the "fun" is over

I posted a few months ago that we were going to try and make this whole adoption waiting game fun. Well, the fun's over. Actually it's never been fun. But I do try to always look at the good in things. I'm having a hard time looking at anything but my calendar these days. It's a new month. And we are really, really, really hoping to hear from China this month. Last week was Chinese New Year. All of the gov't offices were closed because of it. We're hoping that someone is approving our paperwork today (or at least this week) and that we'll have our golden ticket next week.

In the meantime, I feel this need to do something. Anything. I would love to buy clothes for Caleb but it's rather hard to do considering we have no idea what size he wears or how big he is. I have a closet full of Nathan's clothes from last year which will probably work so I can't justify buying him new clothes until we know what size he is. I did break down and buy him flip flops, tennis shoes, two t-shirts and two pair of shorts. Oh, and a pair of sunglasses. I know that the sunglasses will fit if nothing else does! I'm looking online for a cute backpack for him too.

I went through this weird sense of urgency to rearrange all of our family room furniture a few weeks ago. I hadn't moved much of anything in nearly three years. Until last month when I moved everything. And then moved it all back. And then moved it again. After a week of this, I finally realized that I did similar things during my pregnancies. You know, the "nesting" phase. I cleaned out all of our closets the week before Kara was born. And I went through all of Kara's old clothes before Anna was born. And I washed crib sheets and blankets and all of that stuff before Nathan was born. And as I look back on my furniture rampage, I think I just needed to DO something. And rearranging furniture it was.

I did get the first round of my immunizations that I need to travel. Yay. Exciting. I also have prescriptions for meds to take with us and a long list of random things to buy for our trip. And I officially have my clothes all ready to pack. It will be warm in Chengdu by the time we get there and hot in Guangzho. I went through all my spring/summer clothes and decided to buy a few things for the trip. Well, "a few" turned into a lot and I now have a nice new wardrobe to take to China. And just for the record, when you see pictures of us in China, the blue t-shirt that I may seem to be wearing over and over is actually several blue t-shirts. And the denim capris...ya, several of those too. I figure that if I am going to be sweltering hot in China I might as well like what I am wearing. Summer is NOT my favorite season. I will be miserable as far as the weather goes. Andy will be loving it and talking constantly about how perfect the 90% humidity and blazing hot sun is. Not me. I will be bringing out all the tricks to manage my crazy-frizzy hair and keep my skin from burning. But I will try and look down at my new capris and flip flops and be happy.

And that is where we are. Waiting. Still. And yes, the kids are still happy doing the Countdown to Caleb Calendar. And yes, I have lost weight: 7.5 lbs to be exact. Not exactly where I should be at week 11, but good enough for me. And no, I am not on verse 11 of memory verses. I stopped at verse 3 or 4. But in January our church started reading through the Bible in 90 days and I am focusing on that instead. I'm way behind but am still moving forward.

And I guess that last sentence pretty much sums up everything: Way behind (our original estimated adoption time frame) but still moving forward. julia.