Nothing coherant

I don't know what we've been doing this week that J. is off work, but we've been filling our time.  Today we took everyone except G. and L. to the Tintin movie.  (It was a Christmas gift.)  We have been huge fans of the Tintin comics for years, with B. loving it the most, so we couldn't miss the movie.  I give the movie a thumbs up, especially if you know and love the comics.  (If you don't know them, I would strongly suggest reading a few first before you go.  You'll appreciate the movie more.)  They really captured the essence of the comic books and the characters.  It was just a lot of fun.

It turns out my sewing machine was not broken. That is wonderful, but, it also means I wasted a completely decent breakdown on something I could have solved myself by rethreading the top thread.  I had rethreaded the bobbin, but didn't think to do the top thread.  I should know better.  Learn from my mistake.

I love the Kindle which J. surprised me with for Christmas.  (He counted it as a 'travel expense', saying it would be silly to get me one after the really long plane rides.)  I have had a lot of fun looking at all the free e-books.  Since many of them are older and in the public domain, there are some titles that I've never heard of.  Right now I'm enjoying a very early spy novel by Agatha Christie called, The Young Adventurers.  It really reminds me of GK Chesterton's book, The Man Who was Thursday.  After a little research we discovered that it was written before the one I am reading and could very well have influenced her.  My plan is to never have to twiddle my thumbs in a waiting room again.

And I have saved the best for last.  Today, waiting for us in our mailbox upon our return from the movie was our I-800 provisional approval!  One more step down.  Next up is waiting for the National Visa Center to cable all of our information to the US Consulate.  The Consulate than gives the official approval and prepares the appropriate paperwork (article 5).  The paperwork is then picked-up by an agency representative and walked over the the CCCWA (that is the adoption bureau in Ch*na).  After the CCCWA has Article 5, they will then issue us our travel approval.  Each of these steps is averaging about 2-3 weeks, so I think we are still looking at March.  But it is one more step forward!