Shopaholic

My name is Shelley and I'm a shopaholic! I feel better already having admitted that. Today is now day 73 of our LOA wait. While sitting around today feeling sorry for myself I decided to take everything out of Ella Kate's closet just to see what I had. I knew it was alot. After clothing only boys for 13 years I was more than ready to shop for some cute girlie things. Well. shop I did. To excess? Um, yes, I think so. Especially now after I have taken it all out. Now this has been since July so it's not like I went out on a Saturday and came home with all of this stuff. Most of it is size 4, but there are some 5's for later ;-) Also, almost all of it was bought on sale. That being said, hubby still will not see this picture. It doesn't look like quite so much hanging in the closet, and in the drawers. Anyway, here it is.

socks and stuff

tutu's!

bows!

shoes

p.j.'s

swimwear

summer

more summer ;-)

dresses

fall/winter

Gasp! All of it!

I had so much fun shopping that I really had no idea that I had this much. Luckily I have a friend with a daughter that is a little younger, but smaller. She will get a lot of hand me downs. Or maybe we will get Ella a little sister down the line. I had a great time shopping, but I think I will stop. For now.

 To add to all of this, I also received this beautiful gift from my secret pal. Thank you so much. It really brightened my day and also arrived on Ella Kate's birthday. Her necklace will look so cute with any of these outfits!

Thank you so much. This will come to China with me!!

Day 71 :-(

These past few days have been incredibly hard. I am sad and I am really mad. This LOA wait is just awful. I just do not understand how this process works. Why are people that have LID after me already getting there LOA. It is not fair. I hate to complain because I know that there are people that have waited far longer than 71 days, but when I see people passing me by, AGAIN, it really gets me mad. I have to wonder how the system works over there. Why isn't there a system? Why don't they leave that office in the same order that they were logged in. Is that really such a difficult thing to accomplish? What do they do? Do they just throw them up in the air and whichever dossier lands on the desk is the lucky one? We have hit every holiday and delay possible and I am just pi$$ed. I am tired of waiting and I am sick of Ella not being with her family for another day of unfair waiting. And no one running any of this seems to care. I could go on and on about this and how unfair it all is, but it won't make a difference. Just having a really bad few days over here. Oh, and I just heard that they are having yet ANOTHER holiday over there. May something or other. Come on! We just want our daughter home.
 Sorry about all of the complaining today, just had to get it out.

Happy Birthday baby girl!!!!

 Right now it is a little after 8 a.m. in China. I hope Ella Kate woke up happy this morning. Today is her 4th birthday. I would guess that she doesn't know that her birthday is today. So sad. We had a cake sent to her and asked that it be delivered on or very near her birthday. We also sent a care package that she should have received last week. I hope that from this, she now knows that something is happening. I hope she had or will have a great little celebration, eating her cake with her friends. I really wanted to be there by her birthday. We are terribly sad that she is spending another birthday in an orphanage. On the bright side, this is it sweet pea! No more birthdays with our your family! We will have a little cake here tomorrow for her. I probably should have done it tonight, but I had my mind on the date here rather than in China. The orphanage also said that I will not get pictures of the party, but they will take some and give them to me on gotcha day. Sniff, sniff. I would love some pics of her party now, but the rules are the rules and I will wait patiently.
 In other news, we are on day 68 of our LOA wait. Really???? 68 days??? The first 60 days were no sweat. I fully expected to wait about 60 days. Truly hoping it would come in under that, but that did not happen. But now, if it is working hours, I jump every time my phone alerts me of an email. I have unsubscribed to so many companies that would send coupons or sale info via email. How dare they when I am on pins and needles waiting like this. And the phone, forget it. I get so mad if it is not THE call that I don't even answer it. Well, I would if it was school or the hubby, but that's it. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day. Ella's birthday here and LOA all on the same day would be fabulous!! Fingers crossed.

Birthday girl!!!!!!





Making some progress

We are making some progress, and that is great! We found out a couple of days ago that as of March 30 we were out of translation and "in process". It seems like our agency is expecting us to wait about another 5-6 weeks unti we have our LOA here. 3-4 weeks in review and another 2 weeks for the LOA to be issued or something like that. It is still a long ways away, but if it happens in that time frame I will be happy. I see these families that are waiting 100+days. not fair.
 I have been working on getting a care package together. I think I am done. I have some suckers for the kids, a small bag a candy for the nannies, a few outfits, a Pocahontas doll, a couple of hair things and a photo album. I really want her to get the photo album. I hope she does get the package and can share her things with her friends. I am also sending a cake for her 4th birthday :-( I am so sad tht she is spending another birthday without us, but this is the last one that she will spend in an orphanage. Now that makes this mama happy. Not sure if we will get pictures of the birthday party. I hope so, but am not expecting it after the changes to the way updates and photos are done. We will see.
 I have also been working on filling out the I800, I864w and the ds230. I am just about done and I will scan them to our agnecy so they can look them over and tell me what I screwed up on. Some of it is just a little confusing.

Here is a pic of the care package...

Here is another picture of our little beauty, Ella Kate. It looks like her left eye has a little bruise and was swollen. She is still beautiful, even injured and swollen. I love this girl so much. Can't wait to bring her home.

 Hope everyone has a Happy Easter. We will have a crawfish boil at my house. yummo!!!! I will hopefully make lots of desserts. I will also have a store bought just in case.