I have a week left of summer.  This week was spent almost exclusively on planning my classes for the next three months for a sub.  I won't be out for three months, but since I don' know exactly when I will be out, I have to plan accordingly.

Then I took just a little time for my neglected son.  We went to the movies, saw Captain America and then the "free" Wednesday movie MegaMind, and this week is going to be all about him and the rest of the things I've been neglecting.  That includes cleaning.  To kick it off, I cleaned his room and drawers and decided that while I was at it I would pack Eva's things for China.
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I haven't figured out yet whether or not I'll take the floatie device.  With Aidan we took water wings so they packed flat and then we could blow them up-this thing is a space hog.  The backpack is filled with toys; the suitcase is filled with clothes and toiletry items.

I'm still pretty clueless about shoes for her.  I can take a few sizes, but have no idea whether or not they'll stay on her feet where she doesn't walk on her soles.

Now I'll leave you with a picture of my two cowboys.
 
Last week I made a list of things still needed for Eva's homecoming and sorted her clothes into those most likely to fit, those that might still fit, and those that will fit at a later date.  I'm pretty much at a loss when it comes to shoes (we have one pair of slip-on sandals) but now have most of what was missing.
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The backpack isn't new, I bought it for $5 last November, but some of the contents are new-clothes for the Barbie dolls inside and the one she has received, and toiletry items.

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A fuzzy pillow, new sheets, a snuggly nap blanket, and her own towel with matching wash cloths-I couldn't find any girly sets of the latter, so I just got bright colors that matched.

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Something to swim in at the hotel pool, a rain jacket, and a summer weight nightie (she has a swimsuit and plenty of summer pjs already).

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Cool shades, bracelets, barrettes, comb and brush, and hair bands (almost all of the hair items are from Pretty Baby, our first daughter).

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We have a Chinese exchange teacher every year at my school so, in addition to translating Eva's family photo book about us and her upcoming adoption, he offered to translate communication cards for me.  I'll be laminating them and putting them on a ring to use while in China.  I tried to keep things simple for both of us.

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We also bought this translator from Amazon.  It converts common phrases (they are preprogrammed) into a few different languages, including Chinese.  It can translate from Chinese to English as well.  The reason I went with this one is because it is really small and because it "says" the phrases aloud as well as displaying them in the other language-pinyin in the case of the Chinese.

 
Today we got the National Visa Center letter saying that our case has been forwarded to Guangzhou.  Moving right along!

For those of you not in the adoption world, this document allows our agency to start the process of arranging appointments for us in China, and our new window of time before travel is about eight weeks.
 
The Internet at home continues to be problematic.  We had the tech here about 1-1/2 weeks ago and this Thursday he will be back, this time to replace our modem.  So my posts will be scarce and the photos probably scarcer.

In today's mail we got the Provisional Approval.  Estimated time between LOA and this is two weeks; in our case it was three.  So I re-projected upcoming dates using the longest estimate given and this would probably still mean travel in September (right around the equinox), just a little bit later.  That's okay.

P.S.  Eva received her care package.  So now I'm going to arrange the sending of our family booklet-photos, names, etc.
 
Ann at Red Thread sent pictures to us of Eva's care package that she should be receiving in a few days.  I tried to think like I was a seven year old girl again.  I liked jewelry boxes and journals and dolls, things that were "my own" and places to stash the stuff that was "my own".  So here is what was chosen:
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We are sending a package to Eva using Ann at Red Thread.  Because Eva is way out in the boonies, the package hasn't arrived yet, but Ann did send an email to me today with updated photos and measurements of our wee little girl.

She is 43.3" tall
She weights just under 40 pounds
She will wear a size 5.

Remember that Aidan is eight weeks younger than she is?  He wears a 10-12.

And now, on to the pictures:
 
Today I'm sending the DS-230 to our agency and have to put our daughter's Chinese name and American name down.  I wrote a long post about the choice here revealing all of the thoughts behind the name, then realized I was "babbling" and so it is reduced to this:

Her first name will be Eva after my grandmother that I did not know
Her middle name will be Yuqiang which is her second and third Chinese names together.

Her names mean
life,
happy,
and strength

(Yu actually has multiple possible characters, but her character means happy, pleased).

 
Check.  I-800 went out in overnight mail to USCIS.  Now on to the DS-230.  How does anyone do this without going crazy from anxiety?  I sent three questions to the agency today, including one that they had already answered on the very first page of instructions-highlighted in yellow, no less.  It brought back memories of checking, double checking, triple checking....the contents of my backpack over and over again when I was in Beijing.  But then one thing is checked off the list, and for a brief (and fleeting) moment, you feel accomplished and in control!
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I sent an email to our agency today and asked if, by any chance, they had heard anything from China, and this is what they told me:
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And just in case you don't read sign language, or signs :-)
This means that they have received our L period O period A period!!!!!
 
Yesterday I asked our agency if they had heard anything new on the medical.  Today they told me that the CCAA sent it back to them and asked that they have it translated here in the states, even though they pay the CCAA for dossier translations.  So it is with the agency's stateside translator now and hopefully should be going back to China tomorrow.  I think they probably didn't understand some of the medical jargon, but when it was simple, they wanted more detail.  Aargh!