Snow White and the Ten Days

When Abbey was potty training her goal was to fill a page with stickers and get a Snow White dress. She's never seen any Disney movies but did bump into Snow White herself on our trip to Disneyland for her 3rd birthday, and she has never stopped talking about it. We were at an exhibit in California Adventure and looked up to see Snow White standing shoulder to shoulder with us. She said hello and then ran away but that moment made a huge impression on Abbey. Anyway, the first Snow White dress we got at Target fell apart the first day (we put it on in the store before we even paid for it). The second dress that we got at ToysRUs has been fabulous.
She wears it all the time. This picture is from a baby shower we went to yesterday. She loves it when people say "Hi Snow White". She wants me to get a Sleeping Beauty dress (because as she says, I always go pee-pee in the potty) and dress up a long with her.

Two funny things about Miss Abbey. 1) She always "takes notes" on everything. For example if she is working on a puzzle she will say, "Just a minute, I've got to write this down!", and run over to another table with a little note pad and pen and write some things down (scribbles) and then go work some more and then run to make more notes about what she's done. 2) She tapes notes she's made anywhere I will let her. Especially before nap she needs to make little signs and tape them on to her special things telling people, "Nobody touch this" or "Don't move this". Where she gets all this I do not know, but nobody better mess with her things because she comes back to check on it all later. Her most important things get hidden in her play refrigerator.

And we have ten days until we leave. There is no way I can explain what this has been like, but suffice it to say - not easy. We have had lots of support and help though, which we greatly appreciate. I am waking up each day at about 3:30 a.m. and have just decided to start my day then, otherwise my mind can't stop with the mental lists. Our home now looks like the Who house after the Grinch has stripped everything. Please pray that it will lease and that we will get everything important done. God is building up my faith and helping me overcome my fears. Of course Abbey makes everything fun and the delight of spending time with her is the joy of each day.

More Red Thread

Taking a brief moment from the mountain of "to do's" to catch my breath. This is quite a mountain I am attempting to climb with the impending move to China in 19 days, but I find comfort in the thought that it is not as daunting as the adoption or the medical battle I went through to get Abbey. I wanted to share a red thread story with you. Somewhere back along our way I met a friendly lady named Paulette who was starting down the adoption pathway. We shared a common career of teaching, the plan to adopt as single moms, and best of all our faith in God. We communicated through emails and blogs and were eventually were able to spend a day together when Paulette traveled to our area. Abbey loved her day with Paulette and so did I. We were thrilled when she received her referral and I was amazed to learn that the child she was matched with was at the orphanage that the school and foundation I am going to work with is involved in serving. There's more that I won't say yet, but her daughter Annalise now has some special friends watching over her. When Paulette shared her news with me she had no idea that I was moving to China, much less to be working with her daughter's orphanage, as I had told no one in blogdom of my plans yet. Out of all the orphanages in China, her daughter was at our destination. To top it off we are traveling at the same time and as we finish our first week in China we hope to have Paulette and Annalise as our first house guests. We could have never imagined when we last met the path that would be unfolding before us.