Chicago...again

back to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago - total success!  Last document was authenticated, Fed Ex'd and is now on it's way to Birmingham so our sweet agency rep can send our dossier to China!!!!!!!  Here's a few pics of the day...

Chicago Stock Exchange

 heading into Millennium Park

 "the bean" - click on link to find out more

 Korean students on a scavenger hunt - so Chloe posed

 and then posed for another group

 not posed - just looking out for the little

 self portrait

 Piper asking the Fed Ex man to help get "my wittle sista home from China"

 happy mama finally getting rid of that dossier

our package is on schedule to arrive at Lifeline by 10:30am on Monday - Logan (aka sweet agency rep) is planning on getting it sent out on Tuesday.....fingers crossed it all works out!

another edition of Piper talk

she's at it again - like on a daily basis....kid cracks me up (and at times makes me wanna call up my mother & totally apologize for my attitude as a wee one).  So here we go - Piper's most recent thoughts

She was trying to put on socks under her leggings - I told her "it would be easier to put your socks on first".  Her reply "ya, well it be easier for you ta do it for me"

At lunch yesterday "I's so cute, you take a picture with your phone and put if on Facebook?"

Last night she headed upstairs to put on some dress-up clothes & yelled down "get the camera ready"

She was a rock star at gymnastics the other night & got to ring the bell several times - I asked her after class if she had fun & she said "oh yeah..I pretty awesome at ganastics....I so beast" (and yes, that is beast)

There is a Chinese family at the gym that I have known for several years & used to coach both of their daughters (also trying to figure out how I could arrange a marriage between Pipes & their adorb son Ethan).  The father hadn't seen Piper for awhile & asked when she started talking so much - she replied "I know Chinese" and then threw out a huge "Ni Hao" and other (I guess?) made-up words that did sound Chinese.  She then told him "I watch Kai-Lan"

She also continues to say "I can't wait to go to China to get my sister.  I so excited to not be the only Chinese in my house"

One of her favorite activities right now (I mean besides commandeering the i-touches & i-pad) is to sound out words & tell you what letter they start with.  "Daddy....da..da..da... starts with a d"  "Phone...fa..fa..fa... starts with an f" (ok so this one isn't right but the ph throws a lot of peeps off), "kitten..kuh..kuh..kuh...starts with a k" "tomato...tuh..tuh...tuh..starts with a t"  I'm tellin' ya - baby girl is brilliant!

She is also doing a bit of math without realizing it's math - Justin & I took her to lunch one day & she said "who's missing? (she does this a lot) "there 3 of us here but 3's missing - Chloe, Coop, & Preswey...we possed to have 6"

On another note - received our 800A approval via Fed Ex today (an hour before the estimated delivery time).  We will be driving it to the Sec of State today.  Tomorrow, we've decided to take the kiddo's out of school & make a fun day trip to Chicago.  I spoke with our agency rep today & as long as she receives our document on Monday we will be DTC on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.  Pres's birthday is on Thursday - amazing to think our dossier will be headed to China by that point.

approval

Thank you, thank you, thank you Officer Ladd of USCIS - our I-800A application was approved yesterday after a 40 day wait.  Today was our original fingerprint appt - so thankful we decided to walk-in early!

what happens now - we wait to get the document then notarize it (as a copy), certify it at Secretary of State's office, one more drive to Chicago to have it authenticated at the Consulate.  Then we overnight it to our agency so they can send our dossier to China.   After a couple weeks, we will get our log-in date and start waiting for our LOA which basically says China says YES!

when will we travel?  No clue - hoping & praying for July.

stolen quote

I totally swiped this off a friend's FB wall....

I-800A (immigration) approvals are speeding up - somebody with a receipt date 8 days before us was approved on Saturday!  Here's my hopes - we leave for a little fun-n-the-sun vaca a week from Sat (huge shout-out to the grandparents staying with our kiddos!) - we really need to get this approval by February 2nd in order to get it notarized/certified/authenticated before we leave.  If we happen to get it on Feb 3 & can get it to the Sec of State's office that day then technically, we could send it to a courier & have her take it to the Consulate.  

I keep re-reading the above quote - it's hard to think about how our HS was delayed a month due to a DCFS error & then delayed due to a USPS error....so maybe the errors set us back because now immigration approvals have sped up?  If we would have gotten our HS approved sooner then we could have waited longer for the immigration approval putting us at about the same time frame.  There is a plan - I'd just like to be clued in a bit ;)

throw some glitter, make it rain

UCA Midwest Cheer Championships today & Chloe's team killed it - 1st place...way to go ladies!

 remember troll dolls....just sayin'

 I think she needs just a bit more attitude

 tick tock

 heel stretch

 scorpion

 arabesque

 pyramid

Chloe stunt groups - 1st stunt middle flyer, 2nd stunt 2nd from left, 2nd basket to go up, middle in last stunt/sequence pyramid

clifford

Piper's preschool class is doing a really cool activity.  Each week a different kiddo gets to bring home the "Literacy Bag" - it's chock full of books & games, a small Clifford dog, & a notebook.  We were instructed to take pics of Clifford's week & write about it in the notebook.  Piper had a blast...

eating breakfast together

at the chiropractor

wearing his "head weight"

hanging out at the gym

winter fun

while Chloe & I were hanging out in Glitteranapolis, Justin took Coop & Piper out to play in what snow we had left.  Our backyard is a complete slope - Coop found out last year that it's perfect for snowboarding.  Piper showed her fearless nature & went down by herself over the Coop-made moguls.