Cute little find for the Year of the Dog!

Well, for those who know me, it is no surprise that I like to shop. The other day I was just browsing on Ebay, and I decided to look and see if there was anything listed under Year of the Dog. To my surprise all kinds of things popped up. There were a whole bunch of stamps, and coins, but this little guy just tugged at my purse strings. He is a TY Beanie Baby, and he is supposedly only made to be an Asian exclusive, that is what the seller said anyway. Well, I just could not resist. I purchashed him, and he arrived in the mail today! He is just as cute as the picture. I am going to pack him up (with all of the other STUFF I have already bought) for our baby girl.
I will have to post pictures of my other purchases soon!!!  

Happy Chinese New Year! 2006 is the Year of the Dog. I beleive this is the year that our daughter will be born. This is a little information that I have found about people born during the Year of the Dog.

People born in the Year of the Dog possess the best traits of human nature. They have a deep sense of loyalty, are honest, and inspire other people's confidence because they know how to keep secrets. But Dog people are somewhat selfish, terribly stubborn, and eccentric. They care little for wealth, yet somehow always seem to have money. They can be cold emotionally and sometimes distant at parties. They can find fault with many things and are noted for their sharp tongues. Dog people make good leaders. They are compatible with those born in the Years of the Horse, Tiger, and Rabbit.

Wow, another stubborn female, and Matt thought he was gonna get off the hook with this one! Heehee!!! Oh well, I'm sure he'll survive.
I found a couple other cool websites, one talks more about people born during the Year of the Dog, it is www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/dog.htm , and the other covers more information on the celebration of the Chinese New Year.
You can go to www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/China/chinese_new_year.html to find out more.

Have Homestudy, will celebrate!

We started our homestudy back on October 12th, and finally have it in writing! I met with our social worker this morning to pick up our copies. I immediately took it to make more copies, and now have finally been able to send some of our documents to the Chinese consulate in Houston. Yippy Yahoo!!!
I sent in our marriage license, my birth certificate, my unemployement letter, Matt's Police clearance, and my police clearance letter. Matt is out of town and will be back tomorrow night, so first thing Thursday morning I am going to meet him at the bank to have our updated financial status letter notorized, and will then take it to the county courthouse and have them county certify it, along with our homestudy, and make them fix THEIR booboo on our application letter. Next I will go to Kinko's and fed ex these documents to the Sect. of State in Montgomery for state certification.
I still have no idea when we will be DTC, I am just crossing my fingers it will happen soon!

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

O.K. I had a bad day yesterday. EVERYBODY has them, so don't feel sorry for me. This morning I started getting some material that I bought ready to cut into squares for a new swap (in my OHGWQ yahoo group) it is called pink, pink, and more pink. It is a really pretty print, with a bright pink background, and small red flowers. I also needed to find a new wish to send out with the squares, so I looked through a little book of wishes, and found a cute one. It was really short, so I needed some kind of poem or phrase to go with it. I looked on line, and found something that would be perfect, especially since my feelings of yesterday were still lingering. It is a saying or quote or poem, I'm not quite sure which, it is kind of long and doesn't rhyme, but I liked it, and will use it for this swap.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

“There are two days in every week about which we should not worry,
two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One of those days is Yesterday, with it’s mistakes and cares,
it’s faults and blunders, it’s aches and pains.
Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday.
We cannot erase a single word we said,
we cannot undo a single act we performed.
Yesterday is gone.
The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow,
with it’s possible adversities, it’s burdens,
large promise and poor performance.
Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.
Tomorrow’s sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds,
but it will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow for it is yet unborn.
This leaves us with only one day, Today.
Anyone can fight the battles of just one day.
It’s only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities,
Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down.
It’s not the experience of today that drives us mad.
It is remorse or bitterness for something which happened yesterday
and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.
Let us therefore live but one day at a time.”
-Author Unknown-

The small, short, and sweet wish that I am sending with this is "May you cherish the magic of today, and not the dream of tomorrow."
I hope everyone in this swap that receives these wishes will take them to heart, as I have.
For the rest of you, I hope that this in some way has made you stop and think!
Life is short, Enjoy every day as if it might be your last!

It's not going to happen this month!

Well, I have to face it, we are not going to be able to have a January DTC!
I spoke with our social worker today, and she still has not received the child abuse clearances from the state. She said that she called them and they mailed it out on Friday, so it should be in the mail today. I have been waiting to send things to the consulate in Houston, because they require a copy of the home study (don't have this yet) this is getting a little too close for comfort, there are some documents that they will not authenticate if they are 6 month old. So, I have two things (marriage liscense and my birth cert.) that are going to hit the 6 month mark in the middle of February. So hopefully early next week we will get a copy so I can send in several documents to Houston for authentication. I will probably be running around like crazy next week trying to finish up my part. I was very frustrated last night, I was making copies of all of the paperwork for our Dossier, and I noticed two things that I had taken to be county certified got messed up. The notary's name was misspelled on the certificate. So now I am going to have to take one back to have them fix it. The other one is our financial statement. All of the instructions from GWCA have said that on this form ,homestudy, and Verification of employement letter your salary must match (same amount on all 3 forms). Well, that's easy if you just have a base salary, but Matt makes a base salary plus he gets quarlerly bonuses. So, at the time that I filled out our financial statement, he had not gotten a fourth quarter bonus yet. And our social worker updated our income at the end of the year, now our documents are not going to match. This is not that bad, it is just a form that I fill out on line, but I will have to take it for county and state certification AGAIN!
I don't mind as much when I am the one in charge of the time frame, but it really is pretty much out of my hands. We are still going to have to wait for the state to approve our homestudy, then they forward it to the USCIS office, and they will look it over and then send us our much anticipated I 171 form (this is the last form you wait on before sending your Dossier to China) so at this point, I have NO idea how long we are going to have to wait! I am still hoping for an early February DTC!
O.K. I am a little depressed right now! I need to go shopping!!!!!!!!

It came, It FINALLY came!

OMG! I went shopping today (that's a surprise) and when I got home I could see something laying at our front door. I was in disbelief, I mean could that envelope actually hold the one document that I have been waiting on to be State certified? YES!!! It is Matt's employement letter from Pennsylvania. Hooray, Woohoo! Now all of our dossier documents have that pretty gold state seal on them. Tomorrow it is heading off to the New York Chinese Consulate's office to be Authenticated. I am really starting to get anxious. We are getting so close to the end of our paperchasing, but still feel far, far away.
I also received more fabric squares today! I love going to the mail box these days! Thanks to everyone who has sent in your squares, and WONDERFUL wishes. You will never truly know how important this is for me!

Home study is approved!

I received an email from our agency GWCA today. It said that they have reviewed our home study that our social worker sent them, and IT HAS BEEN APPROVED!!! WooHoo!!!
I am starting to feel like we are so close to being DTC. But then again, our social worker is still waiting on the child abuse clearances before she sends it to the state, and then they will forward it on the Atlanta USCIS office. Plus we are still waiting on Matt's employment letter from Pennsylvania. I am not so sure now that we will get to be DTC this month. Still clinging to all hope.
In the mean time, I am a member of the OHGWQ (one hundred good wishes quilt) yahoo group, I have done a couple of different swaps, and the one we are doing now is so cute! It is a ladybug theme. There are 28 people who are participating in this swap, and so far I have received 10 squares. I have been surprised that none of them have been the same print. I did not think there would be that many different fabrics with ladybugs on them. I previously did a swap (anything goes) where we sent any kind of a print. That one was fun too, I got all kinds of fabrics from that one. I also sent out a letter in our Christmas cards to family and friends, I have received some from them, Care bears, Finding Nemo, and angel print, and a really soft lavender fabric. I have decided on what kind of quilt I want to do. I am going to go with a heart theme. I just got finished drawing it out. It will be Kind of a checker board print, where in some squares there will be one big heart, and in the opposite ones, will be four smaller hearts in the shape of a four leaf clover. It looks like it will end up really nice. I picked this theme, mainly because I keep referring to our adoption as a "Journey of the Heart", and because since she will not be born from Matt and I literally, but she WILL be born from our hearts.

Need to vent!

O.K. we are STILL waiting on Pennsylvania to State Certify Matt's Employment Verification letter. They received it on December 13, and it has been a little over three weeks, and this is a little irritating! I sent out 9 documents to the state of Alabama, and they Certified them and sent them back within a week.
So I got tired of waiting and called to see what was going on. The person I spoke with was not outright rude, but not very friendly either. She said that they were working on the mail from December 8th, and ours was not being processed yet. I am SO glad that we don't live in this state. If so, who knows how long we would have to wait to get all of our documents done from them! I'm thankful that we only had to send them one.
Any way, I sent off Matt's State certified birth certificate to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago today, so maybe that will come back pretty quickly.
And our social worker has emailed our home study to GWCA to make sure everything looks O.K.