STATUS REPORT

Last Thursday we mailed our passports (gasp, choke, not in the least bit easy, Kids) to Great Wall so that they could mail them and the ever present paperwork to the Chinese consulate in Houston.  I've been counquered by the suprise fee monster.  I held out for as long as I could but now, if anybody says the word "adoption" to me I just hand them money.  Please, don't try it.  I have no defenses left.  The VISA fee was $130 each, but by the time we paid for the courier and the mailing and GWs fee it was closer to $385.  I just want my baby.  We also have had to get an addendum to our home study, since I changed jobs in May.  The bright side of that is that we received it in the mail the day after I called our social worker, Earlene Logan with Oklahoma Home Study.  Earlene Rocks!!!  Tomorrow Ben is mailing the addendum, a copy of our I-171H and the requisite cover letter to the orphan officer at USCIS so that our home study can be updated and mailed to Guangzhou.  He's sending it registered mail even though it only has to go across town.  At this point we are taking no chances.  We are waiting for TA (Travel Approval) and hope to receive it around the first week of October.  Of course, I think there are some holidays in China around the first week in October, so I hope that doesn't hold things up. Cheryl, at Carter's, e-mailed me on Friday.  They received the clothes that I returned and that whole scenario should be made right by the end of this week.  Ben and I bought Maisy a fuzzy blanket at Target.  I think he secretly wanted it for himself but it avoided a lot of sideways glances if he bought it for the baby.  Our pharmacy received the prescriptions we paid for, from Dr. Jane Aronson in New York City, I don't think we got them all.  I have to check on that. I'm out of Ezekiel and in Daniel now.  Bobby picked up a book for me at the public library, of his own volition, entitled Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven.  I started reading it, and let's just say that I'm glad I'm going to China in 2009 and not 1986.  It's not a dirty book by the way.  Although, I was a little taken aback when I saw my son carrying a book with that title.  Bobby is home from a Boy Scout trip.  Abby is in cheer and loves it.  She currently has a bad allergy cough and I've got to get Ben to have the carpets cleaned and to paint the main rooms before the baby comes.  Call it "enforced nesting"!! It was anticlimactic, but our dossier made it into Review this month.  It took 21 months.  I'm not sleeping very well lately.  I think it must be anticipation. Hold on Maisy, Mommy and Daddy are coming!! Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory, Amy