Trick or Treat!

If this is a sign of things to come, I think I need to start resting up for the holidays beginning in September. We had a long weekend of Halloween activities. It was lots of fun, but it totally exhausted all of us. This is Lexie's new pose. She was waiting for daddy to carve her pumpkin.

We miss Disneyland, so we made a Minnie jack-o-lantern! Lexie was thrilled with it!

Then it was off to another pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin. It's too bad that most of the pumpkins were mushy. It didn't really matter to Lexie, she had more fun picking up dead vines and leaves and crumbling them in her hands.

Lexie walked around the patch with her cousins.

Her favorite part, of course, was feeding the goats.

She wanted to play with these piggies, but they just wanted to take a nap.

We finally found a pumpkin! It took us over an hour and lots of walking.

Lexie showed Aunty Dawn how to balance.

Lexie wanted this big pumpkin, but decided the baby pumpkin would be easier to carry.

Lexie and Mikki found their perfect pumpkins. Now off to our carving contest!

This is what happens when you eat too much candy!

The next day we got together with my friends from school. Lexie loved making Halloween shapes with playdoh.

Lexie played with her friend, Savannah. It was very sunny and hot and the girls got so sweaty.

Later that day, we made marshmallow krispies which Lexie has been asking for all week. She spent more time eating the candy.

Lexie totally cracked me up. I put blobs of rice krispies in front of her so that we could roll them into balls. What does Lexie do instead? She takes a bite out of them.

Finally, it was Halloween! Since we got back from Disneyland, Lexie has been asking us everyday, "Are we going trick or treating tonight?" We practiced saying trick or treat, but we didn't think she would say it on the actual night. Last year, she didn't really understand what was going on. This year was definitely different. She knew she had to wear a costume and Lexie made a cute fairy princess!

Lexie was excited from the first house we got to. She would run up the driveway yelling "Trick or treat!" at the top of her lungs. She was polite and waited for her turn and said thank you. It was funny because some people would tell her to take a hand full of candy and she would take just one. I'm so glad that candy doesn't really interest her.

Lexie was not scared of any of the creepy decorations. Lots of houses were dark except for their spooky lights and music and it didn't bother her one bit. In fact, this daredevil didn't even stay on the lighted paths, she would cut through gardens and lawns or climb over rocks and walls. We all got quite a workout keeping up with this girl.

We are so grateful that Taryn went with us. She made sure Lexie stayed off the street and helped her carry her bucket full of treats. We've already sorted our loot of candy and kept only a few cookies and fruit snacks for Lexie to eat. Lexie already told us that next year she wants to be a butterfly.

Lexie really enjoyed Halloween and she's asking about next year already.

Our Pumpkin at the Patch

It was cloudy when we got to the pumpkin patch and we thought those dark clouds were moving away. The slight drizzle wasn't too bad. Lexie was the first one to go into this little house. It's clean right now, but when we left, it was covered with mud.

It started to rain a bit so we took cover under the face painting tent. We were amazed at how still Lexie sat to get her hand painted. She chose a flower and she did not move a muscle while she waited for her flower to be painted. I think she's ready for a face painting the next time.

Lexie loves her animals, so we knew she wouldn't be content until she was up close and personal with them. We went into the pens where the sheep and goats were running up to us because we were carrying their food. Lexie didn't mind that they were coming right up to her face. She loved it and didn't care that their tongues were licking her arms and slobbering all over her. She didn't want to leave.

Lexie loved this little cow!

It finally stopped raining, so we headed out to pick our pumpkin.

Lexie looks so grown up. Last year, she barely had any hair on her head and the pumpkins were so huge next to her. What a difference a year makes!

One thing that doesn't change, she wants to carry each pumpkin that she finds.

Then the rain came! We just bought Lexie a raincoat, so she was happy to wear it. But being the goofy parents that we are, we didn't bring an umbrella. Luckily, Aunty Lorna was there and had an extra one. The rain we could deal with, but the mud was awful. It was like cement. Everytime we walked, more mud would get caked onto our shoes. Pretty soon, our shoes were wearing a shoe of mud. Lexie had several pounds of mud on her shoes when we left. This girl is amazing!! She never complained that she couldn't walk, she just kept going.

Lexie calls them, "Daddy, Mommy and Baby pumpkins."

Lexie's favorite thing to do is paint. She was very excited to paint her pumpkins. I must say, she is a very neat painter.

We had to stop her painting because it started to pour! Lexie was not a happy camper! She threw a fit when we told her we had to go in the house. She did calm herself down when we explained that we couldn't paint in the rain because her pumpkins would get all wet.

The next day, Lexie added stickers to her pumpkins. If I let her, she would put stickers on everything.

The Paper Chase

We knew adoption was not easy. There are countless hurdles you have to jump through and many agonizing months or years of waiting can be heart breaking, but holding Lexie in our arms for the first time made us believe that our decision to adopt from Taiwan was the best decision we could have ever made. And that is why we are taking the plunge again. After a year of searching for an agency, we had just about given up hope and then, our agency announced there were openings. We knew it was meant to be, so here we are on that paper chase again. And after about 2 months, we are getting close to crossing that finish line.

Even though this will be our 2nd adoption, many family and friends still don't understand what exactly we need to do, so I just wanted to walk everyone through the process so far.

In August, we applied to the Taiwan program, which also includes paying a fee. We were sent a "Step Two" packet, which is all of the paperwork that needs to be completed. We also have to pay another fee at this time.

The paperwork includes the following (hold on to your horses, this list is pretty long):

1. Reference Forms (thanks Lorna, Debbie and Rob)

2. Medical Risks in Adoption

3. Discipline Policy Agreement

4. Parent Information & Child Preference Form

5. Criminal Clearance which includes getting fingerprinted

6. Child Abuse and Neglect Clearance

7. Medical Clearance (blood tests, doctor physicals, TB tests)

8. Financial Information (tax papers, savings, expenses)

9. Employment Information (letters from your employers)

10. Guardianship Information

11. Letter stating your intentions for adoption

12. Copies of our Passports

13. Copies of our Marriage Certificate

14. Copies of our Birth Certificate

15. Adoption Training

We had to pay another fee because this is also the start of our home study process. A social worker visited our home for about 2 hours. They wanted to see where we lived, how we're raising Lexie and talk about our plans for another child.

We are now waiting to see if we're exempt from taking adoption training classes. We took classes at our agency when we were in the China program. We also did several classes online. My feeling is that since we've adopted Lexie, we have received hands-on practical experience that you cannot get in any class. I'm crossing my fingers that we're exempt from these classes because that will be another fee that we have to pay to learn about bonding, attachment, and developmental issues that we have experienced first hand with Lexie.

If everything is in order, our home study can be completed and then we can make our appointment with USCIS (immigration) to be fingerprinted. We pay another fee for this approval. It's only valid for 18 months, so if we don't have a referral by then, we have to be fingerprinted again. Luckily the first renewal is free, if we go for a 3rd time, we have to pay again. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

Once we get USCIS approval, it will be sent to the agency in Taiwan and then we can start waiting for a referral. We're hoping that our paperwork will be sent by the end of this year because we may be looking at 2 years before we get a referral.

At least this time around, we have Lexie. She will keep our minds occupied and make sure we're staying busy spoiling her. It will also give us time to prepare her for a sibling. We still need to get our home ready for a 2nd child. And most importantly, it will give us some extra time to start saving. We know we'll have to go through our savings to pay for all of our expenses, but we want to make sure we still have something left once the dust settles.

So, we will keep everyone posted on how this adoption is going and hopefully it's smooth sailing.

All Good Things Must End

And boy, did it end in a bad way! We checked out of our hotel and said good bye to Disneyland. It was an incredible experience and we're hoping we can come back to visit this magical place again really soon. Our flight wasn't until later that afternoon, so we decided to head to Downtown Disney.

We ate at Rain Forest Cafe. Lexie loved all of the animals, especially the daddy and baby elephant that came to life every 15 minutes. I thought the food wasn't very good and it was a bit pricey, but I guess you pay for the atmosphere.

After some last minute shopping, we headed back to catch our shuttle. The shuttle picked us up at 2:00pm and we had to wait for another family who was nowhere to be seen. Finally after about 15 minutes, the mom comes running to the shuttle and says the rest of their group is coming. We waited for another 15 minutes and another woman and a toddler came. We had to wait even longer because they had to get their luggage from the hotel. Then, while we're driving to the airport, she tells me that they were late because they were at Disneyland. I wanted to tell her, "Are you crazy?" I just have a thing about being on time and then having to wait for people who aren't on time and your excuse is that you were at Disneyland. I wanted to yell at her, "Do you know how big the park is and it's not like it's a short walk away. And if you knew the shuttle was coming at 2:00, why didn't you leave the park early knowing you had a toddler and still had to get your luggage.", but I held my tongue and just ignored her. Well, I guess the driver wasn't too happy about being late either because he broke every speed limit and got us to the airport in record time.

The nightmare doesn't end there. That was only the beginning. As we were waiting for our flight, we hear an announcement that our flight has been delayed for 4 hours, then within a few minutes, it's 5 hours, so we weren't leaving until 11:00pm that night. This was not going well especially since Lexie slept for 20 minutes on the shuttle and she was already getting fussy waiting for the plane.

We got dinner vouchers and went to eat and decided that we'll just let Lexie run around at the airport to tire her out. When we got back to the gate, we found they had moved us to another gate. And as we sat there waiting, Eric noticed the monitor change. Our flight was now leaving at 7:00am the next morning. No announcement was made and suspiciously, there was no one to talk to at the gate. Eric went to the customer service office and got us vouchers for a hotel and breakfast. We were told that there was no crew for our flight.

So, we packed up Lexie and headed for the shuttle. It was cold outside and the people waiting for the shuttle were very rude. There was no organization on how to get on to the shuttle. As soon as our hotels' shuttle stopped, people just ran, pushing and shoving with their luggage to the doors and by the time we folded up Lexie's stroller and grabbed our bags, it was full. Of course after that, every shuttle that stopped was for another hotel. Finally our shuttle came and we made sure this time we were ready.

Luckily, Lexie had a change of clothes and Eric bought a toothbrush and toothpaste from the gift shop. One funny moment on the shuttle was when I told Eric that we didn't have any toiletries. Lexie said, "Mommy, I see toilet trees!" as she pointed to the trees on the street. Lexie was a total trooper through all of this. Instead of being fussy, she was very loopy. She was running around the room and bouncing on the bed, but as soon as we turned off the light, she was fast asleep.

It was nice to take a shower and have a bed to sleep in for a few hours. I felt bad waking Lexie up at 4:00am, but she just opened her eyes and asked, "Where are we going?" I think she was relieved when I said we were going home. After that she stayed up until we boarded our plane. So, 13 hours later we were headed back home!!

Even though it was a horrible end, we won't let it ruin the beautiful memories that we made at Disneyland. After this ordeal, we know that when we do fly back to Taiwan, Lexie is going to be great on that long flight!! She never ceases to amaze us!

Princesses & Fairies

This was our last day to enjoy Disneyland, so we went in early and visited Tomorrowland. Lexie had fun on the Buzz Lightyear ride. Since there wasn't a line, we got to ride it again, but not so great for Eric because he lost his lens cap on the ride. But better to lose the cap, then the lens!

Everyday we've been to the park, there have been long lines to visit the princesses. We didn't want to wait for so long because Lexie has never shown any interest. Since the park was pretty empty, we decided to take her to Pixie Hollow and see how she was with the fairies. The first one she met was Fawn. Lexie was dancing and jumping around and we couldn't believe how excited she was.

Then we met Tinkerbell. Lexie just couldn't stop smiling and laughing which made Tinkerbell burst into laughter also.

We walked around Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Lexie and daddy made some wishes at Snow White's wishing well.

We rode Dumbo for the last time!

Today was the first time there wasn't a long line for the Fantasy Faire. We decided that since Lexie loved the fairies, we'd give the princesses a try. Lexie was beyond excited, which was a huge surprise to us.

The first princess was Belle. She was sweet and came down to Lexie's height so they could chat. Lexie was just giggly and couldn't stop smiling.

Next up was Ariel. She kept saying that Lexie was so cute and she wanted to give Lexie a hug.

The last princess was Tiana. She sat down and Lexie just plopped herself right next to her which made Tiana laugh.

We've already decided that on our next visit, we will be having lunch with the princesses. Lexie fell in love with them and was just in awe of their gowns. She's working on becoming a princess too!

We headed back to Toon Town and Lexie visited Goofy's house. She can't stop talking about it. Who else would have a huge jack-o-lantern in their yard?

She loved playing Goofy's piano especially since it sounded like a cat when you pressed the keys.

As we were leaving, Lexie spotted Pluto and what does she tell her daddy to do, "Chase him!" And what the princess wants, she usually gets!

Disneyland started to get crowded so we headed off to California Adventure Park. Lexie wanted to ride Flick's Flyers again.

Weee!! This is so much fun!

We went to the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. It's a place where kids can go wild climbing rock walls, sliding, jumping and just being kids. Lexie loved walking across these net bridges. The only problem was the loops in the netting were pretty big, so her foot kept going through them. Eric had a workout carrying Lexie across the bridges and let me tell you, it seemed like the bridges went on forever.

Lexie could have spent the day there just sliding and going through the tunnels.

That night Lexie saw her first Disney Parade and she loved it. We found a perfect spot towards the end of the parade route right across Pixie Hollow. The bench is situated right in front of some greenery, so no one could stand behind us and it lined up right to the edge of the street, so no one could be in front of us. Eric camped out for about 45 minutes while Lexie went to ride the train one last time.

Lexie was in heaven as she heard the music and saw the dancers. Many of them, including the characters, came right in front of her and it was as if they were dancing with her. She loved the beautiful floats and all of the lights. This is what Disneyland is all about!

We were sad that our visit had come to an end, but we thought it was just enough time for us to see everything we wanted and not so long that Lexie would end up being totally exhausted. We can't wait to visit the magic kingdom again!