A Little Business and a Lotta Pleasure!

Just over a week ago we attended the Florida State Convention for my company and Marc also entertained at the event as he always does. It is held in Marco Island, Florida at a beautiful resort. We have the same event every year and we try to extend it and make it a quasi vacation. This year was no different. We invited my sister and her family, Justin's girlfriend Judy and her sister Joyce and of course my dad and mom were with us as well. My nephew Sam stayed with us for the next few days following our trip as well. It was all great fun and the following are pictures that will tell the tale. Unfortunately, I do not think I got into even one of them. I am usually the picture taker.

Katie chose that weekend to begin putting real sentences together and is really talking up a storm now. Her favorite phrase last week was I love Sammmmm!! She stretches out the "M" for true emphasis. She loved her cousin and looked forward to seeing him each morning and he was so wonderful with her. Katie is fixated on airplanes ever since we took Sam to the airport and we explained to her that he was going on an airplane to go home to his mom and dad. She looks for them incessantly and tells me that Sam is in AIRPLANE!!!

The weekend was full of laughing, eating, swimming, dancing and more eating :) Katie even tried to take a french fry from a total stranger at the pool (see photo below) what a laugh that one was. Thankfully the victim of her crime was very sweet and generous.

We made some wonderful family memories....

From L-R Justin's girlfriend Judy, Justin, Uncle Steve, Sam and my sis Jane

Jane and Justin chillin

A sweet moment
From L-R Justin, Judy, her sister Joyce and Sam

A Funny Video

Here is a video of my friend Elaine with Katie at dinner one evening. Elaine and Katie had a little game going where they would make a silly face, wave their hands and do a little shrill scream when they saw each other during the convention. Well, Katie thought it would be hilarious to take it one step further and do all of that with Chocolate Mouse in her mouth for the best effect possible. As silly and gross as it sounds it made us all laugh until we were almost in tears.

Convention ~ Vacation Photos

Fun in the Pool with Marc and Katie Starr

From L-R My mom, Marc with Katie on Soulders, my sis Jane, nephew Sam, BIL Steve, and my dad.
Katie filching a french fry from a total stranger

Sam and Katie

My nephew Sam and Katie Starr

The Three Cousins ~ Justin, Katie and Sam

Aaaaaargh!!! I was blocked by Blogger!!!

I am back folks; I was taken out of commission for a few days due to some spammer detection software that Blogger employs. It identified me as a potential spammer; what?!*@!?? Lil ol' me and my adoption and family ramblings are a potential threat to the blogging public at large....gimme a break!! Anyhoo; they blocked me from posting until I could prove otherwise. Now, I am seriously thinking of changing to typepad.

I will post later with an update of how life has been lately with Three and a Highchair soon to be Two Highchairs :)

~UPDATE~

Thanks To The Generosity Of All Of The Donors, Fu Yang's Adoption Has Been Fully Funded! There Will Be Updates To The Blog As Pat Travels To China To Adopt Fu Yang.

What an amazing community of people we are a part of :0)

An Urgent Plea for a Child in China ~ Please Read ~

This plea for help has been published on many listservs by a prominet member of the adoption community. Please read the following, look into your heart and give what you can. Here is the Urgent Plea....

Occasionally one comes across a story that gives you renewed hope in happy endings and the power of hope...and makes you grateful that there are families in this world that will risk so much to bring hope to a child. Hundreds of thousands of children live as orphans in China...and as they get older, their hope for finding a family dims and then goes out at the age of 14. If they are lucky enough to have their file sent to the CCAA, they might be adopted, but if that dreaded 14th birthday rolls around before their family finds them, they are doomed to a life that most of us can't even imagine. With little education and no one to turn to, their life most likely includes begging on the streets. For girls, the chances of adoption are better...for boys, not so much. For a 13 year old boy with a visible special need, the chance is slim indeed. Right now there is a boy in Henan – a beautiful boy with a smile whose dimples melt the heart. He's been looking for his family for a long time...waiting and waiting and waiting and going to bed at night with the hope of a home on his heart. His orphanage saw his spirit...how wonderful he is with the younger children...his artistic abilities...and sent his file to the CCAA to try to find him a home. The SWI had the faith that a family would see this boy and realize his potential and a family did! They began the paperwork...but then were unable to continue. What now? Time was running out…this child would be unadoptable in a few short months. I remember the pleas that IAAP put out into the adoption world to find this boy's true family...and the commitment they made to help a family get it done. A family stepped forward and under amazing circumstances was able to prepare a dossier and get it to China in June. Can you even imagine? They got their dossier together in less than a month!! But they'd been home only half a year with their little daughter from China...and would need some time to get the money together. The willingness to step into this young man's life, to take the risk and do what it takes to bring him home is stunning in it's faith. Who could believe that it could be done? The Kubicek's believed and because of their amazing capacity to hope and trust that it would workout Fu Yang is coming home. Imagine their shock when they found out on the 4th of July that they would have to be in China just a few weeks after their dossier was sent. He desperately needs his family to sign his adoption papers by July 15 – just one week from today. He turns 14 in ONE WEEK!!! Where would the money come from? They need $5,000 more to bring this child home...how can this possible happen? I know how this can happen...I've SEEN it happen. Six months ago I set up a website to try to replace a grant for Django...a child whose grant was removed by the donor after they discovered the sensitive nature of Django's special need. In just over a month the Chinese adoption community came together and raised just under $5,000. IT CAN BE DONE!!!! At times a situation comes up in our community where we need to pull together and MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the life of a child. This is one of those situations...and the TIME IS SHORT!!!! This isn't about a family raising money to bring home a child...it's about a COMMUNITY coming together to give this child the gift of a family. Please, can you give $5, $10, $50 to Fu Yang??? THIS CHILD HAS ONE WEEK LEFT BEFORE HE WILL NEVER EVER HAVE A HOME. It is very easy to contribute, as they have a ChipIn set up...all it takes is a few clicks: http://helpbringfuyanghome.blogspot.com/ I salute the Kubicek family for their willingness to believe in miracles...let's make one happen for them!

Ethan is Two Today!!

Ethan turned two years old today in China. We celebrated his birthday here and sent him a care package of goodies for him and his friends in the orphanage. No child should ever have to be without their family on their birthday. Ethan and Katie will never know another birthday without the love of our family.

I have begun a new website to document our journey to bring Ethan home. We would love for you to check it out at www.Ethansjourneyhome.com . Please leave a comment in the guestbook so that he can read how much he was thought about during the wait for his arrival home.

LOG IN DATE!!!

Our agency notified us that our dossier was logged into the Chinese Center of Adoptive Affairs on June 4, 2007 (our 7th wedding anniversary :) That means we are about 30 days into an approximate 75 day wait for our Letter of Acceptance. Once we sign and return that document we can expect to receive travel approval about 3 weeks later. We are cautiously optimistic that we may travel by early October to adopt Ethan and bring him home forever!!

Honing our Swimming Skills

Katie Starr has been taking swimming lessons. They are really more of basic survivor skill lessons for beginners. Living in South Florida where there is water virtually everywhere there is a huge need to begin early training in the water. Katie began her lessons about 3 or 4 weeks ago and the first few lessons were torture. Thankfully the lessons are 10 minutes in length so the crying and screaming were over quite quickly (and that was me ~ just kidding~! We go three times a week and by the end of week two our Katie was transformed. She began to enjoy the lessons and now we can't get her shoes off fast enough once we get there...she loves it! I will spare you the video of lesson 2 as it is heart wrenching and I will skip to a more recent lesson where she is beginning to build confidence and make great strides. A good friend who is in my FCC Group told me about the lessons and her kiddos are in the time slots following Katie. The first video is our Katie and her friend Cady who wore the same bathing suit to our last lesson. They both looked disgusted at the thought of being caught in the same swimsuit ~Grin~ The following video is the highlight reel of one of her lessons.

Katie and Cady ~ Double Vision




Swimming Highlight Reel

A Weekend of Fun

Sorry it has been awhile since I last posted. The week before last we were up in Orlando for a Mei Dreams (May 05 DTC) reunion and we had a blast. We were also thrilled to be able to hook up with another family of a Wuwei Princess. Kylie and her mommy and daddy, Judy and Sean met us at the reunion and were lovely enough to invite us back to their beautiful home. The girls had a blast together and so did their parents. We look forward to getting together again soon.

While we were up in the land of the Mouse we of course hit all of the parks. We did not overdo it as we knew that Katie would hit her limit each day at nap time so we got to the parks early and then came back in the afternoon, napped Katie and then went out for more fun each day. Katie was her usual happy go lucky self and was a wonderful little traveler. I am posting a couple of videos of Katie and Kylie and then I will let you view the rest of the photos from the weekend of fun with links (there were way too many to post)

This video of our two Wuwei Princesses show the screaming fun the had with each other. The first video show a little game that they started playing where Katie would pretend to fall and Kylie would give her a hand up and then the running and screaming would start again.

Click here to see pics of Disney and Katie meeting Kylie
Click here to see Mei Dreams Reunion pics

Two New Pictures of our Son

The person that sent them to me commented on how handsome he is but how he obviously does not like to have his picture taken. We cannot wait to put a smile on his beautiful little face.

Hap MomMom to you!!

Let me begin this post by telling you that Katie calls me MomMom like it is one word. It sounds so adorable and to tell you the truth, I hope she always calls me that as I love it so much.

Now, on the to the cute anecdote ~ Katie Starr is totally into the Birthday Song ever since it was sung to her about 100 times in the week surrounding her birthday. She loves hearing it and then pretends to blow candles out at the end of the song. Tonight when I was putting her to bed and was changing her clothes she was babbling away and then I heard what sounded like the birthday song. I listened closer and this is what I heard.

Hap MomMom to you
Hap dear MomMom, Hap to you...then she blew the candles out.

I was totally cracking up because it was so darn cute and I was thrilled at the amount of words she was putting together. This past week there has been huge gains made in her language.

Then she began to repeat the song but this time she sang

Hap Dad to you
Hap Nan to you - That is for my mom
Hap Pop to you - for my dad
Hap Jus to you - for Justin
Hap Dog to you - For our Chihuahua Gabby

Now I was rolling with laughter; man oh man; having a two year old is wonderful. I can't wait to have two of them. Now you know I am CRAZY..hehehe!!

Lucky Number 7

This is the number of years that Marc and I have been married. On June 4, 2000 we were officially united in matrimony. It has been the best seven years of my life. Life with Marc is all about love, partnership and laughter. We totally speak the same language. There is no one else in the universe that I can imagine would be a better match for me than him. Having a daughter has brought a new dimension to our marriage. It amazes me daily to see Marc be a father to the amazing Katie Starr. I always knew that he would make a wonderful father as he was so awesome with Justin. Like everyone else we have our moments but they are few and far between. I am a passionate and intense person and Marc is a perfect complement to my personality as he is as steady as they come. He doesn't let much upset him and he keeps me grounded. I on the other hand give him a run for his money.

I predict that the next seven years will be even better than the first as we have so much to look forward to. Happy Anniversary Hubs!! Love, Your Starr

A Potential Olympian

Our Starr leads a very active life. She has swimming class 3 times a week, takes a music class and a play and share class at a local family center and takes a gymnastics class once a week. Since Marc and I are both fortunate enough to be able to share child care duties due to our flexible work schedules we try to enrich Katie's life with some fun activities during the week.

Katie is very active and super athletic and loves her gymnastics class very much. The directors tell us that she has a great deal of natural athletic ability but most of all she just plain ol' loves it!! Today was show day so family and friends could come watch. The children were able to show off their newly honed skills. Katie had a ball and then received a medal. Boy did she love that. When she received her medal she jumped up on the podium and yelled TaaaaaaDaaaaaa and threw up her hands!! What a ham bone..LOL Here are a few cute pics from her class; enjoy!

I have to post these two gems for posterity

I often think as I am sure many of you do that I have to write down the cute things that Katie Starr is doing and saying before they escape my memory forever. Tonight I will share a couple of funny anecdotes with you and for posterity.

This evening we went to our favorite Pizzeria to get a Pie. While we were waiting for our food to be brought out Katie colored. I took one of the crayons and drew a line. I asked her if she could draw a line as well. She drew a line and then roared. We looked at her completely puzzled and asked her why she was roaring. She said "Lion". I started laughing and said "No, Katie; mommy said Line. She kept roaring and saying Lion. I never thought of Lion and Line as homonyms.

After that bit of cuteness our pizza was brought out as well as Katie's spaghetti. Katie always ends up looking like she went through a spaghetti fight by the time that she is finished as there is so much sauce all over her. While we were enjoying our food Katie looks at me and says Mom; Uh oh!! and points to a tiny spot of sauce on my pinkie. We laughed so hard at the thought of her thinking that my tiny spot was worthy of an Uh oh!! when she was painted in red.

We have so many of these moments every day and they totally make me want to freeze our daughter at this age as she is so adorable right now; just too cute for words :) Thanks for listening to this rambling mom; I just had to get it down before it was gone forever.

Today is the day......

......that we are DTC for Ethan!!!!! That means that our dossier is winging it's way to China. Now we pray for a quick Log in date and then the wait begins. It is taking about 90 - 120 days from the time that your dossier is sent to China to receive your LOA (Letter of Acceptance) and then another 3-4 weeks for TA (Travel Approval). We hope to travel in the fall.

We are very happy to be one step closer to our son.

A Fun Adult Weekend

I had an fun and relaxing weekend and there were no children involved; that is where the relaxing part came in.

My sister was in Florida for business so on Friday I took the 3 hour drive to where she was staying to spend the night with her. My doll of a husband took care of our girl. My sister Jane who is awesome fun was at a convention and many of her co workers and associates who are also friends joined us for the evening. They also know how to have a good time so needless to say we had a blast!! I came home the following day and regrouped as Marc and I were going away to a resort in Marco Island on Sunday morning. This was a birthday gift from Marc and Justin as Justin said he would take two days off of work to watch Katie Starr for us and Marc made all of the plans at the resort for us and scheduled a spa day for me. We had so much fun just being a couple which we have not done in the year that we have been back from China. We ate, drank, went to the beach, went to the spa and slept...heaven!! Katie did beautifully with her big brother and saw her Nana and Papa as well so she hardly missed us. When we got home though she was beyond thrilled and we had a wonderful reunion with her.

A huge thank you to the men in my life for providing such a wonderful weekend. I love you both so very much!

Here is a fun video from just before we left. It is Katie's impersonation of a lion. She kinda looks like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz...too funny!!