He's so insanely cute!!!!....

We got the February update today, just in time. I definately needed my fix!! I can barely stand to look at these photos, but I can't stop looking at them either. It does help that he is one of the cutest kids on the entire stinkin' planet....I'm just sayin'.
Here are the stats: weight: 18.3 lb
height: 28.35"

Peace Agreement Reached

There was much hugging, and sharing and sloppy affection in our home today. The difference today was that people other than me were partaking in the love!!!

Short Boy People.

I was merely a spectator. A giddy voyeur. My eyeballs nearly popped out of my head with all the pride I felt.

Luke Spontaniously showed affection toward the ever scrumptious Cole in the form of hugs and the general allowing of himself to be touched. Cole stood very still and looked very suspicious for the first of their "encounters" but toward the end he got really into it. He babbled and spit and even let go of the ottoman.

They fell down.

I feared the worst.

But, apparently it was a bonding experience, because the love only intensified from there. Dare I say that there was even the exchange of a graham cracker!!

In an effort to capture the love fest for posterity (and to prove it to Cole's mommy) I forced the issue and staged a photo shoot. It was the obvious next step. As with paint colors, my face, and things in the dark, the love doesn't really look the same in the pictures as it does in "real life" (if thats what you want to call this ).

We Wait...

Spoke to our coorinator this morning (hi Rachel!) and learned that our dossier has begun it's journey across the Pacific. I have never been so attached to a pile of papers.
It was reassuring to hear that everything is moving along as it should, but now we begin the "long silence" of the court process. There isn't alot of info exchanged during this phase. We won't really know what or how things are progressing until a month or two before we travel.
I bravely listened as she gave me the worst case time line, which puts us traveling in October(aaahhhhhhhhhh!!! no way will I survive that long!) and when I hung up the phone I was feeling a bit down. I am finding this part of the process a bit unsatisfying. As with many moments I have imagined and then encountered along my parenting journey, it just doesn't feel quite like I expected it to. Sometimes that can be a really good thing, like, turns out getting barfed on isn't really as bad as I expected it would be. Ditto with diapers. But, sometimes it's like this news was, or like seing Luke cry, and it's a bit harder than I had hoped.

I was expecting to be doing a "yeah, we've done everything we can, it's in someone else's hands now" dance. Hoping to feel some sense of releif. But, instead I'm doing the "we're smack in the middle of the process, and it stinks to have so far to go still " sulk.

My meditation for the rest of the day is:
Todays news is absolutely good news and with every day and every step that passes we are that much closer to meeting Zack.

P.S. yes, I did imagine what it would be like to be barfed on. I'm wierd like dat.

Progress...

I have been hesitant to post again until I had something really worthy of being at the top of the page. This is because I am so incredibly fond of our little cartoon family that I wasn't ready for them to get bumped.

But this seems worthy..

Quite few of you (ok, not as many as I'd expected. I mean he probably coulda died...eventualy) were a bit concerned for Luke's life after my post that explained his ..ahem.."strong" ...reaction to my changing Cole's Diaper ( See: My Briliant Idea-below). Well, I am sure you will all be relieved to know that we are now back to seeing our hotdogs and tater-tots just the one time, pre-chew.

Thanks to those who pointed out that yaking is not such an unreasonable reaction to a diaper changing session. Excellent point.

Note: I am aware that the photo above is totaly unrelated to my post.

Our New Family Photo

(Clockwise from top Left: Amanda, Chris, Zack, Luke)
I have created our new Family Photo. I love it! I stole the idea from this blog, which had a link to this site. You should definately try it out, it is hours of pointless fun!!!

CNY

CNY
Originally uploaded by thesavarinos.

We went to the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco this weekend. It was pretty fun, but a bit more commercial than I expected. I wasn't expecting to see floats representing Grocery store chains, cell phone companies and large banks. I was actually hoping for a more "chinese" experience. The parade wasn't realy even in China Town. We were sitting outside Saks Fifth Ave. I did see a couple families with daughters adopted from China which was very exciting, of course I was too chicken to say anything. I didn't really know how to start that conversation.
We plan to take the boys every year and this was our "test run". Luke stayed with Chris' parents so we could find a good spot to watch the parade from, which bart stops to use, where to find a freakin' bathroom....stuff like that. Next year will be very exciting because we'll have both boys with us. It will certainly carry more meaning for our family.

If you click on the photo above you can see all of our photos from the parade!

My Brilliant Idea

I started watching the son of some friends, Cole 10 mo's, about 3 weeks ago.
It was a great idea I had to help Luke and I adjust to the soon to be new member of our family. You know get the routine going, introduce Luke to the idea that the cosmos was not formed for his amusement, figure out how many damn graham crackers it will take to get through a week. That kinda stuff. Well... at times it is sucking my will to breath oxygen. I have never seen so much snot and poop, ever. I should mention, we did start the whole deal off with ALL of us having an epic cold.

I have now realized that the point of this exercise is not to get the kids to break and conform, but instead to break me!!!! I seem to be fighting it.

I'll probably break soon. Luke has just started this thing where he hyperventilates and throws up EVERY TIME I change Cole's diaper. What the heck!?!?!?! And today to keep it interesting he screamed the entire time I changed HIS diaper. every time.

Did I mention that if Cole lays down for an hour in the entire day it's a miracle?!?

I am sending good vibes your way, but don't be surprised if they have a little yucky on them.
(notice there are no photos of Cole and Luke together, there's a reason for that:Luke doesn't seem to Love Cole) (I do though)

A Little Bit Closer...

We received a pretty important form in the mail today...The I171-H. This form essentially says that the goverment feels we are parenting material, and it would be O.K. with them if we went ahead and adopted Zack.

Thanks Department of Homeland Security!!!

Now we wait for the Taiwanese courts to decide the same, and then we go get ZACK!

Ok, I was wrong.

Here are a few things I may have said recently that I now know were WRONG:

1. Oh, the time will go by pretty quickly, I have Luke to distract me...
2. I know it will be hard knowing I can't travel with Chris, but if I keep the right attitude I"ll be OK...
3. The process has gone faster than expected up to this point, so we will need this time to prepare...

and finally...

4. I don't know if I will be able to feel an attachment to this little guy until I meet him....

I have admitted to myself that this is harder than I expected..

And we just started our wait.

Crud.

Comments.......Anyone?