Anna on the plane from Detroit to Orlando 

Updates, an Ultrasound picture, Yahoo groups and my poison ivy

Well, every time I come to check out the site, no one has updated stuff for me!! :-) Ok...so here goes...

1. I have been talking to Michelle on a regular basis. She still feels as though we will get our TA (travel approval) at the end of October. I'm holding on to that with all my heart. It's hard to believe that I could be holding Julia 2 months from now. I guess only time will tell.

2. We bought Cameron a new bunk bed for his room off of Ebay today. It's a cool black one with a twin on the top and a full size on the bottom. We are looking at something similar for Anna and Julia, but I'm not sure yet. Michelle says she loves the ones that her kids have. That it's worked out great for them. I'm not sure if her Alivia is little stinker like Anna. ;-) Anyways, Cam is excited, now we need to head to Kent City to pick it up. He not sure what kind of bedding he wants for it. I guess that gives me something else to shop for.

3. Here's a picture that Sharon with the late august DTC group posted. I love it! I will probably print it out and put it in Julia's lifebook. Since we don't have an ultrasound picture of her like we do of Cameron and Anna, so this is as close as we are going to get. :-)

4. Speaking of Yahoo groups, I've joined a few. People with August DTC dates (more NSN adoptions), late August DTC just for SN adoptions, WCC (Waiting Children China) for families that have adopted or are adopting SN kids from China, COO (Carry On Only..travel group for those wishing not to check any luggage, which is NOT us!), GGRCCC (Greater Grand Rapids Chinese Culture Club), MI-WCC (The Michigan version of the WCC), Atresia/Microtia (for people with the condition or families with kids with m/a), AAI (Adoption Associates has their own group for families that are adopting from China), Xianning and Xianning Culture (for families that have adopted or will be adopting from the Xian An SWI or Xianning City), Toddler Adoption China (speaks for itself). Phew...it's a full time job just keeping up with all the posts. Some groups have lots more action that others. Most have been hugely helpful. I'm hoping to meet some of the folks from the late august group. They are really a great group of women.

5. We bought an awesome backpack for the laptop. Even the computer gets something new for the trip!! :-) It's a Kensington that we got directly from Dell. It's super nice and it's got lumbar support for Wayne. I think he will be the one hauling all the paperwork and electronics from here to China. Poor guy! He needs to start working on those back muscles now. Anyway, the backpack is hella cool.

6. Thanks to Aunt Cheryl for taking care of us in Florida. Wayne says this was the best trip so far. Special thanks for the secret gift...I'll let you know what we pick out. ;-)

7. I'm trying to arrange a get together with Liz, Brion, Michelle, Randy and us. So far...it's not been working out. Wayne is headed to New Jersey this next week for work (7th-14th). I'm going to try to put tons of energy into Cam/Anna's rooms to get things organized. Right now, Anna is sleeping in the toddler bed in our room. Not my ideal situation, but...she's happy and sleeping better. I'm sure that Julia will sleep in our bed anyways...

8. Sooo...some of you are wondering how I faired on the poison ivy front. Well, I still have some scabs from the worst parts. BLEH...I have been fighting this stuff for nearly 6 weeks!!! DON'T EVER GET POSION IVY! On top of that while I was in Florida I had an allergic reaction to the change in my laundry soap. More itchy bumps...more tubes of Cortisone 10. I'm not going to lie. It sucked, it sucked BAD. As of now, I still have a small rash on the backs of my arms and the tops of my thighs. :-( Not a happy camper.

Ok...I need to finish this for tonight. My fingers need a break. Take care and love you all!

LID!!! (Log In Date)

Hey all! We got a LID!! Michelle emailed me to let me know that we have a date. It's 8/31. Just as Alynn on the WCC board had predicted. YAY! I will work on an official time line later.

New Look

Hey Aunt Cheryl,

Just wanted to ask if you liked the new look of the blog. :-) It's rather Barbie-esque, but fitting for a 2 y/o little one. Just let me know what you think.

Take care! See you in a few days!!

Poem from the late august DTC group

I wanted to post a poem that came from one of my Yahoo groups. :-)

May you be safe and sleep soundly through the night,
May you be safe as you wake to the morning's light.
May you feel my love from so far away,
May it comfort and protect you throughout each day.
I will pray for you my little oneUntil our time of waiting is done.
I will pray that the Lord keep you safe from harm,
Until the child of my heart becomes the child in my arms.
~Author Unknown

Family Reunion

Today was the McKenzie family reunion. It got off to a bit of a slow start. I think we need to send out postcards to remind people what time things are suppose to start. I had a great time talking to Suzie, Lynnea and Tommy as usual. Rebecca, Suzie and Kraig's little girl is just adorable. Full of smiles and giggles, I can't wait for Julia to get here. :-) Everyone wants to know when she's coming...Man, is that the million dollar question. If I only knew when we will get to go... There are some families on the WCC board that are getting NOVEMBER consulate dates. UGH...I sure hope that doesn't mean that we won't get to go till December or January. I don't think that I can wait that long!!

Ok...I'm super dee dooper tired so this is it for tonight...6 short days till we are in Florida!! Love ya Aunt Cherrie!!

Poison Ivy, Interlochen and our Journey

Ok...so the poison ivy started a week or so ago and I didn't know that's what it was. It's now spread into something fierce and it's killing me. I got the doc to give me more prednisone, so hopefully that will help. Otherwise I'm headed to Florida looking like a lepper.

We took our usual Labor Day camping weekend to Interlochen. It went really well I think. We were talking about how life will change when Julia gets here, that grandma's camper might not be big enough for all 5 of us. I would love to have a camper of our own, hopefully we can make it happen. Cam had a great time with Max and Mackenzie again. They played baseball the whole time, along with Gameboys. Theresa and Tyler spent the weekend with us too. We shopped and had fun playing cards. I bought my first Buddha. He's black and holding a globe. I put him up in the living room. I think he looks great. I did buy Julia one outfit. Kristen picked it out at Sam's Club. It's a cute little twin set with pink twill pants. :-) I will post some new pictures of Cameron and Anna from this weekend once we get our new camera set up.

Speaking of Julia, no word on our brown envelope or a LID. Michelle said that Ming was going to ask about them today. I hope we know something soon. We now think it might not be till closer to December that we travel. Wayne is happy, he didn't want to miss Deer Season. He would hate to miss hunting. I'm sure he would be fine without it, but I know that it's important to him. Soooo....I don't think we'll have anymore adoption news till we either hear from Ming on the LID or get the brown envelope with all the paperwork that we need to complete once we get to China. Later!!

Countdown to Daytona!!

While doing all the laundry today, I started to put clothes together for our trip to Florida. YAY! We leave on the 16th, which is only 19 short days away and that's 19 days closer to being in China! :-) I think the kids are happy about the trip. All Anna wants to do is go shopping. Cam wants to go to Daytona USA. I want to go to Aunt Catfish's!!! Wohooo!

Not much to report on the adoption front. We are now just waiting for China to give us the ok to travel. In about a month or so, we will apply for our visas. More fed-exing stuff to Chicago to the consulate. This time we need to use a courier. I'd just as soon drive down to Chicago for the day. That would be a fun road trip...me, Liz and Michelle. I'm still waiting to get the OK from Wayne to set up our family website. We decided on the Our China Adoption site (www.ourchinaadoption.com). I like the amount of pictures that you can load. I want to be able to post a boat load of them once we get our Julia.

Only one other thing to share, I've got some weirdo rash. :-) I thought it was poison ivy, but now I'm not so sure. I'll be heading to the doc's office tomorrow. G'night for now!

Wow, I need to update more!!

Ok, so the documents made it back to Jenison on the 12th. They then left for China on the 16th, with Michelle's dossier. YAY!! So, as of today, our dossiers arrived in China at CCAA. Another YAY!!

So here lies the Big Wait. We (I) are trying to think of things to do to keep busy. From what our averages are saying on the WCC group, the wait should be around 70 days. Well, I think I've got a few more days till we can start counting, but I'm starting too anyways.

We are headed to Interlochen for camping on the 2nd of September for Labor Day weekend. Cameron's birthday is on the 8th and he will be 8 years old. On the 12th, I have Bunco at our house. On the 16th, we leave for Florida. YAYYYYY!! We will be there till the 24th. So September will be a busy month for us. October seems to be a little less busy. I'm thinking that I will spend a lot of time in Anna's class helping out.

Alrighty...so we working on picking out a website to use to create a journal/picture place for our trip to China to get Julia. Here's a few if you want to check them out and let me know what you think.

1. http://www.ourchinaadoption.com/ I'm leaning towards this one. It's ran by a Grand Rapids family and I like the amount of pictures that you can post.

2.http://www.thestoryofyou.com/index.html This one has cool graphics and sound, but you can only post 5 pictures a day. Eh, it's my second favorite.

3.http://www.babyjellybeans.com/ This one is cool too, but I had trouble loading pictures and I would hate to run into that while in China.

Well, I'm off. I need to finish up stuff. Take care and I'll be back to post soon. I promise!!!!

They made it Chicago

According to Fed-Ex tracking, our documents arrived at 12:08pm. YAY!! So now they will spend 5-7 days there getting authenicated. Once they are finished, they will arrive back at AAI's office in Jenison, Michelle will get our dossier ready and it will be sent out. Another YAY!

I'm off for now...be back later!!

The first post of August

Well, it's not August 1st, but it's my first post of the new month. :-) Let me start with the drive to Lansing on Monday. It sucked. Not the drive actually, but the bad news that I got at the Great Seal office sucked. Aunt Pam rode with me to Lansing, I had a great time as usual with Aunt Pam. We got there in record time thanks to my speed racer type driving. But, it was all for naught. 3 of my documents were not notarized correctly. Yep, drove 3 hours there for nothing. I did get 7 of the total 10 sealed, but I had to come back on Tuesday to get the other 3 sealed. How did this happen you ask? Our wonderful notary lady at West Shore Bank had the wrong commission date on her notary stamp and that's what sent us back. Huge Bummer. Anyways all is well and all the documents got sealed...In fact, they are now making their way to Chicago to get authenicated. YAY!!! Woohoo....Snoopy dance time. :-) So at this point, there is nothing else for us to do but wait. Wait for the documents to get back to Michelle at AAI, wait for the dossier to be sent out to China. That will be another grand day. I can't wait to get a DTC date (Dossier to China), then from that wait, it turns into waiting for a LID (Log in Date) the date that China logged your dossier into the CCAA system. From the LID or DTC the wait has been about 68.97 days and that's for families that send their dossiers after sending their letter of intent. So hopefully the wait for a LID won't be too long.

I've been talking to Liz (the Brooks family that is adopting Isaac, the little boy in our pictures of Julia). She is really getting excited as well. We talked more about her family what how they feel about stuff. I'm so very happy to have met such a great family and have the opportunity to travel with them. Our consultant Michelle is also adopting from China. We are all hoping to be in Guangzhou (gwun-joe) together. Michelle is the one that took our pictures and video of Julia. Speaking of Julia, we have decided to give her an American middle name as well. She will be Julia Renee YinGui Wagner. Renee is Auntie Cheryl's middle name and we like it. That we are incredible suck-ups. HAHAHAHAHAHHAA!! Not really, just kidding. Aunt Cheryl has really been the one true supportive person (as has Aunt Pam too). Anyways...So that can be the latest gossip. :-)

I'm off, I need to track my package as it heads to Chicago. Woohooooooo!!!!! G'night!

We got it....We got it....the I-171H!!!!!

So....I headed out to get the mail as any other day. No big brown envelope, but a little white one containing the much sought after I-171H. YAY!!!!!! All we need to do is make a copy of it, and get it together with the rest of our adoption paperwork and take it to Lansing to get sealed!! I'd like to head to Lansing tomorrow, then get those documents off to Chicago to be authenticated. What's scary is that our address was printed on another couple's I-171H form. Yikes! What exactly is Homeland Security? :-)

I did some shopping to celebrate the arrival of our last form. I got Julia 2 new dress from Wal-mart. They were only $3.oo a piece so I couldn't pass that up. I also started to stock up on diapers, pull-ups, disposable bibs and wash clothes. It's super hard not to just buy everything! Auntie Cheryl, don't get any ideas!! :-)

Ok, I need to get in the shower. See ya!

We got the home study and the Packmates, What a day...What a day!!

So the most exciting news, is that we GOT OUR HOME STUDY!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen...it arrived. Well, it didn't arrive as much as we (Cameron and I) went to Grand Rapids to retrieve it. We met with Michelle this morning to go over our documents. There are some changes that need to be made. 3 of our documents don't have the correct wording on them and so that needed to be worked on. I sent all the paperwork needed to generate our I-171H. That lovely piece of paper states that we are OK'ed to adopt an orphan by the US government. Imagine that, the gub'ment let us have 2 biological kids but we still have to be checked out. I know why, just seems redundant. I finally feel like we are working on something again. The sitting around waiting is (was) driving me nuts. Waiting for travel approval will suck too, but I just want to be done with the freakin dossier and try to working getting the kids ready for school.

In other adoption news, we received our packmates. What are packmates you ask? The are like large Zip-Loc bags that you put clothes in and roll all the air out, and then they pack you clothes flat in your suitcase. I'm still thinking that we want to try to take most of our stuff in carry-ons. I need to get with Liz and Brion and see what they've been thinking about. I know they talked about taking their older kids. Liz and Brion are the other family who are adopting a little boy from the same orphanage as Julia. I don't know if they've chosen a American name for their son.

Ok...I need to take a little break. I'm super tired. Talk to you later!! :-)

Sick husband and STILL NO HOMESTUDY

Well, I can honestly say that not a whole lot has happened with the adoption since the last time that I wrote. Actually, nothing has happened! I'm still waiting on the homestudy, I was hoping to get that today from Michelle, but apparently that wasn't in the cards. Wayne has been very sick for nearly a week. We think that he might have a gallstone. What? A gallstone? But Wayne doesn't have a gallbladder! Oh lord, what's next? He needed to get some more blood work done today to see what's going on. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring better news about what's going on.

With Wayne being sick tonight, I missed the waiting families meeting. I was truly bummed. Actually, I'm bummed that Wayne doesn't see why those meetings are important. He's too self absorbed with work to know the true anguish of the waiting. I suppose it's not his fault, but it still drives me nuts none the less.

I will be calling Michelle tomorrow to see if our homestudy is complete. I want to get our I-717H!!! At this point, I just want to hear word that the homestudy is remotely close. Ughhh...

Anyway, enough of my gripes. The kids are at Grams and Pops' tonight for a sleepover. Anna was really excited. Cam was too I think. :-) I'm off....G'Night!

Swim Lessons/New kiddos on AAI

Nothing new really to post about today. Kids started swim lessons yesterday. Anna has Amy Way again (wooohoo!). Anna loves Amy, Amy loves having Anna in her group. Speaking of Level 1 group...Anna is the only one. Yep! One on one swim lessons. Anna gets Amy to herself for an hour. :-) Cameron is in Level 3. He has Matthew Sutton and some other girl for his instructors. Cam knows Matthew from church and from the 2 prior years of swimming. Cam is a little bummed that Nathaniel isn't around this year. Nathaniel is Matthew's brother (they both are Mik's sons) and one of the most fun instructors. Both the kids love the program at West Shore and for $40 a kid, it's a good deal. To keep it more in the family, Matthew and Nathaniel's mom, Polly is the director of the program. Sometimes Rosanna and David help out too. The entire Sutton family, with the exception of Mik. :-)

I noticed yesterday that AAI has new kids listed on their website. There is one little girl Jing Jing that I would love to have as well. She has some ear deformity. I think Julia's is a little more critical, but Jing Jing is a cutie. Cam is still asking for a brother, I think it's something that Wayne is giving more thought about. He would love another son and much as I would. There are more and more boys from China going up for adoption and I think as smooth (well, at times) as all this has gone, I'm up for another paperchase. Why not? Anna is getting a sister, Cam needs a brother. :-) Ok, I need to get the kids ready for swim lessons! Later!!

How Mr. Bill saved my day/The finding Ad

Sooo...after the breakdown on Tuesday, I got regrouped and went over all our info that we need to get going on. We need to get our pictures together, we needed to get our police letters notarized, we are still waiting for wanes letter to get back from the Chinese consulate in Houston. This brings us to how Mr. Bill from the ISD saved my day.

As of Thursday morning I still hadn't heard from AAI about our reference letter from Beth. Feeling that I no longer could wait, I stopped at the ISD to see if I could scrounge up someone to write a letter on Wayne and I's behalf. I HIT THE JACKPOT!!!!! Mr. Bill was in his office and volunteered his services as well as his computer to write the letter at that same moment!!! So, we sat down with the requirements that MaryBeth had told me and we wrote (I typed) the letter. YAY!!! We got the letter done, he signed it and I was off to meet with my new love--The Fed-Ex man!! Lucky for me Cal-Chlor has a Fed-Ex account and there's a drop at the Shell station just a few blocks away. PHEW!!!! MaryBeth told me she would hold our home study hostage till she got that letter. I just hope it includes all that she needed. That was a HUGE weight off my shoulders. I wanted to get our info to officer Teske before she headed out on vacation, but it's not gonna happen. :-( Bummer, but I'm still hoping to be DTC (dossier to China) before the end of July, but I think that's just a bit to hopeful.

On Wednesday we received Julia's (aka Yin) finding ad. What's a finding ad you ask? In China, when children are abandoned they place "ads" in the local papers. Those ads consist of small grainy pictures, what little info they know about the child (ie: birthdate, what date the were found, what clothes they were wearing, the exact location of where they were left and any physical deformities). Some ads are just text, no picture. We are extremely lucky that her ad is a picture one. As luck would have it, Liz and Brion's son is 2 ads below Julia. I sent a scan of the ad to them. So what did Julia's ad say exactly? Here's what we got:

Ad #30: Name now: Lu Yin Gui, A girl Birthdate: 10/14/2003 (estimated) Finding date: 11/22/2003 Found abandoned at #2 Huarongshan, Xianan district, Xianning City (gate of the district orphanage) She was wearing a yellow sweater and white cotton pants with yellow flowers and had a red cap. She has no right ear.

This is similar info to what we got from AAI. I knew that it was her when they mentioned her clothes. Those match exactly to what AAI said. Wayne and I would love to have that outfit. I doubt I will get it, but it's always worth asking for. We feel as though this ad is as close a birth announcement that we will get for her. No matter I guess, we love her already. The kids are over the top about her. Here's a picture of her ad.





I also went to the summer Pentwater Art Fair. I purchased 2 of Todd and Brad Reed's books to take to China. www.toddreedphoto.com Go look for the book titled: Lake Michigan: Point to Point. I bought one for Director Lu and one for Julia's foster mom.

Ok, I need to go. G'Night!! :-)

My first breakdown and the power of ice cream and cookie dough

For those of you that know me, I am the emotional one. I tend to cry easy over silly things and not so silly things. Today I had my first major breakdown over the adoption stuff. MaryBeth called to say that she still doesn't have the letter from Beth for the educator side of the homestudy. This really bothers me. We need to have the homestudy ready so we can get those documents to USCIS and to finalize the dossier. I hate, hate, hate, hate having to depend on people to help me. From what I've read in my attatchment books, that could be a sign that adults let me down when I was a child. Interesting to say the least.... I'm finding that some of documents need to get notorized before they get sent to State. Sooooo...this leads me to the breakdown once Wayne got home. I just had to have a nice cry, get it all out. I feel somewhat better, not really a whole lot though. I had planned on a nice dinner, but now all I want is greasy, fattening comfort foods. I did have a small smidge of cookie dough, however it's healing power wasn't as effective as I had hoped. I plan on hitting Dairy Queen to pile up on little snacks for after the comforting dinner. :-)

Anyways, no need to worry. I will be fine, just feeling a bit overwhelmed by the control issues. I'm sure tomorrow will be a much brighter, happier day. Thank goodness that Julia doesn't know that her momma is a certified nut. :-) G'Night

Happy 4th of July!!

YAY!! It's July 4th. I'm sure that means nothing to Julia while she waits for us in China. :-) We did have a great time with all our families this weekend. It started out with us having my parents, grandparents, and sister over for dinner. Nothing that special, just hot dogs and brats. I think the kids liked having Granny and Poppa over as well as Grandma Denise and Grandpa Tom.

Saturday, we went to Tustin to the Stewart family get together. We had a great time talking to Aunt Susan and Aunt Wendy.

Sunday, I worked from 7-3 at the hotel and then we went to my parents for Theresa's birthday party. Aunt Susan and Uncle Brian came over for that party.

Today, we had the traditional Wagner family breakfast at Peach's house. Man, were there tons of people there today. Tyler came up while Theresa was at work. We did manage to make it to the parade (actually, the rain held off long enough for the parade to be held). It rained and rained and rained, ALL FREAKIN DAY!!! BLAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Kids had a great time with all their cousins. Anna loves being with Sydney and Madison. Cam loves being with Mackenzie, Adam, Mitchell, and Max. I'm sure that Julia will fit right in with all of the kids. Christmas should be a blast. :-)

Ok, I'm super tired. I will write more tomorrow. G'Night!!

We want to buy shares in Fed-Ex

I'm getting ready to send Wayne's employer letter to the Chinese consulate in Houston. YAY! Yet another piece of the puzzle that needs to be complete before we can bring Julia home. So, we need to get to the bank and get a money order for $25.00 for the processing and paperwork that goes with it. This letter was gone from Lousiana to Michigan, back to Louisiana, now to Houston, it will come back to Michigan, then on to China once this is all said and done. Hard to believe it will still be in one piece by that time. :-)

We are taking Anna to the doctor today. She has a lump under her right breast. I'm hoping that it's nothing, maybe a fatty tumor at worst case. I'm sure it's nothing, but we still need to know. I will keep you up on what's going on with that. Alrighty, I'm off. Later!!

Gooood News....

Let's start with the news from Brian Stuy. He found Julia's "finding ad". YAY!! We are waiting to get that emailed to us. I'm super D-dooper excited about what may or may not be in that info. Prolly not much more that what we already know, but I'm still glad to have that information non the less. It cost $30.00 to get the info. A small price to pay for what we feel is our daughter's "birth announcement".

Next item: We sent Wayne's employer reference letter to Louisiana to get sealed (authenicated). That went well except that I forgot to send the stinkin money order with it and ended up having to Fed-Ex that the next day. Grrr....Mind don't fail me now!! I need all the help I can get in this process. We are now waiting (still) on MaryBeth's homestudy. I'm still holding on to hope that we can get this all wrapped up by the end of July. Keep the prayers going and the fingers crossed.

I'm starting to get anxious like all the other parents on the WCC list. I didn't think I would, but I just want to get Julia home. I bought some collapsable luggage today at Meijer's. It was on clearance for $25.00. I saved $35.00?? At least that's what my receipt said. There are 2 pieces, one is an 18 inch and the other is a 24 inch. I'm not sure I've got it figured out as to what exact luggage we are taking but I'm sure Wayne will figure that out for me. :-) Wayne is doing really well with all this. I think he's more excited than he lets on. We have a great time talking about all the cool stuff that we are going to see in China, all the great food we are going to eat. I looked at these really cute shoes for Julia online today. Here's a link to the pair I like the best:
http://robeez.com/product.aspx?ProductID=121&deptid=3&PriceCat=2&Lang=EN-US&RefID=NAHPSHOE03&SID=9246b665-69eb-4f0d-972a-0d52c715637a

That's a super long link, but it will take you right to the pair that Anna and I like. I've bid on a pair of these shoes at Ebay for like half the price. They aren't the same ones, but they are just like them but have tulips on it.

OK...time to get some dinner around. I also need to get going on all the food we'll need for the 4th. I've got to get the brownies made for Aunt Colleen's party. Mental note to self: DO NOT USE THE GLASS PAN FOR BAKING. The brownies last year were too doughy. Anyways...I'm off!! G'night!