This Letter is to Inform You...

Don't you just love official-looking letters that start out like that??? Well, I'm actually starting to!

"This letter is to inform you that your petition has been forwarded to the appropriate visa-issuing post where the adoption interview will take place..."

Whoo hoooooo!  THE interview WILL. TAKE. PLACE. I literally teared up reading those words. This is the letter telling me that my U.S. paperwork has been forwarded to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou. Which means we will likely be traveling in about 6 weeks!

So we made a trip to the "Big W" today (known for their great prices, but a store I rarely frequent and refuse to give any free publicity to)... When it comes to buying baby/toddler supplies and medicines, you can't beat their prices (I went online and checked!)  Since we will be dealing with limited luggage space and weight restrictions, we are basically just buying the items that A) aren't readily available in China - or B) we need just a little bit of until we can get out to a store in China... So Lia's playroom table has become a dumping ground for our pre-packing collections.

This, of course, does not include a lot of her other stuff like clothes, toys, bottles, diapers, snacks, etc.  I am still hoping for an update on her current size and daily habits before I purchase or pack those items - closer to when we leave. But as all this stuff costs money, so I'm trying to spread out the expenses over a few paychecks.

We also went to see the new "Karate Kid" movie today. Let me start by saying that I loved, LOVED the original Karate Kid - complete with pics of Ralph Macchio from Tiger Beat magazine taped up on my bedrooms walls when I was 14. I even owned an LP of the soundtrack! My sister and I must've watched that movie 100 times. So I was thrilled to learn that it was being remade and set in China no less, on the summer I am about to embark there. Too cool. Jackie Chan plays the "Mr. Miyagi" role as "Mr. Han".  Jayden Smith (Will Smith's son) plays "Dre" the new Karate Kid, and this time the Kid is learning Kung Fu rather than Karate. Throughout the movie, Mr. Han refers to Dre as "Xiao Dre". He tells Dre this translates as "Little Dre". Hearing this made me smile, since Lia's Chinese name is Xiao Hui, meaning "little" and "intelligent". Overall I thought the movie was great. I'm pleased that they kept so much of the heart from the original movie (which was lacking in the other sequels). I'm guessing this is a movie we will eventually own and watch over and over again in the coming years. :)