This will either bring good luck....or bad luck

I decided to tempt fate today and either bring loads of really bad karma heaped upon us.....or maybe we'll be on the lucky side of the fates and get our TA very soon. I'm trying to think positive, so I bought Anna a cute halloween outfit similar to Natalie's (in hopes that she'll be home long before halloween!) It might be too small to read, but the top says "Mummy's Girl" on it :-) I think I'll REALLY push the envelope and go rip the tags off! That ought to do it (one way or the other!!)

We are now at day 72 awaiting TA. It has become excrutiating for me. If TA doesn't come tomorrow, then it will be a very long 3 day weekend until next week. It sure would be a much better Labor Day weekend if we got the call before 5:00 Friday!

So....I'm off to yank the tags off those halloween clothes (I think I'll even throw the receipt away!).....and let the fates fall where they may!!!!!!!! Wish us luck as tomorrow is another day in TA purgatory.

WANTED!!

One TA...for travel to Nanning, Guangxi and permission to bring our daughter Jin Yan Chang (aka Anna) home to the U.S.

We're on day 62 with no travel approval yet. :-( I still have hopes to get it in the next week, but only time will tell. I'm beginning to get very anxious & SO ready to go. The bags are semi-packed. I could get it all ready very quickly now if I had to.

I can't wait to post the news of our impending travel! So please do a TA-dance (like a rain dance)....thanks!!

Happy birthday to you!

Yummy!

Natalie's birthday

Natalie was 7 years old last week. She's growing up way too fast and I miss all the younger years (although I will be reliving alot of that very soon with Anna!)

We let Natalie have a really big birthday party this year at Pump It Up. As you can see, she & all her friends & classmates had a great time!

Natalie...2nd Grader

Natalie began second grade last week. It is getting easier for me each year as I walk her in on her first day. She has a great teacher and it seems that she has a great class this year. Roger and I met her for lunch on her birthday (the 2nd day of school) and that made for a nice day for all of us.

She only has a few clothes :-)

NOT! We have a ridiculous amount of adorable clothing size 18-24 months as you can see, (I don't even know where I'm going to put it all. But for some reason, I cannot find any of the 3T sizes...I must have gotten rid of them. And thanks to a friend, I have loads of great shoes in size 7. So as long as Anna stays in those size ranges for awhile, we're set!

Ready for baby....

I finally got the crib and room for the girls organized. There is still plenty to do, but if Anna walked in the door today, she would at least have a comfy bed, plenty of toys and enough clothes to clothe an army of toddlers! Natalie has fun playing with the baby toys....for some reason, all the toys she had as a baby are fascinating to her now!

Those rose-colored glasses again!

..and After!

After the cut, Natalie shyly told Holly she really wished she had curly hair... Holly was so sweet to take alot of time and curl Natalie's hair in ringlets! It was something to behold and amazingly enough the curls lasted pretty well throughout the day.....

This morning I took some photos of her with her new hairstyle as she was on her way to church.

She is still very happy with her new look and for that I'm very happy too!

Before.....

Natalie's long and lovely hair......

Big News!

No....it is not TA news. But the big news around here is that Natalie agreed (yes, of her own free will) to cut her long tresses and generously donate her hair to "Locks of Love".

We are incredibly proud of her and we think she looks absolutely adorable with her new "do".

Here are her "before" and "after" pictures!

Her hair was especially pretty yesterday when we went to the hair salon for the cut....isn't that always the case? I was worried that her "good hair day" would cause her to change her mind but she was resolute and didn't have a moment's hesitation before or during the cut. Whew!

Deb

Natalie was practicing her photography skills and insisted on taking a few photos of me. Sorry, but she insisted on posting the picture. Everyone who knows me understands how I do not like to have my picture taken. :-)

Wrapping up July

Glad we're finally moving into August in a couple of days & closer to Anna. We're still hoping for TA towards the end of August. I thought I'd post a few pictures from July around our house.

Roger's parents came for a visit mid-July. We really enjoyed seeing them & Natalie had fun. Hope to get back to Florida for a visit before too long.

And here is a picture of Natalie and Simon snuggling (this must have been before Simon started slobbering like he does when he's happy :-) Natalie does not tolerate cat slobber!

Happy Birthday Anna!

Today is Anna's 2nd birthday! It is so hard not to be able to celebrate it with her. I wonder if her foster family or the orphanage celebrates the childrens birthdays?? I have met another family online whose daughter was fostered by the same family a few years ago. She has assured me that the family takes very good care of the children, so that is a huge relief. I bet I'll get birthday pictures when we get our baby. :-) Happy birthday, sweetie!!

A sad day...

Today is a sad day. Our dear friends Florence, Grace and Caroline have moved to Maryland. We'll miss them so very much. Here are a couple of pics of Natalie and Grace playing recently.

Settling in for our long wait...

For those of you who are interested in such things, here is our info about our wait for Anna. As of today, we're are 21 days into our wait for TA (travel approval). I'm guessing we'll get TA around day 60 (if we're lucky).

DH Roger
DD Natalie (almost 7) (a. Jiujiang, Jiangxi 3/00)
DD to be Anna (almost 2) (Jin Yan Chang, waiting for us at A Mothers Love, Nanning, Guangxi)
Agency: Hope for Children
LOI-3/17/06
PA-4/17/06
DTC-6/14/06
LID-6/22/06
TA-??

Anna's Mystery Friend

This little girl is shown in lots of pictures with Anna. She must be a friend. Possibly she is also in foster care awaiting her forever family? Let me know if she looks familiar to you.

Anna's Foster Family

Here are some photos of her foster family (and their 26 year old son).

Anna in her "natural habitat"

Better late than never....I'm finally posting some of the photos that we received from Anna's foster family last month. We are so fortunate to have sent 2 packages to her via friends who were travelling to China for their girls....and the last family who traveled was kind enough to bring back the camera we had sent earlier. These photos are absolute priceless treasures. This first one is of Anna in her apartment. She's holding the tiger that Natalie sent to her. They have matching white tigers. The foster family says Anna hugs and kisses her tiger :-)