Where did August go?!?

August has been insane for our family! The first weekend had us playing host to family visitors. We had a very fun weekend touring the 'burg. We painted some pottery and saw how doctors in the 1700's treated patients. Who needs HMOs? The picture is from this fun weekend!

The second weekend we traveled to Indianapolis for my cousins' wedding. It was a beautiful day and it was so great to see the family again. Since we are scattered all over the US, it is extra special to get together like the good old days!

The third weekend we made an unplanned trip back to PA for our friend Paul's funeral. He suffered for many years with his health, and died surrounded by his family. He and his wife Dawn are good friends, and we hold them in our prayers during this difficult time. Our niece was also baptized that weekend in PA. We weren't planning on making the trip, but since we were up there, we were able to celebrate the baptism with them.

This weekend is catch up weekend! We are busy with house work and yard work, and trying to stay cool in 95+ degree weather. We had a FCC Waiting Families dinner on Saturday. We met up with three other families in the area that are also waiting to adopt from China. They are all much further ahead of us, and with fewer people choosing adoption from China, soon we will be the only waiting family! We'll just have to have our own dinners! :)

We are truly hoping September is a much slower and cooler month!

Hope all is well in your part of the country!
:D

Home Coming!

We had a wonderful weekend visiting our dear friends in PA. We went up to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Paul and Dawn ~ it was AWESOME!! (Can't wait till the book comes out this weekend.) We also went to the Cherry Festival for some good carnival sausage, fries and deep fried Oreo cookies.

We had a lovely dinner party with "family" from our Church. It was so great to catch up with everyone. Geoff and Sue's house is just perfect for a relaxing dinner by the stream!

The picture is my little pic of Americana. This is the square in our old home town where the Cherry Festival parade is staged. (3 hours of fire trucks, marching bands, floats and of course the Cherry Queen and her court.) The chairs in the foreground ~ they were set up about a week and a half before the parade to save the spot. That is one of my favorite quirks of the town!

No new news on the adoption front ~ still waiting, waiting, waiting. At this point, no news is good news. Please keep your prayers coming for a speed up and our sanity!

Hope all is well with you!
:D

Sneak Peak!!

We have the nursery just about done! I love the room. It is a little pink for Brian, but as we add wall hangings, it will tone down!

The Ladybug in the bed is a gift from Brian's Aunts. She is just keeping the bed warm until Ladybug can sleep there.

We are also keeping our eyes open for another lavender window panel. I thought one would do the trick, but we need two, and Lillian Vernon is not carrying them right now. We have a cute sheer with appliqué butterflies and dragon flies on it, but it is a little long, and I don't want to fix it until I know for sure which panels are going to hang. CRAZY!

We are painting our room this weekend, and have ordered our super cool bed. That should finish up the major indoor projects. Yea!

Phantom of the Opera was incredible last weekend. We left early in case there was traffic. We got up to the District early enough that we killed some time at the Natural History museum looking at the dinosaurs and gems. Then we had a fantastic lunch at the Kennedy Center Cafe and enjoyed a spectacular vista on the terrace. We could see the Washington Monument, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the Pentagon and the Potomac river. How cool! Then we went to the Opera House to watch an amazing performance of Phantom. Our seats were great and we had a wonderful time.

We'll keep you posted!
:D

3 Months Down...

... who knows how many to go! The CCAA is now predicting at least a 2 1/2 year wait, possibly up to 3 years, or more. Many rumors as to why, but the one I believe most is that they are trying to put on a good face for the world for the 2008 Olympics. They publish that 1/5 of adoptions are international and 4/5 are domestic, so I think they are trying to force the numbers to match the "ideal." Sucks to be us stuck in the PR machine.

So any ideas you have to pass the time, we are certainly open to them. The 100 wishes quilt is slowly progressing. I have about 25 squishes so far. Keep them coming!

We went to Siena's first birthday party last weekend. We took our nephew Ben with us, and he had a fantastic time. The picture is of him giving Siena a Happy Birthday kiss. How sweet!

We go to see Phantom of the Opera tomorrow at the Kennedy Center. I am so excited!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!
:D

Welcome, Miss Belle!

I was fortunate enough to be in the delivery room as my sister and her husband welcomed Isabelle Marie into the world today! She made her debut at 10:33 AM, and weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz, and was 19 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great!

Now let's hope that we get Ladybug soon so she and Belle can be best of friends! We hope to hear sometime this week from the director of our agency about the meeting that she had with CCAA officials last weekend. We hope one of the topics of discussion was realistic wait times and what is being done to shorten them.

Keep you posted!
:D

Thank You, Becky!

This GORGEOUS quilt was made for Ladybug by my friend Becky. The dedication on the back of the quilt says: "For Ladybug ~ When your wings have carried you home." Isn't that the best?! I hope you can see all the different ladybug fabrics she found. How blessed am I with such talented, caring friends?!

I am still collecting squishes for the 100 Wish Quilt. Thank you to all who have sent their squish already. There is still plenty of time to send one in if you have not already.

We finally got some good news this month - the USCIS (Immigration) has made a ruling that those who have to renew their I-171H (Permission to adopt an orphan from overseas) after 7/30/07 can do so free of charge! This is a $600 fee that will be waived! YEA! Let's just hope that we only have to renew it once and not twice! (It is good for 18 months, and we got ours in January 2007.)

Well, I hope to continue to share good news with you! Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!
:D

Hang in there?

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! Perhaps this wait will go quickly after all!

May has been very busy. The first weekend found us at a family reunion in PA. It was great to reconnect with some family that we haven't seen in a while. The cuties are my niece and nephew, who I love to spoil.

The second weekend was graduation weekend at the university I work for, so I was quite busy getting student records ready and helping the graduates line up and get their regalia on straight.

This weekend was the neighborhood yard sale. It was an early morning, and the sales were slow, but I got to spend some good time with Siena! I helped her mommy get things set up and torn down.

And of course, the yard work keeps us hopping! We will sod part of the back yard next weekend, and hopefully get our back yard up to par.

The news for the month was quite depressing. (VENTING ALERT!) Although no one knows for sure what the time line is, we are now in uncharted territory for wait times. The next group who will receive matches have been waiting 19 months (since November 2005), and there is no indication that that wait time will go down any time soon. Our agency told us that they now expect wait times of 18 - 24 months. Sometimes I think that we will never get our referral! Of course that time line could change if the CCAA decides to do several months at a time, but NO ONE KNOWS.

That is the most frustrating part of this process. When we started our journey last summer, all indications were for a 9-10 month wait ~ about the same as a natural pregnancy. Now things have ground to a halt, and we are fully emotionally and financially invested in this process. If we pull out now, who will look after Ladybug? (I guarantee that if we did pull out, the wait times would drop to 5 months!) If we adopt from anywhere else, or by some miracle get pregnant, we are automatically disqualified from China. It just seems so unfair! I just want to be a Mommy ~why is that so hard to accomplish?

As you can see, May has been busy, which is good. June will also be busy with getting the nursery prepared ~ watch for pictures! Please keep up your prayers for a speed up in referrals, and for my sanity! :)

:D