Just when I thought I was holding down my excitement...

Well I thought I was doing pretty good holding down my excitement... However, with a LID of 7/20 and a posting yesterday on the Waiting Children China yahoo group for a TA for someone with a LID of 7/11.... I'm starting to do the happy dance. If not in body, most certainly in spirit.

So 7/11... rock on! Ok. Now I'm excited!! And I know, I know... I shouldn't be. There are folks just like me who have waiting 12+ weeks for their TA. Yesterday we passed the 7 week mark. So we could get our TA anytime from next week to over a month from now! But actually seeing a TA for 7/11 has got my blood racing and my nesting instincts flared. Last night I sat down and watched the Becky Nee video and made a three page list of all the things she recommended bringing. I totally wiped out my medicine cabinet and have officially packed everything in the diaper bag. I told Clyde that if he needed pepto bismal, immodium, tums, tylenol, neosporin, benedryl, bandaids, motrin, hydrocortisone cream, the thermometer, cough syrup, cold medicine, or chloroseptic strips that he will just have to tough it out until we leave.

I also pack hair bows, pony tail holders and hair clips. Now that the essentials are packed I can rest a little easier.

I am trying to be organized. I have a list of 90 things to do (one a day for the last 3 months of the wait. Got it courtesy of WCC also). Unfortunately, I think we're somewhere around 54 days to go and I found the list yesterday. I have a lot of things to catch up on! It's a great list though, here are some examples:

Day 65: Get wills made or updated. (Not that I'm being critical or anything, but we've been working on this one for a month. Anyone know where you can get a will done in one day?)

Day 63: Arrange to get new $100 bills. (IMHO you should really start this on day 90 and follow up with your bank every 24 hours or so.)

Day 58: Work on preparing child's room. (Ok, come on. Has anyone out there really waited until you had less than 2 months to go to start your child's room??)

Day 54 (today): Childproof house. (I've done 1/2 of this... Clyde is supposed to be putting the latches on the kitchen cabinets. Only he started the project, promptly broke the front off our silver-wear drawer, cursed in disgust and abandoned the project. Likely (eventually) I will glue or duct tape it back on. eventually. Maybe today since it's childproofing day? Hey, I've got a great idea. Bubba will love this. I'll just ask Bubba to wreak havoc in the house and then I can get a first hand look at where our childproofing "opportunities" are!)

Day 23: Get Visa. Can't WAIT for this one!!

Day 13: Check out this site with tons of great information for American's in Guangzhou. Here's some of the information I hope I don't have to use!

Emergency Number
To report emergencies involving American citizens, such as serious medical problems, deaths, or arrests, please contact the American Citizen Services unit.
Phone:
011-86-20-3884 4410
(8:30 AM 5:30 PM China time)
011-86-20-8121-6077
(after hours duty officer)
E-mail:
GuangzhouACS@state.gov

(monitored during normal business hours, for emergencies such as serious medical problems, deaths, or arrests only)

Day 10: Send all travel info to a friend or relative. Make sure they have all your contact information in each city.

Day 0: BYE BYE!

I have a crap load of things to mark off my list before we go Bye bye... Although, I am pleased to say that I learned to count to 10 in Mandarin and say "please" and "thank you" (Day 90). Bubba doesn't care so much for that since now if he's in trouble instead of hearing, "That's One. That's Two!" He gets, "That's Yi. That's Er!" He rarely makes it to three (san) thanks to this little magical wonderful book on discipline.

Well, I've abandoned my work long enough.

So if I've told you yi time, I've told you a qian times, qing come back now, ya hear?
TRANSLATED
So if I've told you one time, I've told you a thousand times, please come back now, ya hear?

Xie xie, Thank you,

Bonnie Me!