Negative Mono Test

Thank you to everyone who said a prayer and was thinking about our son Riley the last few days. He tested negative for Mono yesterday afternoon, and is feeling fine!! Not a minute to soon, as we are leaving this Thursday, TWO DAYS FROM NOW!!!! I'm off to my last day of work until December!!!

Five....Four.....

We now have 4 days until lift off!! Rick finally made it home Friday afternoon, and we have been busy doing some last minute shopping , laundry, and packing! My internet has been acting up again, so I haven't been able to post for several days. This might be good as I have many other things to get done!! Riley had to go to the doctor on Saturday because of swollen glands in his neck. We are waiting on the strepp test, and praying that it isn't the dreaded MONO!!! Wouldn't that just be great?? So everyone reading this say a prayer that Riley doesn't get really sick while we are in China! Anyone who doesn't know...... he is going with us!! I'm thinking positively, it's just a virus, it's just a virus, it's just a virus. We are so happy, so excited, and so ready to get our arms around this daughter of ours!!

Someone Pinch Me!

Eleven days, I repeat eleven days and counting until we are "leaving on a jet plane". Still I'm in a fog, I'm not even nervous really! Just going about my life like a deer in headlights, like nothing special is happening! People ask me if I have any news and when I say yes we are leaving a week from Thursday they freak out because I'm so cool calm and collected! Perhaps I'm in a dissociative state. I think I am!! Luckily I'm not psychotic enough to "FORGET" we are leaving
next Thursday!! I just don't think about it until someone asks. Why get all worked up, what's the big deal. It's just a little 2 week trip half way around the world, with our 10 year old son, leaving our 5 year old son, to bring home our new non-English speaking 4 year old daughter! Never mind the fact that I hate to fly, Riley has never flown, Sha Mei (who has possibly never even been in a car!!) has never flown. Rick has been out of state since July 7th, and will be home "sometime next week". I'm not packed, Riley's not packed, Rick's not even unpacked!! Sha Mei is the only one who IS packed! Come on, what could possibly go wrong?

Somebody pinch me please!!

15 days and counting!

We have 15 days until we leave for China!! WOW I still can't believe it!! We have waited sooo long to get this child home with us! It will be a YEAR in October since we first saw her little face on the waiting child list from CHI. It has been so hard to know who she is, what she looks like, how old she is, and not be able to get to her!! I'm sad that we have missed so much of her younger days, but I'm praying that she has been well loved and cared for while waiting for us.

Today I'm doing some more packing, and my king sized bed is covered with luggage and backpacks and toiletries in zip lock bags! It has been hard to limit our suitcases to 44 lbs. each (which is the limit for inside China and we are taking 3 flights while there) At least once we have Sha Mei we will be able to have 4 suitcases instead of three and that will help!! Obviously there will be some shopping done while we are there!!

Itinerary Finalized!!

We only have 18 days left until take-off, and we have our finalized itinerary! I have posted it day by day in the sidebar so you can keep track of where we will be everyday while we are gone.(Mom) China is 13 hours ahead of us, so if it's 7 PM here it will be 8AM the next day in China. We are leaving here on the 2nd but won't arrive until the afternoon of the 3rd there. Reversely on the way home we leave China the 16th at 4:10PM and arrive at O'Hare at 4:15Pm the same day!! What fun!! I wish the flight was only 5 minutes!! HAHA I have a feeling we will ALL be consuming some Bonine, Dramamine, Benadryl....Whatever it takes to make it back with out any ugly outbursts!! (I include myself in that comment!!) Keep us in your thoughts, especially Sha Mei.. as this is going to be the hardest on her. She is leaving everything and everybody that she has known and starting a new life with US!! No special people, no super people, no special education teacher, just our plain old family with 2 kids, cat, dog, mortgage, car payment, screaming boys and long timeouts!! She will not know what to think for quite some time I'm sure!! So if you don't see us out and about, at church, at work, at the park, don't worry, we are just trying to help her adjust to a new life. And this could take some time!!

Visas Are In The Building!!

Today our lovely postal carrier delivered our passports back to us,
containing our Chinese visas!! Yahoo we are legal to enter China!! We have 23 days until we take off!!! Wow I can't believe it!! I still feel like I'm having an out of body experience!! I keep thinking I've forgotten to do something, or I need to do something, but what?? It's just pure anxiety, it's keeping me up at night and distracting me during the day. By the time we leave I'll be exhausted!

First Day of Pre-school

Well here we are!! Rorey's first day of Pre-school!!! It was so much fun, we went to Wal-mart and did some shopping for our China trip, during which Rorey was on his best behavior! Before we left Rorey got his favorite treat, "chicken balls" And yes before you ask me, chickens do have these!! OK--- popcorn chicken --

Next we went to our second home away from home......... Starbucks!!! Man I love this kid!!! And you want to hear the best part??? He always gets the same thing at Starbucks,......... A glass of water!!!! So he got his water, Mom got her fix, we took a picture of the coffee making employee and headed to Good Shepherd Pre-school!! Rorey was so excited to go, and so happy when I left, I'm at home right now with no children here-both at school-WOW for the first time ever!!! Of course this will be over in 4 weeks when we add the little princess to our family!
I guess I better enjoy the peace and quiet now!!!

Itinerary Finalized!!

It is done, set in stone, totally confirmed!! We are leaving for China on October 2nd!!!! YAHOO!! I got the flights arranged last night and it is a done deal!! I just can't believe it is finally happening! Still waiting on our visas to arrive back here, but they are now at the Chinese consulate in Chicago and will be overnighted to us next Tuesday. Now I need to concentrate on packing, preparing Rorey for our absence and getting Riley's school work taken care of.

Here is our itinerary for China::
Oct. 2nd.....leave US
Oct. 3rd......arrive in Beijing
Oct. 4th......sightsee in Beijing
Oct. 5th......fly to Urumqi
Oct. 6th......GOTCHA DAY!!!!
Oct. 7th-10th...sightsee in Urumqi
Oct. 11th....fly to Guangzhou
Oct. 12th....SHOP in GZ
Oct. 13th....Ellie's medical exam
Oct. 14th....American consulate appointment
Oct. 15th....receive Ellie's visa
Oct. 16th....Fly back to Beijing, then on to US!!!
arrive in Chicago Oct. 16th 4 PM!!!!!

A big THANK YOU to all of you who have helped us along the way!