The tale of a stubborn raccoon

Here is what eventually happened with the raccoon.....
Our damper in the fireplace is broken so the raccoon guys, as I like to call them, had to make up something to try to keep the damper closed so they could pull the raccoon up from the top of the chimney. They show up Wednesday afternoon and now there are two of them as one needs to be on the roof and one in the family room. They make a bunch of noise to scare her up into the chimney. We take a peek in the fireplace and no raccoon. The damper gets secured and then they fish a line from the roof down the chimney. They can't see her in the chimney so they thought that she was sitting on the smoke shelf up above the damper. One guys stays on the roof and the other comes into the family room to scare her farther up the chimney so they can grab her. I end up holding the barricade for the guy so I am standing right beside the fireplace. I am looking into the firebox and thinking that all the debris in the back kinda looks like a raccoon face...how funny. While I am laughing to myself, the raccoon peeks her head out from the side of the firebox through a tiny little vent at the side. I scream......and scare her and the raccoon guy!!! She had been hiding the whole time and was NEVER up in the chimney. We put the barricade back and the raccoon guy goes out to the truck to get something. I am holding the barricade!! I is at this point that the raccoon decides to freak out and get out of the fireplace NOW. She starts banging on the barricade and sticking her paws under the wood to try to get out. I am the only one there and I am kicking at the barricade with my feet, I only have flip flops on. Not the recommended footwear for raccoon catching. I have visions of being mauled by a really angry raccoon.

So now we have a damper that is wired shut and a raccoon trapped in the firebox with only one way out, through my house!!  They ended up going in and grabbing her with their gloved hands and a noose and dragging her out. She did manage to bite one one the guys twice but they have Kevlar gloves on so no damage done.  She was very tired and went to sleep in the cage. She was reunited with her babies and after a couple of days together they will be released together way out in the country somewhere far from here. I am glad that they are back together....even more glad that they are not together in my chimney.

The Barricade

 They raccoon guy didn't charge me any more than his original quote, the one where she was supposed to just go into the crate on the chimney. I though that was very nice of him considering all that had to be done to get her out. Both guys said that they have been doing this for a long time and have never run into a raccoon like this one. This stuff only happens to us :)

On the Roof

The Aftermath

Rocky the Raccoon

Now back to packing.....we leave in 4 more sleeps :)

Adoption showers, dolls, raccoons and we leave in one week

It has been a while since I have posted on the blog. I have no idea where to start so I will put up some pictures and then try to explain what is going on in our lives! We leave in exactly one week :)

 

The doll that I ordered for Sofie came in the mail the other day. She is just adorable. I can hardly wait until Sofie sees her. It was hand made by a woman in British Columbia. I love her!!!!

 

Our friends Trish and John hosted a shower in Sofie's honor on Sunday. It was wonderful and we had a lovely time. All our friends were there and it was a beautiful way to celebrate our journey to Sofie. I just want to thank Trish and John and everyone who came by or sent their good wishes to us. We really appreciate all the support and all the lovely things that people gave both Sofie and Ainsley!!!

 

Now on to the fun stuff. Yes, that is a raccoon trap on top of our chimney. What we thought were birds nesting in our chimney turned out to be a Mama raccoon and her two babies. The "raccoon guy" removed the babies without running into any problems with Mama. He then put the trap on top of the chimney and we barricaded the fireplace hearth. All she had to do was climb into the trap at night when she went to go get food. No such luck!!! I am starting to think she likes it in there. She also tried to make a get away via the family room in the middle of the night in between all the times she woke us up . The chimney runs up our bedroom wall:) We now have fort Knox in the family room and a raccoon that won't leave!!! The babies are being looked after by the "raccoon guys" daughter until Mama Raccoon faces up to the responsibility of parenthood and gets into the trap so she can go see her babies. They will then all be released together to live happily ever after somewhere else!!!! So yes, with one week until we travel, I have been pushed over the edge of insanity, not by an adoption or the prospect of lengthy travel with a 6 year old, but, by a raccoon :)

 

Fort Knox!!! Two pieces of plywood, two 2X4's and 8 screws!!

 

It is funny world

I have been amazed, through the whole adoption process, by the links and friendships that are formed seemingly just by chance, or maybe, by a greater design.

Jim got involved with a group several years ago that travels to other countries to perform various surgeries on children. It was before we had started or even seriously thought about adopting and even before the birth of our oldest daughter. For those of you who don't know, Jim is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. Through Children's Surgery International he has travelled many times to Mexico to participate in a two day cleft lip/palate repair mission. He has helped transform the lives of so many children and there families. I had always had a feeling since we started in the China adoption program that the daughter that we would be led to would be cleft affected. I can't explain it! It was just a feeling that I had even though we were open to many different needs. I just figured that there was a reason that Jim got involved with the surgery group. He also works with many of the surgeons and has travelled on these mission trips with them. These are the same surgeons who will do the palate repair on our daughter.

There is another group that does similar work in China but on a more permanent basis. Love Without Boundaries works in several orphanages and performs many different surgeries on the kids but also has set up healing homes to help the children both before and after surgery. They are one of the agencies at work in Sofie's orphanage along with Half The Sky. These two agencies are amazing and do fantastic work. LWB currently has volunteers in China now on their yearly cleft exchange where volunteer surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists perform repairs on many kids. The following is a link to the blog post from today:

LWB

We will be unable to find out if LWB played any part in Sofie's lip repair until after we are home. We are not permitted to ask them any specific questions until the adoption is complete. As I read their blog post I was taken aback with the story at the end of the young mother who brought her infant daughter hoping that the doctors could fix her because in two days her family was taking her daughter away to be abandoned as they didn't want a cleft affected child living with them. My heart aches for all the Mother's who whether willingly or unwillingly had to make the extremely painful and difficult choice to abandon their child. Jing Jing's china mother loved her very much! I am certain of that because of where and how she was left for others to find. I cannot imagine the pain, heartache, anguish and wondering that Sofie's china mother will have to endure for the rest of her life and I will never be able to let her know that the daughter she loved so much is well, cared for, loved and cherished.

Tomorrow night is Children's Surgery International's annual benefit. I love going to the benefit because they raise a lot of money to help more kids and they really do a great job of showing people the work they do and how it impacts the children's lives. It is the last night before we travel to China that Jim and I will be able to get a babysitter and go out as a couple, just the two of us, for a while. I am worried that I will not be able to make it through the whole night without becoming a blubbering heap of tears!!! They do a video presentation which normally makes me tear up and that was before I had a daughter waiting for me half way around the world!! Seems like a appropriate last date before China! I need to stock up on Kleenex tomorrow :)

 

18 days and counting!!!

I am testing my new blogging app today before I go to China!!! I hope this works because I have no idea what I am doing!!!!!

 

Three weeks to go!!!!

We leave in three weeks!!! The airfare is booked, all the hotels are booked and we have a preliminary itinerary. I had to book one of the hotels myself and our agency did the rest. I ended up having to call the 1-800 number for the Holiday Inn to book it as the web site would not let me book four people in one room. It is a fire code there.....it is a way to make more $ there. I had to book two rooms and in all the confusion I forgot to downsize the suite when I added the second adjoining room to it. We now have a large suite with a separate bedroom and sitting area with a standard double room attached to it. Our hotel room in Guangzhou has been affectionately labelled the party room by my travel mates.

I am going to start blogging from my iPad from now on as I need to figure it out before we go. I am also having a hard time typing as I smacked my elbow, the funny bone not so funny, in the door jam at work on Friday and my wrist has been in pain since then. I think I really hit the ulnar nerve as my wrist joint and two fingers feel like bone is grinding on bone. I am now wearing a splint which helps the pain but not my typing. Of course it is my right wrist too.

I am slowly plowing my way through my "to do" lists but it seems like every time I knock a few things off the list I add about 10 more :)

Friday the 13th...pooohy!

Wow, what a day.
I finally got our tickets booked and we have a way to get to China, I am still working on where to stay :) Today was an amazing day. I will refer to the two aforementioned friends as CL and TV. The flights I booked are the same ones that CL has booked from the US to China. We will no longer meet in China, rather at LAX and then both of our families will travel to China together. We didn't plan it that way, it is just how the flights worked out! WOW!
More WOW!!  TV received her TA today and not Monday as we had feared would happen. Our agency has requested that her CA is on May 22, same as ours. Our family will be in China with our friends and their families. I cannot even begin to express to you how that makes me feel. I am overwhelmed with how this whole process has turned out. I would not have dared hoped two weeks ago that everything would turn out this way.....we are so very lucky, fortunate and blessed.........did I mention slightly poorer that we were this morning too :)

We have a CA

It is official....we have a CA (consulate appointment) date. It is May 22!!!! Here is our tentative schedule. We leave May 8, are in Beijing May 9-13, Hefei May 13-18 and Guangzhou May 18-24. I still have to book our air tickets to China and then the agency looks after everything else....that part scares me :) The day we meet Sofie and she becomes part of our family forever will either be on Mother's Day or the day after Mother's Day. A Mother's Day I won't soon forget :)
We were going to leave a week earlier but I called the agency and told them to postpone for a week. WHAT!!! you say. After all the whining and complaining I actually have the gall to postpone it for a week. Well, there is a story. Here is the story I wouldn't tell you last night for fear something would go wrong.

It started sometime before Christmas when a person that my husband works with and a member of an online chat group that I frequent contacted me for the password to Sofie's blog. The coworker is with the same agency as we are and we had a lot in common. We have become good friends. It is amazing to be able to share the ups and downs with someone else who just gets it. We will both be off this summer so I am looking forward to some fun times. The other woman, we found out after she logged into the blog that our daughters are in the same orphanage. She had no idea when she contacted me.
I had given up on being able to travel with either one of them until the twists and turns of waiting in international adoption kept bringing our time lines closer and closer together. We all waited too long for some stuff and got other stuff very quickly. I had started thinking that the "coworker, for lack of a better term, and I where very much on the same timeline but the RQ friend was planning on traveling in late May and I was leaving May 2 no matter what.......funny how things work out.

The RQ friend got her TA super fast and the "coworkers" TA got delayed and mine came in the middle. I could leave May 2 but it would be without either one of them. It was a difficult decision for me, not for Jim, he just said well we wait a week. So we decided to wait for a week in order to have the wonderful opportunity of traveling with two people whom I consider good friends and being able to share a once in a lifetime story with them. I am so lucky.

The RQ friend is bringing her daughter with her, she is just a little bit younger than Ainsley,  and her soon to be daughter is just slightly older than Sofie. It hasn't quite sunk in that we will all be there together...none of the last couple of days has totally sunk in yet. I feel like I am living a surreal dream. Now we all only need one more TA for all of this to work out :)

TA.....we are going to CHINA!!!!

At precisely 10:27 this morning, the phone rang. I had left messages for a couple of people to call me back so I didn't think anything of it. It was our agency and I honestly cannot remember what she said. Something about approval to travel and CA dates!!! I couldn't even speak properly. I was not expecting the call today at all. I had resigned myself to next week already and was already altering the dates we might go. From down to up again!!
Tomorrow I will find out for sure when our confirmed CA date is and I will post more then. I don't want to jinx anything tonight. I will only say that we are leaving a week later than expected and I will let you know why tomorrow :)

No TA

There were a lot of TA's issued today, ours was not one of them. I am so happy for all those who received their good news :) I am trying to stay positive.......trying! I just wish that there was some sense to the whole process. TA's are supposed to be processed in order that the paperwork was received in Beijing. It is just hard waiting when you are waiting longer than others.......it will happen when it happens! Nothing I do will change that. I think this may be one of those things that it is not for me to know why now...I will figure it out later :)

The rest of the UPDATE

I opened my email this morning as soon as Ainsley got on the bus and I just about fell off my chair!! We received the rest of the update on Sofie including one picture and updated measurements. She is growing and looks happy. The best part of the update, they have told her about us and she has seen the pictures of us. She is also playing with all the items that we sent her in a care package at Christmas. The doll that she is so lovingly staring at is the one that we sent her. I cannot even put into words how it makes me feel to see her with all of the things that we sent her.  The fact that she now knows about us and has seen pictures  of us fills my heart with joy. I am absolutely in love with this little girl, our daughter. It also makes me want to get on a plane right now :)

The following is the update for:  Lu JingJing born 8/14/2009 and is at the CWI of Hefei City. 

 1.       Did they receive a care package for the child?

   Yes.

2.       Has the child seen the photos of the family?

   Yes.

 3.       Is she in a foster care home? If yes how long has she been there?

   No, she is in the orphanage.

4.       Can she put 2 words together yet?

   Yes, she can.

5.       Has she had any illnesses?

   No.

 6.       Can we get a new height/weight?

   Her height is 81 cm, weight 10.5 kg, head circumference 47 cm, chest circumference 47 cm and foot length 12 cm. She has 16 teeth.

7.       Can we get any new photos?

   There is a photo in the attachment.  

We are officially waiting for our TA

Finally confirmed that our Article 5 was picked up on 3/27 and was overnighted to the CCCWA in Beijing. We are on day 3 of our wait for our TA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One step closer to Miss Sofie Lu :)

UPDATE!!!!!!!

I was in the parking lot of Trader Joe's after work today and for some reason I decided to check my email on my phone which I never do as the writing is too small for me and I hate reading email in sections. There was an email from our agency....we have an update would you like me to forward it to this email.........YES....please!!! Sadly, there were no pictures and no measurements as they only got half the questions answered. Apparently our agency had two people trying to get the same update...again. This is the second time they have done this. In this age of instant communication you would think someone would communicate who is in charge of getting the updates :)
Anyway, I digress. I started to hyperventilate and then shake in the parking lot. Like an idiot I decide that going into the store and shopping would distract me from waiting for the update email. Yes, it came in the middle of my shopping. I was trying not to completely break down into a heap of joyous tears in the middle of TJ's. I think I stood in the same place in the store just reading the email over and over for a very long time as I was starting to get some stares from people. I still hope for some pictures and I would really like to know how big she is now as I have to clothe this child soon.
Well, I may not know how big she is or how she looks, but, I know what her nickname is :)

The following is the update for:  Lu JingJing born 8/14/2009 and is at the CWI of Hefei City for the Ducharme family:

1.     Does she sleep in a bed or a crib?

   She sleeps in a crib.

2.     Does she drink from a cup or does she still get a bottle?

   She can drink from a cup, but she drinks from a bottle mostly.

 3.     Does she get a lot of colds, ear or sinus infections?

   Occasionally she had some colds but never had any ear or sinus infections.

5.   Does she have a nick name,what is it?

   Yes, she has a nick name, little beauty (小美女).

4.     Does she have a favorite toy,what is it?

   She likes playing new toys and reading picture books.

5.     Who are her friends that she likes to play with?

   I do know the answer to question 5&6 :)

6.     -Which caregiver is she closest to?

7.     What soothes her when she is upset or angry?

    Playing with her, giving her some foods or toys and talking with her.

Thanks.

I also still do not know when if or how my Article 5 was picked up :)

The soap opera in my head!!!

So during this whole process, my mind always seems to imagine how things will work out and how things will happen and what my response will be. I call it the "soap opera in my head." You would think I  would have figured out by now that things never seem to work out how my brain invasions it. Things do work out just not according to the script! With the Article 5 pick up it was supposed to be "shout it from the roof tops!!! I am now waiting on our TA!!!! The final step!!!" This was to be broadcast all over the world wide web ;) Instead when I emailed our agency to find out if our paperwork had been picked up this is the response I received:

Bonnie,

I did not get an email last night from our rep in Guangzhou.  I’m sure that she did, but just didn’t send me an email. I will let you know as soon as I hear from her.

In addition, you may receive an email from the consulate in Guangzhou.  They sometimes contact families directly to let them know that the Article 5 has been picked up.

There was no, "let me check on that for you....I will email our rep and find out"  I still have not heard anything new today other than the email I received from the Consulate telling me that our Article 5 was ready for pick up on March 27. So at least I know it is done...I just don't know where it is. We may or may not be waiting for our TA.....doesn't have the same punch as my original script! I am trying to find the positive aspect of all of this....I haven't yet. I have faith though. Every time something doesn't go according to plan, there is usually a reason for it. I will let you know if I figure this one out. Stay tuned :)

It is March 27 in China

It is now March 27 in China...Article 5 pick up day!! It is now 10:30 am so business should be in full swing at the Consulate. I have no idea what time they pick up the stuff or even how long it takes to courier it to the CCCWA in Beijing. I am a total mess today :) Part of me, I think, thought that we would never get to this point. I cannot believe that we are nearing the end of all of this. I have that knotted icky feeling in the pit of my stomach again. I have had that feeling for about a year now, ever since we switched from Ethiopia to China. I have not had that feeling for the past two weeks......believe it or not, I kinda missed it. The wait for your Article 5 pick up is an automatic two weeks for everyone, no variables involved, nothing to be stressed over.......boring!!!!  It was not a normal feeling for me. I have that feeling back now!  Maybe it is comforting as it is what I know and it means we are still moving forward to our daughter. Who knows!!!!

Hopefully I will hear something from our agency regarding our status tomorrow morning. I am still waiting and hoping that we get some sort of an update on Sofie too! I will let you all know something as soon as I do :)

Chinese Visas

Friday our passports returned to us via Fedex with our wonderful travel visas inside. I am very relieved to have them back as it is very unnerving to have your ability to travel to see family so limited. While they were only gone for a week, it is still a very odd feeling to know that you cannot cross the border whenever you want to..and it is only 6 hours away. I have never had a visa in my passport before. Everywhere I have travelled before I did not need one. Ainsley thought it was so "awesome" that the picture of the Great Wall is on our visa.  The Chinese government says it is OK for us to travel in China, now all we need is for their agency that oversees adoptions to say that it is OK for us to come and get Sofie....the TA!

Tuesday March 27 China time our paperwork should be picked up from the US Consulate and then sent to the CCCWA in Beijing. So that will be late Monday evening our time so I will not hear anything until Tuesday...I think I got that straight.  That is the day we start our wait for TA! This is the last and final step other than the travel and the actual adoption in China. We have reached the last step! I cannot even begin to explain the emotions that this statement brings over me. We are so close to finally seeing our daughter and being able to hold her and be her Mommy and Daddy. Every time I think of the fact that we will be waiting for our TA I just swell up with emotion and tear up.

I looked back at my old calendars (yes I keep them) today and I figured out that it has been 3 years since we started this journey. It seems like a lifetime some days. June 9, 2009 was our first meeting with the first agency that quashed our hopes of a domestic adoption. We were told that for the age we were looking for, we would have to foster first and we didn't feel like that was the path that was right for us. The only avenue left open to us was international adoption but we couldn't adopt through Canada as we no longer had a residence there and we couldn't adopt through the US as neither of us were US citizens. We then started the process of becoming citizens, the journey through the Ethiopian adoption process, the loss of the Ethiopian adoption process and a little girl from Haiti who opened our eyes as to the path that we were supposed to be on. Finally, we arrived where we are now. It has been a long journey, yet, not as long as some people's. We are now where we are supposed to be, soon to be on our way to China :)

Confusion

I am a little confused right now! The social worker who is in charge of our home study emailed me today and said that we need to do an update to our home study. I didn't think anything of it until I had a chance to think about it for a while. I do not know why we need one. Our current home study was completed in June so it hasn't been a year yet. All I can think of is that they got wind of the fact that my stress level is almost non existent during the wait for our Article 5 to be picked up so they decided to change that....just kidding.....sort of!
Yesterday we wrote a letter to Sofie telling her about us and her new home. It was actually a letter from Ainsley that was Ainsley approved. We have also asked our agency to try to get us an update on Sofie so I submitted a list of about 10 questions for the orphanage to answer. It was easy coming up with a list of questions to ask but it was really hard to narrow it down to only 10-12. There is so much that I want to know about her. Just think of never having met your child yet and you can only ask 10 questions right now. What would they be?
It is time to head off to bed now. I will let everyone know what I find out about our home study update :)

All things happen for a reason...it is not always ours to know why!!

After the drama last week of our not receiving the pdf at the same time as everyone else, I was able to sit down and ponder as to why this happened. Sometimes the reasons for things happening are not ours to know or are something that we are to learn along the way. Friday night I came to peace with the fact that our approval would not be dropped off that day, rather it would happen on Tuesday. I had an inkling as to why, but I thought I would wait until this week to see what happened.
I have met some wonderful people on this journey. No one knows or understands you like someone who has gone through the same things. One person works with Jim and they are with the same agency as we are. The other person I met on line by chance and our daughters are growing up together in the same orphanage in China. I feel like I have a connection with these two women like I have with no other. When our Article 5 drop off was delayed, it managed to bring us even closer to maybe ending up in China  together. Ours wasn't dropped off until Tuesday and they both received their pdf's today meaning they will be dropped off tomorrow. We are now just days apart in our time line. It is not a guarantee that we will meet in China, but the chances just got a whole lot better. Everything happens for a reason......you would think I would learn to trust in that :)

Article 5 Drop Off

Lots has happened since I last blogged, lots yet not a lot! We finally received the official word that our paperwork that is required for our Article 5 was dropped off by our agency rep at the US Consulate  in GZ China on Monday March 13, china time. It is scheduled to be picked up March 27, china time, and then sent hopefully quickly to the CCCWA in Beijing. This will begin the official wait for our TA. Yeaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been one stressed out individual this past week, probably the worst I have been through this whole process. I don't know if it is all the other stuff going on in our lives or just that fact that we are getting so close to finally meeting our daughter. This week I waited to be cabled, waited for a pdf, sent a care package complete with photo album and letter introducing ourselves to Jing Jing and filled out and sent away 3 Visa applications, complete with our passports for our trip.  This was by far the most difficult bunch of paperwork that I had ever filled out. I think that all the other paperwork you complete either in the hope that you will find your child or with the prospect of traveling to meet your child far off in the distance. This set and the care package were done with travel not too far off in the future. I was so afraid of messing something up that would delay us even farther that I think I had a complete mental breakdown. I couldn't concentrate and I would just freeze up every time I tried to move forward.

I was at the post office on Monday to send my care package to Sofie as a way to introduce us to her. It had to fit in a manila envelope. It basically was a photo album of us, Ainsley, our house, her room, the dogs and the grandmas and grandpas.  All was complete with labels in Chinese characters provided by our agency. They were also nice enough to provide us with a letter from us to the orphanage and Sofie, from us translated into Chinese. We had no input into the letter. Don't get me going on this one!!!! There was also the list of questions for the orphanage and a stuffed teddy bear that Ainsley had picked out for her sister. This was the hardest package to let go of. I must have checked it a thousand times to make sure I didn't forget anything and then I took a million pictures of it in case it doesn't come with Sofie on Gotcha Day (that is the day that we meet her in china). I also thoroughly quizzed the US Postal Service worker on the details of the package delivery, told him how important it was and who it was going to. I then gave him the evil stink eye in case they thought of losing said package!! I know, I have become a crazy person. Just imagine, you have been staring at a picture of a little girl for months now and this is your one chance to make a first impression with her.....nobody had better lose my package or my passports. Talk about weird......imagine putting the passports of your entire family in an Fedex envelope and sending them to a stranger in Chicago who now has to take them to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago so they can issue all of us travel visas. At least we don't have to be fingerprinted for this one :) You have to read the fingerprint post to understand this one. It is very funny :)
Here is the care package:

Yes, the photo album is in the form of a little pink clutch purse complete with a rhinestone clasp :) Ainsley helped pick it out!

I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders today. Everything else is out of my hands and I can just sit back, relax, enjoy the wait for our daughter and try to get the gazillion to do lists completed. Someone remind me of this zen moment about 3 days from now when I am freaking out again about something :)