Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

June matches are done, we are just waiting to hear the official cut-off date and news of mailing. Everyone believes the cutoff is the 20th, which would be a 6 day referral batch, but we are hoping they get through the 21st. June referrals will appear around the exact same time as May did, but we're not sure if this is the new norm or not. Until May, referrals were delivered between the 1st and 10th of every month, but we'll just have to give it a few more months to see if mid-late month arrivals is the new schedule.

I still don't believe we will receive a referral or travel in 2009 as much as we hope we will, with a 4.26.06 LID, it's just not realistic, no matter how you crunch the numbers. By next week, we will be either 36 or 37 LID's away, so we are getting VERY close.

A few weeks ago, Jennifer's Mom had another waiting mom tell her that all of March 2006 was matched, per an email received by her agency. She hasn't seen the woman since, but we have given her a few questions to ask for clarification the next time Mom sees her. We were hoping this month would bring us a great surprise and March 2006 would complete, but it looks like that isn't going to happen; maybe this woman read more into the email or interpreted the email wrong. BUMMER. This is the first time we have been personally close to such information or rumor, so we were really hoping the email would be true.

After 3 years of waiting...

May is even odder...

Referrals for May are now 15-20 days late...in the past week, China has said it is not swine flu related, but some agencies have had Travel Arrangements not come thru, while other agencies are business as usual. One agency said families we're going to have to wait until September for referrals b/c of the Swine Flu.

Flash forward to this morning...families in Europe have received "the call" and US agencies are confirming the cutoff is March 14, 2006.

We are now 43 dates away for getting "the call", which = 8 to 11 months away. (January to April 2010 time frame)

Weird month

Technically China got to the 8th, but there were some families that were skipped and families that were LID on the 9th who received a nice surprise. I don't know whether to say we are 48 or 49 LID's away b/c of this. Sometimes, families are given an LID, but then reassigned to another date. We heard about this happening a long time ago and asked our agency to reconfirm our LID..hope we still have the same date. How stressful for the families who were skipped.

This is the week we usually start to get an idea of expectations for the next month, but so far it's been quiet again.

Chirp, Chirp

The sound of deafening silence...no rumors...this is around the time referrals start arriving. Two weeks ago there was a rumor of March 7th-March 14th, but I don't believe it b/c March 7th is a huge log in date.

Referral cutoff information is now on a pay system...If the adoption agency chooses to pay a fee, they will pay to know the dates referred each month and be able to announce to the families. Two years ago the pay system was presented, but never implemented. As long as a family belongs to the Rumor Queen forum, it won't be a big deal. Once referrals start arriving, families announce their referrals on the forum, along with their log in date, so we'll be able to pin this info down without the pay system.

Proverbs 13:12

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life"

March referrals arriving

Referrals are arriving today and so far no one beyond March 6th seems to be in. March 7th is a HUGE day so not really surprised with a 4 day batch. With a March 6th match date, we are 51 LID's away from referral, which puts us at a November or December referral...at the earliest...and that's saying China doesn't throw another wrench into the wait times.

We did renew our fingerprints last week with Immigration and are hoping this is the last time since they won't expire until May 2009 b/c we do think the adoption will happen before then. The check snafu worked itself out better than expected, so in the next week or so we should be receiving our new/last I-171h renewal. (keeping our fingers crossed and saying lots of prayers)

On a completely unrelated note...I purchased the Amazon Kindle2. My first book purchase was "The Reader", for $7.99, then I downloaded The Bible for free last night. I'm surprised at how inexpensive some downloads are. I can't wait to take this gadget on vacation..no more bags stuffed with magazines, newspapers and books, just my sleek Kindle2. Even Doug is excited about the reader, he manages to have an excuse to "look at it" every time it's in my hand.

The Latest Batch

This batch was only 2 days, March 1-2, so we are now 55 days away.

We filed our extension paperwork this week and it was not w/o mishaps that were my fault. It would help if I wrote a check for the right amount, then write the 2nd check out of an account that is actually open. Due to the economy, our investment co. closed a fund and I wrote a check out of it. I caught it before immigration and resent them a 3rd check on Friday, but now I am waiting to see if they will take it, without sending all of our paperwork back first. It was a dumb blonde moment.

On Friday, we received notification that an agency we were working with for the TX adoption is closing due to the current lack of need for US adoptions. Good thing the TX adoption never happened or else we would have been searching for a new agency during the post-placement followups.

The ice is finally melting off the roof and crashing into the deck, and the gutters are dripping faucets. If we don't end up with water in our basement, it will be a miracle!

Goodbye February 2006!!!

February 2006 is officially finished! We are now 57 (LIDS) away.

As long as China maintains this pace, we expect to get our referral in or around November 2009. Patience is a virtue right?

We have to renew Immigration paperwork before 4.2.09, so that will keep us busy the first few months of 2009 and in August, we begin to update our Ohio paperwork b/c it will have reached it's 2 year expiration date. We already requested the packet from our Social Worker and the process is simpler for an update. Whew. It would be nice if we received our referral and came back from China before October 2009 so we could skip this step.

March 2006 is a monster of a month, so we're all shaking in our boots, hoping for the best.

Happy New Year 2009!!!

It's been awhile...

I know, I've been a slacker updating this blog, but I'm a slacker with a very good excuse. We were led to believe a baby from the US was coming home to us from TX. We spent HOURS and lots of money the past 8 weeks getting legal paperwork ready, but after the baby was born, the birthmom changed her mind. It was the worst Thanksgiving Day, EVER. Anywhoo, we've recovered, we are moving forth and I have time to update the blog now.

The China Adoption: As of today, China has referred LID's up to 2.23.06. Doug and I are 63 LID's away or 10.50 months from seeing a referral picture...we HOPE and PRAY that Christmas 2009 will be our special year.

The economy: Times are tough as we all know and both of us have job security concerns. People believe Public servants, i.e., Police Officers and Detectives don't lose their jobs, but they do. Doug is speaking at the City Council Budget meeting this evening, to offer resolution ideas, in the hopes that 87 Deputies do not lose their positions on Christmas Eve.

That's all for now!
D&J

Back from Vacay

Sanibel Island is beautiful...90 degrees, white beaches with lots of shells, warm Gulf water and lots of great seafood. Sanibel is a fantastic "shelling" beach and we found lots of cool shells that I might make something crafty with. Our favorite dinner was at The Lighthouse. We had a beautiful view of the Marina and water. We spent a lot of time chillin' at the beach and reading. I finished "By the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept", by Paulo Coelho. Every woman I know should read this book. Doug was a crossword maniac and become a lover of The New York Times. We stayed at Song of the Sea and would go back in a minute; their free breakfast and free bicycles to explore the island made this small little resort worth every penny. Our room was upgraded to Ocean view and we were about 100 yards from the sand. AMAZING. I will post some pics later today.

Betsy's Wedding...no, not the movie

One of the many things I was busy with in August & September was helping Betsy with her wedding. She asked me to help keep her organized and be her go to girl the day of the wedding. These pics are from her shower. In order to protect certain people...the ones singing the Michael Jackson karoke at the bachelorette party, :) I won't post those pics.

K's daughter. Isn't she a cutie!

Jennifer & Kristen

Kat & B

Check out our new niece

We're an Auntie & Uncle again. Check out our profile pic so you can see baby "A". I don't know what Doug did to me in this pic, but I look puffy. He always takes the worst angles, lol. At least it's better than the face side profile shots he seems to love doing to everybody or the mouth wide open ones. Oh yeah, and the bruise on my arm, that's from my allergy shots. It only took me a week to figure out why I had a bruise, 1 on each arm in the exact same place. Blonde moment!

Sanibel Island

As you can see, I've finally had some time to update our website. Work has been crazy and we finally have all the home remodeling finished. Doug and I don't know what to do with ourselves with all this left over time. Finally!

Next week we will be in Sanibel Island, FL. Doug & I cannot wait to put our feet into some sand and catchup on reading and relaxing. We've never rented jet ski's before and are pondering the idea. When we come back, we'll post some pics of the vacay. You can learn more about Sanibel here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanibel_Island

We wanted to go to Sanibel a few years ago, but it was hit by a hurricane and we weren't able to. Plus, as most of you know, Doug is not a fan of flying, so getting him to fly somewhere takes a lot of coaxing. I'm so proud of him for agreeing to go. :)

The Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we went to the Pumpkin Patch with Lisa, Erik and Ella. These pictures were too cute not to share with everyone! Ella just had to show Uncle Doug her monkey costume, so Lisa drove her to CIS to show Erik and Doug a couple of weeks ago. The costume has a banana in the pocket! Doug was the official photographer at the festival and he was all about taking pictures...good and bad!


Erik, Lisa & Ella

77 days

We are officially 77 days away from our log in date, which still equals at least 12 more months of waiting, as long as this 6 days per month pace continues. China referred Feb 1st-9th today.

77 days! So close, but so far away!!!!!!!!

Correction

January 2006 is finished!

We are now 86 days away from our LID.

Two Days

It appears China is only covering 2 days this month, which means January 2006 is still not complete. The adoption community is in an uproar b/c these two days are very small and near to Chinese New Year, when very few applicants are taken in; while it is 2 days of progress, there are very few families logged in on these dates.

I guess we need to be happy that we were given any progress at all. China could have stopped referrals for August and September if they chose to b/c of the Olympics. I have never been so excited for the Olympics to begin AND finish. Technically the games do not finish until after the Special Olympics, on September 21st, so there are families out there who have had their travel delayed to pick up their children until October. That has to be a horrible feeling, knowing your child is sitting there for political reasons, 2 months longer than they should be!

July Update

Families with LID's up to 1/25/06 have seen their babies faces. Yay for them for hanging in there as they are the first families to go over the 2 year wait mark. At this point, Doug and I will be be breaking the 3 year record if they don't reach us by next April, which they won't, so go ahead, give us a medal. :)

Speaking of medals...we are ready to watch the Olympics and for them to be over, all at the same time. We've been DVR'ing The Discovery Channel b/c they have a lot of shows on China this month and we even watched a little of the swimming, track and gymnastic Olympic tryouts.

June News

Referrals were issued up to January 20, 2006 on June 5th. We are now 97 days away from our date and at this rate we have approx. 16 more months of waiting. That would give us an October 2009 referral.

Doug was moved to his Detective position in June 5th and is very excited to be working in an office environment. Last night he was on the news and it was an absolute riot to watch. He had on his "work face" which I have never seen before. The man needs some Grecian Formula. If I hadn't been looking for him, I'm not sure I would have recognized him with all his gray hairs. He did not realize he was that gray until he saw himself last night.

Last Thursday, our niece, Alyssa Rose was brought into the world at 7lbs, 5 oz. We visited the hospital last weekend and she is an absolute doll baby. She looks like the girl version of our nephew.

It's been a busy few months and now we are knee deep into Summer. It's hot and there are Cicadas everywhere. The cicadas are incredible and it's impossible to have an outdoor conversation midday. At dusk they quiet down, but we can't wait for July to come so they leave!

That's all for now! J&D

The Latest...

The latest batch of referrals only covered 3 days. China is now up to 1.12.06 and we don't have much to say about that. If you look at our wait ticker, you will see we have been waiting 2 years now. What a bummer!

Our kitchen is still being remodeled but will be done soon. They set the granite today (partially) and are coming back tomorrow to measure for the remaining counter length tomorrow. I think we may actually have an operating sink today??? Sometime, in the next 2 weeks, we will be officially done. Over the weekend, I started the cleanup process upstairs. The construction dust got in every crevice, so I have to wash everything, including walls so we can breathe easier.

Tibet and the call for an Olympic Boycott

I'm sure most of you have seen the news and are aware of the turmoil in Tibet. Doug and I have been concerned since the adoption began, hoping the relationship between the US and China remains friendly. Since our adoption journey began, there has been several headline stories, i.e., The Hunan Adoption Scandal, which is being partly blamed for the slow-down, the lead paint in toys manufactured in China and as of the past few weeks the call for an Olympic boycott.

After some research into the past scandals during the 1990's and coming in contact with families who adopted during various "crisis" during their wait for China, we don't feel the call Olympic boycotts or the trouble in Tibet will affect adoptions. China has stated finding homes for children in need is their top priority and no crisis will stop their desire to find families for the children.

Families that will be taraveling to China during the Olympics will be routed around Beijing versus the normal 2-3 day stopover. The re-routing is too bad, because there are very important landmarks that the families won't get to encounter, i.e. Tiananmen Square. The Beijing stop-over isn't always standard depending on what Province your child is from, so I am very thankful to have seen the square and climbed The Great Wall near Beijing previously.

I would really like to Doug to see Beijing b/c it is a must-see when going to China and I would love to see how much it has changed since 2002. When Grandpa and I visited in 2002, China was already gearing up for the Olympics and there were construction booms everywhere.

We are looking forward to watching the Olympics unfold over the next few months and for the games to begin!

"I Don't Have Your Eyes" by Carrie Kitze

An excerpt from a book about traits parents and children joined through adoption do have in common:

"I don't have your eyes ... but I have your way of looking at things.
I don't have your ears ... but I have your way of hearing those in need
I don't look like you on the outside ... but I look inside and in our hearts we are the same"

Our First Baby

Sport will always be our 1st "baby". We adopted him in 1997 and he has been a PITA ever since. He will be 11 years old this May! Happy Birthday Buddy! We adopted his sister a few years later to calm Sport down, which did not work by the way. Poor Miah, no wonder she has seizures having a brother who is always going after her jugular. But as much as they fight, we find them snugged up together everyday.

Sport forgets he is a cat and likes to knock trash cans over, open cabinet doors, chew carpet, chase balls, eat plastic and puke. No, our cat does not have opposable thumbs, but he paws on the cabinet doors until it bounces open, he slides his paw in to stop it from closing then jumps on in. He is one bad-ass cat, otherwise know as Sport, aka Brad, aka Buddy, aka jerk, aka arsehole

2006 IS in

Yup, referrals up to 1.4.06 are in. Wohoo. We do NOT believe we will get our referral this year, but heck, it's already March and life is zooming along!

Starting Monday we will be w/o a kitchen for 6 weeks. I should make/freeze some meals this weekend, but I'm not really feeling it. Eating dinner for lunch and lunch at dinnertime makes the most sense. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm 100% stoked about not having to load/unload a dishwasher for 6 weeks. I don't understand how 2 people use so many dishes? I do cook 6 days a week, so that's part of it, but 75% of our dishes are glassware. I think when we move back into our new kitchen, I'm going to hide the surplus of glassware we have for entertaining. It is so easy to grab a new glass when you have like 30. LOL.

2006...here we go!

There is a very believable rumor that the next cut-off is 1-4-2006, so if this is true, they have FINALLY reached 2006.

It will be nice to at least see referrals happen in the same year we are logged in.

What does this mean for Doug and I? We are 16 weeks away from our log-in-date, which means our wait is minimally 8 more months (November) or max of 16 months (July 2009). We are definitely in the home-stretch of waiting.

Our kitchen remodel begins March 10th and we will be without a kitchen for 6 weeks. I'm really glad we made the decision to go ahead with this now, b/c I cannot imagine being kitchenless with Emma here. Once the kitchen is done, all major improvements are D-O-N-E.

It's that time of month again...

4 days of referrals were issued this month, 12/16/05-12/19/05

All the waiting families are disappointed b/c we thought for sure December 2005 referrals would be quick as the number of families seem small. 2007 has proven there is no "speed up" in our future.

Right now there are 19 weeks between 12/20/05 and our LID of 4/26/06, so technically we could have 19 MORE months of waiting which would take us to August 2009.

With so much time on our hands, we've decided to go ahead with the kitchen remodel this year. We should be getting our design plans back this week, then we can begin picking out cabinetry, counters etc. We're very excited at the thought of being able to walk from the kitchen to the sunroom. This will be a lot more kid-friendly when cooking meals since even with just the 2 of us, we sit at the table for meals, but have to set our plates on the pass-thru then walk around. I'm assuming the remodel will begin in March and we will be without a kitchen for 4-6 weeks.

Adoption Wait Explanation

I know everyone is wondering what the heck is going on with this adoption and are worried for us. We will continue to wait, unless we get news that China is closing their adoption program. Too much hope, time, and money have been invested in this process.

The easiest way to explain what is going on is this:

China is stating there are more applications for adoption than children available.
They state the adoptions will continue and if families can't wait, then China may not be the right program for them.


Obviously the less children in an orphange the better and honestly, who wants to wish that a couple chooses adoption for their daughter just so we can adopt her. The more families can stay together, the better. It sucks for Doug and I, but we are staying the course.

Per China, we are not allowed to proceed with a concurrent adoption from the US or any other country. Atempting pregnancy again is also not an option b/c China would put our application on hold for 1 year as all children in the home must be 1 year old for an adoption to be approved. We are not willing to risk our adoption being stunted as we are too far in the process.

This Months Referrals Issued

China referred up to December 14, 2005...approximately 400 families will be seeing their child's face tomorrow.

The current trend is that China is processing an average 6 days per month, so it's taking 4 months to get through 1 calendar month of families waiting.

If they keep up this rate, we have another 18 months of waiting or more...we are numb...

November Referral Information

From China's website:

"The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before December 8, 2005"

Holy Crap!!!

I was reviewing our posts and happened to look up at the "Waiting Ticker"...we've been waiting for 17 months! I can't believe it...really, it doesn't feel that long.

November 30, 2005

Yep, that's as far as they got this time. We'll be lucky if they finish December 2005 in December 2007.

We are headed to Vegas next week to celebrate Jennifer's brothers big 30, so we have something to keep our mind off the wait for a few days. So far the definite plan is to see Wayne Brady at the Venetian and to drive to Hoover Dam/Lake Meade, which is about 1 hour outside of Vegas. Viva Las Vegas!

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!

Sorry, it's not a referral! :)

We are pleased to announce that Doug has been promoted to Detective.

More than likely he will be moving from Patrol Officer to Detective at the end of September!

Becoming a Detective has been Doug's goal since he was hired at HCSO and he has been with the Sheriff's Department for 8 years now.

The only specific information we have at this time is that he will be working Monday-Friday from 8a-4pm. There will be several months per year he is required to work nights and weekend.

We are especially excited about the new hours so we can finally have a more normal family life

How many more months of waiting?

I'm sure you are all wondering, so I did calculations based on the current wait times...

Worst Case = 23 more months (Sept 2009)

Mid case = 15 more months (Dec 2008)

Best case = 12.50 (Sept 2008)


And yes, we're starting to get ancy now :)

The Latest Batch

Referred 11/22,11/23,11/24 & 11/25. We are literally inching our way along....

November 2005 families have waited a record 22 months and probably spent 3-6 months to get paperwork ready, so they have really waited 25-28 months for referral.

Only referred up to November 21

7 days, not the rumored 16+. BUMMER. The referrals are very young, a lot of 7 month olds to 12 months old in this batch. That is very exciting!

Starting our Renewal paperwork

Well, we were hoping this wasn't going to happen, but it is. Today we started the renewal process. In the next couple of weeks the social worker will be coming back to the house and we will be re-doing medical, financial, background checks etc. This all has to be complete before 10.4.07 or we will not be eligible for the free renewal. We know we can get our part done, but we are also depending on the social worker's agency to fulfill their end of the deal, which last time I had to give them a little push.

Tonight everyone is hoping to get verification that referrals have been mailed and what the cut-off is. The all of November rumor has backed down and is pointing towards the 21st or 22nd. I think we should know for sure by Friday.

Can't Catch a Break

We can't seem to catch a break! We found out last night that our adoption fees are going up 2k and there are rumblings that we may have to be in China for 3 weeks vs. 2 weeks. For families who were recently issued referrals, they were given no heads up about the increase of $ or the 3 week stay. This gives them only 6-8 weeks to gather the 2k and additional travel expenses. At least we have time to save more cash!

Families choose China because of it's stability and for the 1st time in it's history, it's not proving to be stable. We're still glad we chose China over Russia (way unstable), but we can't believe how much the program has changed in the last 14 months of waiting.

Yesterday we also found out we have been assigned another adoption coordinator. We are now on coordinator #3 due to restructuring the multiple adoption programs our agency has. Oh well.

The rumor that they are going to mid-december in August has now come from 3 sources. Referral probably won't arrive until the week of August 6th, so we still have a couple of weeks to see if they come true. PLEASE BE TRUE!

Interesting Rumors

There are 2 interesting rumors that developed over the weekend:

*August's batch will be November and early December families

*Childless couples/infertile under a combined age of 70 will be expedited

I will believe the rumors when I see them happen, but if a speed up happens, the wait could turn out better than we expected and we definitely fit the quals for expedited referrals. We've heard the expedited rumor before, but we hadn't made it through the Review Room yet at the time we heard them. Now that the CCAA has viewed our paperwork, maybe we will be! Not getting our hopes up on that one.

April 2006 is out of Review

No questions were asked, so China has approved us. Now our paperwork is headed towards the *Matching Room*, but it will take a while to get there, probably another 10-12 months.

Theories on the slow-down

These come from the "Rumor Queen" and there are a variety of theories, some based on facts:

*There are no longer that many NSN orphans in China.
*There are plenty of orphans, but problems getting them made paper ready.
*The CCAA has a yearly ceiling that they cannot go over, and that ceiling was lowered last year and then lowered again this year. The ceiling also includes SN children, so the more SN adoptions that happen the less NSN matches can be made.
*The Chinese government wants to make the world think there is no orphan problem as we lead up to the Olympics. So they empty the orphanages out into foster care and say there are no more orphans. The long wait becomes proof that they have solved their orphan problem, since this proves there aren’t enough babies to adopt out.

NSN= non-special needs
SN = special needs (cleft lip-pallette, missing limbs, Downs, heart defects)

November 7, 2005 referred

This is better than the last 2 referral batches, which only covered 4 days total, but 6 days is still slow, and 6 days is becoming the norm. There is a rumor out there that it's going to take all of 2007 to get through Nov-Dec 2005. Throw us a bone already!

April 2006 is still not out of the Review Room. I can't wait for us to be out, as that's a milestone in our wait. We've not been questioned, so hopefully our log-in-date will remain the same. Word is that April is out, but China hasn't updated their website. Maybe this week it will happen!

On a completely different subject...My best friend, Stacie, who lives in TX, really needs some prayers of comfort right now. Her Dad had a massive stroke last Wednesday night, but wasn't found until Thursday. Stacie is driving to Tulsa, OK to have her father removed from life support tomorrow. *BIG HUGS* to Stacie and her family.

Thank you for your letters

Our efforts have paid off in writing Congressmen and Congresswomen. Last week, USCIS announced that 1 FREE extension is allowed on the I-600A. On July 30th, the fees are increasing so this would have cost us $830 to re-file, but it will now be a FREE extension.

We still have to re-do our homestudy, which involves a social worker, re-fingerprinting, updated medicals and updated physicals, but now a considerable amount of our re-filing fees has been reduced by about 1/2.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to write letters on behalf of us and other adoptive families!

Today's Horoscope

How funny!! We deserve medals for patience...

Horoscopes For Today: 5/14/2007
Who knew that you had all this patience?! It seems that
when someone is worth waiting for, you don't really mind waiting.
Your ability to keep yourself entertained has always been strong,
and today it will come in mighty handy. The answer you've been
waiting for is still nowhere in sight, and you can expect to be given
yet another vague explanation as to why. Don't let it bother you,though. Find a way to distract yourself, perhaps with one of your favorite hobbies.

Up to November

China has issued referrals up to November 1, 2005.

Whew, we're finally out of October 2005. That leaves 6 more months to April 2006, times that by at least 2.5 and that ='s 15 more months of waiting for us. We're not bummed, merely stating the facts. At this point, we don't care about the wait, China is the country for us and it's beyond our control. At least we're young. Many families are 45-52 years old, we will be 33 and 35 this year, so we're a very young couple by the China Program's median age.

Rumor has it November is large, and like October, may take 4 months to get through. Also, there is a rumor that China doesn't want 10,000 children removed from their country each year and that there will be no speed up. At this point, we don't care about the wait, China is the country for us and we're going to patiently wait. We believe that there is a reason this is happening to us and the answer will eventually be revealed.

Off topic, kind of...Did anyone see "Idol Gives Back"? This program brought memories of my journey to the South African Townships. Regardless of their circumstances, those who do not have much to smile about, are always smiling. It brought tears to my eyes and I felt we should be doing more. Who knows where this life will take us...

Ahhh, Spring

Nothing new to report for the adoption, but we are loving that Spring is here and it's going to be a beautiful weekend! It's our favorite time of the year and about the only time our yard looks nice for the rest of the summer.

The damn moles are back already, so Caddyshack 2007 is in full force! I think we need to seriously ponder a "Mole Man". I believe at one point last year, we had about 4-6 mole traps going at one time.

2 Days of Referrals

Referrals were only issued for two days, 10/25 & 10/26. Yep, you read it right, 2 days!

It's important to not focus on how many days were not covered, but how many babies were presented to their families. Hopefully in the next few days, we will learn that number. It could be that 10/25 & 10/26 were extremely large days...you can't blame a girl for hoping!

My heart aches for the families from 10/27-10/31 who thought for sure they were in this time. The amount of disappointment they must be feeling! Unfortunately, with a 4/26 LID, there will be a very good chance this could happen to us. The end of the month LID's seem to always get left hanging on the ledge every month.

Our agencies official statement is that FTIA's next date is 10/28, so no families from our agency were matched this time (or last time). They state that China has said they intend to issue the next batch earlier than normal (less than 4 weeks). So, for now, we go back to waiting to see what happens over the next 2-3 weeks. As May approaches, there is another holiday that China "shuts down" for, so that is why an earlier batch may be issued. The proof is in the pudding!

Elephant Pregnancy

Doesn't this t-shirt explain our journey perfectly? I might have to buy one!

Random thoughts

One more month and we've been "paper pregnant" for a year. Holy Cow! Time really has flown.

We've received *interesting* news from our agency...FTIA stated that just because our Log In Date is 4-26-06, based on recent situations on China's end, they can't guarantee families have the same LID as told to the agency and China won't allow the agency to re-confirm. A couple of families who were expecting referrals last time found out their LID had moved out a few weeks. What a bummer for them! This predicament seems to be happening with families who were "questioned" by China. To our knowledge, we have not been questioned.

Also, it seems like some families are being pushed through faster. China says they are not operating under the new rules, but actions speak louder than words. I.E. A family with a 10.31.05 LID was given a referral, despite China saying they only referred up to 10.24. Hmmmmmm. My mom has a *feeling* since we meet the priority criteria, maybe we will get a surprise. Hope she's right...

DVR- we got a DVR on Friday night. I'm in heaven! I can pause/rewind/record live TV while I run to the bathroom and check laundry. Those who know me really well, know that I can't sit between commercials b/c I'm always multi-tasking. A DVR is a multi-taskers DREAM.

Referrals, Remodeling and Meatloaf

There's nothing new to report that relates to our adoption, however families up to October 24, 2005 are receiving their referrals this week. This is not a speed up or a slow down, just the same. The best case prediction for us would be November 2007 and we believe the worst case is February 2008. If China could just get through 2005 by July, this would help us.

I'm starting to feel anxious, like maybe our luck will change, so I'm working on home improvement projects again while I have the itch and trying to gear Doug up too. I'd really like to have the house completed BEFORE Emma arrives. We'll see...this year we have been here 6 years and I say we are 85% complete with what we want to fix. We have a contractor coming this week to estimate the kitchen because we are toggling between a full remodel and a "spruce up".

We had a couple of house troubles in the last week...ice knocked down 2 trees in the backyard, winds took out another, Saturday I tossed a necklace on the bathroom counter and it landed between the hairdyer and the outlet which caused a minature firework display, so we had to replace the GFCI outlet, and last night our garbage disposal disliked my meatloaf as much as we did. At 9pm last night I was mopping meatloaf and Drain-o from the basement floor. Good times.