I wonder....

I wonder what Clarissa is doing right now
I wonder if we will pack everything that we need
I wonder if our flights will be on time
I wonder if our luggage will get there
I wonder what Clarissa is doing right now
I wonder what Beijing will be like
I wonder what Nanchang will be like
I wonder if my goal to avoid eating at McDonalds or KFC or any other N America type place will last
I wonder what level on the wall I'll make it to
I wonder what Clarissa is doing right now
I wonder if I will actually eat one of the grasshoppers on a stick
I wonder if our hotel rooms will smell like smoke
I wonder how hot it will be
I wonder how many pounds I'll sweat out if it's as hot as I think it's going to be
I wonder what Clarissa is doing right now
I wonder if she'll like us
I wonder if she'll have hair by the time we go
I wonder what it's going to be like to be off work for 6 weeks
I wonder if I'll need a clothes pin for my nose to change diapers
I wonder what Clarissa is doing right now
I wonder if she'll let me play with her toys
I wonder if she'll like the bunnies
I wonder if she'll be nice to the bunnies
I wonder what that moment that we've been waiting so long for will be like
I wonder if we'll get any sleep in China
I wonder what Clarissa is doing right now
I wonder how many sales people I'll be able talk down to almost nothing for something that I probably won't need
I wonder if she'll like her room
I wonder how long I could go on wondering for
I wonder what Clarissa is doing right now....

13 hours on a plane?!?!?!?!

What the heck am I going to do for almost 13 hours on a plane??? Here's a few ideas:
- Finally finish Neil Peart's latest book (ummm that has already taken two flights)
- Finally finish Grisham's "The Appeal" (it's flown already also)
- Watch a couple of movies (or is that "sleep through a couple of movies")
- Listen to all 300 songs on my Ipod (and sing for everyone on the plane???)
- Steal Carolyn's Nintendo DS and play some poker (to Carolyn: "Just kidding Honey!!" to everyone else: "Please don't tell Carolyn about my plans to steal her DS")
- Knit a scarf (YA RIGHT!!!!!)
- Write my memoirs ("I remember when I was 14 months old....." Ok scratch that one...I can hardly remember the first sentence in this post)
- Drink until I pass out (Nahhhh that's just not me..)
- Whisper sweet nothings into my Honey's ear (now yer talkin'...but for 13 hours???)
- Drive my Honey crazy (Ok..the most realistic of all suggestions so far)
- Dream of being home with my two favourite girls (ding ding ding ding ding.....we have a winner!!!!!!!!!!!)

Two to one!!!!!!!! Pretty good odds at the end of the day!!!

OH OH!!!!!!!!!!! I just realized that I'm about to be outnumbered two girls to one guy in the house.

OH OH!!!! Soon I'm REALLY going to have to put the seat down.
OH OH!!!! Soon I'm going to be seeing pink EVERYWHERE.
OH OH!!!! Soon I will be SURROUNDED by dolls and Barbies.
OH OH!!!! Soon I will NEED to learn how to fix a pony tail and a hair clip.
OH OH!!!! Soon I will have TWO people telling me that I'm snoring too loud. OH OH!!!!

WOO HOO!!!! Soon I'm going to WALK in the door and say "Girls I'm home!!!".
WOO HOO!!!! Soon I can prepare a nice meal for my two FAVOURITE girls.
WOO HOO!!!! Soon I'll be able to go for a walk HOLDING the hands of my girls.
WOO HOO!!!! Soon I'll be able to just HANG out with my girls at home.
WOO HOO!!!! Soon I'll be able to have my arms stretched around my girls in a HUGE bear hug!!!

I just realized how very, very lucky I am!!!!!!

What's longer...the wait.....or the wait?

Our LID (Log in date - basically when our adoption file was officially registered in China) was March 17, 2006. Add the time that it took to prepare our file, and by the time we received our referral for Clarissa on June 19, 2009 we're talking about close to four years of waiting....almost four loooonnnnnngggggg years of waiting. While we were preparing our file the time went by fairly quickly because we had a list of things to do.....write our life story, get finger printed, police check, reference letters, meetings with the social worker, stuff like that (it was so long ago that I can hardly remember it all). Once our file was sent off to China the waiting really began. Now, sure...we still had things to do...we had to prepare her room (which we actually did twice because during that time we decided to buy a new house), buy her furniture, car seat, high chair, etc....but we had the monthly wait filled with umpteen million checks on the Rumour Queen to see if our file made it out of the review room, then the wait to receive the referral. I'm sure that at some point most people that we know thought that the adoption was just some story that we had made up. "That poor crazy couple!!!".

Now where was I going with all of this????? Oh ya, the point was that it was a long, long wait. So one would think that the last eight weeks would be a breeze right??? Wrong!!!! Now that we know her, and she has a face and a name, and a height, and a weight, and two cute little hands, and we have pictures of her everywhere!!!...and we know that she is there waiting for us......well, ok...not so much her "waiting for us", and more of us waiting to go and meet her, but you know what I mean....it's like the clock has stopped. It has only been a month and a day since we received the first pictures of her, but I want to go and get her...and I want to go now!!! She hasn't physically been here yet, but I miss her like crazy. Does that make any sense?
Pooh says 37 more days to wait. Oh bother!!

So, I've determined that the wait is longer than the wait.

Well, I haven't been banned....yet!!!

So far, so good. Carolyn hasn't said "Ok, that's enough of that!!!".....yet. I have to say though, I'm still not sure about this whole blog thing. Truth be told, I don't even like the word "blog" or any derivatives...blogger, blogging, blogged....it all sounds kind of dumb to me (no offense intended to anyone who disagrees). I won't even say it out loud, and from now on...I'm not typing it either. So there! It shall be referred to as...hmmmm what shall I call it????? How about "Clarissa's site"?? Ya "Clarissa's site"...I like it, and since I'm writing it, I make the rules. Or do I? Time will tell I suppose. I gave author permission to Carolyn!!!

I do have a couple of questions though. What is the protocol...can I jump from topic to topic within one post? Or do I need to start a new post for each topic? My thoughts aren't that structured, why should my b......"Clarissa's site" be? One post per day? As many as I want? Do I have to have a title for each one? Do I have to have a picture with each one? How long should each post be? Does it matter? Why can't I get the countdown timer to look right? Ahhhh seconds don't really matter anyhow right?

Enough questions for now. Time to watch some golf (should be playing right now, but thunder and lightning when we arrived at the course this morning had us rethink that). Later.....

Ok...who the heck are we????

We are... Carolyn and Rob Lauzon from Ottawa, Canada. After almost four long years of waiting, on June 19th, 2009 we received the official notice...including pictures....of our beautiful daughter Clarissa Yanhai Lauzon. I, Daddy, will be doing most of the writing here I suspect...but I will do my best to provoke Mommy into throwing her two cents in from time to time he he. Just kidding Mommy!!! We leave for China on August 27th. We will fly to Beijing, spend a few days there, and off to Nanchang we go to meet Clarissa. Woo hoo!!!!!! Her and Daddy are going to have soooo much fun causing trouble.....errrr... Her and Daddy are going to have soooo much fun!!! (Don't tell Mommy about the whole "causing trouble" thing...).

The bedroom is painted, the crib is set up, and as of a few days ago.....there are diapers in the house baby!!!! I'm....ummmmm.....looking forward to learning how to use them things?!?!?! Yep, Clarissa is our first child, and we can't wait to meet her and bring her home! Just looking outside as I write this and notice the beautiful pinky, orangy, yellowy sky as the sun prepares to go down. I can't wait to share this type of thing with Clarissa.....hmmmmm there's my beautiful wife sitting by the window. Oh ya, I am going to love family life!!!! Ok that nice peaceful thought just got interupted by two bunnies deciding that it's time to run all over the place...but they are cute, so I guess they can stay.

Ok that's enough for the first post. I'd better see if it gets Mommy approved before I continue. More to come.....hopefully.

Rob

Introducing Miss Clarissa Yanhai Lauzon!!!

Clarissa was born on November 7, 2008 in Fuzhou of the Jiangxi province.