Step 10: Crafting a strategy to cope with the long wait for LOA

Today is day 46. Our dossier was logged in on July 17, 2014, and translated two weeks later. We have been waiting for our letter of acceptance (LOA) for forty-six days. I'm starting to think we will never get our LOA, but I just keep telling myself to be patient. Any day now...any day now...any day now...this wait is interminable!

How then to fill my time? Work takes up most of my week, yes, as well as most of my weekends. Family obligations also use up many hours, especially now that Bean is back in school. And, of course, there is cooking, cleaning, exercising, reading, ballroom dancing, volunteering, church attendance, competitive restaurant dining (i.e. - eating out), internet surfing, bathing, shopping, and sleeping. However, even with all those activities, there are still large blocks of time that stretch unfilled before me.  Unfilled time is not my friend. The quiet hours are when I obsess:

When will that LOA arrive?

What is Pearl doing right now? Is she happy? Is she healthy?

What will it be like when we travel to China?

What will it be like when she is home with us?

What if the LOA comes when we are out of town?

What if China declines to match us with Pearl? I know we have PA, but still...

Will we be able to travel before Christmas?

How much is all this costing us?

When will that d@*n LOA arrive?

I think you get the picture. In an attempt to minimize the constant ruminating,  I have turned once again to crafting.

Fact: I am not an artistic person.

My posts thus far may make it seem as though I am reasonably good at arts and crafts projects, but my skills are really more along the lines of "Nailed It" than "Pinterest":

courtesy of http://justsomething.co/the-34-most-hilarious-pinterest-fails-ever/

Fortunately, I am nothing if not determined and so I persevere. Angry Driver has exhaled many an exasperated sigh, but he nevertheless continues to support me in these efforts.  I guess that makes him my enabler. Perhaps he figures that if I am obsessing about some art project, I won't be obsessing about the dust on the furniture or the ridiculous amount of television he watches.

A few nights ago, I was looking online at adoption gifts - both gifts to give adopted children and gifts for family members of adopted children - and I came across some pretty necklaces with the simplified Chinese characters for various familial relationships (such as "grandmother" or "aunt"). At that point, I could have done the sensible thing and ordered the custom necklaces, but if you know anything about me by now, it is that I rarely do the logical thing.

As my mother told me once: common sense is for common people.

(I'm pretty sure that particular nugget of wisdom is absolutely meaningless, but it sounds good so I continue to use it while congratulating myself on being delightfully uncommon.)

I decided right then and there that I would make these necklaces myself rather than purchase them.

I think it is important to point out here that the necklaces I saw online were well crafted and reasonably priced. I also feel compelled to state that I have no experience with jewelry making beyond stringing plastic beads on lanyards years ago at summer camp.

One trip to the local craft store later, I got started. I launched into production mode this morning, but quickly realized that I was missing several necessary supplies (such as any form of credible adhesive), so the family got dragged to a second craft store.

Here are the final products:

"Mama" pendant for me

"Maternal grandmother" pendant on left, for my mother

"Grandmother" pendants (simplified characters and Pinyin) on right, for my stepmother and my mother-in-law

 

Once again I am hoping that Google Translate has come through for me. If these words do not mean what I think they mean, it is probably better not to tell me since there is a 95% probability that I would burst into tears.

 

Naturally, I did not think this through well enough to determine just how I will get these pendants onto necklace chains, but I figure that will be a problem for another day. 

 

Actually, the more likely scenario is that I will enlist Angry Driver to finagle a solution. I "make it" and he "makes it happen" as it were.

My final project on this aptly titled Labor Day was a keepsake for Pearl. Since we will not be keeping her Chinese name, I thought it would be nice to honor her orphanage name by making a necklace with the characters. She can wear it (or not wear it) as she sees fit when she is a bit older.

Note how this one actually went onto a chain. That was pure blind luck and in no way represents any kind of actual talent on my part.

And that is how I filled yet another day of waiting. Day 46 is in the books. I really hope the wait for LOA is nearly over since I'm not entirely sure that my wallet (or my husband's patience) can handle too many more art projects.