King of the Mountain

Pa had a load of dirt delivered and Harrison put it to really good use! His favorite part was to climb to the top and scream "I am king of the mountain." He invited his friends over to play and they all had so much fun, but I forgot to take pictures of the gang. The ran up the hills, down the hills, ran into the hill, road bikes up and down the hill...who would have thought a pile of dirt could be so much fun. When it was time to go in that night, Harrison was so dirty.

The kids have been playing outside every night and there is not a single night that they don't come in covered with dirt and exhausted. Although, we have some clay stained clothes, it beats sitting inside and watching tv. The one BIG downside - ticks. Yuck, the mere word give you the heebee geebees, but its the price you pay to live in the woods.

Where Does the Rainbow End?

My friend, Heather, and I were driving last weekend after a brief rain and came across the most beautiful rainbow. It was actually a double rainbow, but I don't think that part came out in the pictures. We pulled over in Faith's parking lot and got some fantastic pictures of the beautiful church and rainbow. Harrison said the rainbow was God's painting and he is thrilled that his church school was the "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow! We agree!

100 Good Wishes Quilt for Baby Sissy

I need your help!

The secret is (ok, maybe not a secret but I like to pretend it is not true) that I am a expert procrastinator. Its something that I excel at, which is actually not a good thing. I have been trying to reform my ways after one of my dear friends called me out as a procrastinator a couple of weeks ago (yes, you Larken). Ok, back on task...

I need your help!

I have procrastinated too long and really need to start on Baby Sissy's 100 Good Wishes Quilt. What is the quilt? Its a tradition for families adopting from China to create a quilt with spcial fabrics from 100 different people - friends, family, and even those that do not know you, but desire to celebrate your new child. There are great stories about the history of the quilt, but I am supposed to be working on a project for work so I have to keep this short - see, I am such a procrastinator! Now the hard part - this is your part....I need to ask a favor of you (yes, you the readers). Would you like to participate in Baby Sissy's quilt and can you spare a square?

For those of you that would like to participate, the fabric needs to be 100% cotton and cut into approximately 1/4 yard square. In addition, we would be touched if you could also send a blessing, poem, or special words for Baby Sissy. The "wish" for Baby Sissy should be no larger than 4" x 6" so that we can create a scrapbook of all of the 100 wishes. We would be so honored if you choose to participate!

Please feel free to pick what ever special fabric you find or that means something unique to you. A few friends have asked if we have a theme or a look for the nursery....are, you kidding me....I am a procrastinator and Baby Sissy's room is still the "storage" room. On a serious note if you really want some help with what style to pick, I truly love (and, hopefully Baby Sissy will too) shabby chic, toile, and the fabrics with the adorable Asian girls or Asian themes.

If you would like to participate in Baby Sissy's 100 Good Wishes Quilt, please send me an email at armiller1972@yahoo.com and I will email you our address. Thank so much!

Oh, and speaking of procrastinating....did, I mention we have not even picked a name yet. My good friend Amy logged her vote today and in fact has resigned herself to calling Baby Sissy by "name." Amy, lets see if anyone else comes up with the same suggestion! I like somewhat unique names (yes, Ashley growing up in PA was a name no one heard of - things obviously changed when I moved to GA). If you have any suggestions - leave us a comment!

Movin' on up!

As more PAs are announced in our yahoo group, the closer we get to Baby Sissy. We are now number 10 on the list. If the batch of files sent from China are around the same number that was sent this last time, we really could be next. The problem is, we don't know whether the next batch will be in a few days or a few months. The closer we get, the harder the wait becomes.

A Final Kiss with the Little Mrs.

(This all actually happened last week, but I didn't want it to get lost and not have the Little Mrs. see it in Australia so I moved it up till today.)

Tonight we met the Little Mrs. and her family for dinner and a local pizza place. We picked a great spot outside on the patio where we could run around and have fun. Unfortunately, about 1/2 way through dinner a large family was seated next to us that didn't find us as amusing as we found ourselves. Harrison and Emma had a blast running around, being silly and just enjoying each other. Emma leaves with her family early Tuesday morning and we really hope that one day we get to see her again. She almost had me crying off the bat when I went to help her in the restroom and she said.....Ashley, I love you! I almost started boo hooing there, but had to keep my cool :) The truth is , we are just crazy about the Little Mrs. We all tell her everytime we see her how much we love her and how beautiful and special she is. You should see her face when Pa tells her how much he loves her - its adorable!

After dinner we convinced everyone to go out for icecream. It was so yummy and the kids ordered eyeball sundaes! What a special treat! Emma insisted that she ride in our car and then didn't want to ride home with her parents, so Mike agreed to take her home. As soon as we got in the car, she started asking to spend the night. Tomorrow is our big day to do taxes and we quickly remembered that Emma didn't sleep much during her last sleepover...so, what did we do? Of course we immediately told her that she could if her parents said yes. We knew it was our last time so we certainly were not going to pass it up! Lucky for us, her parents said yes and we headed home.

Once home, the kids immediately went to get Pa. Pa came up to play for a while. Then, Emma walked straight out the front door. I was getting changed so I ran through the house yelling her name. Did she stop? No! This was not like her at all so Harrison and I flew out the door after her. We caught her on the way down to Pa's apartment. When we asked her what she was doing, she told us that her special flashlight was in Pa's place and she was simply going down to get it. Makes sense and as we all know, Pa has good flashlights. We grabbed the flashlight and went to play making lights in the trees.

The kids later headed in to play and boy were they riled up. It was WAY past Emma's bedtime, but I can never get her to go to bed on time. They all headed upstairs and decided to attack Mike. He loved it!

Yes, they are smelling each other's feet. Harrison is a bit obsessed with it and the Little Mrs. was happy to play along.

After a bit of a hard time, Harrison and the Little Mrs. are both asleep. We had to make a Harrison and Emma sandwich to get them to finally settle down and Emma thought it was really neat that she got to be the jelly. We did have a few tears, but hopefully they are the last for the night. We are just so thrilled we get this one last opportunity to spend the night with the Little Mrs.

And, of course the next morning IHOP was the selection for breakfast.

Baby Sissy is Getting Closer!

After weeks of being depressed with China's slowdown on referrals, this week has shown a flurry of excitement. Our agency requests that with China's new program we wait about 25 days after our referral to tell the "World." Of course for those that aren't involved, the "World" is our crazy loony adoption online world that we all hang on for every tidbit of info. Well, some of my online friends just couldn't help themselves so they gave hints like: read between the lines, today is a good day, wow this week is fantastic, etc. It so exciting even though its not yet our turn. I do keep a list of those with our agency that have slipped and given hints and we are moving up on that last. Right now, we are number 18 and that is not counting those parents who follow the rules and don't let anything slip. I finally feel like Baby Sissy may be real!!!!

BABY SISSY IS SO SPOILED!

Harrison, who is the so incredibly spoiled it worries me, has now proclaimed that "Baby Sissy" is too spoiled! Add that to the fact that he has no idea who she is, how old she will be, what she will look like, and when she will get here and you come out with one frustrated, but handsome, 4 year old.

The number one person who has really be spoiling Baby Sissy is my friend Amy. Up until a few weeks ago, Amy and I practiced law together and while we probably would never have gotten to know each other since we are in different offices, fate stepped in at the right time. Amy needed an attorney to teach a class to some of her clients, and in my "extra" work time I network by teaching classes. A match made in heaven. When I went out to teach the class, we went for lunch when she told me that her family was in the process of adopting from China. I immediately started asking a million questions and the rest is history.

Amy brought home beautiful MeiLi one year ago - they actually met for the first time on Harrison's birthday. Amy has been a tremendous support for me over the past year. She is an amazing person, friend, mom and attorney. Plus, she is my new idol because she just "retired" to be a full time mommy. I definately need to get on that plan :)

Through the recent changes in the length of time for China's program and the recent changes in the Waiting Child program, Amy has been a huge help. In fact, I can get her so wrapped up in my adoption drama that she is up crunching the numbers and searching the sites for kids, just like me. I secretly think she is gearing up for kid #4, but she tries to semi-deny it!

To help pass the time and make our wait a little easier, Amy planned a weekly e-card and gift for Baby Sissy. She even tried to calculate how long it would take for our referral and do the same number of weekly gifts. She presented them all to me in a huge box at our families' fairwell dinner on Chinese New Year. She made me cry ... and historically I have not been a crier - only now after this last year I find that more often I am crying more often than not!

Each week we get to open a present for Baby Sissy. I usually have Harrison help me because he loves it, but sometimes I am so bummed at work because of the latest China adoption news that I have to open on there. I have tried to take a picture of each goodie bag - and these are great goodies! Take a look......


Now, Amy has moved to another city far, far away, but I know that she reads this blog and I know that she will continue to email me helping in our search for Baby Sissy. I know this because she is an amazing and wonderful person and I am honored to call her my friend.