Name

I forgot to tell you....we have a name....our daughter's name will be.....

Tatum McKenlin Elliott

xoxo

Mother's Day 2011

Mother's Day in the US is in May, and in March in England-where my parents live. For Mother's Day this year for my Mom, we sent her a new pendant for this magnetic exchangeable necklace and a knitted wrap in a pretty cornflower blue color that I always love seeing on my Mom and I called to wish her a Happy Mother's Day.

 For US Mother's Day, Todd wanted to have his family over. This is the cake I ordered from a good friend, Lisa that I used to work with. Recently, Lisa started a baking business with a friend and they make some of the most beautiful creations.

We wanted a Ladybug to celebrate Tatum and China. We found out April 25th that our adoption agency locked a file for us. The following week, we received our LOI and we were over the moon with joy. I called my parents to tell them first, and sent a Fed-Ex package with a letter describing Tatum and her Special Needs and the few pictures we have of her. We wanted Mom and Dad to be the first to see their new Grand-daughter!

 Todd's Parents after we broke the news to them.

 Todd's sister April, Mom Elliott and Mom-Mom Ross. Tatum will be Mom-Mom's 10th Great-Grandchild.

Then, Todd surprised me with a beautiful necklace from Etsy with our daughter's name and date of birth as well as a birthstone pearl. As soon as we can share that information, I will happily post a close up of the necklace!!

It was a fun week of telling our families and our friends.

Home Study Update

This morning we had our home study update....with a new social worker. That always adds a little extra stress to the situation. Even though I knew everything would be fine, you still scrub the floors a little extra, hope and pray the dogs don't bark too much while cooped up in the garage and hope you answer all the questions the way you should. It went well...our new social worker is very easy to get a long with, and we are happy. We aren't always so happy with the agency we chose to use for the home study part of the adoption...however we do love GWCA who is taking care of the international portion of things. I am sure our MD agency has flagged our file!! We have written a few e-mails to express our dissatisfaction in the past, and typically they pay off. Today went well. We are just waiting for our CPS clearances to come in for our county and our social worker will work to make the changes to encompass Tatum's special needs and we will submit to GWCA for review and have China review with our current logged in dossier. The next step will be obtaining our LSC after China's review. I think that if things stick to the current plan, we could still look at travelling in October/November of this year.

We've started to work on her nursery and have finally agreed on a theme...and how we would like to see it decorated. I ordered the bumper for the crib this morning. No, we don't have a crib...but that's the easy part. These decoartions are the hard part! We have decided on Pottery Barn Kids Jungle Friends, but aren't going over the top. We want this to be educational for her....yet girlie too. Todd just couldn't agree to me getting flowers and pink, etc... although we have agreed on a beautiful pink slip covered chair that rocks for the corner in her room. This will be great for bed time stories and bonding.

I had a half day at work today...but have to go in this afternoon. 4 hours....I can do it!! Have a great week! I am off tomorrow meeting up with my bestest friend ever (Deb) for lunch. Boy do we have a lot to catch up on!! They just got from Paris with their daughter, so I can't wait to hear all about that trip.

Announcement....

It gives me great joy to announce we accepted the file of a beautiful little girl on April 28th...and we received our PA just one short week later! We are over the moon with joy, and can't wait to complete the journey of bringing our daughter home to her forever family.

When we can share more information, please know that I will....this is one Mother's Day to remember!!

We are in love with our daughter xoxo

China Timeline

Just a little something added to the side of the blog to keep me going...I am a real planner and list maker, so every little helps! No matter what stage of the process we are....

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommy's out there!

China

China is updating the Special Needs list tonight....so fingers crossed, this could be our night we are matched with our daughter!! We have been waiting 5 months since LID, so here goes nothing!! I literally have every finger and toe crossed. I spoke to a friend last week. She has a biological child, a child she adopted domestically and a child she adopted from China. She told me there is nothing like travelling half way around the world and have a child you have hoped and prayed for for years be placed in your arms for the first time...this gives me goose bumps and makes me tear up...I get it, and I can't wait to travel.

Baby Girl-We love you already and are SOOOO ready to bring you home. xoxo

Recovering From the weekend & Meal Plan

I really intended to be better at posting last week while I was off, but I actually was super busy and I didn't want to waste a lot of time indoors blogging...the weather was GREAT!!

Wednesday, I won 5 tickets to the Baltimore Orioles game, and the seats were 26 rows behind home plate!! The view was awesome!! Todd wanted to take his parents with us, so we had one extra ticket that didn't get used.

Thursday, we took the Ferry to Cape May in New Jersey from Lewes, DE. It was a great day and we look forward to going back there in the summer for a few days. There were some beautiful houses and alot of nice stores and restaurants.

Saturday morning, I fell in the garage trying to hold the dogs back from running out of the open door. I didn't realize that Todd had the door open and I walked out there to feed them...well boom, down I went. I hurt my back at work a few weeks ago, and this didn't help things one bit. Todd helped grab Winston and I fell onto Marley and we got them inside. Adrenaline definately kicked in. I got to the bench I have inside and I just sat and sobbed. Todd came running in and I couldn't move. He carried me to the sofa where I stayed all day. We had a birthday dinner for his cousin that just turned 40 in Laurel (an hour away) so I knew I needed to rest for this. Lots of ice and meds from the previous injury. NOTHING was touching this pain. Saturday morning I was still hobbling around and I finally gave in and went to Your Docs In (urgent care) and they gave me prednisone, valium and percocet. You ask for it, they would hand it out...scary! I took the prednisone and 1 percocet before Easter dinner and a valium before bed. Boy did I sleep WELL! I took the prednisone again today and only one percocet...no more valium for me. I have a drug hangover today, that's for sure! We went to Easter dinner at my in-laws and my sister in laws brought their boyfriends. It was nice and relaxing...Winston went a long to play in the neighbors yard. It is so nice to see him run!

Today, I stayed home from work. Todd went in to grab a lap top for me and I completed some reports that have been needed to be completed and relaxed with ice packs and some rest.

Here's the meal plan for this week....

Monday-Spaghetti
Tuesday-pork chops, stuffing, green bean casserole
Wednesday-BLTs - I have a conference in Baltimore and then book club
Thursday-cheeseburger helper
Friday-chicken, mac & cheese, salad
Saturday-mahi-mahi, rice, salad
Sunday-The Rockfish in Annapolis then Rockapella at Rams Head

Have a great week!