Random musings

It's hard to believe it's been almost two weeks since we got our referral. It seems it's been eons, yet just yesterday. Right now we're in that strange state of suspended animation. We're running around like crazy, trying to get the "China shopping list" knocked out, the baby's room ready, finish all those home-improvement projects that have been sitting around for months. Rip out dining room carpet and install hardwoods? No problem. Paint kitchen? Check. Replant entire yard killed by Midwestern drought? I don't THINK so.

Naturally, we're anxious for news of travel approvals. When will we leave? How much time do I have to train my replacement at work? How much longer will I have to feign concentration? And when will I figure out how to use the new laptop and Web cam so I can see my big girls while I'm in China, and they can see their baby sister?

At any given moment, it feels like there's too much time, and not enough.

When I'm not charting out the days between now and blastoff, as my girls call it, I'm thinking how different this trip will be from our first. There are five families in our group, instead of nine the first time. Six babies -- one set of twins -- from three orphanages. Last time, all nine came from the same SWI. Three of us will be traveling without our spouses due to obligations on the home front. Most of us already have children; on our first trip, most of us were rookies.

So, will we bond as a group? Will we be as amazed at our babies' bodily functions? Somehow, I think baby poop just won't have the same mystique it had when I was a first-time mom. Oh, I'll be happy that everything works. But if grandma Mimi wants to change her -- well, she can do the honors!

I've been fortunate to already get to know one of our travelmates via e-mail. She and her husband were trapped in the same limbo we were, coming off hold and unsure whether we'd ever see our daughters' faces. I was so overjoyed when they received their referral too; it wouldn't have been right for us to get the call and them not to.

The bonds you form in China are part of this amazing red thread. Without those bonds, we would never have our second daughter, or some dear friends who I'd trust my girls' lives with. I'm sure we'll come away from this trip with many of the same feelings.

So now, it's off to check my to-do list, hoping it didn't grow while I was typing this.