The Jade Panda

Wow – I just read this post from Two Ladybugs. It makes all of the waiting and frustration seem like a minor roadblock. All the best to you!

For several years, my husband and I have been talking about learning to golf. A few months ago, some friends asked us to meet them at Top Golf.  This place is a driving range cum bowling alley and a lot of fun! Each golf ball is “encoded” with your name. When you step up to the golf tee, you run it under a scanner. A nearby computer screen tells you that it is your ball and you swing… if you hit one of several targets you get points. You can play against other folks and the system keeps track of your total points and your handicap.  Plus… they serve food and beer? What else do you need?

We enjoyed our Top Golf outing so much that we signed up for lessons with a pro. We had five lessons with the final on a local course.  We learned posture, how to extend our right arm… and on and on and to finally, relax and hit the ball! The pro was great and now we are a little obsessed with golf. We each bought a starter set up clubs this week. The number of golf club makes and models and the range of costs are overwhelming. We ended up buying cheaper sets and we’ll upgrade if we end up playing a lot. Of course, my set is pink. I am not a “girlie” girl, but there are really not many choices in women’s golf clubs. So, pink it was. We debated heading out to a course today to “inaugurate” the clubs, but it gray and raining here. So, I think we are going to head out to Top Golf.  Let the obsession continue…

Referrals are here! Congrats to all of the new parents.

To China for Love
Vivian Xiao-Ge
Waiting for Landree
Jukanovich
Jiejie and Meimei
Winding Vines
Alyssa Brooke
Baby Berwick
Becky Singleton Blog
And Shayla Makes Three
Doodlebug’s Baby Bug
Donna and Jeff
The Ost Family
Nevada Clan
Waiting for Junie
Alexandra Li
Michayla Comes Home
Tada
Beyer Family
The Story of Mattie
Fertilely Challenged
Alyssa
Emily Jia Yi
Lyndsay Schmidt

In the world of Chinese adoption, the Log-In Date (LID) starts the adoption clock ticking. As of today, ours has been ticking for a year.

In many ways, I feel like nothing has changed in the past year… but, in fact, it has. When we started this process, we were apprehensive about being parents. Today, we are certain. When we started, adoption costs and lifestyle changes were scary considerations. Today, we have figured out how to fund the adoption (without debt!) and are looking forward our parenting lifestyle. Sometimes I think that “just getting pregnant” would have been easier (which, in reality is not always easy). However, having time to plan and prepare mentally has been good.

Ok – enough introspection for one day!

Yesterday we were “re-fingerprinted” for the adoption. Our US government approval is good for 18 months. However, the fingerprints that are associated with this approval are only good for 15 months (go figure). So, for another $140, we waited in three lines at the USCIS for our second set of digital fingerprints. My fingerprinter was very friendly, so I asked her why they expire. It wasn’t that fingerprints change, it is that people do things to their fingers that change the print. For example, they cut their thumb and it leaves a permanent scar. She told me a story of a guy who was there for his greencard. The first time she fingerprinted him, all was well.  When he came back 15 months later, he had cut off the tips of three fingers! Ugh.