Adoption Progress (and the "The Phantom Tollbooth")

Well, we've been chugging along on the many, many steps that now make up the international adoption process.  Most of our part is done and we're currently waiting for all of the various government agencies to sign off on everything.  We're hoping all of our paperwork (dossier) will be in China in a couple of weeks.

The kids and I have been reading "The Phantom Tollbooth" together -- and I had forgotten just what a gem it was!  I loved it as a kid -- so much so that I even wrote a "sequel" to it in about 4th grade.  But now that I'm reading it as an adult, I see so many more levels of wisdom and humor than I would have back then.  (If anyone is looking for a good read-aloud that will keep even the parents entertained, this is it!)

Anyway, we got to a section today that reminded me of the adoption paperwork.  One of the characters, the Senses Taker, said,

"Now, if you'll just tell me when you were born, where you were born, why you were born, how old you are now, how old you were then, how old you'll be in a little while, your mother's name, your father's name, your aunt's name, your uncle's name, your cousin's name, where you live, how long you've lived there, the schools you've attended, the schools you haven't attended, your hobbies, your telephone number, your shoe size, shirt size, collar size, hat size, and the names and addresses of six people who can verify all this information, we'll get started."

Then, once that is all complete, Milo*, the main character, says, "May we go now?" and the other character says,

"By all means, just as soon as you finish telling me your height; your weight; the number of books you read each year; the number of books you don't read each year; the amount of time you spend eating, playing working, and sleeping every day**: where you go on vacations; how many ice-cream cones you eat in a week; how far it is from your house to the barbershop; and which is your favorite color.  Then, after that, please fill out these forms and applications - -three copies of each - -and be careful, for if you make one mistake, you'll have to do them all over again."

"Oh dear," said Milo.

Oh dear, indeed!  So now we are in the very last phase - we hope.  If we made even one mistake, we'll have to do them all over again.

Meanwhile, we have started receiving some wonderful gifts from people wanting to support us in all of this.  Our photographer friends, Rachel and Hayley of Kharis Photography are doing a fundraiser for us (if anyone local is reading this and hasn't already heard about it, please let me know!!), and one of the women who works with Pete gave us this amazing, custom work of pottery:

It represents our family of 6 bringing home our new daughter!  I just love it.

So that's where we are.... waiting, and beginning some fundraising efforts.  We really hope we'll be able to travel to China to get her sometime between August and November this year!


*Yes, this character was one of the inspirations for our Milo's name.
** We were actually asked this exact question in our paperwork -- as well as several others above.