Why I *Didn't* buy Hannah navy blue squeaky shoes today.

Quick info for those not familiar with China's adoption process. When the time finally comes, you go to China, you fly to the capitol of the province your child is in, you meet/receive your child there, spend a few days sightseeing and waiting for paperwork, then ALL Americans adopting from China fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong province for the last week of their trip. (Canadians go to Beijing.) In the heyday of Chinese adoptions (2003-2006) there were up to 150 American families at a time staying on "the island" each week. Shamian Island is where the American consulate that processes the childrens' visas to the United States used to be. When it was there, 2 hotels on the island, the White Swan and the Victory, had a booming business with adoptive families, and at least a dozen little shops sprang up on the island to serve their spending needs. One of the most popularly purchased items (remember, China adoption used to be all about baby girls) was and continues to be squeaky shoes for toddlers. I bought Hannah a couple pairs while we were there.


And then I came home and bought her a couple more pairs.


Her feet have not grown in the last year, and she can still wear the ones we got in China. Somewhere along the way, I discovered Zulily. http://www.zulily.com/invite/sbernard372

Zulily is a series of kid/mom related flash sales. Smocked dresses, tutus, squeaky shoes, hairbows... all delivered to your door! Every morning, I wake up to a tempting email full of new flash sales to browse through. Dangerous, no?

Totsy is a site similar to Zulily. http://www.totsy.com/join/Grtlyblesd For some reason, I like Zulily better, so I only check Totsy every once in a while. But last night, I took a peek and saw that they'd have squeaky shoes today.

Now, I have a thing for pictures of the kids. When my firstborn arrived, I hauled him in to JCPenney or Kinderfoto or whoever every.single.month. on the day he was born. When he was 9 months old, I was so broke, I couldn't possibly afford pictures, so I took a roll of pics on my lousy little film camera. I still regret not finding a way to take him in. I was looking at the kids' baby pictures last night for a project I want to do, and came across Zachary's 9 month shots that I took myself, and they were so disappointing.

Anyway. All that to say, for the last 2 decades, we've been frequent fliers at the portrait studio. Babies get every month for the first year, plus a couple sibling shots, plus family pictures annually. After age 1, they have birthday pictures until they hit school age, then they have their annual school photo (plus family pictures, of course). The last couple of years, we've had a homeschool mom take pictures for our homeschool co op of our homeschooled kids so they could have "school" ish pictures, too. I realized last week that we hadn't done that this year. And that Hannah & Furby have birthdays next month.

So this morning, when I saw the perfect picture outfits for Eli & Furby on Zulily, I used the $15 credit I'd been saving and bought them. Then I started thinking about what Hannah has that might go with their red/white/navy new duds. For a minute I thought she might need something new, but then I remembered her beautiful smocked homecoming dress.

It's a beautiful dress with American flag hearts, made by another mama who adopted from China. And Hannah looks totally overwhelmed in this airport photo.

Okay, she can wear that. But what shoes...? And then I remembered Totsy and went to check what was up in the squeaky shoe sale. They had cute little navy ones that would work. But, oh, my. $21.75? Ouch. No, I can't spend that much. I got them in China for $5/pair, and I can get them for $12/pair if I watch for them to come up on Zulily. Surely, I decide, she must have something that will work already. So I pull out her shoe bucket and line up her current shoes to see what's in there.

Wow. I knew she had a few pairs of shoes, but this is getting out of hand! Out of all those shoes, only 4 pairs don't squeak. Good heavens. I think she'll be wearing the red ones for pictures.

I may need a new hobby. Her tutu collection and hair bow collection are similarly ridiculous.