In Which We See A Play

So last night and this morning the kids had their Christmas play! Connor played the part of the donkey and the Christmas star, and was adorable as usual.  Hus donkey hat kept falling into his eyes or getting cocked to one side at a rakish angle.  It was pretty cute.

Eden's costume was a combination of wisemen and shephard costume pieces; she wore a shephard's tunic and a wiseman's crown. So she was a wise shephard, I guess.  She was a bit worried at first about wearing the costume, but after she saw boys put theirs on and was assured that hers was not, in fact, a dress, she was fine.  This kid does NOT do dresses.

Anyway, she participated in all the songs and dances and also pushed Connor around the church when it was time for the wisemen (or in this Christmas play, wisegals, as all three were girls) to approach the baby Jesus.  She did a great job; I'm so proud of both my kids!

The whole performance was just fantastic, and all of the kids were so enthusiastic and joyful. It's given Eden confidence to try out for her school play too, which I think is great.

In other news, Jer made it all the way to Idaho today; that's a lot of driving in two days! Hopefully that means he'll be here tomorrow afternoon.  I'm so excited!

~Jess

In Which We're Heading Home

So our bags are pretty much packed now, and we're ready for one last dinner out with friends.  Then we'll catch a few hours of sleep before flying out way, way too early in the morning. 

We spent our last day shopping, which seems to be a bit of a national pastime here.  We got Ellen a pair of jeans and a couple of long-sleeved shirts.  We also bought a Thai-English keyboard (for six bucks-- really), which has been a huge hit since she can now talk to her friends on Facebook without having to either type everything on an online Thai-English keyboard and copy it in, or use her relatively limited English vocabulary. 

I couldn't believe the sheer amount of stuff we've managed to accumulate in the past three weeks-- it's pretty amazing just how much we had.  Ellen brought a completely full suitcase, several bags of gifts and a ukulele with her when she came, and if you count the carry-ons and personal items we've got eight pieces of luggage to wrangle.  Hopefully this time it will all make it home and no one will steal anything.  I'd hate to have to go underwear shopping again.

Connor has apparently come down with a bit of a cold, I'm sorry to say.  And it looks like I might be coming down with a bit of an ear infection, which I'm sure will be tons of fun on the plane.  Oh well.  At least if I'm going to get sick I'm doing it at the end of our trip rather than in the middle.  Thus far we haven't had any issues with food poisoning or other infections though, which is nice. 

I have no doubt that we'll visit Thailand again as soon as we're able too-- there's so much more we haven't had the chance to see!  And of course we want to visit Ellen's many loved ones here as well.  We don't feel like we're finished growing our family either, so maybe someday we'll be heading back here for another adoption!  We're not planning to have a miniature United Nations, so we'll either adopt from America or from Thailand again.  That's a few years off yet, so we'll just have to see. 

In the meantime, we'll focus on settling in with our girl and seeing the two kids together for the first time.  Can't wait to see what adventures we'll get up to next!

~Jess

~Jess

In Which We're Doing Well

We successfully picked up Ellen's visa on Wednesday, so it looks like we'll be getting on a plane for sure on Saturday to head back home!  While we were sad to be away from the little guy and the rest of our family for Christmas, if we have to be away for the holiday trust me when I say that Thailand is not a bad place to be. 

The extra days have given us the opportunity to see a lot that we would otherwise have missed.  We've had the chance to visit a floating market, take an amazing dinner cruise, see the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, the Victory Monument, and the Dusit Zoo, as well as to visit many of the close friends and caretakers Ellen has had over the years and to make some new friends as well. 

We're starting to develop our own inside family jokes, figure out each other's likes and dislikes and enjoy some good-natured teasing-- it really feels like Ellen has been a member of the family forever.

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and let you all know how we're doing-- I'll write a longer update tomorrow.  But right now Jer and Ellen both say it's bedtime, so I've got to go!

~Jess

In Which It's Almost Christmas

Yesterday we had a very busy day!  In the morning, we went shopping for a winter coat for Ellen.  It's the coolest, driest month in Thailand currently and it's about 90 degrees here, so the weather in Washington state is going to be a bit of a shock for her.  It took us a while to find something, because our child is a serious tomboy.  She's got a major punk rock edge to her-- she likes to wear distressed jeans, graphic t-shirts, and black, black and more black.  In Thailand, where the majority of clothing for women seems to be super feminine, this was a tall order to fill.  But after a bit of searching we finally found a black sporty jacket with a hood that was warm enough and that she really liked. 

We also found her a Christmas present while we were out, since all of our presents for her are currently at home and completely inaccessible.  We had to do a bit of maneuvering to be in a position where we could get her a present without her finding out we were buying it and also to figure out what the heck we should get her, because really this is the most laid-back kid ever (except if you try to buy her things that are pink and frilly).  But we managed, and her present is now safely wrapped and waiting for tomorrow.

Then in the evening, we met some family friends who took us out on a dinner cruise down the Chayo Praya river.  I'd made the mistake of leaving my camera behind in the hotel room, and I was very sad I did because the views were absolutely breathtaking; all of the gilded roofs of the palaces and temples sparkled with thousands of reflected lights and the sheer size and beauty of the massive bridges we passed under left us breathless.  We ate an enormous amount of food-- including a whole fish sizzling over a miniature charcoal fire-- and enjoyed the lovely company.  We all had an absolutely marvelous time; I think it's one of the best things we've done here so far.

We came home fairly late and today was of course Christmas Eve, so we slept in and then took things fairly easy.  We did go out shopping this morning to find Ellen another pair of new shoes, as she has already worn down the toes on the first pair we got her.  She drags her feet when she walks, and on the badly broken pavement of Thailand's streets this means that her shoes take quite the beating.  So we found her a new, more sturdy pair (in black, of course) and then stopped into a music shop to find her a beginner's course for her ukulele.  After that we came home and spent pretty much the rest of the evening just enjoying each other's company. 

It was an odd Christmas Eve for us; here Christmas is pretty much just a commercial holiday and so it was business as usual for everyone else.  We have no stockings here in our hotel room and no Christmas tree.  Normally I would be reading Connor the Christmas story before kissing him goodnight, and then Jer and I would wait until the little guy was asleep, fix some hot apple cider, and fill the stockings.  Then we would set the table with our best china for our breakfast the next morning and leave a Christmas cracker at each place setting before heading off to bed. 

But instead we're celebrating Christmas with our family on two continents.  For me, Christmas has always been more than a religious holiday-- it's always been about family.  So it's very difficult knowing that we're so far away from not just Connor, but the rest of our loved ones too.

I'm sure we'll have another Christmas when we come home in a little less than a week.  And if we have to be so far away, I'm so glad that it's for the best possible reason.  And I think that spending Christmas in Thailand with Ellen will mean that she doesn't associate it with loss or the confusion of an overwhelming and potentially terrifying new place, but with the celebration of a new adventure.  We don't know what she'll think of America (though we suspect she'll plunge right in with her characteristic relish for life) but right now she's having a ball. 

So an early Merry Christmas to everyone.  Much love to you all!

~Jess

In Which We Visit The Zoo

Yesterday we slept in for a little while, and then called a taxi and headed off to the Dusit Zoo.

We spent about four hours there.  It was a lot of fun, though towards the end of our visit it was starting to really heat up so the animals were all dozing.  But they were pretty active in the morning, so it was fun to see them. 

On the trip to the floating market, I think we saw more European and American people than we saw Thai people.  At the Dusit zoo, I'm pretty sure Jer and I were literally the only people in the park who weren't Thai.  So that was pretty interesting!  We got a lot of very strange looks as people would try and figure out what our relationship to Ellen is.  One guy was staring at us so hard he almost fell off his bike!  Oh well-- we still really enjoyed ourselves.

We watched the seal show, and me and the girl next to me got pooped on by an enormous pigeon, which put somewhat of a damper on the occasion.  Otherwise the seal show was really neat; the seals balanced balls on their heads, jumped through hoops, and played Frisbee and basketball.  Their trainers obviously had a lot of affection for them, and the seals seemed to be enjoying themselves (and the tasty treats they were getting for the tricks).  One seal clapped his hands after every single trick even though he wasn't given a cue.  I think he just liked the applause.

The zoo had many different kinds of monkeys, which are Ellen's favorites.  They also had some adorable Asian bears, marmosets, lots of birds, and some animals you wouldn't see in a zoo in the states, like cows, guinea pigs and hamsters.  One of the bears had a raven friend who rode around on his back picking off bugs.  So that was pretty neat.

Then we all went back to the room, got cooled down and I walked down to the street in front of our hotel to find us some lunch.  For about two dollars and fifty cents I got us a huge piece of the most amazing fried chicken ever created with a bag of chili-garlic sauce to dip it in, a skewer each of squid, scallop and pork rice balls grilled over a charcoal fire while I watched, and a large perfectly ripe mango.  And it was all delicious.  I swear it's a good thing Jeremy and I don't live in Thailand, or we would both be about three hundred pounds.  The only thing missing from our meal was the sticky rice, and that was because it was two in the afternoon and everyone was out of it.

After that we all changed into our swimsuits and rode the elevator up to the hotel's swimming pool, which is an outdoor pool that juts out over the city about halfway up the hotel.  We really enjoyed swimming, and Jer surprised Ellen because we'd told her that he was totally going to drown and then he executed a perfect forward crawl.  So she thought that was pretty hilarious.  We splashed around in the pool for a couple of hours and then I introduced Ellen to the cedar sauna they had in the women's dressing room, which was a huge hit. 

We ended the evening out at a local restaurant, eating more ridiculously good food at ridiculously low prices.  So all in all it was a great day!

~Jess

In Which We Take The Air

Today was such a fun day!

We got up bright and early to get to the visa office first thing in the morning.  That part was not particularly fun.  But after we turned in Ellen's old visa and received the appointment card for her new visa (which we will pick up on Wednesday) we hopped back in the van with Miss Oh and her very nice driver and headed off to one of the floating markets south of Bangkok.

As a side note, I don't normally make recommendations on here but if you are adopting from Thailand I highly suggest you hire Miss Oh to help you in country.  She knows the ins and outs of the adoption process here extremely well and has been absolutely invaluable to us here.  We'd probably be in big trouble right now without her help, since our process has been much more complicated than we anticipated.

Anyway, so the floating market was pretty amazing.  This is perhaps the first truly touristy thing we've done in Thailand, and I think we saw more Caucasian people there than we've seen in all of our travels through the country so far!  We didn't buy anything on the tour because everything was pretty expensive (and we could find the souvenirs cheaper in Bangkok) but we really enjoyed seeing all of the shops and the beautiful boats.  The river shops were so picturesque they almost looked fake; it was nearly impossible to get a bad photograph there.  I would love to see what a real photographer could do with the location!

After that we drove another fifteen minutes or so down the road to an area where they were offering elephant rides!  They were a bit pricey-- about twenty dollars a person for a twenty minute ride-- so Jer and Ellen went on one together and I waited back at the loading area.  Apparently the ride was quite lovely; they went through a river, saw some very sleepy monkeys and a small monitor lizard, and just enjoyed the beautiful plantations and scenery. 

So we got back to the hotel around one in the afternoon, and relaxed for a while.  Then we went out to dinner with a friend.  All in all I'd say it was a very nice day!  I think we're going to really enjoy ourselves tomorrow too-- it will be a very laid back day for us. 

We might even sleep in!

~Jess

In Which We'll Be Having A Tropical Christmas

Well today was a rather frustrating day.

It looks like we'll be spending Christmas here in Thailand, as our stay will be extended by a few days as we work through some visa issues with Ellen.  Apparently since she went to a swimming competition in the USA last summer, she still has a valid visitor's visa.  So we need to turn in that visa before we can be issued her new one. 

We'll be turning in her old visa and passport early tomorrow morning, and then we should be issued her new visa on Wednesday afternoon.  So if all goes well we'll be flying out early on Thursday morning.

So we're changing our flights and extending our hotel stay.  We let our parents know so that they can also change their flights and change hotel and rental car reservations.  It's tough to be away from Connor this long, and it will be expensive to make all these last minute changes.  But we're absolutely not leaving without our girl, so we'll do what necessary to make it happen and get her home!

So after we turn in Ellen's old visa tomorrow morning, we'll basically be free until next Wednesday, as all of the rest of her paperwork is finished.  So I think we're going to take the opportunity to do a bit more sightseeing and maybe get out of Bangkok for a day trip or two.  We're going to go to a floating market tomorrow, which I think will be a lot of fun!  I think we're also going to try and see the Dusit zoo this weekend.  I'm not sure what else we'll get up to, but I think exploring this beautiful country will be a great way to take our minds off the fact that we won't be spending the holidays all together as a family.

Our daughter continues to amaze us with her brave spirit and her fiesty personality; already it seems like she's been part of our family forever.  She's weathered a lot of changes in a short time extremely well, and we're enjoying getting to know her likes and dislikes and learning everything we can about her.  Every day brings new revelations, and while we've all made a few mistakes with each other we're overall doing extremely well.  It's funny-- I didn't ever expect things to feel this easy.  I may look back on that sentence in a few months and laugh at myself, but right now that's really how it is. 

So glad she's our girl!

~Jess

In Which Jer Arrives And There Is Much Rejoicing

Jer is here!  Hooray!

Ellen instantly took to him-- no hesitation at all.  They compared scars from surgery (Ellen has had a double tendon release) and decided Jer was the winner.  From then on they've been thick as thieves.

We spent quite a bit of time at the hotel today, which is where she's most comfortable.  I don't think she'd spent a lot of time out in the city before this, so the streets of Bangkok are pretty overwhelming for her.  But now that Jer's here she seems a bit more confident about trying new things. 

So this morning while the two of them bonded over Ellen's ukulele (I told you this kid was awesome), I ventured out to try and do some laundry.  Bangkok has this permeating smell that gets into your clothes very quickly, and so you really can't wear things more than once.  And also I had several pairs of my underwear stolen out of my checked bag on the flight over, so I was running a bit low.  I didn't want to have the laundry done at the hotel room as it's extremely expensive there, so a friend found us a laundry mat within walking distance and I set off to try and navigate my first transaction almost completely in Thai.  It actually wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be; I was surprised at just how much I understood.

Ellen has been a big help in boosting my Thai vocabulary; she's able to correct my pronunciation and help me out with what I'm trying to say.  She thinks Jer's attempts at Thai are hilarious.  Since he's been in school or studying about 70 hours a week, he hasn't been able to learn more than a couple of phrases.  He can say "Hello," "Thank you," and sort of count to ten-- we're still working on that.  His attempts to learn more have prompted a whole lot of giggling.  It's really great to see them getting along so well!

Tomorrow we're hopefully going to have Ellen's passport, and we'll be getting her medical testing done for her visa.  Keep your fingers crossed that we'll be able to get the results back in time to have her visa before Christmas!

~Jess

In Which We Wait For Daddy

We had another lovely day today as we explored our new world together.  Ellen is a real trooper and is putting up with her new mom's mistakes quite well; like this morning when I didn't check what time the mall opened and managed to get us there two hours early.  Whoops.

Ellen and I did a bit of shopping; she found some books for the trip home, which was good, and I found her a travel book on Seattle (though unfortunately in English) and also a book that explains English idioms.  English has some of the weirdest sayings-- particularly in the south where Jer and I are from-- and so I figure this book is going to seriously come in handy once Ellen gets a little more comfortable with her English.

She's so excited about Jer coming into town tonight that she's been talking about him all day.  I think she's going to be a bit of a daddy's girl.  In a lot of ways their personalities are very similar, so I think they'll get along well.  She tends to be very quiet in new situations and spends some time just taking it all in.  Jeremy likes to do the same thing. 

She's had a lot of new experiences in the last few days, and she's been weathering the changes like a champ.  I'm quickly learning a lot about her likes and dislikes, what her expressions mean and when she needs to take a break. 

I can't wait to see her interact with Jer once he gets here!

~Jess

In Which I Have A Few Points Of Note

I'm really, really tired as I've got some serious jet-lag, but here are some quick impressions that stood out today:

--I'm never complaining about Seattle traffic again.  Ever.  Also I'm glad to know that even though I'm jet-lagged, my reflexes are still good enough to jump out of the way of a moped speeding down the opposite way of traffic on the sidewalk.  Also the Child Adoption Board is less than ten miles away from the hotel and it could take us up to an hour to get there.  Wow.

--Bangkok somehow manages to be really polluted and really clean all at the same time.  It's got a permanent smoggy haze over it, and yet the streets are spotless.  Case in point-- I saw a sanitation woman fishing trash out of the individual slots of a street grate with a pair of chopsticks.  Now that's dedication to a job. 

--I still hate shopping, even if it's in another country and is way cooler and much cheaper than shopping at home would be.  Also I'm bad at it.  I spent nearly three hours at MBK, where I went to buy gift wrap, scissors and tape, and I walked out with a stuffed cat for Connor, some newspapers for my Thai class at home, a notebook, pen, and a bunch of bananas.  So now I have no gift wrap for tomorrow.  Hooray.  Of course, being seriously jet-lagged and running on four hours of sleep might have had something to do with it.  But the shopkeeper who sold me the stuffed cat gave me a 150 baht discount off the sticker price because I spoke Thai to him, so at least there's that.

And my brain is, um, done.  So I'm turning in now.  The big, big day is tomorrow.  Can't wait!

~Jess

In Which I'm Here!

The view from our room.

Sawatdee-ka!

I’m a little jet-lagged right now, so forgive me if I’m not the most coherent person in the world.  My plane was delayed for a couple of hours in Tokyo, so I didn’t end up getting to my hotel last night until nearly four in the morning.  Apparently a plane coming in from New York and making our connection was late, so they just kept pushing the boarding time back for us by twenty minute intervals.  That’s probably why they didn’t update the delay on the airport website—the very gracious friend who came to pick me up had to wait at the airport nearly three hours for me by the time I got through customs.  I’m very glad she was there, because I didn’t do a lot of sleeping on the plane so by the time I got in I wasn’t very functional.  Hiring a taxi would have been an interesting experience to say the least.

Even though I got up and walked around at least once every couple of hours on the plane, by the time I got to the hotel my feet were so swollen that my ankles looked like part of my calves.  But after a few hours sleep I feel much better and don’t have to squeeze my feet into my shoes.  All in all I think I was about twenty-two hours in transit.  Whew!  Luckily I had some lovely seatmates who were interesting travel companions.  I had an aisle seat too, so I could stretch out a bit, which was lovely.

So I’m here now, and ready to do a bit of exploring before I go to the orphanage tomorrow to meet Ellen.  Jer won’t arrive until later in the week because of his school finals, so I’ll be on my own in the big city for a few days. 

The hotel we’re staying at is very nice—much nicer than what we where we would usually stay in the United States.  We did get bumped from our triple room since I got in so late, but we’re in a room that’s the same price and they’ll set up a bed for Ellen once she’s here.  It should fit just fine—the room is more than spacious enough.  I got stuck on the elevator for a little bit because I didn’t realize you had to swipe your key card to go to your room, but I’ve got it down now.

I’ll be trying to update at least once a day if I can, and I’ll also be checking my e-mail.  I can’t believe tomorrow’s the big day!  Surprisingly I’m not feeling nervous when I think about it right now, but I'll probably be shaking in my boots by tomorrow morning. 

I can't believe I'm finally here!

~Jess

In Which I'm Setting Off Tomorrow

So this is it!  Tomorrow, after two years of waiting, I'll finally be stepping on a plane for Thailand.

I'm so very excited and terrified, all at the same time.

I'm going to do my very best to post regular updates on here as we travel through Thailand. I won't be able to blog tomorrow evening as I'll be over an ocean somewhere (it's a long flight), but hopefully after that I'll be able to find some Internet access and a power converter, and I'll keep you posted if I can.  If I'm not able to blog, I'll try and pass along information through my family. 

If this was a Lifetime movie and not reality, in just a few days Ellen would run into Jeremy and my arms while sappy music played, Connor would magically show up from somewhere stage left despite actually being on another continent, and then we'd all walk off into the sunset together.  But things don't happen that way in real life.

Real life is messy.  Real life is heartbreaking and wonderful and confusing all at the same time.  And there's no simple happy ending to this story.  Life doesn't like neat, tidy packages, and Ellen isn't going to magically fit into a slot in our family like she's always been here.  We know there will be some bumps along the way. 

But that's okay.  Because while life is messy and complicated and tragic sometimes, it's also filled with moments that make it worthwhile-- moments that are more awe inspiring and incredible than we ever could have imagined.  And while this adoption-- or any adoption, for that matter-- will probably not be easy by any stretch of the imagination, I also think it's going to bring us some of the very best moments of our lives. 

We aren't going to fit her into a neat slot in our family.  Instead, I hope that we'll all grow into one another, stretching and bending and giving each other grace until gradually we all find a new place together.  And we'll give Ellen time to find her way to us, and not be disappointed if it takes a little while.  We'll leave our hearts wide open and the porch lights on.  When she's ready, she'll step inside.

Welcome home, daughter.  We'll see you soon.

~Jess

In Which I'm Packing!

My Internet was down last night, so just a quick drop-in.  We're all well and I'm packing my bags to go!  Jer will join me when his school's final week is over.  I can't believe I get on the plane TOMORROW!

Longer blog tonight, provided my Internet decides to actually cooperate.  Little guy is asking to get up right now, so it's time for me to go!

~Jess

In Which My Brain Is Melting Out My Ears

By this time next week, I'll be on a plane to Thailand.

Wow.

That's pretty much all I can manage in the way of coherant speech right now.  For whatever reason it seems like with every day that we get closer to taking off, more and more of my brain cells are jumping ship.  At least I can still form actual words-- by the time we get down to the day before my blog will probably read something like "ARGLBLARGLBLARGLBLARGONEDAY" and you all will have to sit me down in a corner somewhere and stuff me full of chocolate until I stop gibbering.  Oh well. 

So I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off right now trying to get everything ready.  On one of my errands today I stopped by the adoption agency to drop off some paperwork and pick up our packet to take to Thailand, and it hit me that this is the last paperwork I should be receiving before our trip.  Considering that we've probably decimated a rather large swath of forest in our pursuit of our kid, this is pretty significant.  I'm sure we'll have more paperwork in Thailand and then after we get home, but for now the trees are safe. 

We've been talking with Connor a lot about the upcoming trip and the arrival of his sister.  It's hard to tell just how much he understands; he still likes to look at her picture but I don't know if he has a real grasp of the fact that she'll finally be coming home.  So we're not sure how he'll react the first few weeks, though I don't think it will necessarily be the tramautic experience it would be if we brought home a little one.  Connor tends to view older children as yet another source of attention for him, and babies as small evil interlopers who are out to steal his parents.  We'll see if his view of older kids changes when there's one actually living in the house with him!

But yeah, a week.  Wow. 



~Jess

In Which I Work On My Child's Instruction Manual

I spent the vast majority of today organizing things in our house, making a giant checklist of what I still need to do and working on finishing my massive handbook of All Things Connor for my parents and mother-in-law to reference while they're watching the little guy during our Thailand trip. 

It's a massive piece of anal-retentive and relatively dry reading, but hey-- my kid is complicated and I'm a paranoid helicopter mom.  I'm pretty sure they're all used to it by now and will indulge me.  I've installed Skype on our iPad so I can check in with them a few times during the trip.  I believe this is by far the longest we've ever left the little guy, and I'm going to miss him bunches!  Luckily we'll have plenty of things to keep ourselves occupied with on the trip.  Like, you know, suddenly becoming a family of four. 

Eleven days!

~Jess

In Which We're Back Home

We finally got back to Puyallup late this afternoon, and while it was lovely to travel and see everyone it's good to be home!  I've got a ridiculous amount to do before it's time to board a plane for Thailand, and that's a mere twelve days away.  Doesn't seem like that's possible, but we're really down to the wire!

Connor did extremely well on the plane and the bus to our car; he's really a veteran traveler at this point and it doesn't seem to bother him at all.  He napped for a while en route, and so now of course he's determined to stay up forever.  I'm not surprised by that though; it usually takes him a few days to settle back in after a trip.

I'll be plunging right back into things; I have to put the finishing touches on Ellen's room, pick up the last things we need before we travel, put the house to rights, and if I have any extra time I'd like to try and decorate for Christmas before we go.  We'll be coming back two days before Christmas, so it would be nice to have everything set up and waiting when we get home. 

If we don't manage to finish decorating I can leave it for my parents and mother-in-law to do, but we'll at least have the tree.  If Connor didn't love the Christmas decorations so much I'd be tempted to keep things really low-key, but he gets so much joy out of our tree every year I can't let him down.  I'd like to keep things as normal as possible for the little guy since there will already be so many big changes happening with Ellen's arrival, and normal for him means a Christmas tree on Christmas.  Usually we pick one out the day after Thanksgiving, so we're already late this year.

I guess we should probably buy some Christmas presents too, come to think of it.  That might be a good idea.  So much to do!

~Jess

In Which We Went Roaming

Hello there!  We're alive!  And we're fine!  I'm so sorry I made all of you worry. 

We are now back in the Land of Reliable Internet Access, which is a lovely place to be.  We've been down in San Antonio, Texas having one last vacation with just the three of us before we become a family of four!  We had an absolute blast and now feel more relaxed and ready to tackle the last things we need to do before we leave in, um, less than two weeks.  Because I hop on a plane for Thailand in thirteen days.  Wow.

Anyway, so we went to SeaWorld on Thanksgiving, the highlight of which was Connor getting to help hold a giant boa constrictor.  He was extremely interested in feeling the snake, so in the picture we got (which I will scan in at a future date and put a warning on, for those who are Not Snake Inclined) he has this extremely intrigued look on his face, like he's trying to figure out what the heck the thing is.  He also helped feed the dolphins, which he was much less excited about.  Apparently dolphins fall into a lower category than boa constrictors on the Six Year Old Boy's Hierarchy of Cool Animals. 

But overall we were kind of underwhelmed by Sea World as a whole.  We were much more impressed with Morgan's Wonderland, which is by far one of the neatest places I've ever been to in my entire life. 

Morgan's Wonderland, for those of you not familiar with it, is an amusement park entirely dedicated to children with special needs.  All of the rides are completely accessible.  It's got three playgrounds, a huge sand pit and a water play area, all of which are wheelchair friendly.  The pond is stocked with fish, and there are remote control boats to drive and water cannons.  There were absolutely no lines, and every time they asked Connor if he wanted to go on the ride again-- no waiting needed.

His absolute favorite ride was the carousel, which he loved so much we rode it three times.  There was a platform the volunteers strapped his wheelchair down on flanked by a pair of sea dragons, and we sat on a bench directly behind him.  The whole thing went up and down just like the other animals on the carousel!  He really enjoyed himself and loved watching the world go by.  He also rode on a train around the park and got to sit right behind the engine, and we took him on a jeep ride (around a track) in an accessible jeep, too.

The sensory room was also really neat; they had interactive screens and if you stood in front of them they would react to your shadow; butterflies would land on it, tadpoles would swim to it, etc.  They had some imaginative play areas, a nice walk with plenty of well-placed rest areas, and, wonder of wonders, really truly completely accessible public restrooms.  I think we would have visited for those alone, because seriously those things are nearly impossible to find.  

I think Connor really felt like the star of the show; everyone was extremely friendly and took the time to talk with him and ask him how he was doing.  We're definitely talking about visiting again next year; one of us might take Connor there while the other one takes Ellen to Six Flags if she likes roller coasters.  While Connor absolutely loved Morgan's Wonderland, it's definitely geared towards kids who are a bit younger on the developmental scale-- depending on where Ellen falls in there and what she likes to do, roller coasters might be a bit more her style.  But I'm pretty sure that any time we visit San Antonio from now on, we'll be hitting Morgan's Wonderland for sure!

Let's see; so we also visited with friends, strolled around the Alamo, watched a movie and had dinner along the river walk.  We spent some time in Dallas visiting family, too.  And of course we explored new and interesting coffee shops and bookstores, because that's just how we roll.  On the way back home we stopped in at a Luby's Cafeteria, which is a kind of a Texas staple, and some nice gentleman paid for our meal and left before we had the chance to thank him.  I'd forgotten just how friendly and welcoming small Texas towns can be, and that was just the icing on the cake of a fantastic trip.

Overall I think Connor had a lovely time.  There were a few late nights as traveling always throws off his routine, but he settled in pretty quickly and I think just really enjoyed having the undivided attention of both of us.  That isn't something that happens for him very often, and it's going to suddenly become much less common in a few weeks when we bring home his sister. 

A few weeks?  Make that less than two.  We can't wait!

~Jess

In Which We Hang Out With Family And Skip A Holiday

It's holiday time, and that means it's time to get together with family!  We'll be seeing various relatives over the next couple of weeks, and are really looking forward to getting together with everyone and catching up.

My mom, sister and I all went out Christmas shopping together today, which was a lot of fun.  Normally I wait and get all my shopping done at the last minute, but that won't fly this year since we leave exactly three weeks for Thailand and won't get back until two days before Christmas, when it will be a bit late to mail everybody packages.  So I'm trying to get as much done as I can now while it's easy to hand presents off, and then we'll probably order the rest online. 

Connor put up with the shopping surprisingly well because all of the stores had up their Christmas displays, which seem to happening earlier and earlier each year.  Christmas is by far his favorite holiday, since it involves lots of sparkly things, lights and music.  The only part he doesn't really care for is the presents; having new stuff he's expected to touch is not exactly his idea of fun. 

Judging from the stores, Thanksgiving doesn't even exist anymore.  Apparently we're just skipping that holiday entirely now, or maybe blending it in with Halloween or something.  Thanksween.  Yes.

But anyway, about Christmas.  I'm having a hard time restraining myself from buying All The Things for Ellen before she gets here, but goodness knows the kid is going to have enough new things to get used to.  You know, new family, new country, new house, etc.  So I got both her and Connor a Christmas ornament today and otherwise we're holding ourselves back.  Since her birthday is only three weeks after Christmas, if we're not careful she's going to think that America is The Land of Presents.  That's not really an impression we'd like to give her.

Seriously though- three weeks!  Tomorrow I'll officially be able to count the number of days before the trip on my fingers and toes.  As we get closer and closer it's becoming more difficult for me to talk about anything else, so sorry if you talk to me and I start sounding like a broken record. 

But seriously, three weeks people.  That's soon!

~Jess

In Which We Get Squared Away And Put Up The Camera

Connor went to school today and apparently made it through slightly more of the day than yesterday before falling asleep.  We've got a busy week coming up, so I'll try and let him sleep in tomorrow.  Hopefully he'll be able to catch up a bit and get completely over this bug.

We got some great news today; our Article 5 has been issued!  That was the very, very last piece of important paperwork we needed for our trip.  I'm really glad it went through, since I was worried that we were running out of time before we travel.  We've got an appointment set up with the embassy for Ellen's visa, and also received confirmation of the date we'll go before the adoption board. 

I'll be taking my laptop with me and blogging in Thailand-- provided I can find an Internet connection, of course.  We'll also be using it to keep in touch with how Connor is doing while we're gone.  I don't know if I'll be able to get online and blog every day, but I'll do my best!

What you won't see during our trip (or after it for quite some time) are pictures of Ellen.  Our agency and the Thai government ask us not to post any identifying information or pictures of her in public places on the Internet until after our adoption is finalized, which won't be for at least six months after we bring her home.  And of course "Ellen" is an alias for her as well.  The United States has the same requirement for children families are fostering-to-adopt: no identifying pictures or information until an adoption is finalized. 

Once our adoption is finalized, I'll ask Ellen whether or not she's comfortable with having her real name revealed and/or pictures up on the blog.  She's old enough to have input in that decision. 


~Jess

In Which Connor Feels Better And I Am Forced To Shop For Shoes

Connor was sounding well enough to return to school today, which was nice.  He apparently slept through a good portion of it though, and when he got home he absolutely crashed.  So I might have been better off keeping him home one more day.  Hindsight is 20/20, of course.

I spent the time he was at school catching up on errands (such as restocking my chocolate supply), getting some chores done and doing a bit of shopping for our upcoming trip.  I needed a good sturdy pair of shoes that were good for walking, relatively dressy and also easy to slip on and off.  In Thailand it's polite to take one's shoes off before entering many buildings, so it's a good idea to have shoes one doesn't need to untie.  I hate shoe shopping with a burning, fiery passion, so I basically pounced on the first set of shoes that fit the bill, threw some money down and got out of there as fast as I could. 

So, mission accomplished.  I found a comfortable pair of Mary Janes that I think will work well.  I was careful not to get shoes that are too expensive, though.  I have been warned about shoe thieves: apparently they will occasionally abscond with particularly nice brands if given the opportunity. 

Finding some good walking shoes for Jeremy might prove a bit more challenging; usually he wears sneakers these days if he's going to be going any distance, and those won't really work for this as we'll need to be dressed up for several meetings.  I'm sure we'll figure something out before we go!

~Jess