Continuing the Journey

...and Other Reasons to Celebrate!

First of all, Happy Chinese New Year! We attended our local FCC Chinese New Year celebration on Sunday afternoon...minus the Teenager, who got sick at Church and was stuck at home feeling pretty miserable. (She felt better later that evening...thanks for asking!)

A few pictures from the CNY celebration:

The cool dragon table decoration...
The goofy kid behind the dragon mask (that he refused to color)...
The boys enjoying lunch...and Carson has quite a mouthful of rice in this picture!
Carson loving on Mommy...
Oh, what is this blower thing for...??
Ahhh, yes...since I'm a five year old boy, this blower is CLEARLY an instrument of torture...
A crowd shot from Carson's vantage point...
Carson playing the games...
...and getting temporary tattoos...
...while Mommy ran the Chinese Zodiac Wheel game.
Quite proud of his awesome dragon tattoos...a matched set...
Calming down after the games, taking time to color his placemat...
We had a pretty low key time of it at CNY since Carson's friends weren't able to make it (Wesley, Elliana, and Max...you all BETTER come next year!!), but Carson enjoyed himself anyway.

Early in the event, Daddy asked me if I knew anyone at CNY. I replied that I probably know some people by name and/or blog, but not to put a face with a name. To prove my point, as I was heading over to the games to work my volunteer shift, a woman approached me. "Aren't you Carson's Mom?" she asked. I was slightly taken aback. Turns out she reads the blog and recognized me from pictures on here! It was kind of a weird combination of feeling famous and feeling stalked all at the same time...and I told her so. We laughed about it. So here's a shout out to Rose, Lavender, and Iris...it was so good to meet you all!!

We have gotten dumped on with snow and ice this week and the kids haven't been to school since Monday! It looks like they may get to go tomorrow...but there has been TONS of celebrating at our house by a couple of bums who are enjoying lazing around watching TV all day. (No, I don't mean me and Daddy...)

But the real celebration occurred today, when I got the following e-mail from the USCIS:

"Good morning.

I have finished my review of your I-800A application and have approved it today. It is in the mail and you should be getting it soon. I have also sent a copy to your Adoption Service Provider.

Congratulations!"

We've only waited 3 months, 1 week, and 2 days to get that e-mail! YESSSSSSSSSS!!!

Of course, we don't actually have the I-797C in our hot little hands yet, so I'll be cautiously excited...but excited nonetheless. Looks like we could get our dossier sent to China by the second week of February, then the real countdown begins...the countdown to travel!

Hold on, Molly Jayne...we're one huge step closer to you!!