King's Island

Saturday was our annual trek to King's Island for P&G day. We decided to get an early start and the plans were to spend all day and evening there, staying for the fireworks. It was a good plan in it's origination but not in its application. By 8 pm all of the kids were exhausted and I knew that there was no way we would be able to make it to 10 pm and the fireworks. They were sad that they would miss the fireworks but there's always next year, right?

The girls had an absolute blast all day and did a great job. I stayed with Ellie most of the time because well..I don't ride rides! Jeff loves the roller coasters so her took the older two off and did more of the big rides. Mackenzie was tall enough for everything, but Ainsley wasn't tall enough for several of the rides. Jeff got into several "discussions" about this because he said that she was 46 inches or however tall she had to be and they said she didn't quite reach it. Apparently she should have worn taller shoes! But she was still able to ride many of the rides, just not the big roller coasters that she wanted to go on. Mackenzie was able to ride the big roller coasters but didn't want to this year. She rode some but refused to go on the really big ones. Ainsley is hoping next year she is tall enough!

All in all a very fun day! We packed our lunch and came out to the car to eat it since technically you aren't supposed to bring food in to the park. We bought dinner at Chick-fil-A. The girls really like Chick-Fil-A and so do I but I find it to be more expensive than say Wendy's and at King's Island it cost us a whopping $42 and we only got waters!! It blows my mind what they charge to eat there, but since we only go once a year and we don't pay for our tickets into the park, I figure it is a small price to pay for fun :o)

Home Visits

Yesterday we had our first home visit with our home study agency. She met with us and did a short interview with both Jeff and I. I made a copy of our last home study which I think was helpful. She was able to ask update questions and move quickly through the process. Things went smoothly and we were done earlier than anticipated so that was great. Now it's finding a time to meet with her again that seems to be the daunting issue. She has to meet with the girls and us. She doesn't come up here very often and to meet with the girls the weekends would be preferable. She had this Saturday available but we are going to King's Island on Saturday. Then she's busy for the next 4 weekends. I am busy the weekend she suggested and on it goes. I may pull the girls from school for a day and try to drive to Lexington and meet with her. It slightly frustrates me that we can come so far only to have to wait to meet for another month and delay the process so long just because the agency is so far away. I am trying to be patient, but she informed me that the I800 process, which is next, has been taking 4 months. So it looks like the earliest we would be DTC would be Feb or March. I wish it wasn't so far away! But I guess everything to this point has gone along smoothly so I really shouldn't complain at all. Just pray that I can be patient. I got my physical on Tuesday. Hopefully I can pick the paperwork up on Monday and that it is filled out correctly. China is very detailed about how the form should be filled out. I had to get lab work done so I also had to go in on Wed am to get blood drawn. Jeff has his physical Thursday of next week and I think he is going to try to get his lab work done while he is there. I think the only other thing we are waiting on is our PA child abuse clearances and my passport.

Nothing too exciting this week on the home front. Jeff was gone Monday-Wednesday. He's been traveling a lot the last few weeks. I am trying to convince him to stay the next two weeks because he is gone for a week in 3 weeks and he has been gone 3 days of each week for the last 4 weeks I think. I volunteered at the girls' school for picture day on Wed and then today I will be volunteering for health check day. So it means I have been pretty busy this week too. Mackenzie has early dismissal today so I have to pick her up extra early and she likes this! The high light that we are looking forward to is King's Island Day on Saturday! It is P&G's annual day at King's Island and we are looking forward to lots of fun, fun, FUN! The girls are ecstatic. I don't ride most of the rides but it is a lot of fun to watch them.

Hopefully I will get some good pictures to post.

Sorry I haven't taken out my camera in recent days.

I will do better!

Paperwork

I remember now what so easily seems to fade into the background after you adopt.

Paperwork. And lots of it!

I have been working on all of the paperwork that is required for us to proceed with adoption #2.

I don't think much has changed in the way of paperwork, I just think that once you bring your child home you forget about it.

But that's what I have been busy doing. And there's a feeling of accomplishment in me that I am close to having all that I can gather together. Apparently I let my passport expire so I have to get a new one.

Left to do on our list before we can start our homestudy:

Physicals for Jeff and I

Physicals for the girls-I think I can actually just bring in the form and have the docs fill it out if they have had a physical in the last 6 months so this is what I will try to do.

Verification of Employment for Jeff-I already have mine

Waiting on letters of recommendation from 2 people

New online Hague Training for both Jeff and I

Wait for background check/child abuse clearances to come back

Pick up the girls immunization records

Once we get all that completed, I can call the agency that will be completing our homestudy and set up a time to meet with the social worker. I am hopeful that we can get through our actual homestudy quickly! Once that's done we can get all of our paperwork together and submit for our I800A, which we need with all the new Hague Convention rules. The I800A is our USCIS/INS approval that shows that according to the US we are ok to adopt. The technical name for it is the "Application of Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country."

I am hoping to have all of this completed so that we are DTC (Dossier To China-this means all of our paperwork has been sent to China) by early December.

Like Dad

Here are a few pictures of Ellie as she puts it "being like dad."

We have had a busy week it seems. School has gone well for each of the girls. Ellie still manages to tell me she is sick every morning to try to get out of going to school, but once she gets there she loves it. Both Mackenzie and Ainsley have had good weeks too. Ainsley and Ellie have started back at gymnastics on Mondays and Mackenzie starts back at theatre after Labor Day.

We have been trying to keep more nights free so that we are not running around as much as we have in the past. I have to say that I am liking it! The girls like being home and not running around and so do I. We may have to cut gymnastics for one or both in an effort to save money for the adoption. I am trying to figure out all the costs we can cut out of our budget to help pay for another adoption. I like to keep them active and wish they liked cheaper sports!!