More of Matching Weekend

I'm incredibly tired and need to wake up early (no doubt both those states will become themes) but wanted to touch on another groundbreaking day. From the moment we awoke, we started tracking our match envelope through the FedEx website, and I was actually on the phone with Mary when theirs arrived, which was really cool. Ours followed hard upon, around 10:00 a.m.

When I saw the FedEx truck across the street I ran to the door in my pajamas and held it open while the driver, who looked like an extra from "The Sound of Music," took his sweet time getting to the door. "This is a very special envelope!" I announced, and he murmured "Oh, I'm sure it is," averting his eyes from my pink-striped flannel finery, which for the second time in as many days was being thoroughly captured on video. We were so excited when we pulled out the new photos of Ruo-Ruo, both taken in a wooden playroom, which uncharacteristically for referral photos contained no walkers, chairs or other propping devices, simply an adorable, plump girl in a yellow dress trimmed in bunny rabbits sitting with some toys. In one, she looks like she's playing a plastic keyboard, so we've been calling her musically gifted. ;)

We took the photos (a copy anyway) to the Families with Children from China Holiday Party (fine timing!) where we attracted a huge amount of attention just by waving around a color copy with a couple of baby heads on it. It was so fun telling other parents, including some who had recently returned from China, that we'd just received these photos this morning. A couple of the girls pointed to the pictures and said "baby!" We even coincidentally struck up a conversation with the one member in San Diego who has also adopted from Chongqing, and we got to meet her 2-year-old, Roxy, who is a beauty. She told us that she really enjoyed the city and the people were very warm. Hooray!

After that we went to FedEx-Kinkos with Paul and Mary and videotaped the hell out of signing our acceptance letters and mailing them back to CCAI. That made everything official; when CCAI receives these letters, they will forward them to CCAA, who will begin working on our travel arrangements. We're hoping travel approval will be issued in around four weeks, putting us in Chongqing well before Chinese New Year (January 29 this year.) This is going to be one Christmas season where more than visions of sugar plums will be dancing in my head.

I just have to say that every time I look at Ruo-Ruo's pictures, she looks more and more lovely, and more and more like one of us.