Pictures pictures and more wedding pictures!

I've posted an album of more pictures, you can see here. Also, if anyone out there has a picture that shows my actual face, please send it my way. I've probably looked at about 300 pictures from the wedding so far and have yet to see the whites of my eyes. Just curious how I looked.

As you can tell, the wedding really was lovely. I think everyone had a blast. I know the 3 of us did. The bride was radiant, and Dave looked happier and more handsome than I've seen him in my 14 years of being his pseudo-sister. (Dave, don't get used me being nice. Just because you got yourself a hot wife doesn't mean I'm going to stop making fun of you.) Hopefully they are currently having an amazing time on their honeymoon in Guadalupe.

In the world of David (and let's face it, that's what the people want when they read this blog), some highlights of the wedding were:

• David's tuxedo shoes were way too tight. They dug in to his fat little feet and left marks, so he ran around barefoot and eventually decided he wanted his gym shoes for the ceremony.
• We used jelly beans as bribes to get David into his tux and to participate in various wedding related activities that aren't particularly fun when you're 3. The problem: he sucks on the things instead of chewing them and still had one in his mouth from long before the ceremony when it was go time. Naturally, it fell out his mouth mid-sermon.
• David announced just before the vows that he had to go potty, so he and I missed perhaps the most important part of the ceremony. Fortunately, we made it back for the ring swap; and we were quiet enough that I don't think the bride even realized we were disrupting her wedding.
• David loved the band and clearly had a crush on their lead singer. He stood and stared at her for half the night. He must have made an impression on the band, too, because by the end of the night, they'd given him drumsticks, candy and the award for "Best Air Guitar."
• The kid stayed through the entire reception. We left at midnight, and he didn't fall asleep until the ride home. We kept asking him if he wanted Ramma and Nahnee to take him home, and he refused. He was up at 6:30 Saturday morning, and let me tell you that he is significantly less fun on 6.5 hours sleep.
• He was also well known to the staff at Hotel Baker. Everywhere we went, people we didn't know were calling him by name. The bartender loved him, and so David ended up drinking more juice than I've let him have in the last 6 months. Literally. At the end of the night, we went upstairs so that Kevin could change out of his tux, and as we got off the elevator some woman who works there said, "Hi, David!"

Congratulations!

Uncle Dave tied the knot tonight. Or, as Dave would want me to say, technically last night. And while clearly Dave's bride with her intelligence, beauty, ability to speak 3 languages and interesting stories from her worldly travels is out of Uncle Dave's league on paper, we'll have you know that she got herself quite a catch because they don't make them any better than Uncle Dave. And I think we all know that I don't say nice things very often, but I mean that one sincerely. Lots of love and best wishes as they begin their life together!

Here is a picture as a teaser. There will be lots more to come, but it might take a little time. I have plans...

The best man with the best ringbearer

Introducing...

We finally received our LSC!!! I came home from work yesterday to a message on our machine from our adoption agency. They didn't say why they were calling, just to call them back. Of course, at this point, it was after 5:00 and the office was closed. We pretty much knew it was either really good news (our LSC) or really bad (a problem with our dossier that would delay our approval). I tried calling and emailing our agency contact with no luck. To spice things up, we lost power in a huge thunderstorm around 6:00pm, and my cell phone died a couple of hours later. So when I plugged my phone in to my car charger this morning, I was thrilled to see an email that said our LSC was in. Hopefully it will get to us by the end of the week, and we can get our I-800 out to USCIS.

And now, without further ado, here is Mei Xiang Hua, soon to be known as Max LaBorde Maas...

And here is a picture of David seeing his baby brother's picture for the first time back in April.

Father's Day weekend

Here are some pictures from our weekend. We had a great time. Nahnee was in beautiful East Chicago on business and got to stay with us Thursday - Saturday. He partook in farmer's market donuts and an hour of watching 3 year olds "play soccer" in the heat.

After soccer, we sent Nahnee off to the airport, picked up Grandma and drove to Galena to meet up with Grandpa. Highlights included swimming and, first thing Father's Day, fishing with Kevin and Grandpa. David caught his first fish, actually several fish, and loved it; but no one had a better time than Grandpa. If you don't believe me, check in here in a couple of days for his inevitable comment, which will include a generous use of caps lock.

Soccer: check out the Jordan-esque tongue in the first one.

Swimming with his favorite new goggles and Kevin. Blocks with Grandma.

Driving the boat and fishing with Grandpa (note the goggles)

David's first fish. Helping Kevin bring in the big one. Pleased to be holding his catch.

David checking out his stash outside the popcorn store and playing crochet with Grandpa.

Amen

Tonight as I was putting David to bed, I told him his story. We do this a lot. We want talking about his adoption to be something he always remembers, no big deal. We talk about China, his birth mommy, the nannies at the orphanage and his foster mom. We always end his story by telling him how those people took such good care of him until Mommy and Daddy could come to China to bring him home forever. Tonight after I finished, he got the biggest smile on his face and said, "Amen."

You take it on faith, you take it to the heart

We're still waiting for our LSC. Our agency says it takes 30-100 days, and we are on day 47. Not that I'm counting. This step is a particularly big deal because 1) it means that China approves us to adopt Max, B) it means that China could actually read all our paperwork (the doctor's form always makes me nervous because, seriously, the man cannot write legibly) and that there won't be a long delay while we send new information and 3) the next steps are somewhat more predictable. Once we receive our LSC, our agency thinks we'll travel in 3-4 months. We have our fingers crossed we'll be able to bring Max home this fall, but we need to have our LSC in hand in the next month or so for that to happen.

In the mean time, we're doing a pretty good job of not obsessing over things that are completely out of our control and an excellent job of keeping ourselves busy. This weekend we moved my bookshelves from Max's future room up to our bedroom. Next time we have a weekend in town without a wedding (T-minus 12 days, Uncle Dave!), we'll get the computer desk and futon out of there. I'd love to be able to start painting soon. Just have to figure out how to talk David out of painting the room orange.

Enough of my rambling, here is what you came here for. Pictures...

First, in the world of sports, David and Kevin went to their first Sox game of the season. Note the chocolate ice cream on David's forehead in the second picture as a direct result of the actions taken in the first. And, most importantly, go Blackhawks! Kevin and Uncle Dave paid an unholy amount of money for standing room tickets to game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. If you watched, you know it was an awesome game. I'm glad they got a chance to go, especially to such a great game. I'm glad the Blackhawks won it all (suck on that, Philly). And most of all, I'm glad the series didn't go to a seventh game because you don't want to know how much that ticket was going to cost us.

We recently learned, after 4 stupid blood draws, that David is not immune to things he was vaccinated against in China. We had redone most of his immunizations here, but not everything. It is a long story why it has taken us 2 years to get to this point, but anyway, he got to enjoy a round of shots at my office and 24 hours of smoking hot fever and grumpiness this past week. In exchange, Alma took him to the children's museum just down the street, and he had a blast.

David is now the proud owner of a Thomas the Tank Engine bike helmet. He wears it every waking minute. Also pictured is Fiona, whose 5th birthday party today featured Cold Blooded Creatures. Much to our disappointment, David was more interested in all the toys in Fiona's basement than the 10 foot alligator in her back yard.

Testing...testing...

So I recently learned that since our last trip to China, the Chinese government has seen fit to block blogger.  So while we're there adopting Max, we won't be able to access our blog.  We can, however, e-mail posts that will be published.  Just giving it a try now.

To make this worth your while, I will tell you that David has been pretending to call Max on the phone recently completely unprompted.  It's so cute.  When we ask how Max is doing, he always says, "Not good."  Hope he's wrong on that one.

Also this morning, Kevin asked me to come down to the basement to admire the cleaning he did last night.  David piped in, "And then I make mess again!"  Oh brother.