Fall ramblings . . .

Hello family & friends. Forgive me for I have strayed. It's been several weeks since my last confession, I mean blog post. I've fallen off the blogger wagon and have failed to even add pictures from our beach trip in August, the first day of kindergarten, and my first triathlon. I could blame it on my laptop crashing, on the horrible funk that I slid into for a week (ok, maybe two weeks) last month, or many other things. But really, I just haven't gotten the hang of sitting down and rambling about the Huffman family adventures on a regular basis yet. I promise to do better. For now, I'll give a little 'catch up' on each of us. . .

Casey started the 3 1/2 year olds' preschool class a couple of weeks ago. He seems to really like it. He has the same teacher and assistant that Keller had two years ago. I told them that I thought they would notice that my kids are polar opposites in terms of personality--Keller is much more out-going and Casey is more reserved for example. When I picked Casey up the first morning of preschool, his teacher Sarah said, "I don't know why you think your boys are different--Casey is exactly like Keller was at the beginning of his year in this class. Couldn't sit through circle time, running all over the room. He even looks like a clone of Keller. He'll settle down though." All the while I'm standing there thinking, 'Ok, this isn't really making me feel better!' I was so hoping to have one kid who would be the quiet kid in school. No such luck. He has been doing a great job since then, but he did have his first time-out on Friday. When I picked him up I asked how school was and he said, "It was good but Nathan was doing it, too, not just me." Hmmmm. Turns out the two of them got a little goofy at the end of the day when they were doing their closing circle time. Casey showed me a reinactment of what he was doing in class, and I confirmed later with the teaching assistant that it was truly a "Keller Special" maneuver. Hee Hee. Other than school, Casey is just kind of going with the flow around here. He has his first little girlfriend. She's the younger sister of a boy in Keller's class. We see her when we walk to- and from- school every day and have had a few playdates. He always asks if he can take an extra snack along for her, draws her pictures--it's too cute.

Keller started kindergarten on September 2nd and so far, so good. He wasn't so sure about it during the first week. The first day was hard on he and I both--he almost started to cry when it was time to walk in the building and get started. He came over and put his head against me and it was touch-and-go for both of us there for a couple of minutes. His teacher was one of the assistant coaches for his soccer team in the spring, so that was a little reassuring for him (and for us--she's seen him in every mode ranging from 'just took a dose of Claritin and would like to nap on the side of the field' to 'I'm on fire and stopped counting how many goals I scored this game.') Lucky for us, especially in light of the fact that he woke up at 8:45 on the first day of school, Keller is in afternoon kindergarten. He takes after me and feels like nothing really important is meant to happen before 9:30ish in the morning. He goes to school from 12:15-3:30 which is working out perfectly for us. He really loves his 'specials'--he has Art, Music, PE, Library, Computer and Spanish. He has made some good buddies who live nearby. We all meet up at the bus stop at lunch time (which is only about 2/10 of a mile from our house), and then we all walk home from school together (which is about 9/10 of a mile from our house). He has mastered the art of climbing street sign posts all the way to the top--about 15 feet up. He is a natural climber and has a lot of arm strength in those spindly little twigs! He has recently gotten interested in baseball and seems to have some ability there, although catching is still kinda funny to watch! Lots of different versions of Keller basically giving himself a forceful hug while the ball either bounces off of him or flies off to the side. He will turn 6 in a couple of weeks and we are planning a big shindig for him. The kid has a lot of friends!

Dave is training for his second triathlon of the season. This one is coming up on October 12th and is about 2x the distances of our last one which we did on September 7th. He is taking his training pretty seriously and the boys & I are looking forward to cheering him on at his race. We'll be camping for the weekend and will drive over to the starting/finishing area on race morning to yell and scream (oh wait, that's probably what the boys will be doing to each other!)so we'll 'cheer' for Dave. His business continues to grow despite the dreadful economy. It's nice to have him working from home full-time, although we're still working out the kinks (hey, it's only been 19 months since his work-at-home arrangement started, give us a little time!).

Marley continues to grow and thrive, which would be so much more enjoyable if she happened to be on this side of the globe. She will turn 20 months old on Monday. We 'found' her when she was 13 months old, so she has grown and changed a lot since those first pictures we received. It is grueling to be missing all of that. It has been very hard to wait and wait, but we are still within a normal timeframe for the process. We expect to receive our next piece of paperwork from China soon, at least by the end of October. After that, we can expect to travel in somewhere around six weeks. I'm really excited for the trip for the obvious reasons, but also I can't wait to spend two weeks in China, with my mom. We are going to see some beautiful sights I'm sure, but I am anticipating some comical moments as well, like if we end up needing to use the 'squatty potties' that are found in many restaurants in China. The food will be a cool experience--Keller wants me to try some of the delicacies, like fried scorpion kabobs!

Who else . . .Wilson & Layla are a pair of tired old mutts these days. I think they sleep about 20 hours a day, and bug me the other 4. Wilson is still taking chemo drugs, steroids and the occasional antibiotic to keep his cancer under control. His quality of life is still very good and you wouldn't know he is sick if you saw him chasing squirrels and rabbits in the yard. His vet told me the other day that of all the dogs she has tried on this new protocol, Wilson is the only one who has made it this far after being diagnosed. Most others only survived a couple of weeks to a couple of months. Wilson has been going strong for almost 9 months since we found out about his tumor. Layla is battling her third batch of bladder stones, so that's no fun for anyone, but she seems to be doing pretty well. These pooches have been around so long now--Layla is almost 12 years old and has been with us for 10 of those years. Wilson just turned 11 and has been with us for 8 of those years. Although they follow me around and drive me nuts on a continual basis, they are so much a part of the Huffman family that I can't even let myself think about what it will be like without them someday.

I guess that just leaves me now to catch-up. I did my first triathlon on September 7th and although it was definitely a learning experience (like learning how to yank a wet ponytail holder out of my wet head so I could lower my ponytail to put my bike helmet on--this battle took me about 3 minutes!!) I am really proud of my accomplishment. I felt best during the swim, which was the one event that had always turned me off of triathlons. The bike was fine and the run was brutal--due in part to being exhausted, having a mental block against running, and recurring pain where I had my foot surgery in February. But overall I finished thinking , "Well, Damn! I just did a freaking triathlon. Who gives a patootie if I didn't win the thing!" I don't have any other races on the calendar right now, but will hopefully do a couple more tris next year. I'm still teaching adult ESL two nights a week and am getting to know my new students. I have a huge class (30 people) so it is a bit exhausting at times, but I've got some really great folks in there with incredible life stories, which makes it interesting and worth the extra effort it takes to get to know each of them. My class is very diverse--students from nine different countries--and it's really cool to be a part of it. Students who can't even find each other's home countries on a world map end up being good friends--students from countries that have been at war with each other in recent history end up sharing rides to class--my students either don't have deeply held predjudices or they do a good job of checking them at the door.

I won't ramble on any longer, as I realize many people will have stopped reading about two paragraphs ago! I'll just end by saying that I feel like a really lucky lady every day of my life--I've got a patient and supportive husband who loves me even when I'm at my bitchiest or lowest points; I've got two handsome and amazingly entertaining little boys who still haven't figured out that I'm not perfect; and I've got a little girl on the other side of the world who will someday soon come home and give me another reason to thank my lucky stars for all the love in my life.

Hopefully the next time I post I'll be able to include my travel itinerary for China!

Summer is slipping away. . .

We've been busy having fun, and time is truly flying. Since my last post, we've taken a weekend trip to Lancaster, PA to camp and take the kids to their first amusement park, "Dutch Wonderland." It was fun, but definitely confirmed my suspicion that my sons were born with zero fear! I, on the other hand, had to take Dramamine for the car ride there, let alone the rides!

We spent five days visiting family in Pennsylvania. There are many cousins, aunts, and uncles who Keller & Casey don't get to spend enough time with. We got to see everyone many times during our visit, the boys got to experience what I had growing up--Gram & Pap's awesome swimming pool, lots of kids to play with, picnics in the pavilion. . .although we only make it up there once/summer, I'm so glad the kids can get at least of taste of what it feels like to have a large, close-knit family. My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary while we were there, which is amazing. Dave and I always joke that we only signed a 50-year agreement on our wedding day, and will consider going year-to-year after that :) Seriously, though, our wedding anniversary is coming up on Tuesday and I know that someday we'll be celebrating our 60th, too.

The boys participated in their summer running program again this year and loved it. I had a serious case of mama-guilt because I taught every Tuesday night and missed most of their running nights. I was able to make it on the last night for their final time trials, and loved being there to cheer the boys on.

We were excited to receive updated photos of Marley yesterday in the morning. She looks cute as usual and we can't wait to finally hold her. We are still expecting a travel date sometime in November, possibly December if things slow down due to the Olympics. We've sent disposable cameras in her care packages, so hopefully the nannies at her orphanage are taking pictures of her, her orphanage, and her friends so that we can show them to her as she grows up. We have a dresser full of clothes and I am refinishing a gorgeous antique bed for her room (although she will sleep in our room for as long as her heart desires!).

Dave and I continue to train for the triathlon we are doing on September 7th. Tomorrow I'll be doing a 'trial run' of the course with a friend. I've got the swim down well (although I'm not expecting to give Michael Phelps any competition!), the bike is fine, and I'm working on my mental block against running, which seems to have developed after my foot surgery in the winter. Of course, by the time I finish the 400m swim and 12 mile bike, I might not stand much chance of actually 'running' anyway!

Enjoy the slide show of recent pictures.

July and August 2008

Some recent pics of our trip to NC (and a few random shots!)

Woooohooooo! We have immigration approval!!

I am beyond excited. I did a dance, hollered and skipped until Keller ran away from me with a very concerned look on his face--I think he thought I'd truly lost my mind after years of threatening that it would happen!! I am sooooooooooo excited right now, and had a little too much coffee this morning. I feel like I need a human-sized hamster wheel to get rid of my excess energy right now!

I think I'm going to make the drive to Richmond on Monday to get it certified, then walk it through the authentication process in DC (two different offices for us VA residents) and get it off to BAAS (our placing agency) before we leave for vacation at Dave's mom's in NC. The rest of our dossier has been at BAAS for two weeks and is approved and ready to go.

Did I mention that I'm absurdly happy at this moment in time?! Our region typically takes around 9 weeks to process. Ours was 6 weeks and 2 days! Yipppeeeee!!!

June 2008 Fun in the Sun!

New Photos of Marley Rae!!! No hair anymore, but at least we see a cute shy smile!

Delfest May 2008

Massanutten Waterpark May 2008

Old School Keller Dance Party

We have been searching for this video on the home computer forever, and finally found it again tonight. This is from spring 2007, but is definitely worth pulling from the vault.

Videos

I finally had a chance to sit down and upload some recent videos to our blog, and also posted a longer update on what the Huffman Crew has been up to. Enjoy!

Casey's cute little speech

Casey has quite a few "Casey-isms". He brought in the periscope and telescope from the playset and told me he had a 'calculator' and a 'lookin' scope.' Then he proceeded to give them a variety of other names. Pretty cute to see his language developing.

Dinosaurland

At the tail end of a day on Skyline Drive, we went to a place called Dinosaurland. We pulled up and found a rundown, rather sad little park that was probably pretty cool twenty years ago. The kids loved it though, and the gift shop was awesome--every dinosaur item known to man!!

Keller shows off some funky dance moves

Here's Keller breaking it down for Grammy & Aunt Lel

Keller hulahooping at DelFest part 1

Keller learned to hulahoop at DelFest!

Moving right along . . . .

Our paperchase is moving along pretty quickly now. I walked some paperwork through one of the authentication offices in DC on Wednesday morning, then sent it off to the Chinese Embassy on Friday for the final necessary seals. When those are returned to us, we can send our entire dossier (minus the immigration approval) to our agency for it to be reviewed and prepared for submission to China. I had my fingerprints re-done at the immigration office on May 15th (thankfully the coordinator took pity on me and moved my reprint date up from the 22nd) and so far, we haven't heard anything. The last time, we got the notice about my unreadable prints one week after the prints were done. It has been over 2 weeks since the second appointment, so at this point, no news is good news. Hopefully we will receive our approval in about 5-7 weeks, and then everything will be done on the US side. Once our dossier arrives in China, we have been told to expect to travel in about 4-5 months. My mom will be travelling with me for the entire 10-12 day journey, and we are still hoping to find a way that Dave will be allowed to come for the first portion of the trip and then leave to be at home with the boys. We aren't sure yet whether the Chinese and US governments will allow it. Many families have done this type of arrangement in the past, but we have heard that it is becoming more difficult in some provinces. My mom has not flown much and has not travelled out of the country, so this will be really exciting for her. She will be there to meet her first granddaughter, and will get to see a part of the world that many others never will. I might have to give her the "Mr. T Treatment" (remember the A-Team?) on the long flights, but we'll survive!

We got an update on Marley last week, although no pictures this time : ( We know that she now says a few words, including the Mandarin words for "auntie", "grandmother", and "mother". These are the names by which the nannies in the orphanage are called by the children. She likes to play with dolls and is apparently a pretty good eater. We will ask for another update in a month, and hope to get some new pictures with it.

The boys are doing great and are just about to finish preschool for the summer. Keller will have an official graduation ceremony from his Pre-K class, sniff, sniff. Can't believe my baby will be a kindergartener in the fall. He has learned and grown so much this year in school. He has a really strong academic base to start kindergarten (which, on a side note, I can't believe that it is even necessary to have an academic base for kindergarten these days--I swear when I started kindergarten all I had to do was draw a stick figure, count to 10, and be potty-trained!). He can spell some simple words, read some sight words, do basic addition, knows more about biology and science than I do, and has grown and matured in the realm of social interactions. Although he still has a very deep well of energy to keep him going, he has it under control. . . for the most part! Casey will finish his first year of preschool next week and is going to be going to summer camp for a week at his school this year. It's a big step--staying away for 4 hours/day including lunch--but he's super excited about it. Casey has learned a lot at school this year, too and most importantly, he absolutely loves going. It has always been a priority to Dave and I that our kids have really positive experiences with their earliest school years, and I really think they've both had that at their school.

Last weekend we took the boys camping at a bluegrass festival in Maryland. It was an excellent weekend with great weather, great music, and great people. Keller & Casey made some friends as soon as we pulled in with the pop-up and I'm sure we'll be seeing them around at concerts and on some hikes this summer. The pool is open and we've enjoyed three trips so far this week. Warm weather, sunny skies, but freezing cold water!

Dave and I are training for a triathlon which will be on September 7th. It will be my first one, and Dave's first since his back surgery last year. Our good friends Amy & Chris will be doing it with us, as well as our neighbor/friend Lynn. My foot has almost completely recovered, but I'm still a bit ginger in the running department.

Our summer plans include a romantic weekend away in June (if Dave mentions where we're going to anyone, I'll give you $5 to call and tell me!); a trip to NC to visit Grandma Nancy & Big Old Bob; camping at Lake Anna with the Rigbys; a long weekend at the beach with Papa Jerry, Uncle Jim, and the Cators; a trip to PA to visit Grammy, Poppy, and to go to Grandma Dot & Pappy George's 60th anniversary party; a visit to the Bartos in PA; and a few other short jonts here and there with the camper in tow.

Come on down/up/over for a visit sometime soon!

Immigration delay, ugh.

I got a letter in the mail today saying that my fingerprints, which were taken on May 1st, came back as 'unclassifiable.' I need to go be re-printed, and the appointment they gave me is not until May 22nd. So, rather than being 1 week into the 7-9 week wait for our final piece of paperwork, we are 2 weeks away from even starting the countdown. The immigration clearance is the last document that we need to include in our dossier before it can be sent off to China. This setback will most likely mean a 3-week difference in how soon we can travel to bring Marley home.

So, so, so disappointing. She turned 15 months old on Tuesday, which means another month of her life has passed without us being there to see her grow and change.

I am trying to keep a positive outlook about it as best as I can. We were lucky to have received our Pre-Approval to adopt her in such a short time (2 weeks versus the 4+ we had been expecting). Our local immigration office typically takes 9 weeks to process applications, but has been completing them in closer to 7 1/2 weeks. With those shortened time frames, it makes up for the three 'extra' weeks we'll have to wait for our immigration clearance, right? Yeah, well, I'm trying to convince myself of that.

Marley's finding day anniversary

Today marks one year since Marley's "finding day"--the day she was found outside of a residential gate in her town. She was taken in to the orphanage, bathed, checked over, given fresh clothes and a bottle. Even at the tender age of 2 1/2 months, I am sure that our little sweetheart knew that something had changed forever in her life. I am sure that she cried for her mama and felt confused when her mama didn't comfort her. She has lived the past year with the love and care of a group of nannies who, by all accounts from other families who have adopted children from her social welfare institute, nurture these children and give them all of the love that they can. But it's not the same as the love of a mother.

My heart aches for Marley's birth family today, and especially for her birth mother. We will never know the circumstances that brought her family to the place where they felt her best chance at life would be with another family. Perhaps they felt they had no choice because of the 'one child policy' in China. Maybe they didn't have the money and resources to feed her, especially with her cleft palate. Regardless of how they reached the wrenching decision, I know that it must have been a very sad time in their lives. I took a few minutes today to try to imagine what this day must feel like for Marley's birth mother.

One year ago, she wrapped her baby girl in a blanket and said goodbye to her for the last time. She left her in an area where she knew she'd be found quickly. How her heart must have broken to hear her daughter's cries as she turned and walked away. She had loved and held that baby in her arms and in her heart for months already. It must have been agonizing to know that she would likely never know where her daughter grew up, who loved her, what she became. Maybe it brought her comfort to believe that her little baby would be treasured and loved completely by a family who could give her the life she had once dreamed of for herself as a little girl growing up in China. Perhaps she hid and watched until she saw that Marley had been found. Perhaps she changed her mind several times as she waited. Or perhaps she walked away as quickly as her grief-stricken body could carry her. I hope that she had someone at home, whether her husband, mother, or perhaps her firstborn child, to wrap her in their arms and tell her that she would be alright . . . that she would heal from this loss. . . that her grief would lessen . . . that she had made the best choice for her baby. As a mother, I cannot allow myself to go to the place of imagining living out the rest of my life without one of my children. As the mother who will have the privilege of watching Marley grow up and showering her with love every day, I wish that I could tell her birth mother how much we love her already, how deep our commitment is to her, and how grateful we are to have been given the honor of loving her daughter.

Please send a silent prayer for Marley and her birth family today, as the loss they all suffered weighs heavily on many hearts today.

I have a truly beautiful book called "The Motherbridge of Love" which I have been reading to the boys. The illustrations are amazing and the story is so sweet. It is a poem that was written by an adoptive mother. The poem is as follows:

"Two different lives shaped to make you one.
One became your guiding star;
the other became your sun.

The first one gave you life;
the second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love;
the second was there to give it.

One gave you a body,
the other taught you games.
One gave you a talent.
The other taught you aims.

One gave you emotions;
the other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile;
the other dried your tears.

One found a home for you
that she could not provide.
The other prayed for a child;
her hope was not denied.

And now you ask, of course you do,
the question others ask me too:
This place or your birth place--
which are you the daughter of?

Both of them, my darling--
and two different kinds of love."

Slideshow -- Spring Pics of Keller & Casey

Click here http://www.photoshow.com/watch/Gz7pr5Sj for more fun pics.

IMG_5814
Originally uploaded by hgdaisy

We have Pre-Approval from China!!

On Thursday, the 10th, we received an email from our agency saying that the Chinese officials had already sent our Pre-Approval (PA) notification!! Rather than waiting the 4-6 weeks we had anticipated, we received our PA only 2 weeks and 1 day after submitting it. We are busy at work on our dossier paperwork, and are thrilled that we were finally able to send a care package to Marley at her orphanage. I just cannot wait to bring our little girl home. We are hoping to travel in October or November, sooner would be great, but with the Olympics in Beijing in August, travel for adoptions will probably slow down quite a bit this summer. It may cause a bit of a backlog for the many appointments we will need to attend once we finally meet Marley in China. I'm posting her picture here, which was taken in mid-March. Isn't she just too cute?!