Artical 5 {code name: booya)

i found out yesterday that our article 5 paperwork processed in china on june 9th!!  i'm not going to pretend that i know what the Article 5 does, or why it is named with no real meaning, but i know it's important and it needed to happen for us to get our travel dates. speaking of travel dates...the Artical 5 business means we are on the 2-3 week countdown! the adoption world calls it TA, but i call it glorious!  approx 2 weeks from july 9th, we will know our travel date!! today is day 6. booya! (did i really just say "booya"?? how lame :)

it's getting so close! someone pinch me, and then get me on the plane to china. i can hardly wait another minuet!

it's a bit geeky to admit, but i've had emery's suitcase packed for at least a month. maybe two. down to every minute detail, i'm trying to pack necessities and not lapse into overpack paranoia, while still being prepared. it's a slippery slope for my obsessive adoption packing mayhem to transverse so i keep reminding myself that she has lived this long without all of the hoopla we use over here. no need to go crazy bringing every possible item imaginable. i plan to buy chinese formula, diapers, food, toiletries, etc when we are there. our experience in china previously helps tremendously, because i feel comfortable getting in a taxi or zipping to the corner market find what we need.
her clothes have been folded and re-folder and re-looked over at least a dozen times. this child has so many cute dresses, i have not idea how i will choose her attire. i will say it again, little girl clothes are amazing. i used to get excited to find a plain shirt (un bedazzled with trucks or dalmatian fire dogs) for the boys to wear. and now?? prints and florals and shiny shoes. hair doodles and cardigans. oh it's amazing.

anything adoption related is the only thing organized in my life. everything else can be mayhem, but my color coded file box and age/season/clothing-article-type organization system is flawless. it will never be so perfectly aligned again. thankfully. i'm hoping once she is finally here, i can stop obsessing. maybe i obsess because it's the only thing i can do that has anything to do with her. i should obsess over sorting through our stuff in storage. i should obsess over finishing the 5 photo albums i'm determined to finish before we travel. i should obsess over something else, but i can't. she's on my brain, heart, soul at all times.

yesterday was foster's actual birthday. we went to the dollar store to buy water shooters (best $1 item in the world) and found ourselves out and about at lunch time. i made a split decision that turned out to be one of foster's favorite memories of the day. i let them pick ice cream for lunch from the dollar store freezer. yes, i'm super mom (haha, not) who now has a car totally filled to the brim with sticky ice cream hand prints :).

 (oh, and we spent the morning making chalk paint...cheapest paint project ever. equal parts cornstarch and water + food coloring = delightful kids and food dye stained hands)

i say all of this, because as we were enjoying our extremely drippy lunch, i said to foster "oh i can't wait until emery is here! she can eat birthday ice cream with us and we'll have so much to talk to her about. i can't wait to get to know her!"

and foster said "but mom, we already know who she is! she's our sister!"

melt me!

come on TA!