T-minus 6 days!

OK, up until about 4pm today, I thought today was Thursday, so I thought we had one more day than we do.  That's what no sleep, lots of stress, and the world's longest To Do list will do to your brain.

It's funny, I've said to a few people that it's as if this "snuck up" on us.  I mean, things have been going so slowly that it surely felt like our time would never come, but we definitely could have gotten a better jump on a few things.  So, here we are, it's midnight, we're drinking coffee and putting together a bed...

So, after 15 days, our TA arrived on April 18.  We would have traveled the following week, but, as with this entire process, we hit a snag due to the holiday on 4/29.  So, that put us with the following schedule:

Thursday, May 2:  Leave Boston

Friday, May 3:  Arrive Hong Kong

Saturday, May 4:  Travel to Guangzhou via train

Sunday, May 5:  Get our bearings in GZ, do some pre-Rosie shopping and relaxing with E

Monday, May 6:  Gotcha Day!!!!!

Monday, May 13:  Consulate Appointment (even though she's over 2, we have Monday CA)

Tuesday, May 14:  GZ to HK via van

Wednesday, May 15:  Heading home as a foursome!

Since receiving our TA, it's been a non-stop flurry of trip planning, shopping, and preparing for our new bundle of joy!  As I said to my sister, the adoption process really doesn't test your ability to be a good parent.  In the first phase, it tests your ability to be a good admin.  In the second phase, it tests your ability to be a good project manager.  In the third phase, it tests your ability to be a good travel agent.

So, we have a short time left as our little threesome.  E is so excited, and is mostly taking it all in stride while we get things ready for her little sister.  She's clearly got some anxieties about it, which I think is perfectly normal.  She's quizzed us a few times about how things are going to be after we meet R.  The other night I was explaining to her what it meant that we were going to be R's Mama and Baba, too.  She responded with, "Will you still be here and be mine?"  We're giving her lots of love and reassurance that we're going to be here for both of them, forever.

Now, let's get that bed put together!

E's Home Opener

There's just been a lot of stuff going on around here.  Unfortunately, little of it related to moving forward much with Rosie, but busy nonetheless.

There was Easter, and I've been one busy Mama...it seems like I'm constantly out and about giving talks.  I had the amazing opportunity to speak at Acceleron, a company working on a treatment for thal intermedia.  The welcome I received was just incredible.  Today I had a talk at my alma mater, Simmons College, about my career in clinical research.  Tomorrow I have a talk at Harvard Medical School about living with thal intermedia.  So I've certainly been working the speaking circuit in between bubble blowing sessions with Miss E.  That's OK, it gives me a reason to take off my stay-at-home-mom sweats and stay on top of my game.

We went away for the weekend to Ogunquit, one of our favorite places.  We're trying to get in some last good times as a threesome before mixing things up with our newest addition.

Yesterday was the Red Sox home opener at Fenway, and while we did not attend, E did her own tribute to the home team.  You can see for yourself...

Easter

Kennebunk Beach, Maine

Missing Mei Mei

Oh, Rosie, Rosie.  I was going to do a cute Easter post (and I will), but right now my heart is just so so so sad thinking about you tonight.  I think about you every night, and just about every minute when I'm not 100% occupied with something else.  It's funny how you can miss someone you've never met.  I felt it with E, and I feel it with you.

I guess someday it will just be part of your story, part of the beginning of your life with us.  We might even laugh about it.  But right now, we are sad.  We've watched family after family move past us, catch up to us, and leave us behind.  We had an exceptionally long LID wait, much longer than the current average for our LOA wait.  And, now, a paperwork glitch is keeping you away from us even longer.  There was an important signature on one of our papers missing.  Our agency had the papers for over two months and didn't notice this.  It was sent to China without the signature, and has started a chain-reaction of delays and problems. In order to fix the problem, a new, signed paper was overnighted from the agency...to Chile.  Yes, right next to "China" in the drop-down menu.  From there it was re-routed by the agency to China Florida.  From there, the paper went on a 24-stop, 11-day journey.

I reminded everyone that at the other end of these exceptionally long waits and careless errors is an actual child.  I'm not just waiting on a pair of shoes from Zappos.  In the end, this current set of problems will delay us another two weeks at least.  Two weeks, you might say, doesn't sound all that bad.  But on top of all of the other delays we have had, and our timeline in respect to other families, it's getting a little hard to take.  Baba reminded me that all of this will definitely result in your requiring another transfusion in China.  Whether you get it or not is anyone's guess.

I've cried till my eyes can't cry anymore.  My hands are tied, except for sitting here with the tracking number all day and all night hitting "refresh" on my computer.  It's amazing how one piece of paper circling the world can make an already excruciatingly long wait even longer.

We love you, daughter, and just want you home here with us.