Quick Update

Crazy Busy... that is the only way to describe life right now. We have not stopped. There has been so many things to get done in such a short time.

We close on the house today! I can't wait to go HOME this afternoon! The kids are all ready to unpack... even if it is in a big empty house! Daniel even picked out a little something to decorate his room at the store yesterday. Too cute!

I have set up the Internet service, but it will take 7 days for it to be installed. So... I will not be on the Internet at all unless I can find a Starbucks with WiFi access. : () )

Until later... cheerio from a soon to be HOME OWNER!!!!

Enjoying our Days while we are Waiting

Enjoying Nanny and Papa's shade tree:

Lilli has a truly "Southern" experience... she meets Papa's talking fish... I think she would like to have him fried on a plate with hot chips!!!




Nanny was making chicken and dumplings (my favorite) and the girls were making dumpling animals with the leftover dough!

American Idol tryouts in the living room!

The fountain a few blocks away is the perfect cure to the heat and humidity!

The Land of NO Internet Access

We are back in Louisiana at my parent's house (no internet!!!). Despite the lack of current technology, the kids are having a blast as they always do when visiting with family.

The boys left this morning with Papa for a morning on the lake... hopefully they will catch enough fish for lunch!

My cousin came over and removed Daniel's stitches last night (he is a nurse). I still can't believe what a horrid job the Dr did on Daniel's leg. He will have a huge scar!

Holly spent the night with her Great Aunt last night... I wonder if the new laptop and wireless Internet that my Uncle just installed had something to do with that decision? Holly WAS/IS having Microsoft Messenger withdrawal!!!

We will depart Louisiana and return to Alabama on the 28th. Closing on the house is scheduled for the 30th! Unfortunately, my shipment from Australia is no where in sight and won't be considered "late" until the end of September. I guess we will be camping out in the dream house for a while! No worries!

Here is a picture of what a combination of jet lag and house hunting did to the littles ~ they just crashed on the hotel sofa:

Also... Lilli has discovered that she really likes "a stick with a hot dog"... or corndog to the rest of us! And good old American bacon is high on the list too!

More later!

What a Difference 5 Days Make....

5 days ago... I was not sure when we would receive a crucial piece of paperwork for Abby's journey to American Citizenship. Today ~ all the stress is but a memory. I am "home" with my 5 children who are ALL American Citizens and we now have a home! YES...Joe and I have purchased a house today! This is truly my dream home and very worth the long wait! We should be able to close in the next 14 to 21 days. I am sure to be posting a lot about decorating and settling in!

The kids start school on August 6th... I will sign some paperwork in the morning and then head back to the New Orleans area for a little "vacation" with my family before returning to the daily grind of life in Alabama later this month! YEAH!!!

Have Brown Envelope ~ Will Travel

We received Abby's Immigration Paperwork yesterday and we are wheels up for the US of A in just a few hours!

Cheers from "Down Under" for the last time!!!

I LOVE America ... but NOT the Bureaucratic Red Tape

Bureaucratic Red Tape that goes hand in hand with every part of my life at the moment. Sometimes I think I need to fill out a government form to go to the potty!!! And my luck... that request would be rejected!!!!

YEP... you guessed it ~ even with all the good intentions of some very helpful folks at the Consulate in Sydney... the last item that we need for Abby's immigrant visa has not been received yet. Should have been here last week... Monday at the latest... but it is now Tuesday and I am getting all too familiar with the words "not yet".

If not received in the morning, I will again have to push our departure back. I so wanted to find a house and "slightly" settle before the kids started school. Looks like I will be shuttling them to school from a hotel room for the first few weeks at the rate we are going.

Oh well... what can I do... but moan and groan about it all!

In other news... I had lunch today with the most amazing lady ~ Sandra. I met my cheeky friend Sandra when I went to work to fund Lilli's adoption. I can honestly say that she is a true friend. We just hit it off! I will miss her tons! She was always available for great long lunches and fun chats over large mugs of hot coffee. She has promised to visit me in Alabama... I am not going to let her out of that promise!!!

Daniel's leg looks horrid.... I am thinking the Dr that stitched him up would earn a name like "the Butcher" or "Scar Master" in the Hollywood Plastic Surgery World.... Daniel's leg will always carry a huge reminder of his big Aussie bike crash! Funny... he seems to LOVE that idea!

Joey is recovering from a Stomach bug.... too funny how puzzled he was over the fact that he was not hungry for 2 days.... My grocery bill dropped tremendously and the economy in Canberra took a slight dip when my 16.5 year old BOY endured this "forced" fasting!

Holly is in and out as always... running around making time for all of her 21 best friends before our departure.

You know... I was thinking about when my best friend moved away in elementary school many many moons ago. She left... and that was that. Who knows where Bambi is or what she is doing. Our children are lucky as they have the ability to keep all of there friends around the world via msn messenger! True benefit of the modern age.

The little girls continue to have a ball inside while there is yucky weather outside. The house is much emptier... lots of space to run and hide and jump and play! Especially in the master bedroom which is just a mattress and box spring at the moment.... JUMPING HEAVEN!

Is Lilli OK with the move???

YES!!! She "gets it" ~ really she does! She talks to my mother on the phone each morning and tells her each and every morning how we are flying on an airplane to America to buy a new house with "towers" (like a princess) and the truck is here packing all of her toys.

Lilli did ask me one time if she was going too... I told her yes yes yes! Since then... she is grand as always! She and Abby are having a great time playing in the much emptier house... twirling and dancing!

The older kids have all been very social... not home much since school let out for the break. They have all had going away parties and sleepovers with friends. Daniel's latest sleepover ended in the emergency room with stitches... trying to land a "bike jump" for the 4th time... he didn't and has a huge cut... and a youtube video...to prove it! He crashed big time!

We are still waiting on Abby's immigration paperwork... hopefully all will be completed early next week.

Cheers!

Otherwise Entertained... or NOT!

This is currently my life:

Notice the "USA" written on everything... We are really going home!!!! I might just get the movers to pack Joe in a box and then everything would be PERFECT!!!

I'll post more at the end of the week once all this is done! The truck pulls away with all of our things on Friday...

Pack Out and New Fashion Finds

The movers came yesterday for a "look see" at all that we will be shipping to the US. Joe will keep enough to survive (comfortably) for a year and we will move everything else. So we are thinking that we will have a little under 10,000lbs for this move. 6 movers will be at our house Monday morning at 8:30 am to begin the chaos that is known as "Pack Out". It should take 3 days to pack and 1 day to load in the wooden crates for shipping. I never like this part of moving... NEVER!

In preparation, we always clean! Clean in the sense that I don't want one thing that is meant for a garbage can to show up on the other side of the move. The kids are working fast and furious in their rooms as I told them they could not be "social" this weekend unless their rooms were ready for packout. They all have way too many plans to be stuck at home cleaning under their beds... so they have been very busy!

Lilli has a new "fashion find" from all the cleaning! She found Joey's wrap that he used on his leg after the cast came off last year. She; however, does not choose to wrap her leg... it is the "IN" in new headwear for Lilli. She has been happily wearing it around the house for 2 days. Of course, I have convinced her to allow me to switch it to a bow when we leave the house... but she is loving this head wrap!

As for Miss Abby, we had her immigration visa medical yesterday. For those in the adoption world reading this... Abby is qualifying for American Citizenship under the 2 year custody overseas rule. Indonesia is a country that did not allow for instant citizenship and as we were never in the US long enough for a readoption, the two year rule was the way the Embassy suggested we go. So, funny enough, I am filling out all the same paperwork for Abby now that I filled out in Guangzhou for Lilli in March. Abby passed her medical with flying colors! We follow up with our Consulate Appointment next week and will receive the "Big Brown Sealed Envelope" that needs to be handed into Immigration when we hit US soil! I am so excited that my girls will become American Citizens together!!!

Other than that... we are all a bit sick! Colds enough for everyone! The whole Judge clan is taking some type of cold medicine. We have so many Kleenex boxes around that the girls are building Kleenex box towers. Too cute!

We had our coldest day yesterday... 4 degrees.... It was very chilly! To think we will all be in summer clothes in about 2 weeks! We are so pasty white... we had better find a pool soon and get some sun!

My Social Butterfly

Holly is my social butterfly ~ always has been! Tonight she celebrated her birthday with 20 of her best friends!

As 20 parents came in between 10:30 and 11:00pm t collect their daughters, they all said the same thing.... "You are very brave to have 20 teenage girls in your house at one time"! As I told them all, these are great girls and it was our pleasure!

The theme of Holly's party was a movie premiere. We wanted to pick a movie that not one of her friends had seen... so we went back to my high school days and selected Can't Buy Me Love. I do believe this was McDreamy's first role... Patrick Dempsey as a teenage nerd in love with the most popular girl in school. It is a cute movie. All of Holly's friends loved it. They made several comments about the clothes and hairstyles... so 80's... but the message still rings true! Don't put people in categories ... nerds, jocks, cheerleaders, smart kids, skaters... they all are great kids! Give each other a chance in High School and you will find out that you are all the same!

After the movie, the girls enjoyed pizza and smores! Smores are not an International delicacy... so Holly had to explain to all of her friends just how to build a smore. After everyone enjoyed this very American sweet, they played a very Australian party game... Pass the Parcel! If you are reading this and have never heard of this game, Google it before your child's next birthday party! It is a great little game!

The girls finished out the night with cake and lots of singing and dancing! They departed with a party bag and a modern version of the "mixed tape". Holly worked pretty hard to produce a CD for everyone with her 15 favorite songs... 15 ~ 4 ~ 15. Fifteen songs for fifteen years.

I think everyone had a great night...