Flying Flip Flop

How does this happen?

Yup. That's my son's flip flop floating there.

While waiting in line for the family raft ride at our local amusement park, somehow his flip flop magically jumped off his foot and into the water below. While it looks recoverable... I assure you, it wasn't.

Boys.

The loss didn't stop his enjoyment of the ride (or the day) with his best-buddy cousins though.

There is really something special about cousins.

Results: Gold Party Fundraiser

Today, a few of us girls got together to sell a few pieces of our precious (or not so precious anymore) gold jewelry. We laughed a little, ate a little, and drank a little wine.

I'm happy because each of my friends made out pretty well, leaving with a check in hand for anywhere between $150 and $500!

(They are all smiling because they all just earned some money!)

As a hostess I earned....

DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

$426!

YAHOO!!! How can you beat that?! My friends all earned some money and we made $426 to help bring our little girl home!

Thank you friends for coming and selling your gold and, more importantly, for being a part of this journey with us.

We're getting their G! We're coming soon!

Ho Hum

You'd think that since this is the first day in, I don't know how long, that we don't have anywhere to be and nowhere to go... Since we've been so darn busy we can't even make time for dinner most days... That I would have something to write about here.

But, truth is, I've got nothin'.

Today... it's too hot and humid outside to do anything but sit by a pool. I've got to admit... I'm sort of tired of the pool. There's nothing on TV. All the projects I have planned seem to big to start today. None of my books seem very interesting right now.

I'll just say it. You know those two little words that ring in your ear all summer, the words that sound like nails on a chalkboard sometimes. Hear it? The whine?

I'M BORED!

Moving along

In record time we received our 12 dossier documents back from the Chinese consulate in NY. They sent them back to us one week after they received them. So the total turn-around time was 9 days door to door.

Xièxiè Chinese Consulate for your speedy service! I hope I'm not pushing it to ask that you are just speedy when we send you our next and LAST document for authentication as soon as we have it.

Today, we received our USCIS bio-metrics (I think that is just a fancy word for fingerprints) appointment letter in the mail. YAY! We will be going on July 30th for our appointment.

One piece of paper at a time and we are a few steps closer to our little girl.

Countdown - June

CCAI reports 42 (!) matches this month.

Since we submitted our MCC in March they have matched 124 families. Now there are approximately 126 families ahead of us. Half-way there!

As you may remember from here, we were originally told it would probably be 18-24 months before we were matched. We are now pretty confident it will be shorter. How much shorter is the question.

Paperchase update: We are waiting for our letter from USCIS for our fingerprint appointment. They cashed our check... does that mean our appointment letter is coming soon?

12 of our 13 dossier documents are at the Chinese Consulate in New York for authentication. YAY!

Hard Work Pays Off

Today was a big day for B... one he has waited a couple summers for. Today, was his first swim meet.

Little history....

Every summer we spend loads of time at our town pool. The last two summers, instead of playing in the pool with his friends, B would sit on the side of the lap pool and watch our town's swim team meets. For two years he wondered if he would ever be strong enough, fast enough, good enough to be on the team.

(waiting for his leg of the relay)

To be able to make the team... kids 8 and under have to be able to swim one 25 yard lap freestyle - using rotary breathing, no stopping, no treading water, no touching the side of the pool.

So, back at the beginning of June, he had to "try out". He had barely swum since last summer. It wasn't overly warm out and the pool was FREEZING.

He was nervous.

I was nervous.

Minutes before the his turn to try out... his goggles broke. The most dreadful thing that could ever happen to a swimmer. He got in the pool with his broken goggles and swam about 10 strokes (10 feet maybe) and started choking. He was so distracted from his broken goggles that he swallowed water. The nice coach let him try again but he was pretty shaken up (and don't forget his goggles were still broken). He started over and swam another 10 feet and swallowed water again. He got out of the pool crying.

He was heartbroken.

I was heartbroken.

The sweet coach allowed him to come back the next day, with new goggles, and try again.

(that's him cheering on his teammates during the relay)

Bless his heart. He got back in the pool and tried again the next day. AND HE DID IT. It wasn't easy for him. He just barely made it. BUT HE DID IT.

(upper lane)

A mere four weeks later and a LOT of hard work....and this little guy is a SWIMMER! He, not only, has improved his freestyle, he now knows breaststroke, backstroke and is learning butterfly. He has learned loads of drills and how to dive off diving blocks.

Four short weeks ago, swimming one lap was pretty hard. Now, he swims four laps just to warm up.

(moments before his first backstroke race)

He did such a great job today! Most importantly, he had FUN and learned that when you put your mind to something and work hard...you can do just about anything.

Crabby Mom

Breaking up this blog-of-happiness for some REAL life stuff. It's not all ice cream and walks on the beach. :)

There are days when I feel like a completely TERRIBLE mom.

I don't want to play, I don't want to give a bath, make a meal, or fetch a snack. I don't even want to laugh.

I question my ability to parent properly. On any given day my children have temper tantrums, are disrespectful, argue and are just plain mean to one another. Do "good Mom's" have kids that do these things?

On these days... I question everything.

Am I screwing these kids up? Are they going to look back at their childhood and hate me? Is it wrong that I don't want to play with them? and that there are days when their sweet little voices drive me CRAZY?

And of course I think "what are we doing"?

I have trouble parenting the three we have. HOW are we going to do this?

Can I parent a child who is adopted? Can I parent a child with special needs... whether they are physical or emotional or both? Am I going to screw up ANOTHER child? Does this child deserve a really crabby Mom?

I don't have the answer to these questions. Not today anyway.

I do my best, but often my best just doesn't seem very good.

Sigh.

I'm grateful for my husband who seems to do it all so much better than me. And I'm grateful for my sweet friends that keep it real and give me assurance that I'm doing OK. Thanks friends!

And I pray that tomorrow I'll do it all a little better.