Monkey brain...

Go ahead, ask me why I'm stressed! I dare you! To save you the potential wrath that may befall you if you catch me at that exact wrong moment, I will go ahead and fill you in. Most of you who know and love me (you do love me, right?!) are aware that I am generally Type-A, slightly OCD personality. I like to have order and structure surrounding me as well as many little lists and post-its to keep my life organized. My memory is terrible and on top of working night shift I typically feel a little frazzled and a lot less organized than I'd like to be. With the in's and out's of daily life (girls' swim and karate, babysitter schedule, my work hours, cleaning house, doing laundry, preparing meals - well, you all know what this stuff is like!) running through my head, I now have "prepare to travel to China and bring home new child" to the list. This equates to sleepless nights (and days) due to my "monkey brain" that won't stop running around lately!

First, we have the paperwork. I had thought most of this was done last year when we turned in our dossier to China. Wrong! We felt comfortable taking our "leisurely" time to do that paperwork since we couldn't have the adoption to happen until after Brad was done with school. Now he is almost done with school, but more importantly, we have seen our daughter's face. We look at her picture every day, think about her every night, and talk about her often. We wonder if she is hungry or well-fed, clean and dry, being hugged or held. We need to have her home - now. So, while CCAI is telling us to hurry up and turn in paperwork, we feel an urgency to do so. In addition to the paperwork being rushed, the process is still just as picky! I had to redo a form recently because I did not write it all in "capital letters" as it called for. Really?!!

Secondly, we need to get her room ready. It is currently the guest bedroom/catch-all room and will remain that way until mid-July when our wonderful babysitter, Jordan, no longer comes over at 5am and goes to sleep there when Brad leaves for clinicals and I am work. I have worked on cleaning out the dresser drawers (I unearthed an ENTIRE drawer full of picture frames!) and closet, but before I get too far into that process I need to reorganize the basement storage room to house all of the stuff that I will be moving out (winter jackets, clothes for bi-annual consignment sale, pictures to scrapbook). Luckily I love the sage green and don't have to fit "paint the room" into the agenda.

Thirdly... well, I'll just start to write out all that goes round and round in my head on a daily (if not hourly) basis of my "to do list" before we travel to China to bring Cadence home. Maybe if I write it down here my brain will let a little bit of it go!

- organize swap to get rid of said picture frames found in dresser and of items cleaned out of
basement storage room
- read books on international adoption
- read books on attachment
- research about cleft lip/palate needs that we may have to deal with in China and shortly
after coming home
- learn basic Chinese
- learn basic sign language
- scrapbook something... anything! Laurel keeps asking where her pictures are as she looks
at the sorry amount of pictures that I've managed to get of Sierra into an album
- start Cadence's lifebook
- sew her blanket with adorable fabric I bought and made her lovey out of
- make travel list and buy items for traveling to China
- make sure Sierra and Laurel have plenty of entertainment for epic flight to China
- make sure we pack food so that Laurel doesn't starve in China
- become expert-like photographer for monumental trip to China
- make sure I have the right equipment to be expert-like photographer
- make sure dog has vaccinations up to date so she can be boarded while we are away
- make sure kids and Brad and I have correct vaccines for traveling
- plenty of back-up batteries (cameras, computer, DS's) and well as adapters to charge
electronics while in China
- learn to meditate so I won't be so stressed while planning for trip to China
- try to find semi-stylish passport/money holder
- read everyone else's blog in case they give that magical piece of advice or experience shared
that will make Cadence's transition easier
- figure out answer to debate if I should have still pictures or video taken of the "Gotcha
moment"
- buy diapers
- buy cleft palate bottles
- copy all necessary documents that I may possibly need while we're in China (spread between
2 3-ring binders and one accordion folder)
- come up with a better organizing system
- try to prepare for how different life will be with a toddler running around
- put something fairly interesting on blog
- get Brad to fix computer so pictures from camera can be downloaded (or uploaded, I never
know which!) and then put on blog
- get all major household projects done before we have a toddler running around

Um, okay, I think that covers about 1/3 of my mental to-do list!! Whew, I do feel a little better writing it down!