Waiting on the TA

Well, our daughter's first birthday has come and gone without much aplomb or fanfare on the part of family or friends. Daddy and I celebrated the big day with an ice cream cake which, I must say didn't melt from the grocery store to our house, even though it was a balmy 100 degrees. We would like to thank Aunt Kelly and Uncle Boo, John, Nancy and the girls, and Aunty R for the cards. While I think of it, thanks too to the two Teresa's for their congratulatory cards for the baby. As you can see, support has been light for our baby girl. So, Mommy and Daddy and Kaden and Sophie had some cake, wished our baby the happiest of birthdays in her corner of the world and we continue to hope and pray that the days between us are short and few.

We have all our required referral paperwork done and have received our Visa's from the Chinese consulate. (They're pretty cool looking, BTW.) Now I'm working to make all the required copies I need and get all the paperwork organized in to folders for each step of the adoption process overseas. We're just waiting on our TA, CA and flight itinerary.

I've begun staging our suitcases in the spare room and am down to about one shopping load to go until we have all we need for our trip to China. (I'll work on the rest of our wish lists once we're home and I know for sure what she needs and her exact sizes.) I'm trying to buy things a little at a time so I don't go into as much shock when I see how pricey baby things are (I've been out of touch since my youngest nephew is 5). The greatest fun has been shopping for clothes and my first box of diapers. All the way home I just smiled with glee because I could finally take that step. It's real; it's true....our baby IS coming and I have the diapers to prove it. That and, of course, the most heavenly scent of baby lotion that just elicits the sweetness of a clean, fresh baby in your arms. So, we now have one suitcase for all Leena's things, one for us and one for the orphanage donations we're taking. I don't know yet if we'll need the fourth suitcase, but we'll see.

I also washed all Leena's bedding and organized her closet, categorizing clothes by size. (I've been stocking up on 24 month items while they're on sale.) I made up her crib with the Little Dragon bedding and replaced all the toys that were inside the crib waiting for her. I also ook out the diaper bag that we're taking to China and started to stock it and washed what bottles we have now. Leena's room is all ready to go.

That is the latest from our hot, steamy corner of the world.