Promotion Sunday Emotions

The littles are in bed and Bucky and Sasha are at church till 10pm. That means I have two hours of uninterrupted alone time, but I can't enjoy it because I had to be very stern with Xan right before I put him to bed. You may remember in my last post that I mentioned how Xan does not adjust well to change. Well, tomorrow is Promotion Sunday at our church and Xan will move from the preschool hallway, which is located on the 1st floor of our children's building, to the elementary hallway, which is located on the 2nd floor of our children's building. I, knowing that he doesn't do change well, decided to start talking about the tomorrow's "move". Now, this is not the first time we have talked about the "move". I have been bringing it up for quite a while and making it sound really great and grown up. All of the times I have talked about it before he has seemed ok with the idea and this summer he participated in summer children's choir which was located on the elementary hallway and he did great. But tonight, he completely lost it and fell to pieces when I told him that tomorrow was "the big day". The child could not/would not get self control. For a good 30 minutes I comforted, spoke softly, encouraged and quoted, "The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid." But the more I spoke in a motherly, sweet, gentle tone, the more worked up he became. I had given him a bath and it was time to go to bed and he was still a crying, hysterical mess.....so.....I spoke really sternly to him. Not in a yelling or sinful way, but very sternly so he knew that enough was enough. But I HATE that to be the way that I ended this day with him. Then, 5 minutes after I put them to bed, he came down and apologized for his bad attitude. Precious little fella! But I still will not be able to enjoy the rest of my evening. UGH!

Adoption Timeline

Here is our timeline so far. I will update it as each piece of the puzzle is complete:

Application Submitted to Immigration: May 2, 2011

Fingerprinted: May 16, 2011

Homestudy to Immigration: May 17, 2011

LOI (Letter of Intent) submitted to China: July 22, 2011

PA (Pre-approval): August 3, 2011

DTC (Dossier to China): August 9, 2011

LID (Log In Date): should be here in the next week or so.

LOA (Letter of Approval): should come 40 to 60 days after LID

TA (Travel Approval): should come about 2 months after LOA

Leave for China:

Gotcha Day:

Adoption Day:

Medical Exam:

Pick up passport and other paperwork:

Consulate Appointment:

Pick up Visa:

Return to USA:

First Day of School

Today was rough for this mama. Today I dropped my baby off at a big school with lots of people I don't know. Brennan did fine, but this mama cried her eyes out for a long time. Because of Brennan's developmental delays, he qualifies for the free preschool that our school district offers and today I left my baby in a big auditorium with a bunch of people I don't know. That was the most difficult thing I have ever done. Thankfully Brennan went in without hesitation. If he had cried I would have just picked him up and walked back out the door with him. But he didn't and what he has been able to communicate with me, he had a wonderful time.

Xan also started school today. He is going to the 1/2 day Kindergarten that our church offers. He did AWESOME as well. Xan sometimes has a hard time adjusting to change and I wasn't exactly sure how he would respond. But when I picked him up and asked him if the wanted to go back tomorrow, he said, "YES!!!" Some of you may be asking why I am not homeschooling Xan this year and I will tell you that I had a VERY hard time making that decision. But realizing that Xan likes structure and routine, Bucky and I felt this was the best option for Xan this year. I could provide the structure and routine he craves during the fall semester, but things are likely going to get a little crazy this winter/spring semester once we travel to and from China. Once sweet Rebecca gets home there will be lots of doctor appointments, a surgery or two and therapy appointments. I was afraid Xan's education may get lost in the shuffle. So, for those reasons we decided to send him to our church's Kindergarten and we will pick back up with homeschooling next fall.

Sasha started 9th grade today too, but he didn't want his picture taken. LOL! Perhaps because I was crying my eyes out, Sasha was very sweet to me this morning. He turned music on for while I ran (and cried) on the treadmill and he made me a huge bottle of ice cold water when I was almost done. He is such a sweetie!