Heaven, Help Me

And, really, I mean that.

Have you ever been doing something, say checking email, and you hear a sound. It's a familiar sound, but you can't quite place it. It does seem like a sound that you really shouldn't be hearing.


So, you get up to investigate.

Accessories Make All the Difference

Don't you think?

I can't bring myself to get scissors near Jo's face yet, so...

Doesn't she look totally different? I've been missing those expressive eyebrows.



And, Phoebe got her new glasses on Wednesday. She really only needs them to read and do school work. Of course she HAD to take them to school today. I hope they make it home.

Remember When?

I haven't done this in a while, 'cause you know, I've been so wrapped up in myself. But check these out... new babies!

Referrals came in January 2. You're not going to believe this, but the people who got referrals in this batch had log in dates 2 MONTHS after us. Let me spell that ... TWO MONTHS! We got our referral for Jo 10 months ago. I cannot believe that they've only gotten through 2 months of parents' documents in 10 months. I knew things had slowed down, but I feel SO bad for the parents still waiting. And waiting.

I've heard that applications from parents outnumber the available babies. That sounds good, except for that word "available". It's not the number of babies in orphanages, it's the ones who are paper-ready.

I've also seen that the "review room" is about a year ahead of the "matching room". Meaning the hallway outside the matching room must be hard to get through. Actually, meaning the first step, review, has been done for a year's worth of more parents than have been matched.

Say a prayer for these waiting families and babies. I know how hard it was for us. Now, knowing that people whose documents went to China only 2 months after us are just now getting a referral...it blows my mind to think what they've gone through.

OK, this started out a happy post. Here are the babies!

2getSoph
The Jake Break
Pat’s little Sister
Q-Fold - Twins!
Welcoming Kathryn
To Bring Leah Home
Maria Hui Jun
Miss Gioia
Introducing Tiffany

The following blogs are expecting their referral in this batch:

The Sweeney Family
Sienna Bug
Our Journey to Baby M
Waiting for Julia

I'm Having Flashbacks

T'was a rough night at the Lineberrys' last night.
Friday night, J woke up a few times during the night, but not for very long. Not long enough to go into her room. It was out of the ordinary though. Yesterday, she wanted to be held a lot. Especially when we were taking down Christmas decorations. That was interesting.

Last night, she woke up a couple of times again. I went in to check on her, to make sure she didn't have a fever or seem sick. My mistake. I went in at 12:15. She was fine. As soon as I picked her up, she stopped crying and did the "more" sign and pointed to her door. I decided to see where she wanted to go, so I walked out of her room. She pointed to the stairs. I took her downstairs, she did the sign for water. OK, she wants water. Boy did she.

Silly me, I thought "problem solved". I even got a sippy cup of water that she could take to bed with her and we went back upstairs. I held her for a few minutes then went to put her back into her bed. Oh no. She was having none of that. Her right arm was wrapped all the way around my neck and her legs were latched on like vises. Alrighty. I sat on the futon in her room. She snuggled. I figured ok, let's have some mommy time, so I lay down on the futon with her on top of me and she was soon fast asleep. Hooray!

I went over and put her into her bed and she was instantly awake and screaming. Sigh. This went on until about 2am when I decided to let her "cry it out" and went to bed. At 2:30, when she was still screaming at the top of her lungs, Allen went in. He said she was standing in her crib holding the rail with her left hand, holding her sippy cup with her right hand, had her head down and eyes closed and was screaming. Is it possible she fell asleep standing up and crying? He woke her and changed her jammies to some that were a little cooler.

2:45, still screaming, I went back in and asked Allen to go make a bottle. Let's fill her tummy. Alright, full belly, cool jammies, dry diaper and back to the futon we go. Back to sleep on mom we go. Snoring, she actually said, "dada" in her sleep. Sleeping like a rock. Back to bed. Nope. Scream. Back to the futon.

You get the idea. At 5:45 I decided that nature was calling. I managed to get out from under her on the futon, pick her up, get my hands in a good position for putting her down and walked to her crib without her stirring at all. As soon as her body touched the mattress, instant scream. Too bad, nature wins on this one.

She cried for about 10 minutes and gave up. So, all told, I got a whopping 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night. Allen didn't fare much better. Apparently he was flipping channels on the TV most of the time I was in her room.

She's in a fine mood this morning, and has that "I slept on Mommy" hair.


I hope she naps.

A Christmas Overview

I had a request to update my blog. I can't believe I haven't posted since December 18. Well, I kind of can. I kinda just checked out of doing anything over Christmas. P and Allen had Christmas vacation, so I did too. So here is a small recap of Christmas day.

Well, actually, I think this picture was taken Christmas Eve from our balcony.

Here's P on Christmas morning looking pretty satisfied with Santa's offerings.

And Jo with her new phone.


The carnage. Actually, not much had been opened at this point.


Cutie pie.


This picture cracks me up. Santa brought P a dog that "grows and knows your name". She's thrilled with it. She loves to brush it and measure how tall it is. And it talks to her. (I've seen too many horror movies and find this creepy. "hi, Phoebe". It gives me chills.) Anyway, in this picture, P is happily brushing her electronic dog while the real, live dog wanders past behind her looking like she's saying "what am I, chopped liver?" Oh, Senna. If only you could say her name.

And On We Go

As we move ever closer to Christmas, we've had all sorts of things going on around here.

There's the obligatory visit to the fat man. This was a couple of weeks ago. A local realtor arranged for the big guy to visit our community center.

This would be P explaining that when he brought all the furniture and figures for her Dora house last year, Santa did not bring Dora's dog and could he please bring it this year.


And here's Jo trying to make it clear that she doesn't care what Santa brings her, she just wants him to go away.


Here are the girls by the Christmas tree.

And Jo on her own by the tree.


And finally, just to get away from all the cute Christmas pictures, a picture that is not for the squeamish. P lost another tooth on Saturday. Have you ever seen a child so thrilled to be bleeding from her mouth?

This occurred Saturday evening. After being at the church for 4 hours in preparation for and attending Janet's service, I came straight home at 2:00 and put on my jammies. That would be me just barely in the picture on the left trying to stop the bleeding while P just wanted the moment captured on "film". She cracks me up.

Janet's service was wonderful, as I knew it would be. One thing about Episcopalian funerals, they are quite a celebration of the person's life. It was standing room only. We were squeezed into the pews cheek to cheek with a lot of people standing in the back. It speaks volumes about Janet and her life.

So, on we go. A week until Christmas. Shopping to do. Family to see. Friends with whom to have "breakfast for dinner on Christmas Eve eve". All dear moments to enjoy.

Our Dear Janet

Where do I start? This summer, our dear friend Janet found out she had leukemia. She went into the hospital June 26. Aside from a short 1 or 2 day visit to her home, she has been in the hospital ever since.

Until today. Today she left the hospital. To use MB's eloquence, "Janet passed peacefully into larger life this morning just before 8:00 a.m."

At the beginning of November, she had a stem cell transplant. Around Thanksgiving, we received word that Janet would be leaving the hospital the following week. There was much rejoicing. Then, there was a delay. Then another delay. And another. Turns out that the leukemia, despite rounds and rounds of horrible chemo, never completely went away. Add to that, her body was slow to accept the new stem cells, and you end up here.

Friday I found out that the decision had been made to discharge her to hospice care. I was devastated. The general feeling was that she would not actually make it to today, when she was to have left the hospital. I've been bawling all weekend. I'm not alone.

J was so thrilled about our adopting Josie. On the Sunday before we left for China, J grabbed me by the shoulders, gave me a big ol' kiss and said, "You are so loved. We are all going to China with you. Go bring that baby home." She was at the airport to welcome us home and to fawn over Jo.

I'm so not finished with J. We had things to do. Laughs to share. She and her husband had all kinds of plans. Her daughter just had a baby girl (after 3 boys) in September. We all knew that she was going to get through this in her tough British fashion.

But, she didn't. And now, we are left with a gaping hole in our lives. She will be SO very missed by so many people.

The Adventures of Jo

Here's our little Jo on Tuesday. She's so proud of herself. She's just walked about 10 steps from the living room into the office to show me the remote. She took 2 or 3 more steps to me then stumbled and hit her chin on my knee and bit her lip.


Here she is yesterday, very impressed with herself for standing on the stool and being able to see all the cool things she rarely gets to see.


"I wonder if I can use these handles to climb higher..."


"Guess not. What's on Mom's desk?"


Here's a close up so you can see the "moisture" on her face. This is after she fell off the stool, cried some, then climbed back up. (No. She did not fall toward the desk and its glass top)


"Yeah. I fell. But, that's no reason to stop!" (Note the slightly darker red spot in the middle of her bottom lip where she bit it the day before.)

Scenes From a Photo Shoot

On a recent Saturday afternoon, we went over to our friends' house and had a few, or 150, pictures taken by close friend and uber-photographer, Doug. He has quite the eye, and quite the camera. A couple of these will be appearing on a Christmas card near you. None of these have been Photo-Shopped. They are basically straight out of the camera.


My Family





My Girls





My Boy




Jo On Her Own

At Long Last...

...the baptism pictures!!


Doesn't she look angelic with that perfectly timed sunbeam coming through the high window of the church?


She has no idea what's about to happen.


Uh...mom? What's up with THAT guy?


This seems bad. Mom?


Ready or not, here we go!!


You can't see Jo's face, but mine tells the story.


After doing that 3 times, she's dried off.


Notice how Fr. David is in focus and Jo's a little blurry? Uh, yeah.


"Receive the light of Christ..."

Sweet baby girl. She didn't enjoy that much, but she survived.

Hello!

I can't believe it's already Friday.

I can't believe I haven't posted since October 27!

Hmmm. What's happened since then?
Halloween - lots of fun.

November 4 - Josie was baptized. She screamed her way through it. I promise I will post pictures as soon as I get them from the friend who took them.

This week - Allen traveled for work, so my mom stayed with me for the week to keep me from losing my mind. Well, to keep me from losing more of it. We had lots of fun. Josie has really taken a liking to her. And last weekend when my dad was here? Forget about mom! Josie loves my dad. She wanted to be in his lap whenever possible.

Tomorrow is Phoebe's last soccer game of the season. I can't believe the soccer season is over. Seems like just yesterday when it started. After the game, we're going to drive my mom and meet my dad half way between where we each live so mom can go home. I think she may sleep for a week. She has been such a blessing this week. Catching me up on laundry, cleaning Phoebe's closet so that those too small clothes are gone, watching Jo so I could have some me time. I keep asking her when she's going to move in.

On Monday, we meet with the social worker for our SIX MONTH post adoption visit. Six months?! Sheesh. I can't believe it.

I guess we ought to get that new family picture taken, huh? You know, so we don't have to use that one in the post below.