It's here, It's here!!!!!

We have our referral and we are over the moon with happiness!

It will take a few days and we will take the blog private and the continue our posts!

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and wishes!!!!!

We have had many reports that the internal website in China has changed to show that families have been matched through 4/3/06 but unfortunately we do not know for sure that packages are in the air or that our agency is in fact receiving anything today or tomorrow. We are however, hopeful!!! Most of the reason for the silence is due to the holidays and everyone being closed and it could happen today but then again maybe not. So, in the meantime, we continue with restrained excitement and get back to cleaning up from the holidays!

I reviewed the contracts last night from the new agency and I must take the blog private. They are very clear about their expectations and about our sharing photos of our daughter(s) prior to finalizing her adoption. I cannot in good conscience post a picture of her without taking the blog private so in preparation for the arrival of our referral the blog will go private tomorrow December 29th. If you haven't sent me an email or posted a comment you will most likely find yourself locked out. (I'm so sorry! Just send an email when that happens and I will get you added in ASAP!)

I will have blog invitations out today for everyone who has already contacted me! Now let's get those phones ringing and start the news of referrals!!!!!

Our wait is finally coming close to an end! Four years ago we were scrambling to get papers done as fast as we could, packages were rushed to FED/EX at the Philadelphia Airport to keep things moving at the fastest pace possible. We knew then that the process in China was slowing down, we couldn't imagine that it would slow down this much but we knew that every day of delay could mean a month delay in our referral. Our paperwork has now been in China, just shy of 45 months and if the rumors are true.......we are days shy of seeing the face(s) we have waited so long to see!

It is very possible that we could have concrete information about our daughter(s) before we ring in the new year!!!!

What a Chrismtas present, what a New Year's dream come true!!!!! We are trying to contain our joy until it is truly a reality but the news is just too good and must be shared!!!!!

Love you all, thanks for staying with us during this long process......the fun is just about to begin!!!!!

Office Warning.......

Blog temporarily has music......I'm not a real "Music on a blog" type of person and I will delete the music when we get our referral, (if not before) but........ in the mean time it makes me happy and I just thought I would warn you before you listen at work!

I'm a day early but I figured since I skipped month 43 that would be ok!

I'm not a big Miley Cyrus fan but I heard this song on another blog today and it just really touched me. It seemed to say exactly how I have felt for the last 44 months. It has been a long climb and I truly cannot wait to reach the top. There have been so many battles, but I also know how worth it "it" will be when they put that beautiful little girl in our arms and we get to love her for the rest of her life! It may be an uphill battle but we are patient, and in it for the long haul!

Referrals are coming out today for the families in March of 2006.....congratulations that your wait is finally coming to an end. We are next! We are truly next.......no I really mean that .....next!!!!! April 1st and 2nd are weekend days.....April 3rd is the Monday.....they almost have to do our referral in the next batch!!!!!! We have waited so long to say those words. The next batch will most likely not come out until January but I almost don't care.........

We are next!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day!

I have so much to be thankful for......I am thankful for all of you. You keep our spirits up during this very long wait and always help to keep us looking at the goal and not the interim. I am thankful for my husband who is just an amazing man, and loves me more than I have ever been loved before. I am thankful for my family, I love each and every one of you for being the special people that you are! I am so very thankful for Tigger, who shows me unconditional "kitty" love every single day! I am thankful for all of our friends, we are so honored to have such amazing people in our life! And, lastly I am thankful that I was not too sick to get out of bed today and make a nice turkey dinner for my family!

Now for a quickie adoption update.......No new referrals from China. We aren't sure why, and we aren't sure when we will see them but when they come out we will be very close to being in the next batch or the one after that! Yeah!!!!

We moved, as most of you know, and that means updating or amending our home study and letting US Immigration know where we live and that our new home is suitable for raising a child. We will hopefully have that done in the beginning of December.

We changed adoption agencies.....the last of the paperwork I must finish in the morning and overnight to them for receipt by December 1st. If they don't get it by Tuesday the 1st then we are out of the program so I will make sure that they have it in plenty of time.

The new agency does require our blogs to be set to "Private" and I will be honoring their wishes very soon so please make sure to send me an email or post a comment to let me know that you want to continue to read it and I will send you an invite with a password.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for referrals to come out soon!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving may you all be safe and keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers!

Private

I may need to take the blog private for a while, or maybe even forever....I'm not sure. I have heard that it is a requirement of the transfer to a new agency but I haven't received any paperwork yet so I am not 100% positive of this change. Bottom line.......if you read the blog and would like to continue to read the blog please send me an email or leave a comment and I will make sure that you have the password if and when I have to go private.

Thanks all!

Referrals came out.......not quite what I had hoped. They issued referrals for families with a Log in Date through March 28, 2006. It puts us closer but still maybe 2 months away from our referral. Congratulations though to all of the families that have waited so very long and are finally looking at pictures of their beautiful babies!!!!!

Our agency continues to be frustratingly slow on transferring us to another agency. They are sharing no information other than "it is complex and we are working on it". With barely more than a month between now and China's deadline for the transfer it is nerve wracking to say the least, that we have no information. I think I could feel better if they would share something, tell us who we are transferring to, a projected deadline for the transfer.....anything! But alas, our tight lipped agency continues to be just that.....tight lipped. We hope, (because we aren't sure) that China does not hold up our referral because of our not being transferred yet. We hope, that they complete our transfer by China's deadline. We hope, that this does not end our chances of ever becoming a family of 3 or more!

We hope you will keep us in your thoughts and send us some good karma!

42 Months!

There has been drama, and we will certainly be singing in the streets when our referral finally does come but in the mean time........we are still waiting!

China did not release ANY REFERRALS in the month of September! They only real way this could get any slower, is if they started taking back referrals! (ok, just a little sarcastic humor there!)

I believe that referrals will come out in the middle of October, and I believe they will cover more days than if they would have come out in September. Will we still receive our referral in October???? Hmmm, I'm just not sure anymore. I think they will finish March 2006 with the next batch of referrals. I don't think they will do another batch in October, which means we are most likely looking at a November referral, with travel to China in 2010!

It is so bittersweet, to be so close but seriously still so far away!!!!!

Rainbows, Boxes and life in Adoption land!

We saw something yesterday that we have never seen before.......

A whole Rainbow from end to end! Then, the more we looked we realized that it was actually a double rainbow from end to end! There is a 2nd rainbow that you can make out, it is very faint but you can definitely see it!

We looked real hard, but we didn't find a pot of gold, or a baby at the end of the rainbow.

Maybe China will surprise us and send us a referral.....



We love the new house, it is a little more than twice the size of where we were and that is a good thing because it took 4 moving trucks to move us in!

I feel like I will be unpacking and finding new homes for things for the rest of my life!!!!!

The truth is we have made quite a dent in the boxes but there are just so many more to do. We even have some rooms that don't have any visible boxes (there hidden in closets) and we can feel normal in those rooms!

When Barry and I were married, we combined two households into one, and put a lot of stuff into storage. It is so wonderful now to finally for the first time ever have all of our things under one roof! We have even managed to park the cars in the garage!!!! Now we get to start the process of weeding out what is really excess and giving what we can to charity.

Then I get to put Jamie's room together and start painting the Pooh characters on her walls all over again!

In Adoption land....... we are probably weeks away from a referral instead of months or years! We are still waiting to see if the package in the air from China right now is a batch of referrals and how close will it come to completing the month of March. When we finally see this batch of referrals we will know if we can hope for a referral in October, or if we are looking more like November. An October referral would mean the chance of us still traveling in December, a November referral would make that almost impossible.

Our latest road block, (one of many over the last 4 years) is that our agency has never managed to get their Hague approval. Well, now China has decided that after December 1st all families must be with a Hague approved agency. It seems that at this final hour in our adoption process we must change agencies! We have no idea at the moment, what impact this will have on our lives.

Will our referral be held up?

Will we need to file new paperwork with immigration?

What new fees are we going to be facing?

In Adoption land we have learned that every little bit of good news......comes with its own version of bad news, or some new hurdle for us to jump. We will jump this one too but if you want to send out any good karma wishes for us......they would be greatly appreciated!

That is it for now......I really must go unpack a box or two!

We found better stuff!!!!!

It was hard to say goodbye to the home that we have loved for 18, (almost 19) years.

It was hard to say goodbye to the room that we were so lovingly putting together for Jamie.

It was really hard to say goodbye to all the Pooh characters that I had drawn and then painted onto her walls.

However, we did say goodbye!

We have moved into this absolutely wonderful single family home, and it is in the town where I grew up. Jamie's Grandmom is 7 minutes away, and she has two uncles and cousins less then 5 minutes away. The schools are good, the drinking water is good and the home is gorgeous. There is even a really nice swing set, sliding board, climbing wall for her in the back yard!

We have definitely found better stuff and we plan to be here for the next 30 years! Now all we need is Jamie (and her sister) for everything to be complete!!!!!

Storm blew up my Server.......No computers till it is fixed!

See you in a few days I hope!!!!!

Referrals came out!

Cut off date: March 22nd!

Technically this means they processed two days of paperwork!

There were a lot of people in those two days so it was still a good sized batch but it just slowly inches us a long.

Our Log In Date is April 3rd, so there is still about 12 days ahead of us. I am still guessing that we will see our referral in the fall. Maybe as early as September, possibly as late as November but most likely we will see our referral in October.

Just a reminder, our referral for those of you that aren't aware, is the first time we will see our daughters face. We will receive a packet of information from the Chinese government that will include pictures of the child(ren) that they are referring to us and a brief medical history from when she was found. We will then finally know how old she is, how much she weighs, and which of the 400 million outfits we currently have for her will she fit into! We will finally know if it is one child or twins, do we need one crib or two, two carseats or four (two cars), etc.

In the mean time we are keeping very busy with all of the things going on here and time is passing quickly for us. Blog posts will be a little slower for awhile but I promise I will share more details soon!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

So much to share and no time to share it! There is a lot going on mostly good and I promise to share all the news (none of it baby related) as soon as I can!

In the mean time, I am finding the time to take my photoshop class and here is one of my edited images from day one of the class. I don't know who the girl is, I shot this photo in Ocean City, NJ. She was obviously bored waiting for the rest of her family and she found this broken umbrella and started jumping off things with it. She even climbed the lifeguard station and jumped off of the roof. I thought she was very brave! I would never jump off the roof of the lifeguard station although you would probably never see me up there in the first place! ha ha

I'll be back soon I promise, and thanks for checking in!

I have nothing new to share.....we are busy re-doing all of our paperwork for the 3rd time, so I thought I would share a cute picture of a slightly un-happy Tigger!

Enjoy!

It's been a while!

So what have you been up to? Here is a little of what I have been doing.......

Gardening!

I love spending time in my gardens and it doesn't seem to matter how much work it is, or even how hot. I enjoy shopping for new plants and watching them grow. I do have other colors but mostly I love the pinks and purples! My garden changes colors with the times of the season. Early spring is yellows and oranges, then on to pinks and purples for mid to late spring. Summer will bring more yellows and then on to the fall when we get more reds and rust colors.

________________________

I have also been sewing, and I have made 'sew' many new projects........

A bib for Jamie (although I think it is a little small and I will change the size and shape for the next one).

And, I have also made a few bags. The first was for me, and my Mom liked it so much that I spent a couple weeks shopping for just the right fabrics to re-make one for her. It looks so much like mine that you could mistake it for mine but I actually like hers better! She got hers for Mother's Day and she loved it!

This first one is Mom's..... and this one is mine....

I actually haven't finished mine and that's why hers 'sits' so much better in the bottom. Aren't her colors pretty! I love all the creme colors in hers!

And lastly, I did a bag for my niece who loves sunflowers! I shopped for weeks until I found these adorable Sunflower fabrics in my favorite Quilt shop!

I've been up to some fun other things but they will have to wait for the next post! How are you spending the last fun days of your spring????

(hello ladies in Delaware.....I love seeing that you were here.....feel free to leave a comment and say hello!)

Babies, Babies, Babies!!!!!

China has released the referrals for the month of May and they have processed up through 3/14/2006!

This month they processed 6 days worth of paperwork and comparatively speaking that is a big month!!!!! I am still comfortable with my estimate that we will be seeing our referral in September. Possibly August, possibly October.......well heck possibly any time but my best guess is September. If we see our referral (pictures and medical history of the daughter China has chosen for us) in September than I would hope to travel before Thanksgiving. Now won't that be something to be THANKFUL for!

In the mean time I am busy busy busy looking at all the blogs of the babies that will be finding their way to new homes very soon!

Congrats to all the new parents and we hope you have speedy and safe travels!

Just when you thought it was safe to pull your head out of the adoption sand pit!


Along comes the Swine Flu and now.......well, who knows!

It appears that China is going to temporarily stop referrals until we get past the Swine Flu. In my head I know that this makes great sense. We don't want to bring infants/toddlers home on a plane and potentially expose them to something that could seriously (if not fatally) hurt them. My heart goes out to all the people and all the family members that are dealing with this flu first hand and I pray that you will be healthy and get past this. My heart breaks for the family in Texas that lost their 23 month old child to this illness.

My heart also breaks for all of us in the adoption community who have been holding our selves together as best we could while we patiently waited month after slow month for China to process all of the dossiers and issue referrals for "forever families". It just feels like no matter what we do, how patient we are, when ever there is a ray of sunshine and a light at the end of the tunnel.......... our wait continues with a new obstacle.

This too shall pass, we will get our referrals and from what I am told, all this will be a distant memory. But for now I really just want to scream.....

Oh, come on, Really?!!!! SWINE FLU???

Tax season is almost over!

I have been so busy doing taxes I haven't had a chance to enjoy any

of the spring temperatures we have had lately. I looked outside

yesterday and I was surprised to see all the beautiful white

flowering trees in bloom. Those are my hubby's favorite and we

normally take a drive and just look at al the beautiful flowering trees!

I also haven't had much time to blog lately. Tax season is almost over

and I will be back soon but first.........

I will take some much needed Decatf napping!

Three Years!

In years or in months........no matter how you say it, it has been a long time!

Thankfully there is a light at the end of this long tunnel and I truly believe that we will be seeing our referral before this calendar year is out! Hopefully we will also get to hold her in our arms before this calendar year is over too!

Happy anniversary to all my fellow April LID'ers!

Scrapbook Alchemy course

Do any of my cyber (or non cyber) friends, who have a version of Photoshop (Elements or Creative Suite), want to take an online class called Scrapbook Alchemy?

I have taken Jessica's classes before, and I am in the process of taking on one photo editing now. I love her classes and I love her style. She is featured regularly in the magazine Creating Keepsakes.

I am interested in taking this course, and it will allow me to share the course with a friend but I don't currently know of anyone else that has Photoshop on their computer. If you have the software and would like to also take the course leave me a comment or send me an email!

Here is a link to more information on the course! Click on: Jessica Sprague to go to her website!

(By the way...... only 2 weeks left in tax season and then I should be back on a much more regular basis!)

35 months down, 28 days of referrals left to process before they finally get to our date!

4/3/2006

The Letter Game

Letter Game

What is this post? Michele gave me the letter N and I had to find things that I love that begin with the letter N. I told her I wouldn't play unless she gave me a good letter, and while I was kidding about playing she did give me a good letter! I was surprised at how many "N" things I came up with.

If you want to play along, just leave a comment on this post letting me know. I'll leave you a comment and assign you a letter. Post as many things that you love that begin with your assigned letter. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on.

Here goes:

Noodles

Notions

Nothing

Night time (especially in the summer)

Nintendo (Wii)

Note pads

Napping Kitties!

Nature

Nieces and Nephews

New (bestest) friends

I am sure that I could come up with more if I took more time but I have already taken up way too much time with this.

Thanks Michele this was fun!

If you want to play, leave me a comment and tell me you want to play,

and I will give you a letter!

Feeling Creative today........

I am feeling a wee bit creative this week, hence the blog makeover yesterday. I still have a little work to do on it but I love the Pooh background! It goes with all of the Pooh stuff that will be in Jamie's room. I really need to get back to painting the characters on her wall!

In my search for something creative to do with myself today I stumbled upon Martha Stewart(. com). Ofcourse she had some cool stuff that is always more work than it looks when you start but in reading the comments from other people I found someone who had created a video tutorial on her blog. The video was awesome and now I will be putting some of my scrapbook papers to some good use today.

In reading her comments I stumbled on to another blog...... (I am so amazed by the creativity and talent of women!)

http://canyoupixelthis.blogspot.com/2009/02/coloring-book-list-book-whatever-you.html#links

I hope that link works because this woman is sewing coloring books, journals, covers for grocery list books that also hold your coupons, etc. If that link doesn't work try clicking here: Pixel This. Her books are really adorable and she is giving one away to someone who leaves a comment on her website. I think you have to visit her site and leave a comment by the 12th to be entered in the drawing but it is worth the visit even if you miss the drawing. The sky is the limit with what you can use these little book covers for! I love them.

Enjoy your day and find something fun to do just for you!

It Snowed!

Our area got it's biggest snowfall of the season, only 8 inches but oh how pretty!

This shot is out my back window before the neighborhood kids got up and had a chance to play in the snow. I sat and looked out the windows and thought about all fun in the snow we will have next winter with our daughters.

I just may go out and practice my snowman making skills!

Enjoy the winter's beauty!

Wow, what an amazing book!

I have not had much time to read lately so when I choose a book I like to know that I will enjoy it. I read the Kite Runner a few months back and I was incredibly moved by the writing style and story. So moved that I needed to take a break before I could read A Thousand Splendid Suns.

It is hard to imagine but this book was even more powerful than the first book. His writing style and ability to tell the stories of women in Afghanistan is just amazing. I was pulled in with the first pages and unable to put it down until I finished reading the whole book.

If you have the time to read.......I highly recommend it!

What started out as me wanting to take a photo of some Chipboard numbers on a pretty paper background turned out to be an exploration for Tigger.

He is such a part of everything that I do, and will be a huge part of Jamie's life I decided to let him be a part of our 34 month acknowledgement.

34 months!

I want to say "celebration" but I am not celebrating the wait I am instead living in anticipation of the end of the wait.

Our referral is coming, most likely this year, and we are happy, excited, nervous, scared, but mostly happy and thrilled that soon we will finally be parents. 34 months has been a long wait, and it isn't over yet but the end is in sight! Tigger does not have a clue what is in store for his future! In the mean time I will let him happily explore all the silly things I do to record these moments in our wait.

LID 4/3/2006

2 Down 32 more to go!

Every day they refer is a day closer to our referral!

(positive thoughts here people!)

March 2nd, they processed two days of paperwork. I wasn't planning that we would see the "big speed up" that everyone was talking about but I was thinking we would do at least 4 - 6 days of paperwork. No, they did 2! Oh well, every day they process and refer is another day closer to us seeing the picture of our daughter.

In the meantime, we start our doctor appointments to get our travel vaccinations, we start work on the 100 good wishes quilt, (I need more squares!) and we make room in our house for a baby! The other day something caught my eye about finding room in your kitchen for baby bottles and toddler dishes. Oh my goodness! My kitchen is already tiny by my standards and I have things already stored in cabinets in the garage how will I find room for a whole cabinet dedicated to a new purpose! I don't have many kitchen cabinets but I will be doing some creative juggling very soon!

Enjoy your day and keep your thoughts positive!

Matching has begun!

What will this mean???? It is a new year and as usual we have many rumors of a speed up in referrals. We have been down this road before and it is just NOT something I am currently willing to pin my hopes on. I will be thrilled to be wrong but I don't like roller coasters and I must stay out of the emotional amusement park!

With this said, here are my thoughts........

This month's referrals will take us through March 6th, 2006. Our LID is 4/3/2006 and I am expecting that we will see our referral sometime in August and we will travel to China in October.

Keep your fingers crossed that I am wrong and we process much more quickly than I am planning on and also keep your fingers crossed that we even at least make it through to March 6th with the next batch of referrals!

Happy rumors everyone!

We are back from Florida and the girls, (two of our nieces), did amazing!

I have never seen a marathon before and it was very inspiring. The sheer will it took for some (most) of the runners to finish the race was awesome to witness. Every emotion they had was just out there for everyone to see.

The girls ran a 13 mile half marathon on Saturday (dressed as Peter pan and Tinkerbell), and then a 26 mile full marathon on Sunday. I am so impressed!!!!!

We had an awesome time just getting to hang out with them (and Jake) and I cannot thank them enough for including us!

Jamie will be blessed to have such awe inspiring women and role models as cousins!

We love you!!!