Red Thread To China 2007

We will be in Fredricksburg for the weekend. We have been down there once before and loved it. All the shops and great german food. I especially loved going to the First Monday Trade days, they have such neat stuff. I am hoping to find something John Deere for Levi's room. Today I finished painting the letters for his name that will hang above the crib. They turned out nice. This will probably be our last romantic weekend alone for awhile. But that is a ok with me because that means we will have Levi with us. We both would rather do things as a family with our kids anyway. An occasional night out alone is ok, but our main focus will be on family. Each day that goes by I see Jerry getting more and more excited that this is going to become a reality and it is the best feeling. I love watching his face when he finds a cool toy in the store that he thinks Levi would like or when he talks about what he wants to teach him. He will be a great father. We actually bought him his first T-ball glove the other day and the look on his face was priceless. I know he can't wait to play every sport known to man with his son. We want so badly to just be able to scoop him up in our arms and tell him how long we have waited to be his mommy and daddy and how much we love him. The days seem to go on forever and each day I check my e-mail hoping that just maybe we will get the one telling us he is officially ours and we can share his pictures with everyone. I can't wait!!!!

Well yesterday was 1 month since we received our PA, it seems that they are coming in around the 2 1/2 to 3 month mark for most of us. Our dossier was one of the next months to be in review so hopefully that will push us along a little faster. I can't wait to receive that phone call, we still have so much to do though.
We finally got the flooring in the kids bathroom today, we did a pretty good job. So now the bathroom is done. One more thing down a bunch more to go. I don't know how much I will get done since Jerry will be in classes most of the week, but I will try to get a few small things done this week. We also put more of the decorations up in Levi's room. I hope to have it finished by the end of this week and will post pictures when I am done. I painted this cute wooden table and chairs in John Deere colors, it turned out nice. I would like to find some kind of sticker to put on the top, if I can't I might just have to paint it on.

Thank you for all the comments to our blog, we really apreciate everyones support on this most important journey that we are on to bring home our son Levi. We are so blessed.

Well today is my birthday. At the begining of this journey I thought that we would have one of our children home by now and working on bringing home the second. But I guess that just wasn't meant to be. It was my intention to have them both home by the time I was 45 so I wouldn't be so old. I really don't feel that old which is a good thing. As it is I will be in my 60's when the kids graduate High School. Wow now I do feel old!! Every day that goes by is another day that we are missing with them. I know that we are on the downhill slide with Levi and can't wait until they put that little wiggly toddler in my arms and tell me that I am his mommy and he is my son. I just have to be patient and wait my turn which I will do but I don't like it one bit.

I did get some cool gifts though. My wonderful husband got me a really beautiful watch, my MIL got me this great antique platter and vase. They actually match a set of glasses that were my grandmothers which is so cool. And a really neat western wooden scrapbook. I think I will use it for the kids pictures. It was a great birthday and I did just exactly as I pleased. I even got to sleep in until 9 am to the smell of bacon.... Yummy my hubby made me breakfast. It was great!!!!

It didn't start out so well because when I started to leave for work my jeep wouldn't start. I knew I probably needed a battery. So Jerry gives it a jump and off I go to work. When I go to leave work it won't start again. SO my co-worker gives it another jump. I head straight for the auto parts store. I can't turn it off because I am afraid it won't start again. So I leave it running and go inside the store, I am keeping my eye on my jeep and trying to talk to the guy at the counter. He looks it up and they don't carry one so he tells me to go to another auto parts store. To make a long story short I had to go to 6 different places before the last one told me that it was only available through the Jeep dealer. Needless to say almost 200.00 later I had a new battery and my car starts again. Boy do they have a racket going on or what? One more thing I learned you can only get a battery cable from Jeep too for a fee of 140.00. I guess I bought the wrong kind of vehicle. The batteries at the auto parts stores were around 80.00 so getting one from the dealer was double that. Crazy!!!! Don't buy a Jeep.

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Well today is day 20 waiting for our LOA to bring home the newest member of our family. We are holding up well trying to get what we can done before traveling to get Levi. We still have quite a bit to do. We did receive 2 more photos of Levi today from a wonderful friend in China. And what a cutie he is, I wish I could share his photo with everyone. It is getting harder with each day that goes by not to be able to do this. I see some posts on the yahoo groups where they have pictures and info on thier children and are at the same stage of the process that we are at. I wonder why that is. We were told it was a CCAA rule others say it is a agency rule so who knows. Anyway one of the photos is of Levi making this oh so cute face because he was given a cookie. I guess he really liked it. We will wait until our agency says it's ok to post his pics even though I would like to do otherwise.

Meanwhile Marcus goes back to the doctor Thursday for his knee. I think they will go ahead and drain the fluid off the knee because it has not gotten much better with the medication in the last 2 weeks. I will be glad when that is over because he acts like a 16 year old trapped in a 10 year olds body, he is soooo whiny.

Take care everyone,
Sandi

Well, I finally got all our paperwork ready to send in for our free renewal of our I171H. I will get it in the mail tomorrow. That's a load off my shoulders. It has taken me longer to get it ready because last week my son's knee got really swollen and I had to take him to the doctor. They said it could be a number of things. But the most likely cause is torn cartilage. So he has been on crutches for a week now and I have to take him back to the doctor tomorrow to see if the medicine had helped. But he says that it still hurts. If it doesn't get better he will have to have surgery to fix or remove the torn piece.

On a happier note we received new pics of our son from a couple that are adopting from the same SWI that Levi is in. I am so grateful to her and her husband for these photos, I can't thank them enough. This was such a great treat for us. He is growing like a weed. I can't wait to share photos of him when we are able. Come on LOA we need to bring our son home. BTW his room is loking so cute and we are finding more and more John Deere stuff for it. I am going to try to make the curtains this weekend while Jerry is at Drill.

Good Night all,
Sandi

We ordered Levi's furniture a little over a week ago. They said 7-10 business days so we were happy to find out that it was in, but when we went to pick it up only the crib had come in. So we decided that at least we could put that in Levi's room to get it started. The blanket in the picture is one that Levi's grandma bought for him. The border we put up is also John Deere. It looks crooked in the picture, I guess it's the angle that I took the picture from. Anyway I hope the rest of his furniture comes in next week sometime so we can finish his room. I have to get busy and make his crib set and curtains now. His room is finally coming together now all we need is Levi. Mommy and Daddy are coming Levi!!!!