Today is Halloween. I was thinking ahead to next Oct.31. What kind of costume would Sarah like to wear? Will she want to be a princess, or a cowboy? It will be exciting to see what she is like, and what kind of personality she has! I found a photo of Nicole(now 13) when she was 2 years old! To Cute!!!

I found this adoption video just now. It's kind of long (17 minutes) but really great!

Wow! 3 families from my Nanjing Yahoo group got their TA's (that is travel approval) today. Two of the families are already traveling next week! Maybe that means new pictures of Sarah are on the way!!!I have been in this Yahoo group since last April. I don't think 3 families have gotten a TA in one day? I am very excited for them, and for the beautiful kids they are about to adopt.I can imagine how exciting it must be for them to finally be going to China! Oh, what a dream!!!

From FedX

Oct 30, 2006 3:40 PM Delivered CHANGCHUN CN

How International is our International adoption? I was just checking on the FedEx tracking of our documents. They went from CHATTANOOGA, TN to MEMPHIS, TN , next to ANCHORAGE, AK , and now they are in BEIJING! They should be delivered tomorrow! Here I am in Germany, and according to our little map, we have readers from all over North America, Europe, and Australia, and even some from Asia, and Africa. I would sure like to know how people in Africa found our blog! I am so amazed by the reach of the Internet! I can not tell you how happy I am our papers are actually in China as I type this! In a matter of a few months,God willing, I will be in China too! I hope wonderful people like you, people from the entire world will come along with me, crying and cheering for Sarah as she becomes part of our family forever!

Hi, I just found this really great short film on You-tube. It is about a boy who sponsors a girl from Africa, and through their letters falls in love with her. I know this short film is off the topic of adoption. What I really liked about it is how it shows that the people we sponsor in other countries are in fact people. They are wonderful, intelligent, funny, caring and lovable people. They may require help because they are caught in times of war, sickness, and poverty, but they are not just numbers. I know this because I have two adopted sons. I know children in orphanages are wonderful people who deserve love. They are so much more then numbers. Anyway I was touched by this short film. I thought you might like it too!

We got a Fedex tracking number. I checked it. It said our package was sent
Oct 27, 2006
Estimated delivery
Oct 30, 2006 6:00 PM

I was at Walmart today with Jessica. She likes to shop there once a week. They had this cute angel outfit. I just HAD to get it for Sarah. I don't think realistically we will be getting her before Christmas, so maybe I will stick it in a care package. Maybe they would at least take a picture of her in it! It even has wings!

Some birthday cards. So far I'm having a great day! Don't you just love Philips card! It reminds me of the spelling of the owl on winnie pooh.

Praise God I got my birthday gift! Thank you for your prayers! I just got this e-mail from our agency...

Amy,

We got your documents today and your complete dossier will be off to China this afternoon. You will receive an email from FedEx with the tracking number.

Relax and have a good weekend.

Dick




"All children come from God. for some the journey home just takes a little longer"
- author unknown

I wanted to tell you about a new book I am going to order today. Its called "There is no me without you". It is the story of a middle class Ethiopian widow whose home became the refuge for hundreds of aids orphans.We adopted Philip & Thomas through Adoption Advocates International. They do allot of work with the children in Ethiopia. They have a very good adoption program, a home for children with aids, and also educational programs to help the kids who will never be adopted. There is a steady increase in the number of Ethiopian children becoming orphans because of Aids. In the past it was mostly famine, conflict and other diseases that claimed the lives of parents. I am not sure of this fact, but I believe Ethiopia has the highest percentage of orphans in the world. The need is over whelming. If you can not adopt from Ethiopia, I encourage you to give. There are allot of agency's there, but I know AAI does a very good work, and basically 100% of what you give will make it to the kids!

We were sitting around the dinner table tonight reading a box full of fortune cookies. The boys are both learning to read, and were very motivated to read every cookie. The cookies were pretty generic. I found some better cookie fortunes online. I also found this sweet video of Mr Rogers discovering how fortune cookies are made! The video is something for the little kids!


Don't lose face! Insist on buying dinner for your table mates.

Your future is embarrassing. I can't even talk about it without curling right back up.


It is time for you to apologize for your current hair cut and get a new one.


Ideas are like children; there are none so wonderful as your own.


The first step to better times is to imagine them.


He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.








This little girl has a novel way of breaking open her fortune cookies.

Let not your longing, slay your appetite for living - Jim Elliot.

It is just too easy to live for that day I get Sarah! It can easily make my heart sick to wait...and wait some more! Maybe my papers go to China tomorrow, and maybe not! My big challenge is just to keep on living. Yesterday we got new curtains for the living room. Today I hope to clean out the garage. My birthday is on Saturday.I'm not sure I feel like celebrating. If the papers went to China,it might help put me in a party mood? New pictures would also help. I think there are two families I know of going to Nanjing. We might get new photos soon! It's remarkable to me how powerful an effect a picture can have on me. Every picture reveals more of her personality, more of her environment, more of her day to today life.

Stupid Quotes

I think that the film Clueless was very deep. I think it was deep in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to come from a very deep place if it's true lightness."
- Alicia Silverstone, Actress

"You guys line up alphabetically by height."
- Bill Peterson, Florida State football coach

"I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada."
- Britney Spears, Pop Singer


"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."
- Charles De Gaulle, former French President

We just had an interesting discussion with our boys (both adopted) about why they need to call us mommy and daddy (actually it's MOM,in a demanding tone, and papa in a sweet give me what I want tone). What would you say? Allot of parents allow their kids to call them by their fist names. I think names, and titles communicate respect. They don't call their teachers by their first name. The say Mrs. SO and So... This is a sign of respect. We also make our kids say please and thank you. We are so extremely old fashioned. When they do something wrong we make them (and I mean make them...because to Philip it is a fate worse then death) say sorry! It is all about learning respect. You may disagree with me on this one. Anyway, that's how we do it around here. Besides I like to be called MOM. There are not too many people who get to call me that. Many can call me Amy. I am not willing to give up the title, I like it!

Hi, I don't know if you have noticed it, but on the side bar I added a feature by gateway Bibles. It is just under the picture of the butterflies. If you click on the small picture of the speaker, it will read the whole chapter of the day. It is just a great way to listen to a chapter of the Bible every day. It will change everyday, so you can get a new bit of spiritual food (manna) everyday! Anyway,I wanted to point it out. It is there for anyone who has an interest. It only takes between 2 minutes to 4 minutes to listen to a chapter. Also, it downloads the chapter to your computer. If you don't want it to take all your storage space, listen to the Bible, then delete the file!

It is way off topic, but I'm just starting to post some of the many writings of my autistic daughter Jessica. She can not speak, but she does have amazing things to say. If you want to read Jessica's writing then it is on my autism blog,driving Jessica's taxi. I am a very proud mom,and I am not ashamed to admit it!

Well, I finally got an update from my agency. Our papers (the 3 missing documents) look like they will go to the Chinese embassy on Wednesday,and maybe go to China by Friday or next Monday. I'm not going to get my hopes up too high, but my birthday is on Saturday. It would be a great gift to have those papers finally sent. I realize my wait will still be long. Sent documents only buy you a ticket to the back of the line!
Still, it would be progress! 3 months ago we thought our paper chase was over!
INSANE is the only appropriate word to describe the past 3 months! Anyway, I hope to pass this hurdle and get on with this journey towards the prize. She is so close I can almost touch her. When I stop and think that I will soon be blessed to be her mommy, I just want to stop and cry tears of gratitude.I am so incredibly blessed!

No news today yet, it's still early in the USA. Here are some of my favorite chocolate quotes...yes, it has come to chocolate! I've fallen off the weight watchers wagon. I had better see my papers go to China soon!!!

Chocolate: Here today .... Gone today!

Simply put... everyone has a price, mine is chocolate!

I could give up chocolate but I'm not a quitter.

Money talks. Chocolate sings.

If it ain't chocolate, it ain't breakfast!