Gettin' there....

We are making some progress. One of the photos shows our resident decorating expert, Emma, has selected a wallpaper sample and is eager to show us her choice.

Is this nesting or what?...

So Olivia's room is almost done and I have to say, it doesn't look so bad. We are just waiting for the imported wall paper border to arrive. (It's being imported from the Target store in Phoenix where our friends Jennifer and Ed are visiting our other friends Sylvia and Craig) I might even show you a picture of it when it's all done. Anyway, while doing this room, I've spent a lot of time going back and forth to the bathroom across the hall and realized that now that the kid's room looks pretty good, the bathroom looks really bad. It alway did, but I guess was easier to ignore when the other rooms looked pretty blah also. So now I have new wall paper border for the bathroom (not imported) and paint to fix the walls and since I now have a sea sponge, I'm going to learn to use it. After I bought the wall paper border for the bathroom, I got to thinking that our bedroom is really plain. We've always talked about decorating it, but either got busy with other things or didn't agree on what to do. So now we're talking about colors (ok, so it's just me that's talking about colors) and Ron is rolling his eyes and hides everytime I hold up another Home Depot paint brochure.

Creating Pooh Corner....

ok - so I am admittedly the least creative person I know. I can't draw a straight line with ruler, I have absolutely no designer "vision", and I wear everything that's liquid, including paint. So I may as well start redecorating the guest room into Olivia's very own Pooh Corner. We are halfway done the painting and I have enough paint under my nails to do another room. I really hope the room comes out looking like the picture from the store (yeah right), but if it doesn't, it'll be nothing that 2 or 3 more coates of paint and a bottle of wine can't fix. Here's a couple of shots of the early progress. As you can see, Emma has decided that she can't miss out of any of this fun. Who picked out those colors anyway?? I reserve the right not to post photo's of the finished product.

My new logo...

I "Borrowed" this from another adoption blog - I hope they don't mind.

Can anyone tell which file is ours?

Here's a picture of the Matching room at the China Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in Beijing. This is where our dossier is sitting. Actually, it may still be in the review room, where they make sure the file is complete and meets their requirements, which looks very similar. All the files you see are families waiting to be matched with little girls. They are color coded according to country and agency and sorted by the dates they were logged in. The next bunch of referrals is due out at the beginning of November and then we'll have a better idea if we are next (Oh My Gosh that freaks me out!) or if we will be in the January referrals. I can already feel my pulse quickening - OMG, OMG, OMG.......

In training....

Today, I think that God and/or my mother are really working hard to train and test us for the coming of Olivia. I have 11 neices and nephews all of whom we dearly love, but just don't get to see as often as I'd like for various reasons, but this weekend, Jordan (10) and Isaac (8) have come to spend the weekend. I love this because it's a long weekend, it's Thanksgiving, we really didn't have much going on cuz the boys and their spouses are away, so it sounds like a really great weekend with the kids. We have plans to go swimming, skating, sailing, we'll do it all.... yeah, I don't think so.

Kids get here at 8:00 Thursday night. I am feeling good, but just took 3 extra strength tylenol for a wopper of a headache (because I now need glasses less than 5 years after paying a small fortune for laser surgery). Anyway, we visit, have a hot tub, unpack, make beds up... the usual. Isaac decides that he can't sleep and gets a little scared/homesick/overtired and doesn't want me to leave his room, so I lay down on the floor beside him. Everytime I try to leave the room, he jumps up crying and insists I stay. This goes on every 10 minutes until 1:30 am. When I finally sneak out like a burglar on my hands and knees, I approach my bedroom door only to discover that the snoring coming from inside our room is soooo loud, there's no point in going in. Off to the couch with me. Now I'm kind of awake and have to watch TV to get sleepy until 2:00. Finally, sweet sleep. At 2:15, Ron comes in and says "Where's Jordan?" to which I can only respond "in her bed". He says "no, she's not, I was just in there and she's not there". I said "where's Isaac?" He says "laying on our bedroom floor crying because he says he can't find you". I scurry down the hall wondering where the heck Jordan is and of course she's sound asleep right where I said she was. I guess he only looked under the bed instead of on top of it. Anyway, I collect Isaac off the floor, lay down with him and he finally goes to sleep at 2:30. I finally got to drift off around 3:00. At 6:15 I'm semi aware of little feet coming at me and I'm thinking 'he can't possibly be awake now'. Except that this time it's Jordan telling me she doesn't feel good and runs to the bathroom to throw up. Up I get to rub the back of a puking child and hunt down some children's gravol, which I don't have, so have to settle for 1/2 of a adult natural source gravol and some flat ginger ale. Works for about an hour, then more barfing. I finally get some childrens' gravol and doesn't really settle her stomach, but sure gets her back to sleep - she just wakes up to barf now. If nothing else, I'm at least thankful that she knows enough to get to the toilet on time. So far I haven't had to clean anything off the bed or floors. Isaac was kind enough to sleep in until 9:00 am. and kept entertained all day by the 1980 video games we've always kept and a number of the 150 tv channels we subscribe to. After a full day of this, Ron was kind enough to bring home KFC so I didn't have to cook anything, and after dinner I took Isaac out to get an ice cream and brought some extra home. Jordan hasn't kept anything down all day and still doesn't understand why she can't have a Dairy Queen blizzard (we did save her some for when she's feeling better).

It's 9:25 pm - day 1. One has managed to keep down a little gatorade and few bland noodles over the past 2 hours, and the other isn't crying. There are dirty kids clothes all over the floor in the baby's room, 8 or 10 half full kids' drinks on the counter, game boy games all over the coffee table, wet hot tub towels on the wooden furniture, but 2 cute children are peacefully sleeping down the hall (I think). Do I pass?