Happy Birthday GG!!!!

Happy 88th Birthday GG!!! With all of love...Keith, Shelly, and Francesca!

GG and Francesca having some cake.


Sharing Secrets...I promise, I won't tell anyone!


I want all the chips to myself!


Well, we had a few other things happening this past week. Francesca finally got her first hair cut and sorry there are no photos. I know, bad mommy, but she was crying so hard and I was holding her on my lap while she got her cut. Grandma was there with us & we both forgot to get the camera out. Jamie at Dead Endz was so wonderful with Francesca and she even gave Francesca a "my first hair cut" certificate with some of her hair attached.

Francesca is also counting up to seven! Keith has been working with her all weekend & today, she made it all the way to seven! You go girl!

and...

Check out my little nephew! Isn't he adorable!

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Monkey See...Monkey Do!

Francesca loves to do what ever I am doing! So, when I don't need my sunglasses any more, I have a habit of putting them on top of my head. Well, as they say, "monkey see, monkey do"...as I was driving home tonight from Grandma's with my sunglasses on top of my head, I just happen to look into the rear view mirror and see my precious daughter with her sunglasses on top of her head too. I just had to post a few photos of how adorable she is! She is just too freakin cute!

And check out her new watch we purchased for her at Swatch in NYC this past weekend! She is always wanting to wear mine, so I found it only fitting for her to have one as well. She just loves it & won't go any where with out it...just like her mom! Of course, she can't tell time, but she does point to it & say, "tick-tock tick-tock"!

LID!!! We are paper-pregnant!

YEAH! We just received notice from our agency that we are officially LID as of today! To adopting parents-to-be....that means we are now officially paper pregnant! So the count down begins! Too bad it is now taking well over 16 months to receive a referral! (and rumors have it that it make get up to 3 years before we will hear anything, but we are trying so hard to stay positive that it will be much sooner than the 36 months that is being predicted). Now the official count down beings....

Ready for the races!

Our little Nascar fan!


Should we adjust the tire pressure?


As I mention before, we have tickets this year for two of the Nascar races. Francesca loves watching the races on TV & she loves her Nascar books, that we always have to read to her at nap time & bed time...so we thought this year we take her to see one..or two of them. Since my husband is a huge Tony Stewart fan (and a big fan of Home Depot), Francesca had no choice but to follow in her father foot steps (now we have to give the guy a break..this is daughter #3 for him and we are waiting on his #4). Last week, Keith purchased a full Tony Stewart outfit for her that includes a TS jacket and he ordered these #20 ear protection headset for her to wear at the races. As soon as they were delivered, she had to put them on & has been wearing them ever since! She REALLY thinks she is a Nascar driver! I'll have to try to get video of her driving her Nascar around the kitchen table. I just hopes she does enjoy the races as much as she enjoys them from the TV.

Rumor has it....

Rumor has it that it is taking about 14 days from being DTC to LID with our agency CCAI. Seeing how we were DTC on April 9th...I am thinking we should hear something by the 23rd or the 24th, which is this coming Monday or Tuesday. I know this is just speculation....but it would be so great to FINALLY have a LID for the official count down to being....

Busy, Busy, Busy!

The next few months are going to be crazy for us here in the Leonard household. Starting this weekend with a trip into NYC to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, a ton of birthday parties and weddings to attend, two weekends will be spent at Nascar races (one in Richmond and the other at Pocono), a weekend in Pittsburgh with Owen, Amy & Katie...and than a week's vacation with them as well during the week of the 4th, and a trip to Virginia Beach to see Grandma & Grandpa Pompey....It just hit me tonight all that we have going on the next few months, CRAZY! At least I won't be sitting around, counting down the days...trying to calculate and speculate on when we might hear something on Janie's referral (I know we have a long time to wait, but you all know I am not the most patient person). So with us being so busy...this is a good thing!

FINALLY...Francesca has Choo-Choos!

Mom finally got to make choo-choos in my hair! Don't I look too cute!?!?!?!






As many of you know, when Francesca was placed in my arms on 11/08/2005, she had very VERY little hair! It has been a long time coming, but this past Saturday, I was finally able to get some choo-choos in her hair. She couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror and they stayed in all day! (her Chinese swirl made it a little difficult to get even pig-tails, but they still looked so darn cute)

Now, here are some photos from Friday night at Grandma's. Check out my little nephew with the pot holder on his head! He is just too cute!



Francesca showing me her smile.

(I kept asking her to smile and after several requests, this is what she gave me)

By the way...we received an email from our agency that Janie's dossier arrived at the CCAA's office in Beijing. Now, if we could only get a quick Log-in-date (aka LID)...that would be so great!

Something new for Janie!

Well, I finally broke down my will-power this past weekend & purchased something for Janie. I have a ton of clothes already from Francesca to pass down onto her, but I saw this beautiful sweater..on sale...and I just had to get it! How can I not, when shopping at Tysons II !!! Keith should just be lucky that he was with Francesca and me (for I would have gotten a little crazy with all the amazing stores they have).

Make sure you check out the photos below of our Easter weekend in DC!

Easter Photos!

Ok...Here are finally the photos I promised to post from this past holiday weekend. We have been so carzy these past few days with...everything & anything! I just hope that by the time the weekend rolls around things start to slow down.

The night before we left for DC at Grandma's watching some TV



Francesca and her big sister, Amanda aka Frannie

(you can tell Keith took this photo)


Little Andy loves to climb onto...everything!


Francesca is trying to get Little Andy to stay with her for the photo (can you believe she is an Aunt?...and I guess that makes me Grandma Shell...OMG!)

WE ARE DTC!!!!!!

WE ARE DTC!!!!

After a nice, relaxing weekend (per my husband's request) in DC, I arrived home this afternoon to a series of emails! First one, which arrived on Friday, was from our agency that they finally received our updated home study and that our dossier was being sent to the translations department at CCAI. Than at 7:52pm tonight, we received another email from CCAI that we are DTC today! I can't believe it! I am still shaking over the fact that CCAI finally got what was needed from our social worker and than to find out that we are DTC...it is the best news I have heard in a long time! I did do a little celebrating with Amy via telephone...who is also DTC as of today!

YYYIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP PPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I promise I will post photos tomorrow of our weekend in DC. I have a few of Francesca and her sister Amanda and Amanda's son (Francesca's nephew), Little Andy!

I need to vent!

There are RUDE, RUDE people in the world today! I am so sick of people saying that adopting a child is "buying a child"! It makes me sick! If they only knew what we, as adoptive parents, have to go through (all the interviews, endless paper work, phone calls, sleepless nights and so much more) they might think twice about what comes out of their mouths. Last night while watching Driving Force on A&E, Joh Force made a statement to his wife about how Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have to buy babies in order to be happy. Now, I am a HUGE racing fan...of all types of racing and was a fan of this show until I heard that come out of his mouth! It truly upsets me that people feel that we are buying our children (and this isn't the first time that I heard that statement..or had been asked, "how much did you pay for her?"...at least Mr. Force's statement wasn't said in front of my daughter as others felt the need to ask when she was standing right next to me!)


As I am sitting here typing this, we are still waiting on information to be sent to our agency from our social worker. Something did arrive yesterday from our SW, but it was not what CCAI needed to complete our dossier. So if you are asking if you caught me on a bad day...the answer would be yes!

Sorry...just needed to vent about a few things.....

UURRRRGGGGGG!

I just knew something was going to hold us up in getting our dossier sent off to China! We got the email Friday afternoon from our agency CCAI that our home study did not include enough information on Francesca! So as of now, our dossier is just sitting there waiting on this information that should have been included in the first place. I was frantic all weekend and my stomach did flip flops most of it too. Anyway, with Keith's help today (thank you, Honey!) we are trying to get this taken care asap! Sorry there are no photos. I have been really down in the dumps over this whole issue and poor Francesca knows something is up because she has been on her extra-extra-good behavior since late Friday afternoon...gotta love her!