Waiting for LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I finally left that waiting for LID pity party and have moved on! This is a huge step, but for the past several days I was still too mad and sad to appreciate the  progress we are making. finally.
 The kids are off of school all week for Mardi Gras so today we took a trip to the zoo.

my boys

oh my!



LID!!!!!!!!!!

We finaly have our LID!!!!! It took forever and the date is way later than it should be. We were DTC 1/18 and LID 2/16. What a mess.  Now on to the next wait :-) YAY us!

Mardi Gras time

We are not really all that into the whole Mardi Gras thing in our house. The last couple of years I have given in and brought the kids to a parade in our area. A friend goes with me and the kids and we find a spot near someplace good to eat. We get there early, take our time with dinner and head out to the parade. Here are a few really bad cell phone pics from last night. Not sure if this will work. Trying to post from phone.
Still no LID. Really P.O.d and getting angrier with every day that passes.

Ok, the pictures look really bad, but it works I guess

Still no LID

Still no information on my LID. This is torture. :-(

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day my beautiful Ella Kate. Hugs and kisses, across the world, from me to you. We love you!

Parade time

Yesterday got better as the day went on. I had my little pity party then admitted that all the crying and pouting would not change anything so I went on and enjoyed the day with my boys. We had our little neighborhood parade yesterday. It was really cold, but Evan and Brandon had a blast. Jordan, not so much. He is just too old for that. But he did come out to watch his little brothers have a good time. It is a little parade with families from the neighborhood in trucks or golf carts, even some wagons. It's cute. We will hit a real parade next weekend. Here are a few pics from said parade.

                                                           My sweet boys

                                                                   All of my boys

                                                              Here comes the parade!

                                                              Throw me something mister!

                                                                      Nice catch!

You have got to be kidding. Right?

We were DTC 1/18, so I was expecting a little delay in our LID due to CNY. So I have been in contact with our agency and they say they check and no news for me. I have tried to be patient as I see people logged in that were DTC after me. Last night at about midnight I was awake because I have been so stressed out about this and I emailed my agency again about our LID and that I was worried because our 6  month mark to have our dossier there had come and gone and I was worried that with CNY that maybe we were stuck at the bottom of the pile that had accumulated over the holiday. I asked if they could track the package and make sure it arrived so that my dossier was not floating around or sitting in a sorting facility of some shipping company. I get an email this morning tha they did look into it (I guess they knew this wait was not right) and come to find our there WAS a problem with the courrier that they didn't deliver it until earlier this week. WHAT?????????????? Am I a little upset? No, of course not. I am ALOT upset. I have been in tears for the last 2 hours. My husband came in the room and I was so upset that he thought we had lost Ella due to not being logged in in time. I am soooo mad. This is lost time that cannot be made up. How does this happen? They also delayed my I800a. They were suppose to have a 4 day turn around, which I paid for, that ended up taking 16 days. Oops. another snag.  I worry what the rest of this journey will look like. This is suppose to be a happy time and honestly I am just pissed off and sad. Don't they know there is a child sitting in an ORPHANAGE! These last couple of post have been so down and negative. That is not what I started this blog for. I don't want to come off like a Debbie downer, but I am not happy right now.
 Oh well, I am going to spend the afternnon with my boys. We have our litle neighborhood Mardi Gras parade in about 45 minutes so hopefully they will enjoy that. Then we will find something to keep ourselves busy for the rest of the day and keep my mind off of this inexcusable mistake. Grrrrrrrrrr.........
 On a positve note, my agency is corresponding with me on a Saturday. I do appreciate that. I also understand that the courrier thing was not my agency's doing. They trusted this courrier to deliver the package. Still not happy though.

No LID yet :-(

Well I heard from my agency and they still do not have my LID. They say that I probably have one but it's not in the system yet or something like that. To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. The highs and lows of this process are grueling. I know that this whole process is worth it, not a doubt in my mind, but not to have any control over things is so frustrating. I am soooo bummed out about this. I read the blogs and boards and I am happy for all of the good news, although it has been slow for everyone. Anyway, it drives me crazy with the time frame for things to happen. FBI took 2 solid months to get our prints back to us. 2 MONTHS. Immigration took 60+ days to get us our approval. Are you kidding me? Now, here is what kind of gets to me a bit. I hear some people get their FBI done in a couple of weeks, and now immigration has really been picking up the pace. I hope this doesn't sound wrong because I only want fast approvals for everybody, but it semes like I get in the wrong lines at the wrong time. Ya know what I mean. I just want to go get our girl so she can be part of our family and I can know that she is loved and safe. Boohoo. Having a bad day. I know that everyone goes through the ups and downs and everyone has to wait, some even longer. I just wish the whole process was timely across the board. Oh well, I could go on and on with this little pity party, but enough of that. I am off to dinner with a good friend tonight and hopefully everyone that is waiting will wake up to some good news tomorrow.

Nesting??

So, I talked to my agency today to ask about my LID. She said I should have it tomorrow. I am hoping that the date is a week or so ago and not tomorrow. Either way we are ready to move on with this. This whole process is so incredibly slow. Painfully slow.
 Aaanyway, I went shopping after picking up the kids from school and bought some new bedding for my two boys who will soon be room mates. My liitle one loves it and my middle thinks it's kind of baby-ish. It might be a liitle young for him, but the quilt is reversible and the back side is a nice green, cream and brown. It doesn't sound nice, but it really is. He was a little resistant, but a  bribe of some little lego toy and all of a sudden it wasn't so bad. It will look great with the new bunk beds we are getting. It is exciting to start getting the rooms together. We will get the boys settled then get Ella Kate's room ready.( I love typing her name. Still trying it out to see if we will call her Ella or Ella Kate, maybe both, depending on the mood).
 Oh, BTW. Way to go Giants!!!! I am a Saints fan because I have to be, but I tend to pull for our hometown boys., Eli and Peyton. I love the Manning's. Probably a little too much. I wanted a Peyton Manning Colt's jersey. Hubby would not have it. No way, no how. He did the next best thing and got me an Archie Manning Saints jersey. hmmm, o.k., I guess.
 I'm heading to bed excited thinking about getting our LID tomorrow!!!!

Furniture shopping #*@!

When did furniture shopping become so unpleasant. It is about as enjoyable as being approached by car salesmen when you walk on the lot. This is what furniture shopping has become. We are in need of a few new items. We need bunk beds for the younger boys and a new set for Ella's room. I am also always on the lookout for something new for the den. Our sofa has seen better days and the stand that the T.V. is on is just dated. When I go into a furniture store I want to look all around. bedrooms, dens, t.v. stands, just all over. These days, when you go into these stores, the sales people approach you as soon as you walk in the door wanting to know what you are looking for, blah, blah , blah. So, me, I'm just looking. them, for what? me, just looking. So then it's o.k. if you need me here's my card I am so and so. So I start making my way around the store and it seems like they are every where I turn. Just kind of following me around. This makes me incredibly uncomfortable. These stores are huge, so it is no coinkydink that they are always in the same area as me. Then, maybe I see somethig I like and I want to bring hubby back to see. Keep in mind that I needed NOTHING from salesperson number 1. We go back to the store and someone else helps us and is not nearly as over bearing as #1, we like this guy. Well, I show hubby and want to go back the next day to make the purchase. I know the other SP will be there lurking in the entrance. Will she remember me? Will she give me the stink eye because we are using the other guy? Well, I don't know. Now I am so uncomfortable that I don't even want to go back to the store. Now instead of getting our new gorgeous t.v. stand yesterday, I am going to wait a while until I think she forgot me or until hubby will go back alone. Am I a whimp? Yes, yes I am, and I cannot stand to feel uncomfortable like that. O.k., that was alot of nothing about nothing, but it drives me crazy!