Our Po-Boy...

Just wanted to say that for about the last month or so we have given Po-Chun, our little Taiwan dumpling, this new nickname... Po-Boy!
What is a Po-Boy???
According to Wikipedia (which I do not allow my students to use as a resource):
po-boy (also po' boy, po boy, or poor boy) is a traditional submarine sandwich from Louisiana. It almost always consists of meat or seafood, usually fried, served on baguette-like Louisiana French bread. I mean come on... he is our poor boy over in Taiwan while we are here waiting for him to come home to us... and he is so cute you could just eat him up!!!!

Speaking of our little Po-Boy... here is a picture of our little Po-Boy's tree...


Shasha has her own tree, too. We planted it in 2005, the year she was born. It is growing with her each year. It has become a beautiful cornerstone of our front yard! We went a step further with Po's tree in that it is a true little sappling lovingly (right, Pop pop?) plucked from the ground and replanted carefully in a clay pot. Just like our little Po... his tree will grow a bit each day... and month... and year. It will also become a treasured part of our landscape here on the hill!

The Rainbow after my storm

Last night, we had a HUGE thunderstorm in our area... but you know what? The rain finally turned into a trickle, the sun peeked its face out from behind a brilliantly white puffy cloud and the most beautiful rainbow appeared over the entire sky! I couldn't help just starring at the rainbow, which was a perfect arch that seemed to touch both sides of the Earth! It made me realize that though this week seemed like an eternity of bad days all strung together and piled high... we sometimes need a little dose of reality to make the small things in life... the special things in life!

The fact of the matter is that I may need to make some small corrections in our AIT paperwork, be on hold and push a variety of buttons to fianlly talk to someone at USCIS, drive a dented car and focus hard for the next two weeks to complete my grad class project... but this is my thunderstorm today. And when all of these things are just a trickle of yesterday... the sunshine will be brighter because of it all and the most beautiful rainbow will be in MY SKY! My rainbow will also touch both sides of the Earth... and our Po-Chun will finally come home from Taiwan to be with us...Momma, Daddy and Shasha... his forever family!

By the way... we really did have a thunderstorm last night and the rainbow really did seem to touch the Earth on both sides! It was beautiful! I starred at it until it disappeared and I didn't have my camera with me so I couldn't capture the memory with a photo so I thought I better write about it. Nature seems to have that happy stick built right in... you just have to learn to look for it and appreciate it!

I have had a bad day...

So, I have had a bad day... doesn't the song just say it all??? The best news I heard all day was that some of our agency's Taiwan adoption families received their rulings today... and the fact that we didn't get ours is not even part of why I had a bad day! Some days... don't you just want to throw your arms up and say I give up??? That's how I feel today! And heck... bad day???... the week hasn't been so hot!!! And yes... it could be worse. But when things just keep piling up one after another... it just doesn't seem that way.

Yo Ho Yo Ho... I am late with Father's Day. So???

Dear Daddy,
You Arrrrrrrrr the best!

lots of XXXXX,
Shasha

Just wanted to share our fabulous Father's Day this year...
First, Shasha wanted to have a BIG, BIG party for Father's Day and so she called and invited Grammy and Dappy and Nancy and Pop Pop to our house for her Father's Day (BIG, BIG) lunch party to be held Sunday afternoon! Saturday night, we went shopping (just the two of us) for party decorations. We went to the $$ store and she picked out Pirate Party decorations...plates... napkins... balloons... horns... and hats! And so, Yo Ho... Yo Ho, we had a Pirate Party for Father's Day!


daddy's special CoCo Puff cereal and muffin breakfast! Hey, what can we say? The man is Coo Coo for CoCo puffs!

Daddy and Shasha share a special daddy/daughter moment with a book. Hey.. I thought I was the book parent???

Dappy and Shasha celebrate father's Day Pirate Style.... Arrrrr!

Shasha made drink holders for Daddy, dappy and PopPop. She says that they can hold any drink in the world... currently, they are holding Orange-Ade lite or P@psi-free!

Momma, Daddy and Shasha pose for a photo together. This will be the last family Father's Day photo without our little Po-boy! Next year Daddy will have two children to plan his party!

2 months exactly...and still waiting

Today, June 22, 2009, marks the first full day of summer! Our court hearing for Po-Chun was on April 22, which just happened to be Earth Day. It is 2 months since our hearing and we are so ready to get news of our first ruling. I am hoping it is a "holiday" thing... Does the first full day of summer count as a holiday?????

P.S. The sun is finally shining today... and I have to be inside all week long because I am taking a grad class! Figures! ... and Father's Day pictures will be posted when I have time later tonight...

Where is summer??? Not in AC!

Today at 3 pm marked one week since MY summer vacation started! But where is summer hiding???? Not that I want a drought in the area but come already... enough rain is enough rain for awhile! I keep thinking about the words to that Old Lit*tle Orphan An*nie song The sun will come out tomorrow... but every tomorrow is just as dreary as the one before. Actually... Today was WORSE than yesterday! So when will summer start??? Not tomorrow, that's for sure with THIS weather forecast...Variably cloudy, warmer and humid with an afternoon shower or thunderstorm possible! Is it too much to ask for a day or two of sunshine???

Despite the dreary forecast, we took a little overnight trip to Atlant*c City and had a great time on the boardwalk, the beach and at our hotel. It wasn't bikini weather by any means...(for me, it never was nor will be) but the beach was beautiful with the faint beams of sunshine sparkling across the ocean between raindrops. Shasha just loves the idea of having a huge sandbox to play in and a beach full of seashells just waiting to be picked up.

We had some lunch, did some shopping at the AC outlets and went to Caes*r's to watch their water show... I suppose it is just a tad smaller than that at the Bellag*o in Vegas but Shasha loves to go see the dancing water. We stopped in for some nachos at the Ra*nforest C*fe and all was well since we were far far away from the moving gorillas and elephants! After enjoying some coffee, hot chocolate and donuts... Shasha and I went back to the room to have some girl time and daddy went to play some slots. So we aren't rich or anything but he did win us enough money to pay for our room! Yippeee!!!

Since we had a fantastic ocean view from our room we enjoyed a lazy morning and room service for breakfast overlooking the waves before we checked out. A liesurely walk on the beach and in the ocean to collect some shells completed our short family trip to AC. Maybe the sun will come out for our next trip to the beach!

Pictures from the week!

Celebrating my 100th POST!

Ok... so I am not throwing a party or anything (although a blog party kinda sound cool huh?) but I logged on to make a post for the happenings of the week and saw that this was to be my 100th post and thought...hmmm, that's kinda cool! So... happy 100th blog post to me... happy 100th blog post to me... happy 100th blog post to me-eeee! Happy 100th blog post to me! (Honestly if you sing it to the Happy Birthday song it doesn't sound quite so dopey... Ok so it does , but it is still cute!)

So.... lots went on this week...
First, Shasha went bowling for the first time! She was invited to a Laser Lights Bowling party by one of her little friends. Just picture it... Fifteen 3 to 4 years olds bowling! It was cute... well, if the ball actually made it down the alley without coming back!!!
Shasha loved it!
On Tuesday, Shasha graduated from her Funn*y Bugs class at The Lit*le Gym. She has been involved in her gymnastics classes there since she was 10 months old. It is a great activity for kids her age and did I mention that she LOVES IT! She can do so many things all by herself... crabwalking, forward rolls, walk on the balance beam, monkey jumps, gorilla walks, and she is pretty good at the uneven bars, too! She is still scared of the higher heights a bit but does well when her instructor is with her! Next week, she starts her first dance class at The Lit*le Gym. She picked out this class all byherself and is very excited to start... they do 1/2 hour of dance and 1/2 hour of gymnastics.

Shasha also got her first Americ*n Girls Doll this week with matching ballet outfits and backpacks.

She loves Emmi Suzy
(that's the name she chose for her dolly. She takes her everywhere and must now sleep with her as well. She was very funny when I told her that now Emmi could go to ballet class with her since she has a dance outfit too. Shasha corrected me promptly by saying, " No Momma. Emmi can't go to dance class becaiuse she is a doll and she is fake. You know that dolls can't dance." Hmmmm... too smart for her britches!


School's out for summer!!! Thursday was my last day of school! I think I am excited! I have to clean out my closets, do lots and lots of laundry (you wouldn't believe the laundry that has built up! That's another post!), go to two doctor's appointmentsnext week, take a graduate class starting June 22, and Po's room ready. This summer will be work... but at least I am home with Shasha!

Today, Scott, Shasha and I ran around getting updated State fingerprints and getting money orders and such and then running our new homestudy update information and $$$$ to our China agency. We filled out all of the paperrwork this past week. Dawn and Jackie...hope you don't mind that I used you for references again... what's that the 4th time???? It is time to update our China homestudy and get our free fingerprints from USCIS. This won't be the last time! With an April '08 LID we will be doing this process in our sleep soon!

Lat night, Scott ad I booked Lion King tickets! We live an hour from NY City and haven't ever seen the show so we booked tickets for the broadway show while it is playing in Vegas... So Man*dalay Bay... here we come!

And lastly, I think...Tomorrow Shasha will have her last swim lesson class until late August. With such a full summer we decieded that we will just practice her swimming skills in her pool and my parents pool over the summer insead of going to the Y.



OK... I think that is it! Yup.. that's it for now! I will put togethye a slideshow with the week's pics on this weekend!

New Video and Measurements

No court news yet but our fingers are crossed! Thanks to fellow blogger Michelle I found new Po-Chun measurements in my hotmail email account tonight. Thanks Michelle! I have an old hotmail account that i use to get updates from our agency. Since we received photo and video updates yesterday I was expecting new measurements later this week and just figured that I had no reason to open up this email account today... but how wrong I was! The new Measurements are from May 26, 2009.
Po-Chun is now 23.6 inches tall and 12.78 lbs. He hasn't added much weight since last month...he was 12.3 lbs in our April update. I think they should let me come get him now so I can help him gain some weight! With all the cake, ice cream and eating out lately I certainly am not having a problem gaining weight :(

It's update day...

It's update day and of course that makes me happy. I get to see Po-Chun's sweet little face again! But now that I already saw them... I know that I have to wait a whole month again to see new pictures of him! And... worse yet... he will be another month older and still not in my arms! Here's hoping to summer travel to Taiwan... is is still possible? I have my fingers crossed. My birthday is August 27... maybe just maybe a trip to Taiwn will be the best birthday gift I have ever received.