Adoption News

We are now 23 days to take off. We received our final package of "very important information" from CHI this week. We also got some very exciting news this morning. Apparently, the embassy in China did not have our updated I-171 (immigration) forms. I have the form but they don't. No, mom - they would not accept us sending them our copy it had to come from the National Visa Processing Center here in the US. Well NVC in the US said that it was sent to China on 8/20 but China did not have it. Our awesome travel coordinator sent an email to China telling them politely to look for it. That was a week ago and this morning we received notice that they indeed did have our renewal forms. So everything seems to be going smoothly now and I have crossed off local politicians, congress, and the White House off my calling list.

D is so in love with his baby sister already. He's going to a b-day party this weekend and he started crying last night because his baby sister wasn't able to come with him. He talks about her all the time and apparently tells everyone in his class about his baby sister. We talked last night about all the fun stuff he'll get to do with her when she comes home - like Halloween. I talked with my mom and I think she's going to take the boys to get their costumes this year so I'm not running around at the last minute - gotta love my mom!!!!

J is not very happy with me today. He is grounded because he did not do well on his AR reading test. He seems to just read the words on the page and doesn't think about what he's reading and therefore doesn't remember. Most times it seems he picks out books that don't interest him. Last year, we spent a lot of time together and he would write notes down after every chapter and I would give him practice tests. We than graduated it to writing notes after every 3 chapters and so on. He did very well with that, but I let him start the year on his own this time and I'm going to give him another chance. We talked about remembering techniques and why it helps to remember when you write notes, etc. Basically, I got the "you're pushing me too hard". I thought of the Cosby show episode where Theo tells his dad how he's never going to be smart like his parents, etc, etc. Bill Cosby in all his wisdom's says something to the effect of "I don't care". Well that was basically my spiel as well. Afterwards, I told him that mom does not equate to best friend when doing schoolwork. Well, I still have my dish boy and yard boy for another week at least.