38 Months - 2 or 3 to go!!!

It looks like May referrals are here, delayed about 2 weeks (NOT due to Swine Flu according to the C**A) Reports out of Europe state that they will be through March 14th! A good 6 day batch!

Tomorrow we will be celebrating our 38 Month LID-aversary. We now are 8 LID's away from being matched. My calculations bring us to being matched in the next 2 referral sets. Now the big question is how long will the next 2 sets take?

With the fact that they are either really late with May or decided to do 2 batches at once I'm not sure. If we still see a referral batch in early to mid June, then I would say then we will be referred in July. If this latest batch was a combined batch then I don't expect to see Hope's face until August

July or August... either way... she is on the way!

Time to find a second crib and that double wide stroller I have been wanting!

35 Months....

Seriously.... how many more?

31 Months

Since I just love Winnie the Pooh, I recently bought a cd full of classic Pooh songs for our daughter.



This song just made me sob when I heard it. Pooh is missing Christopher Robin, I know how he feels...

Wherever You Are

Come out moon
Come out wishing star
Come out Come out
Wherever you are

I’m out here in the dark
All alone and wide awake
Come and find me
I’m empty and I’m cold
And my heart's about to break
Come and find me

I need you to come here and find me
Cause without you I’m totally lost
I've hung a wish on every star
It hasn’t done much good so far
I can only dream of you
Wherever you are

I’ll hear you laugh
I’ll see you smile
I’ll be with you just for a while
But when the morning comes
And the sun begins to rise I will lose you

Because it’s just a dream
When I open up my eyes I will lose you
I used to believe in forever
But forever is to good to be true

I've hung a wish on every star
It hasn’t done much good so far
I don’t know what else to do
Except to try to dream of you
And wonder if you are dreaming too

Wherever you are

Wherever you are

25 Months

East Meets West Adoption Conference

My friend Amiee and I are dragging our hubbies to the Great Wall's "East Meets West" Chinese Adoption Conference in Chicago this week-end!!!

Having dinner in Chinatown tomorrow night to celebrate Amiee's 1 year LID-aversary!

So excited for a 'grown-up' vacation!

2 Year Anniversary...

Speechless...

222 - My Lucky Number

Well, here we are February 22, 2008. (or 222) If you had told me 2 years ago that I would be still waiting for my daughter, I wouldn't have believed it. Yet, here we are-

23 Months down - "Another Year To Go"

Any way, since I posted last, I have been baby-sitting 3 days a week, volunteering at the school once a week and sorting through pictures of my son's entire life. I am playing with digital scrapbooking and have found a ton of cool sites that offer freebies! Love a freebie!

So if anyone is into digi scrap, let me know, I am trying to decide on a software package to use, I am doing the free trial of Paint Shop Pro right now, it seems a little combersome and more powerful than I will use at first. I'm also looking for anything free in the way of papers, embellishments and ideas!

January Update - 22 Months

I just wanted to check in and say "Hello" to everyone who stops in here regularly. I can't believe I am still getting hits on my "Boring-not updated-sad about the wait" blog! I don't want to lose complete touch, so I am going to post monthly, around the time of our LID-iversary, (22 Months on the 22nd) until we get closer. My spirits have been high these past few weeks, I am focusing on the rest of my life and enjoying it!

Chris and Jim went on their Winter Camping trip with Boy Scouts last week-end. I spent time with girlfriends and sorting family photos. (last years New Year's Resolution!) Jim has been waiting and preparing for this camping trip for six months. It is the time where the boys can earn a Polar Bear patch. The only requirement: Stay outside for 24 hours in tempuratures below freezing. What????

As an All Girl - American Woman - I ask WHY??? The only answer I get is a sly smile with a twinkle in his eye.

So while I was bundled up in my flannel pajamas, in my king sized pillow top bed with sateen sheets and extra loft comforter, my baby was sleeping in the snow...

I pulled Jim aside as he was packing, and informed him that the only reason I was allowing Chris to go on this was because of him. That if my baby came home with frostbite or pneumonia, he would suffer beyond his wildest imagination. To this my husband, stared blankly, like a deer in headlights...

In the end... my son had the time of his life. He got to hang with 19 other boys, sleep in the snow, cook every meal for his patrol, have snowball fights, go sleding, share jokes and bodily functions and in the end, earn his Polar Bear! I don't think he's a baby anymore...

No frostbite, no pneumonia not even a sniffle but maybe a sore butt from that sled landing!

21 Months...

Happy Thanksgiving & 20 Months

18 Months Down...

(Click on chart for better viewing)

Only 117 LID days until they reach our LID day. This chart shows the past 21 months of history. The overall monthly average is 11 days per cycle. 117/11=10.6

I think we are finally less than a year away from referral it only took us 18 months to get here...

We should be seeing referrals come out sometime next week. I am praying that they match at least through December 5th. This would be 10 days and in keeping with poll numbers. If they do less, then there is something severely wrong.

If they do more, it will be a miracle.

I have seen miracles this week... now praying for one of my own. Pray for the babies health and wellbeing, the families courage and strength, the orphanage directors, the CCAA workers and the Chinese Government.

Lucky Seventeen

Seventeen always makes me think of birthday cakes! White cake with buttercream frosting! That is what I call "Birthday Cake"! Can you smell the vanilla, sugar and candles? Just add a big scoop of strawberry swirl ice cream!

My birthday is June 17th & Chris' is December 17th. We were born on each other's half birthday! Cool huh?

October 17th 2005 was they day we officially started our adoption for Hope and mailed our first I-600A and adoption agency application! (also my cousin Keith's birthday) I even just mailed our I-171H update on August 17th!


So SEVENTEEN MONTHS down...actually quite numb about it...here's hoping for LESS THAN A YEAR to go!!!

Today I pray for Hope and her birth family, as I believe
that she is not born yet. I pray for their safety, health and
courage.

I also pray for our continued patience and strength in this endless wait. That we find ways to fill our time loving each other and living life as a gift.

Lastly, I pray for change, change in the process, allowing more children in need be united with families that need them.

Ever forward, but faster...

Sweet Sixteen

Today marks our Sweet Sixteen...LID months that is.

Had a dream this morning, I was busy dressing a baby boy. I couldn't find shoes to match his outfit. I had him dressed in white shorts, white short sleeved button down and a white cable sweater vest with red in the V. Very similar to one Chris wore when he was small. I kept saying, "I wasn't planning on having a boy, so I got rid of all of Chris' baby shoes." I don't remember feeling upset in the dream. The baby was cute and very snuggly...

Maybe this is how Hope's mother will feel, not planning on having a girl and not being prepared, but loving her just the same.

Sixteen down... how many more to go?

15 Months

Today is our 15 month LID Anniversary.

I have been having so much fun with Chris this week. I didn't realize how distracted I was until last night. At VBS I bumped into a friend of a friend, I hadn't seen in many months. She grabbed me and said, "Do we have a baby yet!". I was so caught off guard, I started to tear up. I actually had forgotten and felt bad that I had to break the news to her that she still had to wait too...

I have Chris home for the next 2.5 months so when we get closer to our 18 month wait, I will be back needing to find a new distraction. However, nothing will be as natural, rewarding, or as fun as spending time with my son.

Since I am in such a great place right now, I am able to focus on my health. Michigan summer's have a way of doing that! In Michigan we just attack summer with a vengance! It's here so fleeting, we have to grab it and hang on tight!

So far the weather has been amazing. This means we have had very little rain and our grass is getting brown. Who cares about the grass? We have been in our little pool everyday and have enjoyed eating dinner's on the patio and walks in the park.

So I'm down 4.... let's see what the summer holds! Maybe I can get back to my wedding day, skinny?

14 down...

Not much to say about it... just noting the day! Can I say less than a year now?

I spent way too long looking for clip art for this page. I realize that 14 really isn't a number that is used a lot. One through ten are popular because the make up all the other numbers. Twelve is of course a dozen. Thirteen is unlucky or superstitious and a bakers dozen. Twenty, thirty, forty etc. are big decade milestones, but 14 is just kind of overlooked. Two weeks is 14 days but most everyone just says two weeks.

So I started to think of what 14 meant to me, and thought about the year I was 14. Sweet memories.

Since I am born smack dab in the middle of the year. I was 14 for the last half of 1979 and the first half of 1980! Ninth Grade, Freshman in High School.

"My Shorona", by the Knack was #1 on the charts and Disco was on it's way out!

I began that year seeing Ricky Schroder in "The Champ" and cried literally from the beginning of the movie to the end. I ended the year seeing "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back". At the time I would never know that, twenty some odd years later, I would still be watching Ricky on TV and "That Star Wars Movie" was really the 5th not the 2nd?

On TV I was watching "Three's Company", "Happy Days", "Taxi", and "Eight is Enough". But what I didn't watch was Eddie Murphy debuting on SNL, my mom wouldn't let me!

I went to my first school dance that year and was hooked. I don't believe I missed a dance, date or not, for the next four years. I remember the atmostphere of emotional tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. I loved the physical freedom of dancing to something fast and loud, but anticipated the slow songs with butterflies. I still get those butterflies when I hear, "Stairway to Heaven" or "Hotel California".

I went to my first football game and realized how much fun sports were, when there were people to talk to and walk around with. I don't think I ever watched a sporting event until my son was playing, but I rarely missed going to one in High School.

I sang in the girls choir and learned all the words to "Rainbow Connection", "Sound of Silence" and "Simple Gifts". These songs creep up on me to this day and torture my family!

I took cooking class, and learned to make a roux. I still use this from time to time. Just call me Martha. I also learned that sitting on the kitchen counter is poor manners and unsanitary, my son is disappointed I learned this.

But the most significant 14 is my husband Jim's birthday. He was born on the 14th. It is also the number of roses Jim bought me on our 14th valentines day together, however I think he stopped that year and went back to a dozen. That's okay, I'm just glad he brings me roses, that when he asked me to marry him, he wasn't being funny and he has never broken my heart...

Happy Birthday!

Today marks the one year anniversary of our adoption request being officially logged into the database at the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs, giving us an LID of 3/22/06.

I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today since I have such mixed feelings, and most of them sad. Yet when I opened up my blog this morning and saw the "Happy Birthday" message on my little "Puff the Magic Dragon" ticker I had to smile. If only his magic could make time fly to the day we will see our little girls face...

I am feeling sad, impatient and out of control this morning. I truly believed a year ago that we would be either in China or home with our daughter by now. Here I am today without faith that we will have her in our arms before our 2nd anniversary. Yet, it does look possible, at this point, I am not going to get my hopes up.

My friend, Amiee, who is also in the process of adopting and almost ready to have her paperwork sent to China. When she realized that my 'anniversary' was coming up she asked, "What are you going to do on the 22nd?" I was taken aback, I really didn't feel it was something to celebrate. The thought of waiting a year, with almost another year wait was just too overwhelming to think of as a time to 'Celebrate!"

Then came her response, "Yeah, but think of those of us just starting out, I would LOVE to have a year under my belt!" So I have to say she put me in my place. I need to look at this time as a gift. I am over the hump and I have gotten another year of one on one time with my son. God has his plan, my glass is full!

Hear my prayer,

Oh Lord, You know all my thoughts and desires. In Your loving wisdom, You have set the perfect time for me to be joined with the daughter of my heart.

Help me Lord to have patience, so that the days will pass filled with purpose and hope.

Lord fill my days of wait, with service to my loved ones. Help me to surround them with love and joy that I might be a blessing to them.

Lord, please keep my baby girl safe in your loving arms. Whisper to her when she is sleeping "I love you." And when she is crying, kiss the tears from her sweet cheeks.

Protect her from hunger or cold or hurt in any way, for I, her mother, can't be there right now. Please Lord, take my place until I get there.

Lord, show her butterflies and smiles. Let her hear music and laughter and feel warm hugs and comfort. Fill her with Your abounding love and tell her that I desperately love her and I am waiting...patiently.

Amen

ELEVEN MONTHS!!!

Here we are eleven months down and who knows how much longer we will have to wait. Usually there are big rumors to drive me crazy this time of month, but the Rumor Queen is out of the office and the CCAA is officially on vacation this week due to the Chinese New Year. So nothing is really happening in the world of referral processing.

The most recent wait time was just over 16 months, but in order to keep it at 16 months they would have to start processing whole months at a time... and they haven't done that in well over a year so...

Last year around this time the stats looked like this:

These 4 months, average 8.25 LID days referred every 28 days

Another way to look at this would be: they processed .29 LID days per day, or one LID day every 3-4 days.

You can't imagine (or maybe you were right there with me) how crushing it was each month watching them process less than 10 days at a time. After waiting 3 months from homestudy to DTC, waiting for our I-171h from immigration, it was heart wrenching to see the drop in numbers! Especially that whopping 5 just days after we were LID on March 22nd.

However the good news is... These are the stats from the last four months:

These 4 months average 16.25 LID days referred every 32.5 days!

Or .5 LID days per day or 2 days to get through a day!!

So here is my 'Glass is Half Full' take on this excruciating wait, Compared to last year at this time... WE ARE IN A 'SPEED-UP'!!!!!!!!

If things continue at this exact* rate we will be referred by the end of the year...? But only the CCAA knows for sure!!

*Nothing is ever exact! ;) But is is fun to guess!

10 Month Anniversary

Ten months down.... How many more to go?

I wanted to post something extra special today... but haven't really been inspired with something 'amazing'. After five months of paper chasing, and now ten months of waiting it is not very exciting to look at another possible twelve months wait.

The best I can say is that the referral batches seem to have stabilized and I'm still holding on to the idea that we are going to be referred in twelve batches from now. This could be twelve months more or less...

In the mean time I do have a lot to do to prepare for our travel and bringing Hope home. Lots of sewing projects, preparing her room, scrap booking Chris' pictures, volunteering at school. Before I know it it will be June and there will only be seven batches to go... then the summer will fly and there will only be four batches to go... then the holidays will fly...and we will finally see our daughter... Chris' sister.

Praying blessings of love and protection for our baby girl.