More Paperwork Preparation for Hannah!

When I first began Hannah's adoption journey in 2005 I had over 4 years remaining before my Passport expired. When working on the paperchase, my agency asked us to check our Passports to ensure they'd be valid come travel time and I didn't give it a second thought.

Well, that's not the case now. Although my Passport has travelled many, many wonderful miles with me over the past 4 years, it was going to expire in less than a month so it was time to renew it. This morning I joined the ranks of many other Canadians and renewed my Passport. As of June of this year we will need a Passport to even drive across the border to the US so the Passport offices are busy! When I walked in and saw the number of people waiting and the long line to do initial document validation I was concerned my lunch with Sharon might be in jeopardy even though it was only 9:30. Uh oh!

I tell you, I was nothing but impressed by the efficiency of this office and within 30 mins I walked out the door with my renewal submission completed and now I just need to wait for it to arrive via registered mail. Yay! Another piece of paperwork completed that will help take me to Hannah. Oh how I can't wait to get that Chinese Visa stamp! SOON!!! New referrals expected early next week so more beads will be moving. Wheee!

PIPO's On Her Way to China!!!

Early this morning one of my first bloggy friends boarded a plane and is on her way to CHINA to meet her daughter!!

Congratulations PIPO! Can't wait to see sweet little PIPA in Mommy's arms!

Celebrating 35 months Closer to Hannah!

Mom and Dad brought these cute little flowers over on the weekend to celebrate my 35th Hannah-versary!! Thanks Mom and Dad! Another month of my file being logged in China and Hannah is so close now I can't help but be excited! I'm still anticipating it being 3-6 months before receiving her referral but the fact that it's only that long is super exciting!!

I continue to be so thankful for the peace that God is providing during this long wait. As hard as it is at times, I wouldn't trade one minute of it for the way it has caused me to learn to lean more fully on the Lord and trust Him daily. This is a lifelong lesson and one I am thankful to continually be reminded of. God is so good and He has each step planned and daily I choose to trust Him.

35 months closer to Hannah! New referrals will hopefully arrive later this week and I'll have a better idea of when I might receive her referral. Currently I'm anticipating May - July but only God knows. Once again, trusting, trusting, trusting!

Three's the One!

The inaugural cup o coffee for Tim's Rrroll-Up 2009. It wasn't a winner...

...but this one was! Lucky number 3!

Here are the stats day 1 soon to be uploaded in the sidebar.
Once again our Timmy's group at work (plus out remote player Mark) started the ribbing and teasing of one another. A lot of winners today! Yay!!

Best email comment of the day was from Ken: 'I won a Donut! Anyone trade for a Big Screen TV?' :o)

Let the rrrolling begin!

Tomorrow!!

Rumour has it that tomorrow I'll be digging through the junk drawer
and adding this fun little gadget to my key chain again! Wheeee! Roll-up the Rim is back!! Are you excited too?
OK - Honest moment here. It's now 12:13 am on Monday morning and I'm using my best self-control not to hop in the car and drive to Timmy's to treat myself to a bedtime hot chocolate! LOL! With my luck the gal at our store would have had the date wrong and it won't be starting yet. I'll keep you posted!! About the timing....and if my self-control was in action or not!

Update:
I was self-controlled but no longer....is't 7:55 am and I'm outta here! Time to buy my first of ???? Timmy's 2009 roll-ups!

9:15am Update:
And yes, we're starting out just as we finished last year. 1 purchased and 0 wins. Oh well, coffee break is in less than an hour and I'll be lining up for round number 2. Let the games begin!!

Friends!

I will never cease to be amazed or thankful at the number of friends I have been blessed to meet though this adoption journey!

Yesterday, Karen and I loaded into the van with her 2 adorable daughters and headed to a mutual friend's home.

I met Sarah a few years ago while up north at Muskoka Bible Centre and at the time she had recently returned home from China with her beautiful little toddler Jane. Since then Sarah and I have corresponded and met again on one other occasion. In the meantime Sarah travelled to Ethiopia last year and now she and her hubby have 2 more cuties running around their home, Samantha and Daniel!

Jane, who has grown so much since I last saw her. Check out those adorable dimples!


Oh my, are these two cute, or what? :o)
Samantha

Daniel

This picture just makes me laugh!! I tried using M3's tactic of, 'How many fingers are above my head' but this was the result! Heh!
The kids enjoyed an afternoon playing together while Karen, Sarah and I (l to r) talked and talked...and talked! Before we knew it, 3 hours had flown by and all too soon it was time to say good bye.
Sarah, Thank you so much for opening your home to us and also for all the beautiful clothes you shared with Hannah! They're all so pretty and I can't wait until she's wearing them! Hannah is accumulating quite a collection of smaller clothes and it was a special treat to receive some 2T and 3's! Wow....At the rate we're going, my beautiful baby girl will be in school before Mommy has to do much shopping.

Back at Karen's place her hubby and son were waiting impatiently for us to arrive enjoying a fun time of daddy and son computer games and then we all sat down to a delicious supper of lasagna, caesar salad and garlic bread. Yumm! Austin made us laugh when he arrived at the table wearing this nose clip as he's not a favourite of garlic...or onions.
I happily accepted the task of finding each and every little bit of onion in his lasagna and then feeding him by 'jets' because normal airplanes are too slow! I'm sure there will be many jets, choo choo trains and airplanes in my future...and I can't wait! Thanks for the training Austin!

Karen and Mike, thank you so much for opening your home to me once again and welcoming me into your family! Family worship time around the supper time was precious and almost brought me to tears. You are an amazing family and I cannot wait until little Denver comes home later this year to join your family!! Love you friends! xoxo

Things Heard in a Twins Household...and Funny Moments

Time spent with the Salsa girls is filled with laughter from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed!

One of the first examples of this came the first morning I was there. We were all up early and then I went upstairs for a bit and was sitting on my bed when the girls came up for a visit. We chatted and giggled and then I said I was going to get up. Both their eyes flew to my clock on the bedside table and in unison they screamed, 'No Cafrin!!! No get up! Cwock not say seben!' LOL! It was now after 8:00 and since the girls know the first number on their clock needs to begin with a '7' before they call out for mamma to get up in the morning, I was commiting a cardinal sin by getting up. When I finished laughing we chatted and when the clock said 8:17 I tried again but they quickly said, 'Noooo! Not dat seben!' Too cute! I eventually convinced them it was ok to get up and our day of fun began.

Here are some of the funny things I heard us saying when we were talking to the girls. I'm sure you've heard some similar things coming from yourself too.

- Only 1 girl per leg

- No, you can't zip your sister into the suitcase. She doesn't like it!

- Your sister needs a courtesy flush

- Don't step on your sister

- No, you can't stand on your sister's head

- Only 1 girl per chair

And my very favourite:

- Sorry you'll have to choose a different toothbrush. It's your sister's turn to use the Elmo toothbrush tonight!

Heh! That one was rectified though as we found another Elmo toothbrush and now each one is sporting their owner's initial...which they recognize with ease.

Also want to add a quick video showing one of the girls latest things that they like to do - count syllables in words. (Hope the sound lines up with the pictures. Sometimes it's off but I'm not sure how to fix that.)


A little note: The girls love to sit on the arms of the kitchen chairs rather than the seat. They're often reminded to sit on their seat or knees but within moments they can't help themselves and hop back up on the arm in excitement and begin chatting with each another. M3 laughed at me one day when she and I and the girls were all at the table together. One of the girls tumbled backwards off the arm of the chair! I shot up like a rocket, looked down at her and since there was no blood or tears, without realizing it I sat back down and continued eating my dinner. Heh! These two know how to have fun and 'slow' is not in their vocabulary so there are a few stumbles each day but when there are tears for one, her sister is quick to run to the freezer for ice and all is right in their little world again! Have I mentioned how much I love these little ones?!! Miss them so much already!!!

Adventures in Purse Shopping...Oh My!!

First, let me begin with this one statement: TubaDad deserves a medal!! :o)

Sunday afternoon TD stayed with the girls while M3 and I headed to the fabric store to find some materials for one of the little girl's Easter dress. Last year and again this, M3 and I had such fun wandering the stores and looking for dresses that suit each of the girls likes and personalities and at the same time dresses that complement one another. I'm guessing Wela and Ma cringe when M3 and I head out looking for Easter dresses as they always seem to require some sort of modification. Heh...at one point we had them making a coat from another one that came with one of the dresses and modifying one dress. The fact that the girls weren't fans of the coat idea probably made the Grandmas very happy!

Fastforward to Sunday when she and I hit the fabric stores. We found what we we needed and since the night was still young we went next door to K*hl's and that's where the adventure began. Throughout the week M3 had mentioned that the purse she had didn't work as well as she'd hoped as it had a narrow opening at the top. No problem....we'll look for a new purse! Oye vey...what an experience this was!! Fun, exciting and yet an adventure none the less.

Purse requirements:
- shoulder strap that goes over the head
- zipper on the top that makes it easy to get things in and out
- lots of pockets for organization
- preferrably one that has an internal wallet
- cute!

Up to this point M3 and I were on the same wavelength and our purse shopping was quite similar. My time to purchase a new purse? Normally 5-10 mins. M3, not so much!!

Because then it started...the opening, closing, analyzing, trying on, checking out the look in the mirror and so much more. We laughed our way around the purse dept of K*hl's as she tried out about 15 purses. It wouldn't have been too bad except what happened when she found each purse made me laugh! We'd analyze the colour and material and then it would happen....the zipper would open and the paper would be pulled out piece by piece. I never knew how much paper was in purses until this little adventure! We were quite easy to find in the store as just like Hansel and Gretel all you had to do was follow our trail of little stacks of purse paper left on the shelves. There was finally one which she thought could work and she carried it around for a while and it went as far as almost being paid for, but there was a quick change of the heart and *poof* it was history! :o)

We left the store and since the mall was right across the street I asked if she wanted to check a store there. We'd been so close and I was really hoping she'd find a purse so we giddily entered the store and headed directly to the purse dept for round #2. Yup...it started again! Opening, closing, analyzing, trying on, checking out in the mirror and yes, the infamous paper trail. The funny thing about this store was that about 45 mins. into our mission we realized there was a store clerk who had taken it as her personal mission to follow us around at a distance and clean up out Hansel and Gretle paper trail. I'm thinking she was not finding this nearly as much fun as we were!

After taking about 20 purses through the paces above we narrowed it down to 2. One we really liked with the exception that the wallet portion would need 2 hands to zip and unzip it as it had a 3 sided zipper. That might be a deal breaker! It was up against another one that pretty much fit the requirements with the exception that the wallet was a bit smaller than desired. Hmmmm...such a decision to make! After weighing the pros and cons of each, it was decided that slightly-smaller-wallet-purse had won out over zip-zip-zip purse.

At this point M3 decided to save me the final humiliation step of purse shopping by not emptying her current purse piece by piece into the new one to ensure that it all fit...and yet still look cute! Phew...can't say I was sorry to miss that little bit of fun...and I'm pretty sure the Hansel and Gretle clerk wasn't sorry either!

We headed to the checkout walking tall and one of those 'we did it' grins plastered across each of our faces and we were feeling gooood! M3 mentioned how happy TD would be to be saved from a purse shopping experience! After this 2 hour marathon I understood how this could be painful for a guy...especially if he had 2 energized toddlers in tow! (On a funny sidenote, TD was entertaining the girls in a store a little while back and he found himself in the purse dept with them. What did his little cuties do? They proceeded to open purses and pull out the paper even though M3 isn't sure they've ever seen her do this! Like mother, like daughters!!)

As we left the store I was so excited that my friend had found her purse that there was almost a little skip in my step. Thankfully I didn't skip for real since we'd had torrential rains for almost 24 solid hours and my little skips could have caused flooding across the parking lot! It was a happy, happy moment though!

And then....IT happened. That one little sentence that almost stopped me in my tracks.

'Sure hope I keep it.'

Whaaat? You might not? Are you serious???? Hilarious!! TD might still need to experience another purse shopping trip? Oye vey!! Sorry TD!! I tried. I really, really tried!!

We laughed about her comment and headed out for a great dinner at an Italian restaurant with some rockin' cheezy bread and then we made our way home. TD and I compared purse shopping notes and it was funny how we could talk about each step of the purse shopping experience step by step in great detail!

Now, it was time for the big moment. Drumroll please.....the movement of current purse stuff from the old purse to the new one. The first to move over was lipstick which initially made a funny looking bump which was almost a deal breaker but, a quick adjustment and all was well in the world of everything purses...for a couple of minutes but then the grimaces crossing M3's face made me realize it wasn't going well. Uh oh....it's not looking good at all!!

The final verdict? Nope, nada, no, zip, zilch. It was too small and just wasn't going to make the cut. *sigh!* Too bad little purse, you really were cute.

So, as the Salsa fam drove me to the airport Monday morning there was an extra little passenger in the car. The infamous wallet included, over the shoulder strapped, big opening, lots of pockets, cute purse was making it's way back to the store.

Hmmmm, I've been home for almost 48 hours now. I wonder if the Salsa fam are still wandering around the purse dept of a store surrounded by a sea of paper...and the Hansel and Gretle sales clerk?

Looking forward to our next visit together friend....as long as you're not in the need of a new purse or I'm pretty sure I'll be busy. Very, very busy!! ;o) Love ya!

You Otta Be In Pictures!!

As I watched M3 take a bunch of great pics last week it suddenly struk me as quite funny what she looked like behind the camera. :o) I've grown accustomed to her creative picture taking (and learned so much from her!!) and how she gets those adorable pics and wanted to share some of what the girls are seeing with you.

Here's the fun and some of the great things she's taught me about taking pics of sweetnees doubled!!

What we see

What the kids see


Here's more of the fun!




















Doing all I can to soak up what this great teacher has to share!
I can't wait until it's my sweetie that is in front of the camera and at the same time I'm so very thankful for the time spent with M3, TubaDad, Ro and Ree while I wait!!

Thank You M3 and Wela!!

The kindness to Hannah and I is overwhelming!! When I arrived last week M3 had this adorable outfit waiting for her. She's going to look so cute in it and the brown with all the fun colours are wonderful! There was also a wonderful bag of 'mini bar treats' that the girls had picked out but I must admit to eating them before taking a pic. Oops! They chose Chocolate mints, Pringles, water, Yellow Kleenex, and some ummm, rather 'strong' M&M flavoured chapstick that I might have 'accidentally' left for them to enjoy. Thanks for the treats girls! They were super yummy and even better because you'd chosen them yourselves!!

Later in the week Wela arrived with this beautiful quilt she'd made for Hannah! WOW!!! Thank you Wela!! As soon as I put her crib together, this beautiful little quilt will be placed in it waiting to keep my baby girl warm when she comes home. Love you so much! Thanks again!!

Valentine's Day H and I received a gift for each of us. Chocolates for Mommy and this cutie for Hannah. I asked the girls to help me name him and even though 'Orange Bucket' (after Ree's favourite puke bucket) was discussed, they decided on Lil' Bear and Lil' Bear he shall be!

And the last gift needs little introduction to the bloggy world of 2006. It's the infamous Ladybug Suitcase that travelled to China with M3 and her family when they met the girls. It's been passed down to me and will travel to China later this year. Shhh...Don't tell my Mom but it's tradition that the Grandma use this as one of her pieces of luggage, right Wela?! :o)

One other thing that made M3 and I howl was upon closer inspection of the LB suitcase we noted this yellow ribbon tied to the handle of it. I'm guessing someone thought their might be an influx of huge, loud, bright ladybug suitcases in China so they wanted to make sure it didn't get mixed up? LOL! I'm pretty confident when this one makes it's way around the baggage carousel when I get back to Toronto later tonight that there won't be a large number of LB suitcases gracing the carousel!

THANK YOU SO MUCH M3, TubaDad, Ro and Ree for another amazing week of fun, laughter, stories, giggles and so much more! I love you all so very, very much and cannot wait for the next time when I travel out to visit you....with HANNAH in my arms!!! Love you so much! xoxoxoxo

Fountain Fun!!

Earlier in the week M3 took the girls for a haircut which means a treat afterwards. Mmmm...which ones should we choose?
Now why didn't I think of that? Yellow for Ree and Pink for Ro! Oh yes, these little girls sure do know their favourite colours and often choose them but sometimes like to mix it up a bit too, just to keep life interesting.
Ro, in very ladylike fashion, enjoying her treat!
An afternoon in the park, with a fountain? Bonus!! Check out the giggles and screams of laughter! Can never get enough of those!!


Ummm...I think you might have got a bit wet little Ree! Oh well, it was well worth it for all the splashing fun!!