The wait to travel has just been too long and has given me way too much time to obsess over little things, like the packing. With our first trip, I had one list, that I actually lost right before I packed, but fortunately found. This time, I have a whole bunch of lists. There is a master list and series of by-suitcase lists so that when I finally do finish packing I won't have to think about what to put where. I also have a food list for my sister and a shopping list for perishables. I have a list of what everyone is wearing on the plane. Well, everyone except Daddy, who has thus far told me khaki pants.

This, however, I think may have sent me into packing insanity. It is a list of the contents of the suitcase.

I am forcing myself to take a packing moratorium. Daddy will be pleased with my moratorium since one day this week I actually packed all of his clean underwear.

I was laying in bed this morning thinking about updating the blog, trying to remember which picture was next and my brain completely freaked out. We CANNOT be going to China next week. No, No, NO! We can't. We just can't. Where did all the time go?

I think the sea horse is upside down.

With our first adoption I was quite obsessive with a pictorial countdown. I went all around the house photographing various items and posting daily. It's bad being the second child. No one has time to collect up all that stuff and thoughtfully photograph it all.

The big question for the day is should I count like a non-transplanter, where there is no day zero and today would be:

Or like a transplanter, where we would fly out on day zero and today would be:

I found out today that for the in China flights, we can only check one bag and have one carry on item. Since we did not do in China flights last time, it was a surprise. So, I decided to do a dry run on the packing to see if it would all fit and if we needed to revise the three packing lists I currently have. Here is the starting point, minus Keith's clothes, which have been packed for a couple of weeks and repacked about five times now (twice just today).

And here is the finish point. Keith's suitcase is actually in the bigger one. Now I don't want to have to unpack it all, but unless I do some speed laundry, someone will be short undies real soon.
This is a bit of nostalgia. It is my attempt to get Julianna's clothes packed for our first trip to China. Sarah had other plans. It is bittersweet to see all those little clothes packed up for our first adventure in parenting.

This is going to be one of those boring, no photograph posts. We finally have our travel dates. We are departing March 13. I've decided to step up my packing list extravaganza and make a packing list for each item of luggage, as well as a master packing list. Life is always better with lists.

Today is a big day in Julianna's life, although she does not realize it. Today, she has been a part of our family for 22 months and one day. That means it is one day longer than she was in China. For the rest of her life, she will always be defined as a daughter and sister, someone who's family loves her very much and she will always be cherished.

She and I celebrated with a trip to the mall. We went to her favorite store (the princess store, as she calls it) and she got to select an item, which of course, was a new dress and shoes. Then we looked for purple sandals and no other color would do. She actually passed up on buying shoes rather than settle for non-purple sandals. We ate at her favorite restaurant, the Golden Arches. I also purchased her a necklace for when she gets older to commemorate this day.

We are so very blessed to have her in our lives and today I am feeling very fortunate to be able to hang out with such a great kid.

Happy Chinese New Year. Our agency did not receive travel approvals and they do not anticipate any arriving before Feb 5.

Julianna has a new word set: "I threw down (up) the mac and cheese".

I've seen some other bloggers do a "day in the life" photograph series, so I thought I would do a "day of dresses" photo series. We start with the happy princess running to the wardrobe to select her first outfit. She is wearing her jammies. Disney knows how to make money.
First up is the Belle dress, complete with Belle shoes. She will walk around in this one saying, I look like one of the princesses (Azalea Trail Maids).

After Belle came our Barbie and the Diamond Castle dress. Mattel has not quite mastered the money making potential of dress-up clothes, so she is wearing Minnie Mouse shoes. This was just an amusing side point in the day. Not sure why she likes to lay down here, but she does. She will even get her blanket and Miss Kitty and pretend to nap. Now we switch to Snow White, with shoes and wand.

And finally, our ballet outfit. This one was mommy's choice, not hers. But ballet class does have a dress code.


With regards to Keith's adoption, we are still awaiting travel approval. Next week is Chinese New Year, which means unless it was mailed today, we will not hear anything for more than a week. We were in the same position with Julianna's adoption, awaiting travel approval when china went on vacation for CNY. It is a frustrating position, knowing you are so close and having them basically shut down for a week.

These are from the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola. It is a fabulous museum for children. The airplanes are all hands on, which is fantastic for a plane lover. It was wonderful.

We are once again in the waiting phase--waiting for our travel approval. Right now it feels so close, yet so far. And just to remind me of the theme of our adoption journey, tonight's sermon was on perseverance.

I mentioned a few posts back that I'm not sure what to do with the blog anymore. Our pastor has have quite a few sermons lately about how everything we do should honor God. It made me start thinking about the blog and what I say on it, as well as what I don't say. I think I need to take a different direction with what goes on the blog, try to make it more about my faith and the strength I find in it.

Drum Roll Please....

It finally came, our approval from China to adopt Keith, who currently resides at Beijing Social Welfare Institute. He will be five next week. Whoa. In six to eight weeks, we should finally be on our way to China.

For Christmas, Julianna wanted dress-up clothes--Snow White dress, Belle dress, Aurora dress, and so on. She also wanted shoes, gloves, earrings, necklaces and chap-stick (this is what she calls lipstick).

Paw Paw made her a wardrobe for her new outfits. She has been changing three or four times a day. She looks at the wardrobe and says, "I have choices".

'Nuther baby also got dresses to match Julianna's.

You'll notice she is sleeveless. It was hot on Christmas.

I've been working on Julianna's life-book, which invokes a lot of nostalgia. It seems so amazing that this wonderful child is in our lives. She has changed us in so many ways and we feel truly blessed. There are lots of ups and downs, but life around here is wonderful.

This is the earliest photograph of Julianna. It is her finding ad photo, and was taken in either September or October of 2005, when she was around three months old.


This is September, 2008.

She is so grown up.

Yesterday Julianna declared she wanted to listen to her Ariel CD while she napped. No problem, pop it in the CD player and she's set. Wait, do we own a CD player? Let's see, five iPods, three iPod docks...Is that a record player? CD player, CD player, ah, there is one. Unplug it, move it to her room, pop in the CD and listen to the singing....

Here it is, December. I've been at a loss as to what to do with the blog lately. Julianna has reached the point that she knows when we are talking about her and seems upset when I relate her latest escapades to others. Plus, I'm not sure which direction I want it to go. In some ways I think I tried to imitate other blogs rather than striving to make it my own. So for now, I think I'll be posting infrequently, although, we plan to post daily from China, when we finally get to travel.

Well, finally I am posting the Halloween pictures. Her Royal Highness had a good time at our Church's fall festival. She got to jump and jump and jump. We did very well in the candy department, in that she came home with three lollipops and one small bag of M&M's. Someday she will figure out that candy is to be had for the asking. May that day be many moons away.


There was a cake decorating contest as part of the festival. The guidelines were to bring your favorite pumpkin creation. Around here, our favorite pumpkin is the one a fairy godmother turns into a carriage.

Julianna and I had quite the conversation yesterday morning, like around 9 am:

J:Want candy
Me: You may have candy after your nap.
J:No after nap. Want candy.
Me: I'm sorry, that's the rules. You can have candy after your nap.
J:NO, no rules.

We are in the throes of potty training around our house. I've been wondering if one of those "Days Accident Free" signs for the bathroom would be excessively tacky.

We made a trip to the beach yesterday with the cousins, who are in town for their fall break. October is a great time to go to the beach. No crowds, perfect weather. Julianna loved it. She jumped and swam and made sand castles and carried buckets of water from the ocean to the sand. She was fast asleep 5 minutes into the drive home.
Do you ever have conversations with your kids that make you want to laugh hysterically, but you can't because they are dead serious and you don't want to hurt their feelings? We had this exchange today:

J: Don't put Ariel book in the potty.
Me: Excuse me?
J: Don't put Ariel book in the potty. Nana be very sad.

Julianna wanted a hairband like Elastigirl. We understand it lasted about five minutes at church.
This was Cousin Jessica's dress, specially crafted by Grandma. Julianna wore it long enough for me to get a photograph before declaring "too big, different clothes".

Phillip and I are fans of Patrick O'Briens Aubrey/Maturin series of books. So, when it came time to plan a boys room, we thought a Captain's Cabin theme would be fun. My parents found this bed.
Can you think of a better name for a sailor's bed?
Putting it together.
It is really, really big. Thank goodness we have high ceilings.
The wall color will be "Resolute Blue" and all you Hornblower fans can snicker at the name, although we did not pick it for the name.

These are from Easter. We stopped by Uncle Don's "office" on our way to Grandma's. Julianna has been asking lately to visit the office again.

This week I was reflecting on the long path to finishing our paperwork and how many times we threw up our hands and said, we quit. Deep down, though, we always knew this was the path God had laid out for us, despite the frustration. I was reminded of CS Lewis' comment in A Grief Observed, where the answer he hears from God is "Peace, child, you don't understand". It is like that sometimes. We want so badly for God to lay out His plan, to seek our advice and input on the finer details, then implement a mutually agreed upon compromise. God, though, does not want a committee, He wants obedience.

We are Dossier to China (DTC). Our agency received our dossier today, reviewed it and approved it to be sent in this week's batch. We were so thrilled to be sent today because we expected to wait until next week as our agency has a Wednesday cut-off for the Friday mailings. But they slipped us through and we are ecstatic.

We are not allowed to post identifiable information about Keith until we get final approval, so I leave you with a teaser. Beijing, here we come.

Breakfast with Her Royal Highness.

Our paperwork has made it through the consulate. Finally, we are through.

The Houston Consulate is beginning to resume operations. We are still not sure when our documents will be completed, but at least they are able to do some work. It is still very frustrating not knowing where things stand. As this process has gone on, I've started to thank God for His sovereign plan. Even though it is has been a long and difficult process, God has ordained every step and has known all the roadblocks and annoyances we would face. My "job" in the process is to thank and praise Him and trust in His plan.

Julianna started "school" this week. She goes to half day Mom's Day Out two days a week. They are doing a curriculum this year. This week we are learning the color red and the letter A. I talked it up for about a week before she started, just to get her ready and we bought a new lunchbox. She is also taking a backpack with her. We made a special shopping trip for the lunchbox and lunches.

This is what she wore.

This is what she wanted to wear. She wears this dress all the time now. She asks for it the moment she wakes up and we hang it up in the closet each night. She does have to wear "boring" clothes when we go places.
This is from a different day. We were headed out for our morning walk. You'll notice the rain boots with the Cinderella dress.

For those interested in an adoption update, our paperwork is at the Houston Consulate for authentication. It was supposed to be finished today. Unfortunately, Hurricane Ike is headed to Houston and the Consulate is closed until further notice.

We're busily watching the hurricane dump lots of rain on the Gulf Coast. We are still waiting for the re-do on our improperly notarized paper. I've had a lot of time over the last week to think about the sovereignty of God and my response to challenges. God is not taken by surprise. We will complete our paperwork in His timing. He is also in control of the rain and the leak in the living room. My responses, though, tend to be complaints rather than a recognition of God's sovereign plan. I seem to live on the weak side, as in Proverbs, it says "If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your faith". (Pro 24:10).