions amplify by 100. Qing Qing is stunningly beautiful. I know there are people out there that would be honored to call her their daughter.

If you can help....even if it is $5, please make a donation to COAT. Our family set up a monthly donation to help support a "bed" at Eagles Wing. This will allow a child to be fully funded and/or allow another child to come. Eagles Wings has 22 children, but room for 75. They just need the funds since they receive no funding. If you have anything to spare, please consider making a donation. For US citizens, you can make a tax deductible donation through Love Without Boundaries.

Go to the “donation button”, donate to the “general fund”, but in the “note” write For COAT.Make sure your name, your reason for the donation and the amount are written clearly in the spaces provided. Sheri Russon then ensures that a copy of your donation is emailed to COAT and the money is deposited into the COAT account quarterly.Your receipt from LWB makes you eligible for tax deduction, which is not available to sponsors from other countries (yet). If you are able to make a donation, I would love it if you would email me the confirmation at armiller1972@yahoo.com so that I could directly email it to Linda and Jenny and show them that people do care and do want to make a difference for Qing Qing. This will allow them to be aware of the donation before the quarterly transfer from LWB.

Meet Qing Qing ~

I have loved this little girl from the first time I saw her in the orphanage . She would look at me with those big eyes and plead to come to EW3. She has captured my heart. She is so happy to be here and is a very good girl

She will be 6yrs old in January 25th

Her disability is Spina bifida, which is the incomplete formation of the spine and spinal cord which occurs during the first month of a baby's development in the womb. We brought her a bike which is controlled by the steering to help her get around and she also crawls. She cannot walk.

Up till now we have had a teacher working here and she has been in the class but from tomorrow she will climb down the steps (5 flights)and up again twice a day to attend Xi Wang Le Yuan (COAT’s school in the orphanage).

She is a very confident little girl who is able to most things for herself.

She is incontinent, but she takes this in her stride and likes a shower every day and can change her incontinence underwear well and does so at least four times every day. Linda buys these in $1000 lots which makes them a little cheaper, but they are still 2.5Y each, but our philosophy is that if she needs them, she should have them and Our Father, the Father of Orphans and Husband of widows (well Linda is a widow J) will supply all our needs. Prior to our finding these disposable undies, the children with spina bifida, no matter how old they were, were made to sit on a pot or a bucket all day and to scoot along on the bucket if they wanted to go anywhere. We did have a sponsor who sponsored these undies, but they stopped sponsoring. But don’t worry, that is why we have a “general fund” ... to make up the difference when this happens.

She loves to go to the park, loves special treats (eating) and wears a beautiful smile.

Love,
Jenny Nai Nai

Passports, Cameras, Oh My!

Remember I told you I was a procrastinator? Well, that comes in handy when you are fearful of doing something ... especially when that something is a fairly easy task.

Some of you know that for the past 15 months we have been living in a tad bit of limbo between 2 houses because our house will not sell. Well that is all fine and dandy when you want to bring your peeps over to the "clean" house, but not so fine and dandy when you are trying to look for something.

So, here is my problem....I cannot find our passports. We always kept them in the same spot, but that was before our limbo living. I checked the safety box at the bank - no luck, I checked a few places in one dwelling - no luck, tried a few places in the other dwelling - no luck. Then, I went to where they used to be ... the master bedroom dresser. Well, the dresser isn't there. What? Panic! Turns out hubs took the dresser to storage as a sweet favor to "stage" the house and its in the VERY BACK of the packed storage place.

Instead of going to storage, I choose to sit around and panic. I am afraid to go look, because I really do not think they are in there. If they are not in there, I have NO IDEA where they are. We are still waiting on LOA, but I do not want to the rush costs to expedite everyone's passport. Help!

Then, to make matters a tad worse...I have lost my camera. It is not a super fancy one, but I would take it everywhere. Plus, it had pictures of care packages and of all of the wonderful, glorious presents that an angel (aka Sue) sent to me. I am bummed. It could be around, but I cannot find it.

The passports mixed with the camera are just too much. I know I need to "put on my big girl pants," as my mother used to like to say, and suck it up and start the search. Perhaps I should have hubbs hit me with his tazer...he has been looking for a victim.

Also, since I have no pictures of my stunning and handsome littler puker man (who has not puked since our fabulous first impression with the PTC group), I must leave you with this edible picture of my girl...

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No Hair, No Worries!

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Also, I could be wrong, but it looks like is moving her hand into position for a rendition of "and the call me minnie me" from Austin Powers ... wadda-ya think?

Baby Sissy Gets Her Package!

Baby Sissy has on her shades...looking too cool for school! A little headband and what is in her hands? Yup, Smarties.. Baby Sissy did not like the first one, but then went full steam ahead.

Notice her concentration and fine motor skill work getting out the Smarties.

Jenny Nai Nai said look at your pony....ummm, can't you see I am eating Smarties? Hand to mouth and other hand grasping the roll.


Hmmm, what else is in this box?

For The Little Mrs.

The Minnie Mr. asked me to transcribe this word for word for The Little Mrs. He stood over my shoulder the entire time making sure I was typing. Of course, he had no idea what I was typing, but he seemed to trust me.

Dear Emma,

Emma, I don't have a house. One is sold and one is not. There is one house that we have not sold. We have two houses and one is not sold. We have another one that is Lake Cove but we selled it. We selled the Lake Cove one.

(No, the house is not sold. not sure where this is coming from, but I sure wish it was sold! By the way, I am selling your house Thursday morning. Can't wait to go shopping with all your proceeds...hehehehehe).

Thank you Emma for staying here and not going to Australia for a bit.

Thank you Emma for my day and thank you very much for staying here with me and not going to Australia right away.

I love you so much that it makes my heart really dismappointed (disappointed) and I love you so much it makes my tummy dismaappointed and I don't like how my tummy feels.

( I almost did not make it through this part...phooey on you for moving across the planet!)

I want to say that I really love you and my mommy wants to ask you something and she wants to take you a hug. I have one house that is not selled. (apparently the real estate market is getting to him). It is going to take a bit to sell my old house so please do not go in it while it is trying. thank you very much and we are going to say goodbye. I love you.

I say goodnight, goodnight, goodnight, its time to go. I have to leave you but I must really say...goodnight from CDA.

(This is his version of my old sorority song, but it is supposed to be ZTA. Now he is singing it in a monster voice. He wants me to make sure I am telling you he sounds like a monster and he sang this 3 times, but I just typed this so he thinks I am typing the song).

Oh, I have one baby thing for Ethan.

Baby Ethan, I want to say a funny thing. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I love you Ethan. The bad news is ....I love you so much Ethan.

(again...heartbreaking)

Crikey, that is a big one.

(Ok, this was actually after Mike said it, but you know how he likes to sound all smart using the "lingo" - such a dork!)

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is ...ugggh....ummmm. The bad news is ...know what Ethan, its a stick tank (not sure what this is, but I asked twice for clarification and he is adamant). The good news is that I like you so much Ethan, it makes me cry. Gaa gaa goo goo

Thank you Mat. Thank you Lisa for my day. Thank you very much.


That is all I want to say.