Why does something 12 days away seem like it’s coming at 100 miles and hour? And at the same time why does something just 5 days later seem like it’s never going to get here? (a = airport; and L = Lili) 

As part of the preparations for our trip I’m doing my impression of a human pincushion getting the following vaccinations: TDAP – That’s tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis or whooping cough; Hepatitis A; and a Flu Shot – just because. In addition I’m also taking the Typhoid vaccine -which is given orally over 8 days. Plus I’m fasting in preparation for my blood work this morning so I can find out if my southern heritage and genetics have doomed me to a bland diet devoid of the four major food groups – fried food, sugared food, lard, and sweet tea.

Hopefully my newly acquired tastes for oatmeal and wine – although not at the same time – will have fortified my body with enough anti-oxidants to get my cholesterol below the magic number of 200. Wish me luck.  

A-Day feels like a freight train and I’m wondering how I’m going to get everything done before we leave. We have no baby gates installed; the liquor hasn’t been moved to a high shelf, no crib, no changing table, no car seats, etc. But we have a beautiful room for Lili to come home to and L-Day can’t come soon enough because she’s all that matters.  

Back to my school work before I start my actual work today. -t      

As we prepare the house for Lili, Catherine has pointed out that our house tilts to one side because of all our books. So as she prepares to give up her office for Lili’s room and officially become a gypsy inside her own home, it’s been pointed out that I have books in almost every room of the house and I might be able to get rid of one or two – thousand.

While I was initially skeptical I realized that no one really needs three copies of Burgess’ Clockwork Orange and I probably won’t be refering to my 1989 edition of Law and Mass Communications any time soon – and if I did it would be a bad decision. So book by book I’ve filled three boxes with stuff I haven’t looked at in years, despite having moved some of the books from Missouri to Virginia to Connecticut and then back to Virginia from there to North Carolina and onto Philadelphia then to Massachusetts and finally to Rhode Island. 7 states in only 9 years, making many of my books better traveled than some Rhode Islanders. I guess all people have addictions, mine just happens to take up space, costing both $$ and sweat to move. 

The main benefit of clearing out books is the extra space and reduced clutter of stacked books everywhere. The side benefits include a strange freedom and lightness of spirit – which could just be all the dust causing hallucinations – and a realization that our daughter will be here shortly and she needs her space, for her stuff. Hopefully I won’t infect her with the pack rat compulsions handed down to me by my parents, I can only hope nature overwhelms nurture on this one.

Photos are coming soon because I realize that the blog is a little text heavy and could use a graphic or two to create some white space and hold the reader’s interest. Sorry about that I was channeling journalism school for second…. good night. -t

Today started with an all too rare dose of sunshine and the realization that this Christmas morning would be our last without our daughter. Sometimes the fact that we are about to be parents doesn’t seem real. We won’t have any more pictures nor any more information before we travel so sometimes it seems like a dream ans we’ll wake up before the happy ending comes. Hopefully next week we’ll find out when we travel but like so many things in this process, we’ll probably end up waiting longer than normal, although as they say “…good things come to those wait” and Lili is absolutely the best thing possible. That being said we are tired of waiting for her.

Our morning was quiet with only our 4-legged canine baby,  Maggie, getting our sole attention. We admired this year’s present to each other – a beautiful flat-black, wood stove insert with two, count them two, stainless steel chimney liners. This unexpected purchase pretty much eliminated the possibility of a last minute trip to somewhere exotic, with fruit drinks and warm waves lapping the beach. I’ll post pictures of this beauty in action with a roaring fire, although we are still limited to starter fires in order to “break in” the stove. Between the stove and the our new storm windows Catherine is actually enjoying sitting by the window in the mornings, something she hasn’t done in the winter since we moved in.

I’ve been asked to post more pictures, which shouldn’t be a problem for a photographer, so I’ll try to add more in the coming weeks, but I have to admit it’s difficult now without any new photos of our daughter. Of course once we go to China there’ll be pictures galore, so stay tuned.

If anyone has problems getting registered, please let me know and I’ll be glad to help you because once you’re registered you can make comments and I can let you know when there is something new. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all. -t

With the imminent arrival of Elizabeth Li we’ve begun the traditional nesting process. Unlike other families in our adoption group who had a crib before putting in their paperwork, we are just getting around to thinking about those kinds of things. Catherine and Christine went out Friday afternoon to register for a variety of things we need, like baby gates in triplicate, car seats in duplicate and many other items most of which make my head spin when I start to think about them. 

Our friend and artist Sara Lee comes on the 29th to begin the mural painting. She leaves on the 1st so my guess is we’ll all be working a few extra hours getting the babies room ready for furniture. As part of the prep work we had the room’s windows restored and made lead safe. No colors have been picked out yet but there is talk of an animal scene possibly involving at least one naked mole rat wearing lederhosen. I’ll let Catherine explain that one. 

In addition to working on the Lili’s room in the last 6 months, we’ve had our front porch rebuilt – it looks great, new storm windows through-out the house, a brand-new wood stove insert because our fireplace was just not safe, all the double-hung windows in the house either tuned or restored, 3 new storm doors are being built for us, the bay window on the side of our house raised, stabilized, braced, and a new surround built for it, plus who knows what else. It seems new workmen show up at our house on a weekly basis and checks fly out of our checking account almost as fast. 

The online nesting is proceeding as well. The blog is up and seems stable. Everyone should be able to post comments although you do have to register in order to do so. If you can’t post, please let me know. We’ll be adding new features and other exciting things, as soon as we figure out how to do so,  at least until we leave for China. Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Ciao.