I’m going to climb up on my soapbox for a minute just so I can rant a little and wave my fists around. It won’t change anything, but it will make me feel better. The picture above is of my Effexor XR. I take them for anxiety. And since China changed their regulations, the simple fact that I take the above pills on a daily basis means I can’t adopt from China now. China can do what it wants, and some of the new regs I understand. I don’t agree with a lot of them, but I can see where China would feel the way they do. But the one that really sticks in my craw is the one where they say that depression and anxiety are severe mental illnesses and if you’ve been treated for either in the last 2 years you’re barred. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a whole heck of a lot of people who’ve gone through the agony of infertility and come out without some sort of depression or anxiety. And to those who then went and got help, I say bravo. Would China rather a give a child to a woman who desperately needs help and lies or denies herself treatment just to get the child? Or a woman who realizes hey, depression and anxiety can be treated and I can have a normal, positive life if I just admit I need help? A correctable chemical imbalance does not a bad mother make.
Ok, getting off my soapbox now.
Bless Your Heart
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I realized that I haven’t explained yet if we’re still adopting from China. As our social worker told us “That option is closed to you now”. So no, we’re not adopting from China. It feels like a break up. We’ve been in love with China and our Chinese baby for 2 years. We’ve collected books, art, toys, all sorts of stuff about China. I even started learning Chinese (of course I only got as far as the basic phrases including “I’m an American and don’t speak Chinese”. A fact that I’m sure was painfully obvious).
We’re still going to be parents of a child of another race. But I need to keep the country of her origin private for now. Until we get a referral. When will that be? Our dossier will be complete in about 100 days or when we get our 171 H (immigration approval) and then it will be sent to the country. When we get our referral will then be based on how many available babies there are and how far down the list we are. We’re hoping for 3 months or less after dossier submition. Then some legal things need to be taken care of and our dossier will need to get processed in country. Bottom line is we’re hoping to have our baby home by or around Christmas. But that could always change, as international adoption is unpredictable. We’re still asking for a girl. Not holding our breath for twins. Apparently they are extremely rare in this country. After we get our girl we’ll go back for a boy. Jon’s decided he wants one of each and we figure we might as well take advantage of the one thing we can control in this whole adoption and build the classic family. I just can’t wait.Oh, by the way, hello and welcome to my new readers! I’ve noticed some new names in the comments lately and I appreciate you stopping by. Sit back, relax, have a cup of tea! Enjoy the insanity that is my life while we stumble along toward parenthood.
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Today we had a bit of a snow. At my house we got maybe 2 inches. The whole city was shut down. Other parts of town got a bit more though, in some parts up to 5 inches. It was Molly’s first snow and at first she didn’t know what to think of it.
She quickly formed an opinion though and decided she wasn’t much of a fan. Kiki decided a couple of years ago that the best place to be on a snowy day is inside. So no snowy Kiki pics.After getting CSP off to work I met up with my neighbor C & her 2 daughters E & M for some snow play. C’s husband D stayed inside with baby boy C.
I wore my Crocs boots * and was all excited about it too. Then as play time came to an end I realized my boots had some serious suction going on with my feet (even though I’d sprinkled them with baby powder as advised). So I asked C if she could help me get my boots off. I sat on her 3rd step of her stairs and she stood on the floor and pulled with all her might. By the time both boots were off we had worked up a sweat, laughed hysterically, did some serious huffing and puffing, and I was on the floor 5 feet from the stairs- she had pulled me all that way! Her husband D was holding the baby and threatening to get the camera the whole time. Her girls were on either side of me wide eyed. The 2 1/2 year old said to me “Wow, that was close Miss Shannon.” Indeed.*By the way, while getting the link for this post I noticed that Crocs has some new models coming out for Spring. WAY cute ones too in fabulous color combos. Damn you Crocs and your adorable, yet comfy shoes!! Don’t you know I’m on a budget?! Oh well, a girl can dream, right?
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More work was done on my house yesterday. All sorts of men tramped through with their nail guns. Then my carpet was cleaned. I’m so tired of my house being a construction zone.In other news…on our way to IKEA Monday we saw an interesting site.
A dump truck had run off the road and was stuck in the ditch. Took 2 tow trucks to pull it out.In family news…my littlest sister is contemplating dating a guy who’s shorter than her. Since she’s 5’11” it isn’t hard to find boys that don’t measure up height wise. He’s cute as can be, funny, and gets along great with the fam. She says she doesn’t mind the difference. I hope they work out. I dated a shorter guy once (he said he was 5’9″. I’m 5’7″. 5’9″ my ass) and lemme tell you it was hard to get over the shortness. I often felt like a giant dinosaur. Could you get over it? Have you?
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I think the news of an IKEA being built in Charlotte really killed our motivation to go down to the one in Atlanta. I had a bunch of returns to make, and we needed a couple things, plus we wanted to scope out the cribs. We “tried” to go a few times. Then finally yesterday, at noon, we left. Noon people. We live 4 hours away. We made it a quick trip and got home by midnight. I wish we had been more organized so we could have stopped by Casa Shanahan to meet Maisie, but that will have to wait for the next trip. I tell ya, Monday is the day to go. It was deserted. Of course they were blown out of product too, or “temporarily oversold” as they like to say, but we still got most everything we needed.
This billboard cracked me up. Click to enlarge- it’s a little fuzzy as I was doing about 70 mph. It says Bonjour Y’all and is an ad for a new exhibit- Louvre Atlanta. I swear you see the most interesting stuff on road trips. There are billboards we always pass on the way to ATL and I always forget to take photos but they are for a place called Cafe Risque. They advertise adult toys and good food- couples welcome! Now, I have a problem with those combo restaurants like KFC/Taco Bell (stick to one thing please) so you know I’m not pulling over at Cafe Risque for my road dinner. While I do admire their ability to rhyme and their clever name, no matter how good their food is I don’t wanna find a “BOB” (battery operated boyfriend) in my dinner, thank you very much.
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Painting the kitchen. Got bored with the family room color and started trimming out the breakfast area & kitchen. Now I have 2 ghetto painted rooms instead of 1 completed room! Doh! -
The other day CSP and I were running some errands. At a stop light I pulled out some Johnson & Johnson lotion and applied it to my hands.
CSP: That smells.
me: What? It smells like babies.
CSP: Ugh. Babies stink. -
Why my pugs choose to lounge on the backs of the sofa and chair is beyond me. They end up getting sucked into the furniture and all my cushions are smooshed!
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CSP & I have tired of living in our white house. Every wall and all the trim is painted the same builder white. So yesterday we went paint shopping. We picked out paint for all of the downstairs and the master bath. I still don’t know for sure what colors we’re going to do in the rest of the upstairs but you gotta start somewhere, right? For our family room & most of the downstairs (hallway, entry, etc) we chose Angora.
The master bath will be Unique Gray (I have a master plan, trust me). The 1/2 bath downstairs is Rhapsody Lilac. And the kitchen will be Limonata (a lime green). We painted the family room last night, although I think more paint got on Molly than on the walls.
Kiki stayed out of the way and napped through the whole thing-waking just long enough for a photo op!
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That my friends, is our i600A form heading off to the USCISSCIS whatever, office on Monday. It arrived safe and sound on Tuesday. I was so nervous sending it off with the check. And I mail a bigger check than that every month for our mortgage. But this check made me sweat. I wanted to hand deliver it. But I trusted UPS and they delivered. And now we count. Our SW is saying there’s about a 100 day wait on approval so that’s our estimate on about when our dossier will be complete. And then we wait for a referral. Some of you have asked about when we should get our child. We don’t know for sure, but we have an estimate. Until then we’re keeping things hush hush on the bloggy front. Don’t wanna jinx it, and we’d like to keep this at least semi private until it’s kind of a done deal with a referral. I will tell you we’re still asking for a girl, would like twins but hear they are incredibly rare. So you’ll still hear about Ling Ling. We are sending our periodic adoption updates via email to friends and family. If you aren’t on the list and would like to be, shoot me an email heyshannyATgmailDOTcom.
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Bless Your Heart 