Just in time for a little summer reading

Do you remember when I reviewed Schoolhouse Teachers.com?  Well, there's something new and exciting to share with you!

Schoolhouse Library has ebooks, audio books and more!  Over 175 resources for you to access.  Check it out!  Now is the perfect time to browse these resources, as you plan for next school year!


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Travel Approval

This is it!  The moment we've been waiting for!  China has said, "Come and get your babies!"

Unfortunately, there is an obstacle.  Dragon Boat Festival closes down the civil affairs office all week, so they can't process adoptions during that week.

This means that we will likely not leave until June 14.  Which is 23 long days away.  Not that I'm obsessing or anything.  Our agency has emailed their in-China person to confirm this, and to request our consulate appointment date at the end of our trip.  Right now, it looks like that date will be July 2 or 3.  But we can't book any travel arrangements until we get that confirmed, hopefully tomorrow.

My next project is going to be putting together all the paperwork we need to bring with us.  I got a little file thing to take with me, and I put labels on it, but that's as far as I've gotten.  Hopefully, I can sneak in a bit here and a bit there while the kids are doing their school work.

Thank you for being a part of our journey!  NOW is the time, if you want to make any last minute donations to our Reece's Rainbow account.  I'm so excited, we're finally close!  Not as close as I was hoping, but still, we're getting there.


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A little shout out to Bright and Beyond

This is NOT a sponsored review.  I was recently looking for a deck of activity cards to take to China with me for ideas of simple things I could do with Katie and Luke in the hotel or on an airplane.  I remembered seeing a ring bound card set several years ago at a school supply store that is no longer there.  Someone linked me to these Bright and Beyond cards.

  (This IS an affiliate link.  I DO earn a small commission if you purchase through this link.)

I figured that even though these weren't ring bound, they would do the trick.  And then I discovered that they're available as an app!  That totally made my day, because it means that I can load it on my iPad and not have to lug one more thing across the ocean!

I downloaded the 2 year old set and flipped through them.  Perfect.  Just what I was looking for.  Simple activities, most with common household items, that were all thought out for me.  I ended up downloading the 1 year old set, as well, since it's common for institutionalized kids to be delayed, and more ideas for interacting intentionally are a good thing.

I think these will be good once we're home, too.  I know I get so busy, I don't think of the simple ideas for teaching toddlers, but once someone suggests it, it's easy to implement.  For example, this month's sample for preschoolers (an older age pack, which I have not yet purchased) is stringing Cheerios onto spaghetti noodles.

Simple, right?  I would't have thought of it, but I can certainly pull together the stuff and do it.  

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What's happening in the adoption world... and in ours

The families caught up in the White Powder Incident/US consulate closure are trickling home.  The consulate was able to open Thursday afternoon, which was earlier than originally stated, and they processed at least 70 families applications that day.  Visas began being available for pickup on Friday, and some families actually left Friday night.  Many more left on Saturday.

I have not yet heard if the Article 5 processing times are back on track, but I would think that they will be in another week or so.

In contrast to the adoption from China world in general, and on to us specifically:  Having the consulate re-open means that as soon as we are issued our TA, our agency can make the all important consulate appointment, and we can book our flights and hotels.  TA could come this week or next week.  Honestly, I'm starting to get a little antsy, even though I know we don't hit the "average" until Thursday.

I just want to have things settled, travel booked, and know when I'm going to get my babies.

One thing that has been different this time is that we've been able to get updates through our agency.  Last time, we got one update between LOA and travel from our agency, and the others were from third party care package companies.  We sent Katie a care package at Chinese New Year, just so that her people would know she had a family coming, but we didn't receive Luke's referral until after CNY.  It recently dawned on me that we hadn't sent him a package.

I wrestled with it for a few days, torn between cheapness (as in, "we got pictures in April, is it really worth $75 to get 2-3 new photos in May when we're likely to travel in June?") and equality (as in, "Someday, the kids are going to want to see all the pictures and hear the story, and part of Hannah's and Katie's stories is, 'and this is the care package we sent you.'  Do you want to look at his little face and say, 'but we didn't send you anything?'  I think not.")

Equality won, and I placed the order.

Knowing that he's in foster care, I decided against a perishable cake package, not knowing how often his foster mom gets to the orphanage.  I chose the PJ package instead.  

Looks like pajamas, a blanket, candy for the foster family, a disposable camera, our translated letter, and a stuffed Lightning McQueen.  It should be delivered to his orphanage this week.  I am *hoping* that it will get to his foster mother and that we will get a couple of new pictures in return.  But I know not to *expect* that, when we just had an update a little over a month ago.  So we'll see what happens.  

Ideally, it would be nice if he could bring the blankie and stuffie with him when we receive him, but I know not to expect that, too.  Hannah did not come to us with any of the items from the care packages that we sent to her.  However, I do not regret sending them.  1)  It feels like we're doing something, when we really can't do anything; 2) It lets their caretakers know that someone cares about them; and 3)  It is a part of the story we will tell them later, when we talk about how very much we wanted them and how we waited and prayed and hoped for them.  And I suppose on some level, I'm happy to sponsor an extra blanket and pair of PJs for whoever ends up using them after Luke is home with us.  

I wish I could see him in these pajamas.  I wish I knew what size they were and how they fit him.  I wish I could smell his baby shampoo, after bath smell and snuggle his sleepy body.  Do you know how weird it is to miss someone you've never met?

If you would like to pray for us, please pray for my heavy heart.  My mind says surely it can only be a few more weeks now, but my heart is weary of the wait.  Also, as always, please pray for Katie and Luke's safety and that God will help prepare their hearts for the transition.  I am getting a little nervous about travel, since I will be on my own the first week, and it has occurred to me that not all kids have the beautiful easy transition that Hannah did.  I could end up with a very unhappy little person all by myself for several days.  I know I can do it, but it's just one more hamster on the wheel of insomnia to keep my mind whirling at night.



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Waiting Children

Please take a look at the waiting kids listed at our agency.  We have been very happy with our agency, both for Hannah's adoption, and for our current adoption, and would highly recommend them.

Click here to see Madison Adoption Associates waiting kids.  If you have been thinking about adopting, I would love to answer any questions you might have.  You can email me at grtlyblesd@aol.com .

There are several children around Hannah's age, and it just makes my heart ache.  She's so much more than a picture, a diagnosis, a description.

This was one of Hannah's referral photos.  

And this is Hannah now.  There's no comparison.  

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Weekly Wrap Up, Australia Week 2

Our Little Passports treat was a fridge magnet featuring aboriginal artwork.

Now that we're at the end of the school year, it's such fun to look at the map and see it covered in flags.  (not all of the countries we studied had LP kits available)

Our Little Passports suitcase shows some of the fun places we've learned about.

And all that's left now is 2 weeks of Antarctica, and the "end of school year" festivities.  

Eli is working on his Marsupial report.  Those are koala pictures on the screen.

Brianna is doing artwork from a DVD series (review coming soon!).

Speaking of artwork, 

the kids painted coral reefs.  This is Eli's fish face.  

This has been an amazing school year for us.  I feel like we've all, myself definitely included, learned so much this year.  I am excited about next school year, but I'm also looking forward to the summer break that will go by Way Too Fast.  

Next year, we begin a chronological study of world history.  I can't wait!  Even though next school year will have some new challenges for us, I am so looking forward to getting my historical facts in order!  

After 5 years of private school, Josiah has decided to homeschool again next year.  

Josiah's spring choir performance was last week.

Any time you add or subtract people from a group, it changes the dynamic.  Adding both a high schooler and two toddlers should make for some interesting times!  This year, when all the school kids were at school, I had 3 students.  Next year, I will double that.  

Although I can't order any curriculum until after we get back from China, I've been looking at ideas and talking to other moms and planning what I'd like to use.  I'm hoping we have another incredible year next year.  

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Scaredy Cat Reading System

I recently had the privilege of being asked to review Level 2 of the Scaredy Cat Reading System from Joyce Herzog.  As many of you know, reading is a challenge for Jack.  I think there's something tangled up in the speech/reading/spelling area of his brain.  He really struggles with those, particularly spelling and reading, so I was excited to see that this curriculum covers both areas.  

When the package arrived, I was very impressed by the comprehensiveness of it!  The program includes the Teacher's Manual and the Student Activity Book, both of which are nice, spiral bound books, as well as the Level 2 Reader, The Story of Lettermaster, The Fun Learning Pack, which included game boards and numerous flash cards, and even magnetic letters and pictures, and an Audio CD.  This seems like a great value to me for only $75.   I like that I can use this program again with Hannah or the younger kids later if I want, and I only need to purchase a Student Activity Book for her, which is available separately.  All the rest of the materials are non-consumable.   Instead of specific age suggestions, there is an online placement test to determine which level of the system your child should start at.  Jack is 9, and he did really well with level 2.  I think he *could* have done level 3, but it would have been more of a challenge for him.  Since reading is already such a struggle, I wanted him to be successful.  And I feel this program helped fill in some gaps for him.  
The story of Lettermaster was entertaining.  I read it to Jack, and he said, "Wait!  They messed it all up?  It was supposed to be different, and the letters made it like this?"  It was so cute.  I explained, "No, this is just a story of how it could have happened, to help us remember the different jobs the letters have."   The audio CD had catchy songs, similar to a popular DVD series we have, but with maybe a little less technical polish to them.   I was pleasantly surprised when Josiah offered to slice up the flash cards for me, using my scrapbooking paper slicer.  This was very helpful of him, as there are a lot of flash cards!  I went through the cards with Jack a couple dozen at a time, and weeded out the ones he was confident reading, and we set those aside for use later in spelling.  I tested his spelling on the words he could read and discovered that he can't spell all the words he can read.  Which makes sense, but it was an "Aha!" moment for me that changed the way I think about learning to read and spell.  It connected the two more for me.   I appreciated the variety offered by this program.  It felt like we approached the same words and sounds from several different angles, which ended up giving Jack a good, solid grasp of the concepts presented.  At the same time, the program offered enough options, that I felt comfortable skipping something from time to time, if it wasn't essential.  For instance, Jack is not big on coloring, so we skipped the alligator coloring page.  However, when we hit the iguana coloring page, he was interested in coloring that, because we'd just been reading about komodo dragons.   In summary, this is a great, economical, easy to use reading program.  In fact, if our summer was not going to be so crazy, I would be ordering the next level to use with Jack as "summer school" to keep his progress going.     In addition to the program I reviewed, you can read more about this and other Joyce Herzog products here:

White Powder Scare at US Consulate Leaves Hundreds of Families Stranded in China

No, this is not a headline you're likely to see in the news.  For some reason, the stuff I'm interested rarely seems to make it into the mainstream media.  But it is reality.  Yesterday, the facebook groups lit up with the news that the US Consulate in Guangzhou, Guangdong was CLOSED due to a white powder incident.

Let me explain what this means to adopting families.  When you pick up your child, you complete adoption proceedings in the capital of the province they reside in.  For Hannah, that was Nanjing, Jiangsu.  After that, she was legally ours.  HOWEVER, she was still a Chinese citizen, and as such, she needed a VISA to enter the United States.  This visa is issued at the US Consulate in Guangzhou (GZ), so traveling families go to GZ for the last half of their adoption trip.  In fact the entire trip dates are based on what day your CONSULATE APPOINTMENT is on.  You cannot leave for China without that appointment booked by your agency.  And you cannot go home until after you've completed that appointment.

Waiting families were beside themselves wondering how this would impact them.  Rumors abounded. We heard everything from "It will be closed for 2 days" to "It could be 3 weeks before they reopen."  The USCIS website initially said nothing about it.  In the afternoon, there was a red notice on the GZ field office page stating that the GZ office was CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.  That sounded worrisome and vague.

I contacted my agency, and they didn't know any more than the grapevine did.  Families that were AT the consulate when the incident occurred were reported to have been detained for over 4 hours--without food or water for their newly adopted children.  Sounds like a nightmare.  Rumors of decontamination floated about.

I felt a little fragile yesterday.  Closer to tears than usual.  It's a little like spotting during pregnancy.  You know that most of the time everything goes okay, but that is a vivid and unwelcome reminder that sometimes it doesn't.

This morning we woke up to discover a new notice on the GZ field office page at USCIS.  "Please be advised the USCIS Guangzhou will be closed on Tuesday, May 14 and Wednesday, May 15.  Customers scheduled for appointments on either of these dates will be contacted by our office when a future appointment date has been set."

Okay.  2 days.  I'm sure it's awful for the families who got stuck in it, who may have to rearrange flights and stay extra days in country while everyone gets processed out.  But the hugely selfish part of me is so relieved that it's not the indefinite closure that it was yesterday.  It shouldn't have too much of an impact on our adoption timeline.  I can still hope to travel the first week of June.  "Hope" that is.  Since the trip dates revolve around when your consulate appointment is, we won't know for sure when we leave until a day or two after we receive Travel Approval from CCCWA, the Chinese office that handles adoptions (not connected with the consulate at all, so should not be affected by the slowdown).  Our Travel Approval may arrive as soon as next week, but will more likely arrive the week after.

This is pretty much the only article I've seen online about it:  http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1237576/updated-suspicious-powder-found-us-consulate-guangzhou

In other news, a HUGE thanks to whomever bumped up our Reece's Rainbow account balance!  I woke up to that this morning and was moved to tears.  Thank you!  It's such an encouragement to have people supporting us in this roller coaster ride adventure.


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Out Takes

So I tell my family that I want to take some pictures for Mother's Day, and I get things like this.  

"You can get me in my natural habitat!"

Seriously?

Suddenly it makes sense why I have such a hard time getting good pictures of the kids.

A whole lot of sense.

Samuel was not happy with the picture I chose to put in the sidebar.

I had to go back and show him that it really was the very best one of the bunch.  

Josiah emphatically hates having his picture taken.

So I really appreciated his cooperation.  Or what passed for cooperation.

Teenagers.

Can't live with 'em...

...Um, pass the corn chips.

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Good heavens, we look like a yearbook page!

Yikes.

Mother's Day is one of the few times I can harass the children into letting me take pictures of them.  I wanted to update all the kids' pictures in my blog sidebar.  I thought while I had new pics, I'd do a collage.  Um, never mind.  I promise you, it does not seem like that many people in real life!  

I'll post some of the out takes tomorrow.  In the meantime, I'll be updating the sidebar pics for the kids that currently live here.  

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Mother's Day thoughts, including a new-to-us Luke photo!

It's tomorrow in China.  And while they don't celebrate Mother's Day there, I can't help but think of the 3 women who gave my children life.  I've talked about my questions before, so I'll just say that I'm grateful to them, and also to the ladies who loved on my Hannah and are currently loving on Katie and Luke.  Nannies, ayis, foster mamas, whatever the title, there is a fondness and a connection that I respect.

Hannah and her nanny. 12/1/2010

I wish there was some way to share the spotlight, so to speak, with these ladies who mother without the accolades, without the permanency, and without any way of knowing how long they'll have with these kids who must steal their hearts.  Look at them.  Look at their smiles.  It's not just a job.  

Katie and her nanny, May 2012

I hope I get the honor of meeting these ladies next month.

Katie and her foster mama

I have heard that Katie is quite the amazing little person, and I know that must be in part due to the efforts poured into her by these two women who care for her.

Luke and his foster mama, October 2012

I was so delighted to discover this photo online!  An organization that works in Luke's province came to my attention, and when I was poking around their website, I found trip pictures from their last visit to his city.  I recognized the jacket and thought, "That's my boy!"  I emailed to make sure that this really was him, and found out that YES, that is my boy, and furthermore, once we're home with him (when he's legally ours) they have more photos that they'll be able to share with us!  Woo hoo!  

Happy Mother's Day, to all the women who have cared for a child.  Be they yours or someone else's, temporary or long term.  Mothering is hard work.  I am grateful that there are those willing to step up and do that work when and where it's needed.


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Weekly Wrap Up - Australia Week One

And we're off to Australia!  At least, in our imaginations, that is.

Passports.  Brianna couldn't find hers, so the boys teased her about being stuck in Russia, which would not be cool in real life, you know?  

Um, Houston?  Or, Oriental Trading Co?  We have a problem, lol.  I pulled our flags out and discovered that they were assembled upside down.

Fortunately, it's just sticky on one end, and we were able to peel them and reattach them correctly.  

Brianna took this kit from box to finished in a couple hours.

It's smaller than the St. Basil's model, but still quite the feat of construction.

We watched an interesting BBC documentary on cassowaries, Brianna and Eli read The Mystery on the Great Barrier Reef: Sydney, Australia (Around the World in 80 Mysteries).  Eli also found a book in our home library and read about the wildlife of Australia and New Zealand.

Confession time:  My absolute favorite part of homeschooling this week?  Sitting with another homeschool mama, in my half-rearranged school room (photos coming soon!) talking over curriculum options for next year.  

Although chocolate is probably a close second.  This week, in Window on the World we read about Papua New Guinea, and we ate the New Guinea bar from our Trader Joe's Chocolate Passport.

Only a couple countries left now!  We'll have to figure out a way to tie those in over the next couple of weeks.  

Another bit of excitement for this week is seedlings!  

Eli has been wanting to garden.  Like I need another thing on my plate right now, right?  But I finally decided to just let him go for it on a small scale, so he and Brianna took over some empty planter boxes, and they have carrots, peppers, broccoli, marigolds, morning glories (above) and more starting to send up seed leaves.  Very cool.  I hope they're able to remember to water them while I'm gone.  

So much fun going on around here!  I'm hopeful that we can wrap up school for the year in the next 3 weeks.  Looking forward to another week of Australia this coming week.

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