Those moments...

*I've been informed that it is disappointing to some people when I don't manage to post until the afternoon.... so I will do my best to do my profound thinking earlier in the morning from now on.... apologies to those affected by my late post yesterday! :o) *

There are moments in life when someone shows you how much they care about you and you know it'll just stick with you for a very long while. Steve isn't much for showing his emotions. It's certainly not that I don't know that he loves me, but he's not an emotionally touchy feely kind of guy. That's just who he is (or isn't in this case).

Well, we'd been talking a lot over the past weeks about my scrapbooking and how I wanted the program but didn't want to spend my birthday money (I got some early so I could take it to Taiwan) before Taiwan in case I found something there that I wouldn't get another opportunity to buy (like my black pearls from China). And I was lamenting a little bit (but surely NOT whining!!) that it stinks that we're taking the laptop to Taiwan and have the 7 hour layover in San Francisco and the long flight over (with a power outlet in the seat) and I wouldn't be able to scrap away because I wasn't thinking about that when I started my free trial and as you all know.... my trial is DONE. So a few days ago, he offered to not get me the birthday gift he'd planned to and get me Elements instead. I turned him down because I delight in getting gifts from him that he's thought up all on his own. It doesn't matter what it is. They mean so much more to me than getting something I mentioned that I wanted.

Last night we returned from our dog walk and he casually says to me... "I was planning to go to Best Buy tomorrow night....so if Elements just happened to fall into my cart - that's the program you want, right??" I said that yes it was, but that I didn't think that it should fall into his cart since it's expensive (I want the bundle with the video making software as well) and we really don't have the money for it right now and it's not something that I need - just something that I want... and his response was "Yes, but it's something you enjoy doing and you should have this. You never get anything. Besides, I don't want you getting behind on it...." and he smiled at me. I hate that this moment revolves around something material - but it was more than that to me. It was realizing that he does know what I like to do and that he found a little way to go out of his way to do something really nice for me. I'm finding it hard to put this into words really (although looking back there sure are a lot of them up there!), but it touched my heart and made me smile inside. It'll stick with me for a long while to come! (and then he asked if I thought that since we were splurging on me, he could get a game too.... THAT'S my regular Steve!)

Down to the wire!

I've recently fallen in love with digital scrapbooking. Truth be told, I'd rather do the purist old fashioned scrapbooking. However, I've found that by the time I lay everything out and get a creative vein going, dig through my supplies to see what I've got, and deign to pick up a picture, someone has awoken or it's time for bed or I'm needed elsewhere....and with digital scrapbooking, there's no mess to clean up, my "supplies" are neatly organized, and there's really very little cost (I get all of my kits online for free!). You can upload your layouts to Shutterfly or Kodak Gallery and get them printed into bound books and you have total control over the layout (unlike using their templates where you can't always find a page for 7 pictures plus text, etc.) The "hang up" is that the program I'd like to use is a little pricey. I downloaded a free trial for 30 days and today is (dun dun dun....) DAY 30! I've scrapped through most of January, but got it in my head to do an adoption announcement and a baptism invitation for Colby so that when we get home I can just run to my friend Julie's and finish it up with the right info and new pictures. Thankfully I've got everything under control now, but it was looking hairy there for awhile. Aside from digital scrapbooking, the program has also taught me a valuable lesson in patience. I think it shut down on me no less than 27 times TODAY ALONE, but I'm convinced it's a glitch with the trial since Julie has no problems. We'll see if I bring home enough birthday money from Taiwan to buy the real deal and get back on track before I get too far behind on this year.

This one's for me...

You're welcome to read this post, but this one's really for me. Kailin and I had the best day yesterday. We had a rare day together - just the two of us. I don't know if she just needed a little Mommy and Kailin time or if the extra sleep did the trick or if it was a combination or just dumb luck, but we had the BEST day! We tried on some possibilities for Easter dresses and twirled around, played with my rubber stamps and ink (to her messy delight), snuggled up on the couch, read some books, ate a decadent lunch of cheese and crackers and fruit (her favorite) and then headed out for some shopping after she woke up from her (almost 2 hour!) nap. It's hard to put it into words. Yesterday she was the bright sunshiney girl I know she can be but whom we've rarely seen as of late. We giggled and we laughed and we made some everyday memories that I know will last my whole life long. It was the last day we'll spend alone before Colby comes home and I was so glad that it was a good one!

Today we have our travel call with our agency and our travel packet should be arriving! One more step toward the trip. That means that tomorrow night I'll be running off to make copies of all of our paperwork going to AIT (American Institute in Taiwan) and sending it off via FedEx so that they can start getting things in order on the Taiwan side. Once that's done, it's down to the list making and packing and last minute shopping (oh, and the 9 bazillion other things I wanted to get done before Colby comes home....).

Perspective

I was thinking last night (yes - rare event as of late and it did hurt....ha ha ha). I was having one of those moments where the trip seems so far away and yet right around the corner. I think I'm just in that place where it seems too soon to do some things and at the same token the number of things that need to be done before we go seems very large! Anyway, it suddenly dawned on me that a month ago today we didn't even know we had a first ruling (much less a final or travel dates) and a month from today we'll be home with Colby and that whole part of our adoption journey will be over. The difference in our lives that one little month can make amazes me.

I've always hated the "spring forward" time change. The extra hour of daylight is particularly nice, but losing an hour of sleep has never been my favorite. Again - PERSPECTIVE! I happen to have the day off today and Kailin and I slept until 7:10! That never would have happened before the time change, so with a little perspective change, I've realized the price I paid in losing an hour of sleep yesterday was well worth it to gain an hour and a half today - and the greater prize is a well rested, HAPPY child!!!!

Up and at 'em!

We "leaped ahead" this morning and we were hoping that would translate to our early bird rising a little later. She did indeed - sleeping until 7am (or at least that's when she got us up)! I hope that it's a continuing trend because getting up at 5:15am every day is not allowing her to get enough sleep (translate - causing her to be invariably UGLY ALL DAY!). I wasn't expecting her to sleep that late though - 6am is unheard of lately - so I didn't set an alarm and now we've missed church.

Steve is sick again - a nasty cold this time. We're both hoping that he's thoroughly over this and HEALTHY when we leave for Taiwan. Time will tell.

I'm off to my sister's baby shower today. I'm sure she's tired of me poking at her belly, but I keep doing it anyway! I can't wait for Henry to arrive (although I'd prefer that he wait until we get back from Taiwan to make his appearance!)!

Making the tough choices

Sometimes being an adult stinks. I know....not a revelation. All along we've really wanted Kailin to be at the airport when we return. We really want her to grasp that we did go on a "big plane" to get her brother and that she's the first one we want to see when we got home. Well... we've talked it over and we just can't bring ourselves to roust her out of bed at 3am (we get in at 5:15 in Chicago) just to ride an hour+ to the airport to turn around and ride 2+ hours home. We're settling for stopping at Steve's parents' house on our way through to pick her up (at a much more reasonable 6:30 or 7). I'm so disappointed, but it's the adult thing to do.

Along those same lines, Taroko Gorge just isn't going to happen this trip. It's one of the things I really, really wanted to see, but it's a huge long day and we just don't want to do it with Colby and to do it without him we'd either have to go 8 hours after we land, or the day before we get him. I guess we'll just have to plan to go back!!

We got our plane tickets via FedEx this afternoon!

Purchase plane tickets - check!

Our plane tickets have officially been purchased! We depart at the crack of dawn on 3/27 from Chicago, spend some quality time in the San Francisco airport, and then depart about 5:30pm for Taipei. We'll land in Taipei at 10pm on 3/28. We head home on 4/8 at 11:30pm (sleeep Colby....sleeeeep!) and arrive back in the States on 4/8 at 7:30pm (before we even left....ha ha ha). We'll be back in Chicago about 5am on 4/9 and then the fun begins!

Today's goal is to double check our paperwork and look into whether we want to take any excursions beyond Taipei while we're there! We know we want to hit Wulai which is an aboriginal village where they make some magnificent glass beads, but we had been contemplating venturing further to the south and east to Taroko Gorge (being the nature buffs we are). It's looking like that is a LONG day trip, though, and would mean we'd either have to do it Saturday or Sunday since I don't think we'd choose to take Colby out on that long of an excursion. I don't know if we'll be ready for that on Saturday and to get "home" late on Sunday might not be the best idea, either - not that I expect to get much rest that night! It's hard, though. I don't know when we will get back to Taiwan and I want to make sure we see what we can so we can show Colby the wonders of his heritage.... Steve and I need to have a sit down discussion about it, I guess!