looking at the calendar towards the nine month mark

I'm looking at the calendar thinking... "Let's see what day nine months on the waiting list falls on. I'll be paper pregnant and overdue that day!" The 22nd of this month falls on Thanksgiving Day. I'd sure like to have something extra special to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. My mother's due date with me surely wasn't calculated correctly, as I was born 28 days after the due date!

Added 11/7/07: Right from the source... my mom posts that her due date really was calculated correctly and I truly came into this world a month late. I'm sure that being 9 months pregnant for an extra 28 days wasn't comfortable. Sorry, Mom!

Fun with Sweet N Sassy Sophia

Today I created this header for Tiffany's new blog Sweet N Sassy Sophia. Sophia is such a little beauty, and her mommy hears that she's going to be quite a little sassy handful. If we lived closer, I'm sure that Tiffany and I could be great shopping buddies! Thank you for your donation, Tiffany.

Four day 30% off sale at Gymboree

November 8-11 save 30% off at Gymboree using online code: GYMFRIEND. If shopping in-store, e-mail me and I'll e-mail you a printable coupon. Yes, it's hard for me to hold back... so I'll shop vicariously with you. Oh, wait a minute! Maybe my cutie niece needs some Gymboree for Christmas?

Speaking of shopping, here's a line of stores owned by Gymboree called Crazy8. I haven't bought anything from them yet, but their lines are lower priced and very cute as well.

Happy National Digital Scrapbooking Day

Yesterday was National Digital Scrapbooking Day. My favorite digiscrappin' shop Peppermint Creative is having a 30% off sale this week. They have a new autumn kit titled October Rust with leaves, browns, and greens that is my favorite kit ever. If you are looking for something to scrapbook your Halloween photos with, their Witches Brew kit is just adorable.

grouchy: need retail therapy

Yes, I've been quiet here. I apologise to the people around me in real life that read this blog. I'm grouchy and get emotional very easily right now. I've raised my voice with people at work too. The girls at work and my husband all need medals for putting up with me and my ever changing mood swings. Working nearly 60 hours this week out of necessity to cover a coworker's vacation doesn't help either.

I bought a pink tote and some perfume for a little retail therapy to perk myself up. It is from an Asian retro line titled "Miso Pretty." Cute stuff!

Reed's missing toys

Dear Baby Reed,

I'm sorry little one. Hannah Claire didn't take your toys. She's still in Taiwan. And yes, please see if your daddy will let you use Skype to video conference some adoption phone calls for us. Hannah Claire's mommy is getting quite anxious.

Watch out for that big kid Kobi. He's pretty wild with his toys lately... especially with his baseball gear!

Hannah Claire's Mommy

Tadpole Soup

If you haven't already read this family's Taiwan adoption blog, you need to. Check out the exciting things that they ate this weekend. Kevin and I draw the line at tadpole soup. No thank you. I'd try the squid, but I have a feeling I'd rather have the sausage and pineapple on a stick.

Thank you

I just wanted to say thank you to all of the support I've gotten from other adoptive families. I've received several uplifting e-mails in my in-box lately, along with good tips from mommas who've been there, done that.

I've been asked a few of the same questions lately, so I figured that I'd reply to all.

Question: Will you let us know about your referral right away?
Answer: We may need to take a few days to look over the referral information. If there are any medical questions, we'll use the Riley International Adoption Clinic to evaluate the medical information before we accept the referral. We'll share the good news with everyone once we make a decision to accept the referral.

Question: Will you share referral pictures with us?
Answer: Yes yes yes.

Until then... I carry my camera with me and look for help from Psalm 27:14. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord.

Fun with Love is a Place

I have just finished installing a new blog header for Jane at Love is a Place. This just might be my favorite thing I've ever made while digiscrapping. Jia's so cute that it's pretty easy to be inspired!

Here is a site that I'm playing around with. Picnik is a web based free photo editor that is very easy to use. I'm anti-Photoshop because it's just so complicated... but Picnik is user friendly and allows me to edit photos easily and quickly. For Love is a Place I made some photos sepia tone and used the vignette function to make the edges of the photo darker. They have premium features that you can subscribe to for $24.95 a year. For now I'm very happy with the free features.

Blog Headers with Love

I've had a little fun making blog headers for some other blogging adopting parents lately. If anyone else would like a new blog header, I'd be happy to make one for you in exchange for a free will donation to help with projects for the St. Lucy's Center and Chung Yi orphanages in Taiwan. Right now funds are needed to pay for shipping costs for the donated Christmas presents for children at Chung Yi.

Click on the graphic below to read about the details:

Stork Alert Downgraded from Red to Orange

It now sounds like those referrals have already been matched with other families, but I hear more are on the way. This is wonderful news, as these little girls join families that are surely just over the moon with excitement. This also bumps us up in line on the pink list, so we're happy things are movin' right along after being delayed months with no infant girl referrals. I'll downgrade this stork alert from red high alert to orange. Whew! One can only check phone's dial tone and junk e-mail box so many times in one day! Hee hee! I've started carrying my camera in my purse everywhere I go just in case we get the call, and told the girls at work to make sure that my camera is out and that someone is taking video or pictures if this all goes down when I'm at work.

American Girl Dolls

My mother told me a few weeks ago that she's looking forward to shopping for American Girl Dolls. I think that's so sweet! Today I got an American Girl Doll catalog in the mail with a beautiful Chinese-American doll on the cover. While Mom was at work, I brought over the catalog and put it on the kitchen table with a note about the girl referral rumors... and that I hope she gets to start shopping for her Hannah very soon.

Stork Alert for the "Pink Line"

A friend just e-mailed me that another family posts our agency has three infant girl referrals from Chung Yi. I'm all shakey excited. Not sure what this means for me, but I'm so glad that that there are more referrals for the "pink line" because these families have anticipated these referrals "any day now" for so long. YAY YAY YAY!

Woah... What Happened?

Yes, this is the right place. Yes, the blog design looks way different. Nope, I'm not done. There may by some tweaks here and there.

I still really love this "Are We There Yet?!" onesie and have it in a couple of sizes, as I think it will be funny to have our daughter wear it on the long trip home.

Fun with Adopting Families

Kevin has accused me (jokingly of course) of becoming a blogaholic. Here's a test one can take to find out your status.

My score was 56 percent. A score in the 51 through 80 present ranks me as a dedicated blogger. The site states, "You post frequently because you enjoy weblogging a lot, yet you still manage to have a social life. You're the best kind of weblogger. Way to go!"

Yesterday's gathering of Indiana Taiwan adoption families was really great time, but Kevin joked that I couldn't wait to get home to blog about it. See, honey. I waited until the next day. I'm just a dedicated blogger, not a blogaholic. Haha.

Due to babysitter difficulties, we ended up meeting in a home rather than at the restaurant. I think we had an even better time because we had more time to just hang out, relax, and get to know eachother. We had 6 adults and 7 kiddos, and it was amazing that the kids played so well together. It was a beautiful October day, and the sand and swingset kept them entertained for hours. We joked that the family's recycling bin made it look like there had been a frat party. At the end of the night there were many empty bottles of wine, beer bottles, pop cans (Yep, I'm a Hoosier and I say "pop"), three pizza boxes, and one jug of milk.

I took some parenting notes from these supermommies. Here's my favorite. When your older child is crying too long and isn't really hurt, pretend to be overly interested in their owie. "Oh no, this really looks serious! If this isn't better in a few minutes we're going to have to go to doctor and get a shot to fix it." Amazing! Whimpering stopped immediately. Gotta write this stuff down!

Someone asked me yesterday when Chinese New Year would be in 2008. I googled the answer:
New Year's Day - Thursday, February 7th
Lantern Festival (15th day) - Thursday, February 21st

8 months

invitation to lunch

Dear families adopting from Taiwan,
You are invited to join three (or more?) couples adopting from Taiwan meeting for lunch at an Italian restaurant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, this Sunday, October 21st, at 1:00pm. If you are interested in joining us for food, fun, and a glass of wine... e-mail me at journeytohannahclaire@gmail.com. I just might need two glasses to mark 8 months on the waiting list!

baby coupons

Tonight at CVS I had an Extra Care coupon to get $2 off a Playskool baby item. When I get these coupons it makes me kinda sad. I want to spend them because I get good deals, but it'd hard to pick something out. I don't want to choose a pacifier, bottle, or nipple product because babies are picky and I have no idea what kind she'll like. So... baby got some $3.99 - $2 = $1.99 heat sensitive spoons tonight. I've previously had a CVS Extra Care coupon for one free Playskool baby item up to $5! Hannah Claire has a bowl and spoon too in our kitchen cabinet. They've been lonely, sitting there all by themselves with no other baby items. Someone tipped me up to sign up with diaper companies and they've started sending me coupons in the mail. Pampers knows my name and address and wants my business. If anyone has some baby coupons scoop to share let me know where I can sign up.

Sigh. No news. Believe, me... you'd know if there was any.

Tuesday Baby Quiz

Which mammal has the longest gestation period? No cheating and googling for the right answer! I'll post the answers in 48 hours. Hint: The correct answer is not an adoptive parent, although it feels like it when you're +12 months "paper pregnant."

Answer posted 10/18. You're a bunch of smart mommas!

Gestation is the period of time between fertilization and birth of mammals—in other words, the time spent in the mother's uterus. The shortest known gestation period is 12 to 13 days. This record is shared by three marsupials (mammals in which the young are born prematurely and finish developing in a pouch located near the mother's abdomen): the American or Virginian opossum (Didelphis marsupialis); the rare water opossum, or yapok (Chironectes minimus), of central and northern South America; and the eastern native cat (Dasyurus viverrinus) of Australia. The longest gestation period for a mammal is that of the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) with an average of 660 days, and a maximum of 760 days.

Chung Yi Christmas Presents - Part 5

I had so much fun shopping for Christmas presents for a baby girl at Chung Yi that we took on shopping for a boy aged 8-11. I left the toy selection all up to Kevin, and he got excited about Matchbox cars that are off-road vehicles. I'll add some art supplies and toiletries and we'll be all set.