MotoGP and Secret Princess Meetings

Max and I had a chance to go to the MotoGP motorcycle races yesterday in Indianapolis and had an awesome time! We woke up early and left to go pick up our friends Mike and Mark for a fun day at the Speedway. It was a bit chilly and felt more like late September than late August. We had fun on the drive over talking about fun boy things like Star Trek (The 2nd movie is the best but the new one could be a challenger!) other cool TV shows, fast cars and fast women (just kidding, Julie!) Max got a kick out of a "trick" we played on Mike and Mark when we pretended to have mailed their tickets to the race to them when we really had them with our tickets. This was about 1 hour away from Columbus so that made it even better.

We made great time and walked to our seats after getting some programs, ticket holders and selling our two extra seats. There was a breeze which made it chillier than we'd have liked, but nothing like the hurricane winds last year so no complaints. Our seats were 3 rows from the top, and at a motorsports event, the higher the better. This also gave us the advantage of shade and the sun was at our backs, so couldn't have been much better. We all enjoyed munching on the snacks we brought through the course of the day.

To sum up MotoGP, these guys are crazy! Check out the leaning they do through the corners and imagine doing that on some of the fastest motorcycles on the planet! Very cool stuff indeed, but we all still like watching Formula 1 better. ;)

While at the track Julie and I stayed in touch via text pages and a few camera phone emails from the track. We learned that the girls were having a secret princess meeting and that Enzo and Zeus were honored to become knights and we missed it all! I also learned this morning that they had a mission to complete at Dairy Queen, so they had a good time, too.

The drive home from Indy is always a long one as we're all tried from the fun at the Speedway and thankfully it was uneventful. Mike slept for a while and snored to Max's enjoyment and we all talked and spotted various cool cars on the way home. Both Mike and Mark were impressed with Max's traveling skills though it was no surprise to his proud Dad that he was an awesome traveler. He's been around the world with more adventures to come so a few hour drive to Indy is a walk in the park. :)

I have my physical today so hopefully that goes well though I am more nervous about this than I am for any presentation I've given or test I've taken. I don't like Drs. they always tell you stuff you don't want to hear. :(

A Wiggly Good Time

Thursday I flew home from Chicago after taking the test on Weds. It was a tough one for sure and now I get to wait 6-8 weeks for the results. Nothing like prolonging the agony, huh? The good news is that we went to see The Wiggles in the evening.

It must be said that both Julie and Ron will be sad when our kids out-grow The Wiggles. Compared to some of the other junk out there on TV, they are more or less good, clean fun. They put on such a great show, too! They all seem to have so much fun so either they really are, or are consummate professionals and can "Go on with the show" no matter how they feel. We were concerned that there would not be anything for Max at the show since he is in 3rd grade now, but as you can see from the pictures it was enjoyed by all.

On the adoption front, we received confirmation from FedEx that our letters were signed for in both Maryland and California and the check to Maryland has already posted to the bank. Hopefully early next week we'll get confirmation that they are sending them back to us in the pre-paid, pre-addressed envelope. I have my physical Monday and our social worker hopes to have the draft of our home study completed next week. These are the last two things we need before we start sending a lot of documents out to be certified so the next few weeks should be hectic, in a good way. :) It'll be nice to have the paper chase behind us though then we'll trade it for "Hurry up and wait" as things are sent to China, translated, etc.

Sydney officially is the "Sequence" champ (a board game) at our house after beating both Ron and Max this morning. Ron is still pretty sure he leads the Harry Potter board game championship due to his excellent notes system. :) Veronica, Julie and Judy all had a special day out this morning and enjoyed the Farmer's Market, Bob Evans and Costco.

Max and I are going to Indianapolis tomorrow for the MotoGP race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We went last year and had a good time even though the remnants of Hurricane Ike were hitting the track and tearing up our roof and storage building back home. It should be better weather this year so let's hope the weather guys are right!

Incremental progress

We are excited to be taking the next big step in the dossier building process as we move from document collection to certification. To make our dossier complete for submission to China we need to have every notarized document "certified" and in Ohio, it has to be done at the county level. This means that anything notarized in Ohio must be sent back to the county clerk of courts where the notary is registered for a letter of certification to be issued. After that, we send it to the Secretary of State for state level certification. We also need to send Julie's birth certificate to Maryland and my Verification of Employment back to California. After that, it goes to the US Department of State for Federal level certification. Good times, huh?

We just sent the Maryland and California documents out and are going to check with Ashland County on the right process for their certification. We've been diligent about the rest of our Ohio documents and using the branch manager at the local Chase branch to notarize our documents so we can send a pile of them to Marion county for certification there. It is exciting to be taking the next step in the process and hope to be done with the paper chase in Sept. What a process!

Ron is on his way to Chicago to take a test only 13 people world wide have passed over the last 2 years so that should be a fun challenge. ;)

The kids all survived their first day of school and Veronica survived her first day in a long time without another play mate. It's quite a change for a 2.5 year old to go from 2 siblings to none for a few hours of the day!

Back to work for Ron. Only a few hours to get stuff done before it'll be time to head to the airport.

Back to school already?

Well, here we are at the end of another summer. Where did it go? The two older kiddos begin school on Monday. I am going to miss them; but, I am excited for them too. At the beginning of each summer, I ask the children to come up with some things that they want to be sure to do over their break. A couple of things Max came up with were making slime and camping out. We were able to do both of those. The kids loved playing with the slime. We eventually moved that activity outdoors. :) We camped out last weekend in our backyard. We only made it one night though. Boy was everyone cranky the next day! We, also, discovered that Ron is not quite as young as he once was. (Love you, Honey!) He did not have nearly as many aches and pains the summer he spent at Philmont guiding campers and camping out every night. One of the things that Sydney wanted to do this summer was bake cakes for each of the kids and let them decorate them however they wanted. It may be last minute; but, we did that yesterday. We ended up making just one simple cake and dividing it into thirds. I gave them a tub of whipped topping and they got out a ton of sprinkles. They went to town! Max gave his a name..."Gotta Have Sprinkles". That is his cake in the picture below. Their cakes are just covered with sprinkles. I finally had to say enough. One can get a sugar high just looking at them. Veronica discovered that she can lick her elbow when there is whipped topping on it! Gotta love our babies! They had a blast doing this and it was fun to watch them. I think Sydney enjoyed tasting her cake as much as she did decorating it.






On the adoption front, I had my physical on Monday and have the bruise to prove it. I always bruise when I have blood drawn. The nurse even apologized when she saw it a few days later. We are just waiting for the doctor to finish his part of the paperwork and then we will have to take a notary with us to have the paperwork signed and notarized. Ron has his physical scheduled for August 31. We had our third visit with our social worker, Therese, on Tuesday. She came to our house this time and met our children. The children did a wonderful job talking with her. Sydney even drew a picture for her while I was being "interviewed". Veronica was taking a nap when Therese first arrived; but, surprisingly, Veronica warmed up to her before she left. You see, Veronica is not an after nap kind of girl. We were afraid that she would be cranky the whole time. However, she, along with the other two, enjoyed showing Therese around the house. We believe that all went well. Therese is going to put our home study together soon, hopefully. Then, it will be a lot of hurry up and wait as we try to get our paperwork finalized, sent to AWAA (our agency) and then off to China. We are trying to hurry Lil' Bubba!

Good night, Lil Bubba....

It is almost 8PM in China and we are just starting the day you've already finished. Know that we are thinking of you and working to come get you. It all takes time to do and we're doing everything we can on our end to keep it rolling. Sweet dreams, Lil Bubba.

Things are gearing back up after a brief lull in the action. We should get my notarized copies of my VOE today via FedEx and we met with Therese last night. She does such a good job, we couldn't be happier! She "interviewed" us for almost 2 hours but it didn't feel like an interview, more like a conversation. She also said she'd complete our application to the Waiting Child program so that is one more of many "things to get done."

The kids stayed with Ma and Pa last night and had a great time when their cousins came down to play. Everyone slept well last night even after the ice cream and popsicles. ;)

Time to get ready for another day of work for Ron and Julie and the kids are going to the library.

Dirt rocks!

We went to the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course yesterday to watch the Indycar race. It was a hot, humid day and one of the first ones we've had in a while this summer. We sat in a section called Thunder Valley under some nice trees to shade us from the sun. This is also a good family friendly area and we had some birthday cake from the people next to us celebrating at the track. The kids all had a great time and found that the dirt at Mid-Ohio is a lot of fun.

Max also enjoyed getting to see his dream car, a Dodge Viper in the parking lot. The one he wants will have a white racing stripe down the middle but this one will work for now.

Mid-Ohio puts on a great event and the kids all got to control a missle launcher on a National Guard Humvee. Better not make them mad now that they know how to control this!

We now have a new race fan, too. Veronica loves Tony Kanaan now and every time his car went by she shouted "TONY!" When she didn't see his car, she'd shrug her shoulders and look at us and say "Tony?!" It was super cute. You can see Tony's car in the upper right of the picture - it is green and white so blends in with the leaves.

Everyone had a good time but was whipped at the end of the day. We stopped at a local church's youth group corn stand and picked up some sweet corn for dinner. Mmmm, mmmm, good.

On a more serious note, we are praying for the people on the east coast of China who are being hammered by the typhoon. We've seen quite a few referrals from Fujian province and see that they are evacuating almost 1 million people.

We will be meeting with Therese tomorrow so hope to get our home study visit scheduled and knocked out.

Our weekend

Not much happening on the adoption front other than some emails back and forth with the HR department about getting my VOE notarized in California. They have one and she should be sending the notarized letters this upcoming week.

Ron was in Detroit Thursday and Friday for work and was fortunate enough to get home at a decent time so we could have dinner as a family before mowing the yard.

We are planning on going to Mid-Ohio tomorrow to see the Indycar race. We hope Lil Bubba likes going to the races as much as we do. :)

We've been following the tribulations of another family that is being forced to leave their recently adopted Chinese daughter in China due to some TB concerns. We pray that the policy decisions that make situations like this happen will be resolved by the time we travel to get Lil Bubba. There is so much that can go wrong we need to remember to be flexible and understand that it will all happen when it happens.

An Orphan's Prayer

I read this poem on one of the blogs I follow and thought I would share it on here too.

AN ORPHAN'S PRAYER

I am waiting…somewhere far, far away…on the other side of the world.
I may not know who you are or what you look like.
But somehow, deep in my heart, I know you are out there.
That one day you will come and find me.

It's a long journey, and it takes a lot of time.
I wish it could be easier.
But I know that the ones who come for me will not count the cost.
They will only see the joy of finding me.

For now I abide in the fields of the fatherless.
Day by day wondering, "Why was I born here and not somewhere else?"
Asking, "Why couldn't my life have been different?"
It is so lonely…

Even though I am surrounded by hundreds of other children,
I know that something is missing.
I know in my heart I need a place to call home.

My arms long to be wrapped in a father's embrace…
I long to be saved by a mother's love.
Gazing out the orphanage window, I offer a prayer of hope,
"Oh God, please help them come quickly."

Even as I lay in the darkness each night somehow I feel assured.
That no matter how lost I appear I am not alone.
Holy hands guard my steps; sacred fingers wipe my tears…
Touching my lonely heart.

The one who made me,
The God who knew me before I was born,
Hears me every time I call.
He whispers His promises in my ear.
I listen with hope to His voice.

But what I worry about most is that no one wants to look for me.
The fields are vast, and there are so many scattered all over the earth.
I wonder how one little child, so lost, can be found.
Yet He calms my heart and assures me that He will find you.
That He will make sure you hear His voice clearly.
He has promised me that He will make a way through the fields.
That He will personally cut a path, and lead you right to my orphanage door.

My prayer is…
When He speaks, please don't forget to listen.
When He calls, don't be too afraid to go.
For I am waiting…somewhere far, far away.

from All God's Children's Newsletter. No author noted.
http://onechinesebrother.blogspot.com/

It is morning over there now and I just wonder what Lil' Bubba's day will bring. God willing his days will soon be filled with tickles, giggles, hugs and kisses from all of us who are just waiting to bring him to our love filled home.

Another day....

Not our most productive day, but in the grand scheme of things, incremental progress is the key. We received the medical statements from the kids' doctor so one more item off of the list!

We made some changes to the look of the blog, hopefully for the better. :)

I have to add a picture of our newest pets - they actually are our neighbors and the kids have called them TinkerBell and Oreo. We renamed them yesterday to Stir & Fry or Finger & Licking much to Julie and Sydney's dismay. hehehehehe

Anyways, not much news to share.

More stuff done!

No moss gathering here when we know Lil Bubba is waiting for us! We knocked out our autobiographies - that was a bit weird writing about yourself. We also completed the rest of the paperwork that is in our power to do so now we only have medical things to do. Julie has her physical scheduled and Ron has more work to do on dropping lard before he gets his scheduled.

We faxed and emailed everything else that we needed to over the weekend and started the week with getting our passport photos taken. We need these for the Waiting Child program as well as for our I-800 form so it was one of those things that needed to be done.

We have our next appointment with Therese scheduled for 8/11 so we're rolling along but it'll all take longer than we'd prefer. Ron is still working with the HR department at work to see if we can get my verification of employment notarized by someone in California since that is the company HQ.

We're also trying to figure out the best way to ship the documents that need to be certified out of state and wondering how much time that will add. So many details and things to do. Fortunately the good people at AWAA have given us a check list that even I can follow so that helps.

On a personal note, we had a fun evening with the kids playing outside and having some fun daddy time. Almost time to hit the sack and get ready for whatever adventures tomorrow brings us.

I just keep telling myself that each day puts us a day closer to getting Lil Bubba. Some day we'll get to drop all of the cool adoption acronyms like LOI, DTC, LID and finally CA.....not soon enough - though most will tell you patience isn't one of my virtures so guess I'll take some of Julie's! LOL!

Dossier progress

We are making progress on our dossier! We had our first meeting with our home study social worker, Therese, last Saturday (7/25) to discuss the process, documents and a lot of other stuff. She is great and we seemed to get along nicely which is good since she's writing the home study. :)

We attacked the week with everything we've got to get the dossier really rolling. Monday morning we sent out letter to our children's pediatricians for a medical statement, we sent out forms for our guardians to state that they would take Lil' Bubba if something happened and we got our fingerprints knocked out. We have to have BCI-I (Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation as well as FBI background checks. The place we went was able to do both at the same time so a 2-fer-1 with that visit!

We've sent copies of all of our birth certificates, marriage license, tax form, medical and auto insurance information and other OH specific documents to Therese for her file. We've also had to complete a pretty detailed financial analysis and prepare the forms for both the China dossier as well as the OH file.

Tuesday we went to the local Sheriff's office to have a letter signed and notarized (of course) that says we are not criminals and don't have any outstanding warrants, etc. While we were waiting we saw our local Sheriff and said "Hi!" We knew our time was about up when Veronica was running across the room - kids that age don't walk anywhere, they run - and she tripped earning a nice 6 inch rug burn on her forearm. As luck would have it, our paperwork was just being handed to us so we could leave. The timing was perfect!

Wednesday we got the verification of employment from Ron's work though that in and of itself introduces a new wrinkle as it'll have to be notarized in California so we're looking into that.

We had our fire department come out to inspect the house and fill out that paperwork on Thursday. I fully expected one of the new guys to drive his car over and do it for us since it doesn't sound like it'd be as much fun as fighting fires. Nope - we look out and see a fire engine backing into our driveway and 3 people come to do the inspection, including the chief! We love Porter-Kingston Fire Department! They came out 40 minutes after I called for the inspection - I was expecting days if not weeks!

We just bought a new HP scanner/printer/copier/fax/who knows what else it does machine a few weeks ago and it has paid for itself in duplex (2 sided) copies, scans and faxes for this process and we're just at the beginning! We've probably sent over 20 pages in faxes this week alone!

We went to get more paperwork notarized Saturday and dropped them in the mail to Therese so now we only have our autobiographies to do and medical physicals for Ron and Julie and we'll be done with our part of the home study! Therese let us know that the BCI&I and FBI checks came back clean so we're good on that end too!

Whew! Long post huh? Guess these are easier if we do them a bit more frequently. ;)