Day #9 and Dickenson

Today is Day #9. It is better than Day #8, which was better than Day #7. I expect Day #10 or Day #11 might not follow this promising pattern since it will be the weekend. School has been a good thing. My students still make me smile and laugh. And it's easier to forget while we're working. I don't want to forget her, but not thinking about her means I can breathe and function and make the minutes go by faster.

I know there are healthier poets to read, but for now I'm stuck on Dickenson. Here are 2:

22.

The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth.

The sweeping up the heart
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.

2.

THEY say that 'time assuages,' --
Time never did assuage;
An actual suffering strengthens,
As sinews do, with age.

Time is a test of trouble,
But not a remedy.
If such it prove, it prove too
There was no malady.

Thanks to all commenters--I'm unable to publish them, but I see them and appreciate them.

Tragic News

We got a call around 3:30 am our time, Oct. 1st, that our baby girl, Abrehet, died. We have no details other than it was completely unexpected and sudden.

We are so very sad.

Sneak Preview!

Since I'm in Hong Kong, I can post photos, so I thought I'd add the sneak preview after all. :) Here's her tiny little fist. Last week we were lucky to receive FOUR new photos--2 of her alone and 2 of her with her other tiny little friends. So so cute, and Shannon is officially in love. We cannot wait to squeeze and kiss that little face and body.

She has a name! But, I still cannot announce it to the world, as we still need to tell some key people.

We hit Toys R Us here in Hong Kong and bought some great toys and a few essentials for Baby Girl. After seeing the selection and prices here, Shannon did some calculations and we've decided to have Gran Jan do some more shipping. We can buy online and pay the $40 shipping fee for a box and still come out way ahead. It's crazy.

Two other huge events to note this week: 1. courts re-open on Oct.1st (hurray!), and 2. fellow IAG adoptive parents are returning from Ethiopia with a full report of Baby Girl. They held her and took photos AND have a video of her laughing! So, it proves to be a fantastic week, especially since we're on a week holiday. :) Life is good, but will be better in a few short months. Pray that it goes by quickly, please!

Tired of waiting

I am. Today, especially.

We live in a very Chinese apartment complex. There are nice gardens, a pool, and a pond with a bridge over it right downstairs that we can see from our balcony--it's lovely. In the early evening, all the grandparents and some of the moms and dads venture outside, toting their little ones. The toddlers amble around wherever they want, and the guardian closely follows behind, fanning the precious child (or babe) the whole time. Today, as I was walking back from getting a foot rub, I saw a new mom and her nanny carefully caring two little babies. The mom spoke English (!) and told me they were twins, and "one months" old. This means that it very well could have been one of the babies' first trips outside the apartment, as the Chinese do not think mother and baby should leave the apartment for at least one month. I asked the mom if it was a lot of work having twins, and she said "YES. Extremely tired, especially at night."

So--I've missed that part. Some people point that out as a good thing, but I would gladly go without sleep to have her here already. Our baby girl turns three months this week. Who knows what kind of amazing things she's doing now, and we're missing it. During the week she's on my mind, but I have loads of activities and work to keep that part of my brain otherwise occupied. Over the weekend is when we want her here, NOW. We often wake up in the morning and talk about what we would do if she were here. What we will do.

In the evenings, we'll be downstairs. Fan and all.

NEWS

I wanted to title this post "Sneak Peek" as I've seen others do, and show a tiny little foot or her cute little lips...but alas, Blogger is still blocked here, so I am unable to post pictures. Oh well!

We have a baby girl waiting on us! She is 2 months old and the only photos we have show her sleeping. She must need lots of it like her mama. We have known about her since July 15, but did not have her medical report. We received her HIV report (negative), but the rest of the bloodwork was not done. So, we proceeded to wait (again) for another medical report. It finally arrived on August 10th, after we got home from Bali. Instead of sending it to the adoption doctor specialist in the States, we took it to her future pediatrician here, and she reviewed it. No red flags, so we formally accepted Baby Girl on August 13th.

This referral was a bit different than Baby A. We were expecting it, so it was not a surprise. The day we were sent her photos I did have to wait about 4 hours to open the email with Shannon. That was not easy, but I managed. When we opened the email, we were both shocked at how young she was. Barely one month old! That is tiny! I wanted to tell everyone I knew, but after Baby A, we were cautious. I didn't send her photo to anyone until last week. Although lots could still happen between now and the time we pick her up, the acceptance is a big deal. I don't think it's quite sunk in yet that she's OURS, but we're getting there.

We are very close to finalizing her name...I will announce it soon! We are going to keep her Ethiopian name as her middle name. I'm not allowed to post her name or picture before we pass court, so that will be awhile. In the meantime, we begin another wait, but we're close to the home stretch. :)

4th of July in China waiting for Baby Girl

Poor Shannon woke up with a sore throat today, so we had a quick change of Independence Day plans. From hearty American food (buffalo chicken and potato salad), to Indian (creamy Tikka chicken and eggplant dip). I thought the spicy would help cure Shannon. It was also inspred by my homemade yogurt that I made yesterday/last night. Delish! It is hard to find real yogurt here in China, and it's expensive. Just like cheese. That will be my next project.

No real news on Baby Girl. We think that she is at one of our agency's care centers, waiting on the results of the medical. Every morning I wake up at 6 am thinking, "Today could be it! Stay alert for the phone call!" Or, if that doesn't happen, I think maybe they bypassed the phone call so I hold my breath while opening Gmail (provided that Google isn't blocked that morning. Still holding my breath.

Our friends here that started the process with us passed court this week! They will picking up little T at the end of this month or the first week of August. This makes me happy and a tiny bit sad as we would have most likely been on the same time frame with Baby A. Still, I'll be very excited to meet their little one when they get back to China.

Even if we had stuck to our 4th of July fare, we still would have missed the fireworks. You would think that I would have had my fill during Chinese New Year, but I still miss them. Or maybe it's just the people I miss, as we skipped our annual trip back to the USA. Sniff. xoxoxo and happy 4th!

No news and no blogger

Nothing yet. We still think it could be any day, but maybe not. We're at the top of the list, so the next baby girl brought to IAG could be Baby Lyon Haggard. Most of the time I'm okay with the wait, but sometimes I think "Hey! I want her already!" With Baby A, it was all so fast, we didn't even have to wait at all. Now, we're not only waiting for baby, we'll probably have to wait out rainy season and other unforeseen complications. Thankfully, in a couple of weeks we'll be waiting in the mountains of Yangshuo and on the beaches and rice paddies in Bali! I can think of worse places to be.

First we have to finish summer school. It's better than expected. The kids seem pretty focused and are working hard for the most part. Shannon has a group of cuties in his class and is loving it.

Blogger is still blocked. This makes it difficult for me to post, besides the fact that there is no real adoption news to post.

Keep your fingers crossed for exciting news that will make a more interesting next post.