Toothless Mark

Mark came running out of school Wednesday so happy and flashed me his new grin. He then told me, "I yanked my tooth out!" and smiled for all the moms in carpool! Since it's been dangling for at least 2 weeks, I hardly think he yanked it but I love his smile. And he talks so differently than before. It's amazing how those little teeth can really change things!

#6 AND THIS AND THAT

We are #6 on the list now. I guess someone in front of us spotted those beautiful Korean babies on the waiting list and adopted one, which moved us up. They were so perfect! There's a SLIM chance we'll get a March referral. 6 babies are the most I've ever seen in one quarter. I'm not holding my breath - but March 2nd would be exactly 9 months from our paperwork Log In Date - which is kind of cool. So everyone pray for 6 Thai babies (and at least one needs to be a girl AKA Mia) or we'll wait until June... and we'll survive!

Did you know that Laffy Taffy had riddles on it? The package has never lasted long enough for me to discover this fact but my kids tell me this is true.

Those little girls in vests did it again - we've already eaten 3 boxes of cookies... I think we have 6-8 more boxes coming. GEEZ!!!

The tooth fairy came 3 times this week and we still have a "dangler". I don't know how this tooth is staying in Mark's mouth but it is. Don't call Social Services -they lost teeth in a completely natural way - no one knocked any one's teeth out!...this time! LOL - I'll post a picture when the other one falls out.

More Snow...

Today I woke up thinking, "My parents are waking up in Florida. I'd rather be in Florida." I am normally fairly positive but ugh, I'm sick of winter. The rain has turned to snow this afternoon.

I can't help but think of sand between my toes. I looked through all our California trip pictures and I have not seen those smiles in a while. We were all so happy! I'm so glad we made that trip - it was our last big trip before Mia arrives. And it was a blast. So I'm walking around in my flip flops pretending it's 70 and not snowing.

We've been thinking about Mia A LOT this week. Referrals are possible the first week of March and while we aren't expecting one, we sure hope we're surprised by a phone call.

Here are a few pics from the trip. If it looks like we wore the same thing all week in San Francisco, it's because we DID. I did not pack for a trip that cold - it was August after all. The warm pictures are from Long Beach (South of LA) and Rancho Cucamonga (East of LA).

1 YEAR AGO

A year ago, we Pushed The Button to apply to adopt a little girl age 0-3 from Thailand. We announced to our friends and family we would become "Bell Party of Five" in 2009 (maybe 2010). 2009 seemed to be forever away and I can't even think about the reality of not picking Mia up in 2009. But here we are, a year later... #7 on the list and hoping for a call anyday and knowing it will probably happen in June.

What to do for our one year anniversary???

Eat Thai food - Check
Buy Mia something - Check
Think about her all the time - Check

I haven't made any major Mia purchases, haven't decorated or anything. While most kids come home 12-18 months old, we could get a 3 year old referral so I decided to wait. THAT SAID, Gymboree is having a baby sale and if I knew her age, I would have purchased every outfit in the place!!! They were soooo cute!!! WAAAAY cuter than the ones I bought last week pictured above. And I thought these were soooo cute too! I'd say it's safe to say she'll be dressed well until she has an opinion.

Someone recently said, "While you wait, use the time to get everything else in your life in order." My house is in order, my finances are in order, my kids are in order, my husband is in order, I'm learning Thai but at the current pace, she'll be home for years before I can hail a cab and give the address to our hotel... I've decided to get back on it this week. But with nothing else really to do - go ahead and call me with the referral...Would ya?

The boys are still sooo excited. Matt is now hoping for twins. What a riot!!! - can you imagine??? I hear that happens once every 5 years and it just happened this month so I'm guessing we won't be offered twins. Mark says Cool or Tight when we talk about Thailand or Mia and no, he still has not tried Thai food. I guess he's waiting for the real stuff and banking on the Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut and Burger King still being in business when we get there.

Don't You Love It?

Don't you love it when you have that random 70 degree day in February??? Now my California readers are going - Huh? We have that everyday... Well - Not so much in KY. It's very hard to believe that a week ago we were all in a deep freeze thanking God our electricity came back on.

Now, we are rushing to get pedicures so we can wear flip flops without last year's remnants of nail polish showing... So I did get my pedi today and Ryan (my pedi guy) said, "WELLLLL, Long time, no mani/pedi. Where have you been?" in my favorite Vietnamese/American accent. I replied, "hibernating" and we both laughed.

So how did I spend my random 70 degree day??? I took advantage of it - I worked from home all morning and then ran a couple errands (computer store, Apple store, Aunt Annie's Pretzels, Starbucks, Gymboree (I wanted to buy every dress in there for Mia), Nails, picked up kids, fluffed our mulch in my flip flops LOL - loved it - there were small green signs of tulips, daffodils, day lilies and other perennials (which I can never remember their names) ready to burst up next month and touched up paint on outside doors. Now I will work a few more hours and call it a day -

A Very Great Day!

Very Odd Thing - The lady in front of me at Aunt Annie's Pretzels ordered my exact order which I get every time. Pretzel Stix no salt, hot salsa cheese dip, no drink. I sit down at Starbucks to eat and notice she's there with her Starbucks drink too. As I'm throwing my garbage out, I notice we're wearing the same thing - Black T-shirt, jeans and Sperry boat shoes. How Crazy??? So Crazy I almost said something but then I thought she'd think I was crazy too so I went on.

8 Months on the List

Today we've been on the list for 8 months. We are so ready for THE phone call. I think about THE phone call everyday. As we get closer, we are very excited and everything is starting to feel real - like Mia is actually going to come home in the next 9 months (give or take).

We think about Mia everyday! I wonder how old she is, how big she is, if she looks like the picture in my mind, if she smiles, if she's laid-back or sensitive, if she has foster siblings, you name it - I'm wondering about it! So when I visualize Mia - today I think she's 3 months old, a tiny little bit with a tender smile, she has an older foster brother who adores her and makes her laugh but she cries when he get too loud! It seems people are never what I visualize so I wonder how far off I'll be and I long for the day that Chris and I are taking turns carrying her around Thailand in our Ergo.


One year ago today I discovered the Thailand program and had such hope that this country would be the one. I remember spending hours on the internet reading anything and everything I could find about the program for days. I needed to make sure there was no corruption - so many countries are corrupt. My fingers couldn't google fast enough. Everything I found gave me hope Thailand was our choice - and both eased my concerns and made me nervous at the same time. Today I'm not nervous anymore. I know we chose the correct country for our family and I can't wait to see it in person.