Mia's First Package

Wow - it was so exciting to shop for something that Mia will actually wear! I mean, I have bought a few things in hopes that she'd wear them but I wasn't sure about her size until now. It was so much fun!!!

I didn't know about the rules. For those of you waiting from Holt, packages must be FLAT, LIGHT and SILENT. That is basically FLAT - mine was an inch thick and they said they could make it work - woah! LIGHT - less than 1 pound - that's not much stuff. SILENT - don't all baby toys rattle, squeak or talk???

So this is what I came up with - a dress, a satin/soft bear blanket, elephant toy that has textures and makes the scrunchy noise, photo album with every picture labeled. I included 11 pictures, trying to get closeups of me, Chris, Matt, Mark, Nana, Papa, Memaw, Pops, Mario and the last page has a star frame so I put her picture in there.

Here's the picture of her package:

Here's her picture with her dress lying on top of her. I thought it was funny since I will likely wait months until I see her wearing this dress.

Baseball Championship Game

THE BALL

THE STORY -

Well, this is a little late but I thought Mia and Matt deserved their own posts. Matt's older so he gets the shaft...Sorry bud - My eldest brother would say Get used to it Matt!!!

Matt's baseball team was the #1 team in the league so they received the #1 seed in the tournament. Lucky for Matt since they received a buy in the first round, his foot healed completely before his team played the first game of the tournament.

Long story short - The game was very tight throughout. As we entered the last inning down 7-4 it was not looking good for our Braves but even though the parents were succumbing to the fact that we might lose, the Braves did not. They fought back to 7-6. With 2 outs, 1 runner on 2nd base, Matt is up to bat with 2 balls, 2 strikes. Matt smashes the next pitch over the left-center field fence. His walk-off home run won the game & the tournament. No video but I did manage to click some shots of him coming off the field. As he rounded 1st and realized it cleared the fence he was running with his hands in the air, screaming in celebration. The announcer yelled into the microphone Matt Bell's walk-off home run wins the tournament! Congratulations Braves! Meanwhile, Matt is rounding the bases and Dad is trying to not run onto the field (he's coaching so he was on the field). I was banging on the fence cheering for him as he rounded third with a huge smile! I then remembered the camera...

Everyone at the ball park will be talking about this for a while. Matt is such a good kid, never trash talks, works hard, cheers for everyone else, he is just mature beyond his years on the ball field and all the parents and coaches and kids appreciate that and love him.

The Braves Tournament and League Champions

Matt with his Home Run Ball

Matt and his Dad

Matt after he came off the field

You have to look close but the black helmet is Matt after the team met him on the field

One Last Chant - "Turkey Bacon Braves" - a little odd but Matt started giving out Turkey Bacon Awards at practice when kids did well. So instead of Go Braves they yelled Turkey Bacon Braves before and after every game.

We Have a Baby!!!

Mia is 3 months old in these two pictures.

We received THE CALL from Holt letting us know they received a referral of a little girl for us!

She is exactly 6 months old today!!! She is so beautiful - a tiny little healthy baby and we just can't stop looking at her pictures! We are so excited - just completely over the moon! My heart is overflowing today!

I had played out this call in my head a thousand times and it was basically exactly what I thought it would be. During the call, I was frantically trying to remember everything Marissa said because I was at a loud baseball game without pen/paper but her emails contained all the details she told me on the phone....thankfully! Of course, I was shaking and crying in disbelief and excitement during the call. I'll never forget what I was feeling when she told me she had a referral of a little girl for us and she told me her story.

Mia is truly our Little M - born Dec. 22, 2008, a tiny 5 pounds, 14 ounces, 18 1/2 inches at 8 months gestation. She is meeting all milestones at her 1 month and 3 month checkups. She smiles and coos, has good control of her upper body and head. At 3 months she was 10 pounds 5 ounces, 22 1/2 inches. We will get another checkup in a couple months. It is typical to get quarterly updates which are 3 months old so it will be a guess at how big she is when we travel to bring her home.


I was amazed and thrilled at the amount of information we received about Mia's history. Some parents don't get any information and I know that would be heartbreaking to never know what brought her into Holt's care and eventually to us. We are very fortunate to have received a good amount. For now, we will keep that in our hearts until it is time to share it with Mia. This is best for everyone - no one will have to wonder what Mia knows or doesn't know yet.


Her birthname means Beautiful Decoration. I'm doing ok at the pronunciation but have opted to not print the birth name at this time - Google is amazing - Thanks to the Pictionary Book Thai for Kids which seems to be on my level ages 3-5 I think. LOL


Her nickname is Bai Tong which means Banana Leaf. This is the name the foster mother uses and what Mia will respond to when we meet her. Lucky for us - it's shorter and easier to pronounce. She has been in the same foster home since 1 month of age.


Mark's reaction - oooh she's so cute! Is it really her? Then he promptly asked my parents if they wanted to see Mia's picture. He's very excited.


Matt's reaction - Are you kidding me? aaah she's so cute! He immediately wanted me to send all the pictures so he could choose his favorite to make it his "wallpaper" on his iPod.

Funny story - I took the files to Target to have some prints made and when I went to pick them up, they said, "Oh I'm sorry. The photo people are out to lunch, you will have to wait a little longer. I'm really sorry." I think I actually teared up as I laughed and just said waiting a little longer is no problem. I understand. I left off the - I've learned a lot about waiting and I've gotten used to it part!!! I found the humor in it.

Busy Week with No News!

So the foot thing freaked me out a bit last week but I'm happy to report everything is fine - Matt is great and played baseball Thursday, Saturday and Today (yes - a game on Father's Day). So we're completely relieved (obviously) but we're also very excited for Matt. His team won the league and is in the final game of the tournament tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Mark spent the week at camp. It is always so funny to talk to him at the end of the day.

• Day 1 - I played Dodge ball all day
• Day 2 - I played Dodge ball all day
• Day 3 - I played Dodge ball most of the day
• Day 4 - I played Dodge ball once but I don't remember what I did the rest of the time
• Day 5 - I can't remember what I did

I think he got hit in the head a few times. LOL - because he has an outstanding memory. I do have to say there is nothing cuter than his tired, tan little face with sweaty hair and dirty everything by the end of the day. Here are some pictures:

And as far as our referral of Little M - I know that another agency received information from last week's meeting in Thailand (at least that tells me the meeting took place) so I hope our agency is still processing the referrals because I haven't heard a word. As far as I can tell from the blogs and forums - no one with our agency has heard a word. We aren't freaking out - just wondering if we're really going to get the referral this quarter. At times it seems like it's taken forever to get to this point. I really thought we would hear some time the week of the 22nd so here we are on the Eve of the 22nd. It will kill me to not email Holt tomorrow but I'm going to try to stay busy and hope they call earlier than later!!!

Matt Update

So I was thinking as I drove Matt home from the doctor - it's Wednesday, June 17th in Thailand. I hope my baby's picture is being passed around a table full of people with smiles and hope for this little baby's future (or whatever it is "they" do to approve a referral to be sent to the US). It would be awesome if somehow that file could make it to the US by Friday and the phone calls be made before the weekend. What a great Father's Day gift for all those waiting Dads!

There was a brand new baby in the waiting room with the name of Maya - also one of my favorites - and so close to Mia. The little girl was swaddled in a baby blue blanket and I wondered if the ultrasound was wrong. Funny how I think of goofy stuff like that. A little India girl made me think of a mom who is waiting for her daughter's travel approval. I hope she gets it soon - seems like she's been waiting FOREVER!!! She was SO cute - telling everyone Hi with a crooked wave.

Back to Matt - his CBC numbers look good but the swelling has gotten worse so we're focusing on ice and elevating for another day or so before we go back. It's so strange that a puncture wound can cause this much swelling esp since the wound is fine - cleaned it immediately and did the gauze/neosporin thing so it's ok. The infection is IN the foot if that makes sense without pictures.

As far as the baseball team goes, Matt wouldn't ask the doctor if he could play since asking means the doc could say No. LOL - he's so smart. But with all the rain we've had, the tournament is pushed back 2 days - causing us to play on Saturday and final game on Monday. So now the problem for the baseball teams will be who is scheduled on vacation or summer camp since the season and tournament should have been over by Saturday. Aaah - love the rain!!! But I think baseball teams being short a player or two will be low on the list this week and next...

Murphy's Law

Murphy's Law states:

1. As soon as you pay off one hospital visit, you'll have another one.

and

2. If you have 2 active boys, you are good for one ER visit per year.

Mom's Law states if you have 2 active boys and you only have one ER visit per year, it's a good year!!!

New Baseball Law states:

You may not have a baseball party until the season is completely over!!! Matt's #1 baseball team may go into the tournament without their 1st baseman. OK - I realize he's only 10 and it's not a big deal to lose one player. But it's a big deal to Matt and the rest of the 10 year olds on the team who want to win the tournament and the league and may have to do it with a rookie 1st baseman - not to toot his horn too much but he's a good 1st baseman for 10. They are currently 13-1 and 1 tie.

The Story -

We had a team pool party this weekend to celebrate an incredible season. While playing tag in flipflops, he ran into a piece of fence wire. He limped up on the deck with a puncture in between his toes. I know - cringe - I'm sorry to report that it hurt me to even look at it... But he told me he ran into a stick so we cleaned it and went about the party. No big deal. 7 hours later the story changed to I ran into wire... Well he didn't realize rusty wire is a big deal so Sunday morning (when it's swollen, red, hot and can't walk on it) we haul him to the Children's Hospital praying it's not broken, doesn't have metal stuck in it and only infected. Yuck - anyway - we received great news (considering). It's not broken, there's nothing stuck in it and it's only infected!!! We've got some great antibiotics and are hoping for the best which will be foot is better within 4 days and he plays in the tournament.

My prediction - he'll be fine by Wednesday, great on Thursday and this will be something we all laugh about later.

And it's just another "thing" in our life that makes time fly - because...

JUNE IS HALF OVER!!! and Mia is constantly in our thoughts.

June - 1/3 Over

Today is our 16 month point! WOW - that's a lot of time!!!

Holt told us we should hear "later" in the month of June.

June is 1/3 over so "later" in the month is almost here. What is later? Is that the 16th? I mean that's 1 day beyond half of the month. Makes you wonder... I think we'll hear June 22nd-June 25th. That's my prediction. I have nothing to base it on except that the Thailand meetings are June 3rd and June 17th this month. Since it doesn't appear as though anyone has heard anything, I'm guessing we're all waiting for the June 17th meeting.

But - we're still out here - checking caller id, email and voicemail all day every day even though we aren't expecting to hear until "later".

Oddly, I've had several people ask me how many children I have this month. It's very strange because I want to say 3 but then I don't "have" 3 and can't tell them how old the third is or anything about her so it's a bit strange to "go there" with someone I don't really know. I keep saying 2 and thinking "later" in the month, I'll be able to say 3 with all the facts! I can only imagine how it will be to see her face for the first time.

One Year Ago

What a difference a year makes!

My 3 Favorite Men - This Year

My 3 Favorite Men - Last Year!

A year ago our paperwork aka Dossier was approved and we made it to THE LIST.

Since then, we've been waiting for THE CALL.

In a month, we'll hopefully be waiting for THE TRAVEL DATE.

WOW - it seems like a lifetime ago in ways and in ways it actually went fast. Although - Referral months do not go fast...ever so I expect June to be the longest month of my life until travel month. So now where are we?

Well in case you've been on blog vacation...LOL

We are #3 on the list and expecting a referral this month.

Although they could call today, we've been told it will likely be later in the month. So we try to stay busy! That's easier said than done at times. But with Matt and Mark it is relatively busy anyway (without trying).

For those of you waiting - 12 months ago we were told we could be waiting 20+ months for a referral so for what it's worth, I'm just saying, maybe... maybe... maybe it will happen sooner for you guys too. Always the optimist...

Mia - we want to see your beautiful face!!! Please hurry!