It's faint, but I think that we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Referrals for August arrived at the beginning of the week, and while they covered a measly two days of LIDs, they were big days (a lot of families logged in). Even with the two day batch, however, it is looking like we could see a referral in December or January. The projections are just that - projections. They are NOT in any way based on information from the CCAA. They're based on how many days of LIDs have been processed over the past few years and poll data on Rumor Queen (the best China adoption site ever). Keep your fingers crossed that the CCAA can keep up their current pace (number of referrals, not number of days), or, even better, that they can pick up the pace. When we started this process we thought we would be home with our little girl at the beginning of 2007...now, getting home at the beginning of 2010 sounds heavenly.
In other non-adoption news, we were so lucky to celebrate the naming of my Goddaughter Emily over the weekend. She is so beautiful, and her Hebrew name fits her perfectly. Now, I know that I'm a little biased, but isn't she the cutest ever? :) Also this week, our niece Caroline started kindergarten! It's so hard to believe that she's already in school - it seems like just yesterday that she was born! And last week Chris wrapped up our insane home improvement project - our floor is finally complete! It looks AMAZING! I am working on putting the first floor back together, and will take some pictures when I finally get it done.
Is That a Light?
It's July...
Yup, it's the end of July, and we still have no real news. Referrals landed last week - they covered a measly two days of LIDs. Blech. The good news is that they were big days (lots of dossiers logged in), so if they keep up the pace of number of referrals, we'll see more days in the coming batches. It's hard to believe that I have been doing this for three and a half years now - each month trying to figure out how the tiny batch isn't as bad as it looks. I still think we will see a referral in December or January, but you never know.
We've been keeping busy...TOO busy. Our softball team made it to the playoffs, so we spent a weekend playing softball - we came in third place in the tournament! We celebrated Chris's birthday with a surprise visit from his brother Jonathan (who had the best timed surprise 1 day business trip to the east coast ever). And we have taken on far more in the world of home improvement than we shoud have. We finally are pulling up the old carpet & lineoleum on our first floor and installing laminate. In a stunning display of us overestimating both our skills and speed, we thought
that I could paint the kitchen on Saturday while Chris installed the dining room floor, and then he could do the kitchen on Sunday. Well...the floor takes MUCH more time then you would think to install. And the kitchen took two days to paint - two days, two coats of ceiling paint, 2+ coats of primer, and 2 coats of green paint. Not sure what was on our walls before, but it ate the paint. Our little townhouse kitchen ate nearly 4 cans of paint and primer. Really. It looks PHENOMENAL though. Chris has been working on the floor every day after work and the kitchen is pretty much done. Hopefully he will have some time this weekend to finish up the dining room and start the living room. And hopefully the new floor will be in by September! :)
A few steps closer...
It looks like China is not going to "catch up" from that batch they send in the middle of May. Remember, it got sent a few weeks late because of the swine flu scare. We were hoping that they would catch up...send a batch at the beginning of June and get back to sending them at the beginning the month. But the last batch arrived the third week of June, so it's looking like this might be the new normal. Referrals went through March 20, 2006. Ever so slowly, we are moving closer to our date. Our agency keeps telling us that our LID is 4-17-06, and hopefully they are right. I think (hope?) for the first time in this ridiculous wait that we are about 6 months away.
We've been really busy lately. Well, busier than usual. The Red Sox came to town last week for three games against the Nationals and we were, of course, there for all three games. It was so much fun seeing the Red Sox in our "home" stadium though I think we're both feeling the effects of the heat & three nights of eating Five Guys cheeseburgers! (yes, the same Five Guys that Obama went to on the Dateline special...Chris is not pleased about that since it made the line twice as long!) I spent Friday and Saturday at the Great American Scrapbook Convention, an annual tradition for me! And tomorrow we're heading up to Baltimore for, you guessed it, another Red Sox game! Chris is taking a few days off of work, so it will be nice to have some time to catch up on sleep and relax at the pool!
Cancun!
Hello! We are back, tan, and relaxed from an amazing week in Cancun. I am so glad that we went, in spite of fears about the swine flu. Other than the fact that there have been exactly the same number of cases of swine flu in Cancun as there have been in our house (zero), the fear that caused nearly everyone else to cancel was our gain. Our flights in and out of Cancun weren't even half full (love the extra space!) and the resort was no more than 20% full. The weather was perfect and it truly felt like
we had the place to ourselves. As we walked around the resort, we kept noticing how many chairs there were - all empty. I imagine that during busy times every single one is full. Not for us. We had a "busy" trip...HA! We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, and barely left the property! We ate breakfast on the terrace each day looking out over the ocean. (I know, rough life...) Then we picked out the perfect lounge chairs to spend the day on (on the deck of the pool looking out at the ocean)...laid in the sun, drank way too much (we would order a drink, and once they saw that we were getting 
close to finishing it, a new one would appear!), swam in the pool, swam in the ocean, played a LOT of pool volleyball, and lounged on the edge of the infinity pools (made to look like they go on out into the ocean - they had a ledge you could sit on that overlooked the ocean...it was AMAZING!). We ate way too much too - the food was amazing and ridiculously plentiful. And everyone we met was so nice - from the staff (we LOVED the activity staff & bartenders!) to the other guests. I have more pics posted on my facebook page, or you can email me for the link! :)
As for adoption news...well...not much to report. Referrals did come in while we were away - they covered through March 14, 2006. It's a strange sort of situation...we're
so close, but we have no idea when referrals will come again, and how many days they will do at a time. I really do think we'll see a referral in 2009, but who knows. The other good news is that we finally got our USCIS approval - third time's a charm, right? The best part of it, though, was the form letter we got with it. The letter states "congratulations on completing the first step of your international adoption..." HA!! If only they knew! :) Hopefully I will have some good news to share soon!
Swine Flu? Really?
Well, I certainly didn't see this coming. If someone had told me three years ago that we would still be waiting for our daughter, I would have been shocked. But if someone had told me that we would be impacted by swine flu? Well...I can't say that I would have believed them. But here we are. No referrals were mailed this month (the last set of referrals went through 3-8-06 and were sent at the beginning of April), and every agency has a different explanation. Some agencies are just saying that they are late this month, and that the swine flu won't impact anything. Other agencies are saying that the CCAA has told them that they will be holding referrals for 20-30 days. Still others are saying that the CCAA is holding things until June. And yet another sent out an email yesterday saying that no referrals will be sent until September. Yes, you read that right.
So where does that leave us? Well, aside from the stress of not knowing anything (and the ridiculousness of the worldwide reaction to the sniffles), I am hoping that we won't really be impacted. The precedence that the CCAA has set from the SARS scare is promising. During that time, all referrals stopped, but the CCAA continued to make matches. Once all of the travel restrictions were lifted, they sent out huge batches of referrals (and more than one batch a month) to "catch up." We weren't going to get a referral this month anyways, so if they send out a larger batch next month, we would be in the same place. But I don't know. The not knowing is horrible, and the number of agencies that say that they have talked to someone at CCAA and have wildly different information is absurd. As Chris often says, we are adopting from a country that doesn't give out information, but this stinks.
As for the two of us, we are laughing in the face of swine flu, and flying to Mexico for our vacation on Monday. Really. Even after United cancelled our flights (would you believe that United has canceled nearly every flight to Mexico until JULY??), we have rebooked and are planning on spending a blissful few days on the beach in Cancun. No internet (so no monitoring the referral situation) will be a good thing. And hopefully we will come home to some good news.
Hope
It's been a crazy crazy month. REALLY crazy. First, no real adoption news. But we do have quite a bit of hope for the future. While the last month had the CCAA only refer 4 days worth of LIDs (so we're now up to 3/6/06...our LID is 4/17/06...), many agencies are saying that things will start to pick up in the next few months. The biggest reason that they are giving is the increase in the required orphanage donation. A few months ago, the donation was raised from $3000 to about $5000 (the new donation amount is in RMB, so it fluctuates a bit with the economy). That's a huge incentive for orphanage directors to get 
paperwork submitted. More paperwork means more babies available for international adoption and more referrals. So many agencies are reporting this that I am allowing myself some hope that we will finally see a speed-up and a 2009 referral.
In other craziness, we are redoing our kitchen. So it has been construction (and dust) central. A few weeks ago the KraftMaid cabinet truck pulled up to our house (the same truck that delivers to the houses on Extreme Makeover:Home Edition!) and we now have brand new cabinets and countertops! Our kitchen 
isn't quite put back together yet, but it is amazing to have beautiful new cabinets that aren't falling apart! :)
In even BIGGER news though, two of our closest friends, Shana & Stephen, had a baby at the end of February, and I became a godmother!!! Emily Talia is simply perfect (even those people who aren't her godmother think so!), and I was lucky enough to hold her when she was only 10 hours old! I am in awe of her, and so thankful that we live close enough that I can get my Emmy fix whenever I want!! :)
Other than that (which is quite a bit!), I have been super busy with work - I am working for a CPA during tax season (the same CPA I worked for last year). I really like the people I work with (and the office dog, Harley), but between that and teaching Sunday & Hebrew school...well...you get the idea! And Chris has been working long late hours a lot lately as well. We're also getting ready for softball season to start, as well as Opening Day.
No News...Just More Paperwork
Well, no news. Not even any rumors about the next cut off date. What a bummer, right? :) The upside is that there have been a few rumors about the wait and process as a whole. More than a few agencies are reporting that the mood is good at the CCAA, and several are reporting that things will pick up in the next few months. So while we're cautious about any rumors, we're cautiously optimistic about this one.
The other interesting thing is the website chinadoptionforecast.com. I've played with it some for awhile now, but there are a lot of reports that it's been extremely accurate lately. If we truly are close enough now for the site to make an accurate prediction, then 2009 truly will be our year. It's predicting a September referral, which would mean we would travel before the holidays. I'm hoping that it's wrong - that we'll travel before then, but anytime in 2009 is good enough for me at this point!
On the home front, we're been working hard at renewing all of our paperwork. We meet with the social worker tomorrow for our home study update - once that is done and sent to USCIS, we will have to be fingerprinted again as well. But at least we're in the home stretch of this set of paperwork (it took a LONG time to put it together again). We're enjoying the nice weather while it lasts (it was freezing here at this time last week, and today was in the 70s...supposed to be back down to the 30s by Friday...it's a wonder we're not more sick!). I'm excited to be heading to NFTY Convention on Monday as part of the Youth Workers Conference. And, of course, I couldn't be happier that spring training officially gets under way tomorrow! AND the Red Sox play the Nats for three games here in DC in June - I am ECSTATIC to see my team in my home town!!
Hope and Change
Tuesday was an amazing day. Sitting on my couch, a mere 16 miles from the Capital (yes, that's right, I live 16 miles away, but stayed in my toasty warm pjs!) we witnessed history. There are no words to describe the feeling of watching our 44th president be sworn in. I keep thinking of how our daughter will live in a country where the color of her skin will not be a barrier to her dreams. And I am full of optimism for our country. It truly is cool to be an American again.
In the midst of the unbelievable joy of the Inauguration, it's been a tough week in the world of our adoption wait. Our USCIS (immigration) paperwork has to be renewed AGAIN, and we have to re-do our homestudy (and all its parts...medical reviews, abuse clearances, fingerprints, financial reviews, etc.) a third time as well. It's tough - it's a huge time suck, as well as another rather large and unplanned expense. If all this money was going towards helping kids I would feel better about it. But it's going to our government and our agency. In short, it stinks. And the wait is not getting any shorter. Referrals for this month came out today, and after rumors of a speed-up, this batch covered two measly days. March 1 & 2, 2006. That's it. The rumor that spirits are high at CCAA is still out there, and it's possible that when they come back from the Chinese New Year holiday they could do another batch, but who knows. I continue to hope, but it's getting harder and harder.
I'm still sticking with Project 365...these are the next 9 days of our lives. And we are completely re-doing our kitchen. I thought that would make the universe laugh enough to speed things up (because it would be pretty funny to come home to a completely torn apart kitchen, right?). So our new stove arrived Saturday - our 1970s double oven is no more. And we picked out new cabinets and a new counter on Sunday. It'll be a month or two before they are installed, but we'll do the floor after that. Home improvement has never been so much fun. :)
Project 365
One of my New Year's resolutions for 2009 is to complete Project 365. What is Project 365? It's pretty simple, actually. Take a picture every day for a year. The idea is to capture every day moments - the stuff that I never usually take pictures of. My goal is to become a much better photographer, as well as documenting what a year in our lives look like. I'm hoping that this will be a big year for us, so to see it all the way through will be pretty cool. And I want to be a good enough photographer that I can capture all of our daughter's moments on film (disc?). I will be scrapbooking the pictures as well (hopefully using a Project 365 kit to make it simple), so that we will be able to look at the year for many years to come. As I've been taking pictures, I keep thinking how neat it would be to have pictures like this from my grandparents (I LOVE old pictures - my grandparents' pictures are all over our house!), so I'm hoping that this will be something that our children and grandchildren enjoy. Our first 9 days have been pretty boring. I came back from California with a nasty cold and picked up a stomach bug a few days later, so you can tell I spent a lot of time at home! And yes - those pictures at the top are the past 9 days. My favorite one is day 4 - that's Chris cooking latkes for our annual Chanukah celebration with our friends. That's right - of the 8 of us, the 1 non-Jew is the one who cooks the latkes each year! :)
(a key for those who are interested...1/1 - playing Scrabble with Chris, 1/2 - watching tv in my favorite pjs, 1/3 - Chris playing with Shana & Stephen's dogs, 1/4 - Chris making latkes at the Langels, 1/5 - folding laundry, 1/6 - a beautiful cardinal in the midst of all the rain, 1/7 - 2 cranky rabbits, 1/8 - our backyard in the midst of a 15 minute snow storm, 1/9 - doing dishes in our kitchen)
Happy New Year!
Happy 2009! I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. We traveled to California to celebrate with all of the Surridges. We were a little slowed down by a nasty cold that worked its way through the entire family, but we still had a wonderful time. We perfected our skills at Candy Land, learned a lot about trains, read some good books, and truly enjoyed being an aunt & uncle! We had a VERY low-key New Year's celebration, as I am still getting over the 
Christmas cold, and Chris is working really hard to not let it take over his body. We saw "Marley & Me" and went out for Chinese food with Shana & Stephen, then welcomed 2009 in bed! (we did manage to stay awake until midnight, but just barely!)
It's All About the Numbers
Like many of my friends who are waiting to adopt, playing around with the numbers has become quite the hobby. It's all about how many days are referred and how many days are left in front of us in line. Right now, we have 60 days ahead of us. So, if they were to refer 5 days a month from here on out (not totally likely, since last month was only 2 days worth, and March 2006 is rumored to be a monster of a month in terms of numbers), we have exactly a year to go. There's also the math of weekdays referred...there are 40 weekdays ahead of us (because, of course, no dossiers are logged in on the weekends). So if they could just manage to refer FOUR weekdays a month, we will be home with our little one in 2009. Sigh...what crazy math this is. Referrals haven't yet arrived for December, but it looks like they will go through February 23, 2006. 6 days/4 weekdays. By my math, that keeps us on pace for 2009.
Speaking of numbers, many agencies announced today that the orphanage donation (a mandatory part of the adoption) will increase starting in 2009. The donation has been $3000, and apparently has been so for over a decade. It is now going to be 35,000 yuan, which is just below $5,100 at today’s exchange rates. This, of course, means that not only do we now need to find an additional $2100 to complete our adoption, but because the donation/fee will now be in yuan, it could fluctuate quite a bit depending on the exchange rate. Great. The one upside to this, though, is that because the orphanages will be receiving more money per adoption, they may be more motivated to get babies "paper-ready." In order for a baby to be adopted, the orphanage has a pile of paper-work to do that gets sent to the CCAA. There are many stories of orphanage directors who say that the compensation for getting the paperwork together is not worth it - so babies sit in orphanages. If that's the case, maybe this will help.
In non-adoption news, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. In our annual charades tournament, the men won. I would post a photo from the medal ceremony (yes, I said medal ceremony...we take our charades REALLY seriously!) but it might go to their heads. :) And in two weeks we'll be flying out to California to spend Christmas with entire Surridge clan. 3 kids + 2 aunts + 2 uncles + 2 parents + 2 grandparents = lots of family fun. Be prepared for many pictures of our excessively adorable niece and nephews when we get home. :) And, as you probably noticed, I'm attempting to make our blog look a little nicer. If you know how to fix the strange spacing and the title, please let me know! :)
A Busy Month
Doesn't it seem like every month I have some sort of reason for not blogging more often? Now that we are knocking on the three year mark of when we started this journey (don't stop believing...), it's pretty impressive that I come up with a new reason every month, isn't it? :) This month's excuse? Teenagers. Lots and lots of teenagers. If you don't know, I'm the youth committee chair at our temple. It's not as exciting as you would think (and it doesn't even sound very exciting, does it?), but I'm really proud to do it - we are members of the temple I grew up at, and when I was in high school I was a founding member of our youth group (and it's first president!). It sounds cheesy, but it's really cool to give back to the youth group that gave me so much. And I got to really give back, as our temple hosted NFTY-MAR Fall Kallah a few weeks ago. It's a regional youth group event - from Delaware to North Carolina - and I attended as a high schooler (and LOVED them). We had 210 teenagers attend...so, as you can imagine, I have been very very busy! The weekend was AMAZING - I am SO unbelievably proud of our kids and the weekend they planned!
After sleeping for a week (and trying to get over the really nasty cold that I got), I have been catching up around the house, continuing to scrapbook pictures from our Paris trip (yes, I'm still working on the pictures from 2006...we took 880 pictures...I'll be scrapbooking for awhile...), and FINALLY working on our quilt! After several unsuccessful attempts to sign up for quilting classes (seriously, why won't any of these people take my money??), I really thought I could do it myself (but not totally sure...have you seen how clumsy I am?). Thankfully, Shannon (a friend of a friend) stepped in and showed me how to get it all assembled. I have some "practice" fabric that I bought over a year ago, and she helped me get it all cut into squares! I laid it out tonight, and tomorrow I'm going to actually start to sew! Holy cow! So if you still want to send me a square for the "real" quilt (PLEASE do - I am short a few squares!!), now is the time! :)
Oh yes - you probably want some adoption news, right? Well, I have very little to report. The CCAA did 2 days worth of referrals in November, which is like doing nothing at all. This brings them to February 17, 2006, and brings us to exactly 2 months of LIDs ahead of us. It's all about how fast the CCAA works...it's hard, since when we started this journey (don't stop believing...), we saw them referring full months at a time. So even though we haven't seen more than a week in a LONG time, I know that they can do it. Hopefully they will soon.
Shana Tovah!
Happy 5769! We had a wonderful Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We had nice dinners with my parents, and enjoyed break fast after Yom Kippur with friends. Holidays always make me a little sad that we don't have our little girl, but thankful that we have such wonderful family and friends. Hopefully 5769 is the last year we spend without kids!
In the middle of the holidays, China did send a batch of referrals - they got through February 15, 2006. So, a little movement forward. And there were some random referrals sent last week for February 16 (but not every agency got them). Hopefully next month will bring a huge batch, but if this pace keeps up we have less than a year of wait ahead of us. Some basic math...if each of the next referral batches (all the way up to ours) is only 6 days, we would get our referral at the end of August 2009. If they slowed down to 5 days a month, we would be at the end of October. But if they did 7 days a month it would be the end of June! Hopefully they can do at least a week of LIDs a month, and we can travel before Sherri & Ira leave Shanghai! :)
Not much else going on with us. I have been very busy working on Fall Kallah, a big regional youth group event that our temple is hosting at the end of the month. I am the chair of the youth committee, and it turns out that planning an event for 225 teenagers is more work than I thought! I'm really excited about it though, since I went to these events when I was in high school! We are also having a great season in softball. Our team is 7-3, and Chris has made a couple of spectacular plays in center field this season (and we are both hitting much better!). And, of course, I am losing sleep with the Red Sox in the playoffs! (TOTALLY worth it though!)
Tropical Storm Hanna
Well, the good news is that we are dry. The bad news? Tropical Storm Hanna hit our neighborhood hard. There is nothing quite like seeing your street on the news, or hearing that the news of what happened in your neighborhood was broadcast around the country. We are lucky enough to live by a lake. Lake Royal is a man-made lake that was created by a flood control dam. It's really lovely - a couple of miles around - and is a nice part of our neighborhood. Well, yesterday's storm (and over 7 inches of rain) was more than it could handle. The lake flooded, the dam didn't totally hold, and the county rushed in and created emergency spillways which saved the bottom part of our neighborhood. There was a voluntary evacuation of the bottom section (we live at the top of the hill), but the country spokesman said on the news that they were very close to a mandatory evacuation, which may have included us. What an adventure! Chris and I went for a walk today to see what it looks like, and it was incredible. I'm posting some of the pictures below, along with a screenshot of an aerial image of our neighborhood from google maps (with some labels from me) to give you some perspective. It's very very strange to see the fitness trail and path that I like to walk on under several feet of water. But we are dry and thankful to be so.
A view of the new waterline from the path in our neighborhood (the old waterline used to be beyond the trees):
The "big tree" (see the map above to see where it is!):
And see where the old spillway and the tractor is on the map? This is the spillway now - full of water!
9 Days
Well, in what seems to be record time, the CCAA has sent out another batch of referrals! And...they cover 9 days of LIDS! Now, before you go jumping out of your seats, it's really only 4 business days, but I'm pretty pleased. I was worried that there would be no referrals at all this month, as the CCAA was closed for at least a day or two because of the Olympics (and work was likely slowed for more than that). The speed with which they arrived is also encouraging - 22 days in between batches means that even if they continue with small batches, an extra batch or two for the year would be a bit of a speed-up. And 4 business days certainly isn't the smallest batch we've seen. So, not such horrible news.
Other than worrying a little if they would impact our already slow adoption process, I loved every second of the Olympics. Chris and I stayed up way too late to watch the live events the first week (yes, it was 2 am before I went to bed more than one night!). And thanks to the magic of tivo (and a day of temping at an office that had MSNBC on next to my desk all day), I watched it ALL the time. I saw nearly every sport, watched every preliminary heat of the swimming events, and am still humming the music they played while they handed out the medals. (a side note - did you notice how the girls holding the medals looked the same at every site? They practiced for SIX months to look like that!) I was fascinated by the fact that Michael Phelps was front page news here every day while he was swimming, but in China he was a secondary news story. (and yes, I became an even bigger "Phelps Phan" than I was before!) It was amazing to see the different venues in China, and it was really nice for me to see the beauty of China without thinking about the excruciatingly long wait. (especially during the road races - I can't wait to see all those sites!) I'm sad that they are over, but glad to be getting back to a normal sleep schedule, and hope that the CCAA gets back to normal too.
Happy August!
Well, after much struggling with blogger, I am back in the blogging world. Not quite sure what made blogger think that an occasionally updated blog about the trials and tribulations of our adoption was spam, but maybe it is just as frustrated with the wait as we are.
Speaking of the wait...we are a whopping 5 steps closer this month. The CCAA referred through January 31, 2006. To put it in perspective, when we sent our dossier to China at the end of March 2006, they were working on referrals for March 2005. So in nearly 2 1/2 years, they have gotten through 10 months of dossiers. Crazy, isn't it? To give you a sense of how things have been going, take a look at this chart:
| When referrals were released | Dossier registration dates of families that received referrals | Total time covered by the group of referrals |
| August, 2008 | | 5 days (4 business days) |
| July, 2008 | | 5 days (3 business days) |
| June, 2008 | | 8 days (6 business days) |
| May, 2008 | | 3 days (3 business days) |
| April, 2008 | | 5 days (3 business days) |
| March, 2008 | | 8 days (5 business days) |
| February, 2008 | | 8 days (6 business days) |
| January, 2008 | | 5 days (3 business days) |
| December, 2007 | | 6 days (4 business days) |
| November, 2007 | | 8 days (6 business days) |
| October, 2007 | | 6 days (3 business days) |
| September, 2007 | | 4 days (4 business days) |
Other than not-very-patiently waiting, we've been doing well. I am a HUGE fan of the Olympics, so I haven't slept much since they started. How can you not stay up till 2 in the morning to watch Michael Phelps and live gymnastics finals? Ok, I guess you could just go to sleep, but what's the fun in that? :) We didn't go on a big vacation this year. We were hoping to go see my family in Boston, but we have postponed the trip for awhile since things are crazy at work for Chris. And in July we went to Williamsburg for three days for our anniversary. Sure, it rained the entire day we were at Busch Gardens, but a rainy day at the amusement park beats a sunny day at home! :) The biggest news of all is that we have a new nephew - Evan Christopher - who was born last month. Anyone who knows us knows that being an aunt & uncle is one of our favorite things in the world, so a new nephew is phenomenal! We can't wait to go to California to meet him!
Am I back?
This is really just a test-post. Blogger flagged our blog as possible spam, and I've been locked out for awhile. Hopefully this works, and I can post our latest "we have no news" update later...:)
Well, That's Strange...
So, I've clearly had a LOT of time on my hands while we've been waiting. As I sometimes joke, it's a good thing I didn't quit my job...oh...wait... Anyways, one of the many things I've tried to fill my time is writing. I did some freelance work last year (writing web content), I've been doing some shorter freelance stuff lately, and took the big plunge today sending out a manuscript for my first picture book to six unsuspecting publishers. Does this make me a writer? Who knows. But this little discovery might - I started to search for some of the articles I've written in the past year, and I actually found a couple. I'm not credited on any of them - the basic idea of the company I was writing for is that someone contracts them to provide them the writing for their website, and they, in turn, contract it out to their writers. I think that somewhere in my contract it might have even stated that I would receive no credit. I don't work for them anymore, so I don't think I'm violating anything by sharing these links. Anyways, some not so exciting articles that I wrote...
Finding a Beautiful Wedding Gown
Helicopter Skiing - The Ultimate Adventure Sport
The Best Scrapbooking Supplies (not really sure why they went with this title - oh well)
The Look of Modern Interior Design Are Clean Lines
Hopefully I'm not too far away from the day when I'll actually have my own bylines!
Yes, We're Still Here...Sort of...:)
It should really come as a surprise to no one that I have been such a slacker in blogging. It's hard to keep writing that we know nothing. We still know nothing, but it seems as if there is a little teeny tiny bit of movement forward. Referrals for June landed this week, and they seem to cover till January 20, 2006. (though a couple of agencies think they go through January 22...it's really an inconsequential difference in number of referrals, though it would be nice to cross 2 more days off). So we know they got through at least 8 more days. If they continue to do 
8 days a month (which they may or may not...things could stop in August for the Olympics, and will seem to speed up a little when they get to the February 2006 LIDs since there was a week with no LIDs due to Chinese New Year) we will see a referral in May 2009. Yikes. (though that's less than a year away - the first time we've seen that in awhile)
The good news is that we have been busy. Very busy. Probably too busy. But we've been having fun. We've been to a bunch of baseball games - a few at the new Nationals Stadium (pretty stadium, horrible to get to) and three in Baltimore to see the Red Sox. And we were lucky enough to be in Baltimore to see Manny Ramirez hit home run #500 (and #501 the next day!). Chris had the camera (since I knew I would be too excited) and got some great pictures of the event. We attended my dad's retirement reception which was really nice, and did Race for the Cure over the weekend in spite of the crazy heat. And we've been playing lots of softball too - our team is actually in first place right now (though who knows for how long!).
Some Cool Non-Adoption News
So, for those of you who don't know, I LOVE to scrapbook. I'm a member of a couple of scrapbook groups, and my goal for this year is to be a published scrapbooker. Well, I'm pretty close! I was published this month on www.pagemaps.com - an extremely popular site for scrapbookers. It features sketches (or Page Maps) to help you plan your pages, and I created one of the samples this month. I'm pasting the screen shot below, but you can see the actual page at http://www.pagemaps.com/may08sidemaps.htm (scroll down...mine is the 6th one) or in the May newsletter (click on "May Newsletter" on the home page). I'm super excited about it, especially about the picture I used. It's of my grandma, my mom, me, and my sister, and it's one of my favorite pictures in years. (it was taken in 2004 at my sister's engagement party)
Two Years
That's right - we have been waiting nearly two years. We sent our paperwork to China over two years ago (March 29, 2006) and we were logged in nearly two years ago on April 17, 2006. Never in a million years did I think we would still be waiting - in fact, I thought by this time we would be getting ready to send in the paperwork for a little sister.
There is a little bit of news - and I do mean a little. Referrals have started to arrive for April, so there are families who are starting to see their child's face for the first time - that's wonderful news. The not-so-wonderful news is that it looks like the cut-off date was January 9, 2006...4 measly days of LIDs. They're moving forward, and this batch is traditionally the smallest of the year, but still...it stinks. There are agencies who are saying that it will continue like this until the Olympics. This doesn't surprise me at all; I have felt for a long time that once we get past the Olympics things will get better. Hearing it from sources that are more "in the know" doesn't make it better, but it confirms my gut feelings. Hopefully the "post-Olympic" speed-up will be a big one.
In other news, I had a nice birthday. Chris took me out for Japanese food (YUM!) on my birthday, and my mom made me spaghetti & meatballs and a strawberry pie (my favorites!!) on Friday. And I got the most wonderful pictures from my niece Caroline! Last weekend we went into DC to see the Cherry Blossoms - I completely underestimated how crowded it would be, but it was BEAUTIFUL. And, of course, baseball season has started! The Nationals have a beautiful new park (which we will hopefully go to in the next week or two) and the Red Sox are defending World Champs - life is good! :)
2006! Finally!
Referrals for March arrived last week, and they cover through January 4, 2006. That's right, we're finally into our LID year! It was a pretty small batch of referrals, but I'll take any progress at this point, especially progress where our year is the one that they are working on! The number of people who think we'll see a referral in 2008 is dwindling down to almost no one, but every way that I crunch the numbers has us in China in spring 2009. That means that we'll wait almost exactly three years, and that my gut feeling that we would spend Passover in China might be right. Sure, my gut thought Passover 2007, but still...:)
Not much else going on in our lives. I attended a "cyber-shower" with a bunch of my April 06 DTCers - an online baby shower for each other, and a chance to reveal our secret pals. Hard to believe that I have been sending and receiving secret pal gifts for nearly two years! The shower was tons of fun, I won a few prizes (yay!), and I'm really excited to be able to email with Lisa M (the wonderful woman who has been sending me gifts) and Megan (my pal who I have been gifting). Megan and I actually have a lot in common (husbands named Chris, teachers who resigned to be mommies, etc). It's been really nice getting to know others in the same boat as us, and the cyber-shower was a great chance to chat with them live!
A Much Overdue Update
I know, I have been such a slacker about blogging lately. Part of it is that I am trying not to think about the fact that we have waited 22 months for our little girl, and we easily have another year or two to wait. It's inconceivable, really. But part is that we have been really busy too. I started a new job in January - I am doing temp work for an office company. Yes, for those of you who watch "The Office," I am Ryan. :) The first place they sent me was a great experience. I worked as a client services rep for a large office company for a month. It was really interesting, and I met some wonderful people. It also annoyed Chris that I had my own office! Last week I did some receptionist work for a law firm, where I became increasingly thankful that I did not go to law school (sorry!). And while I'm taking this week off (more on that later), I'm excited for the new adventure that I'll likely go on next week.
So, why didn't I work this week? Well, on my second to last day at my first job, I demonstrated just how clumsy I really am and slammed my elbow onto my desk. HARD. Enough that it partially dislocated my shoulder, and sent me to the ER the next night. And after another trip to the orthopedic surgeon, I know now that not only did I rub the nerves in my shoulder the wrong way, I hit my elbow hard enough (right on my funny bone) that I damaged the nerves in my elbow as well. I know - I couldn't make this up if I tried. I'm feeling much better, and should be able to get back to work next week. Chris has had his share of bad luck as well. Last week we had an unexpected ice storm, and during his 2 hour drive home (that's right, with the 1/2 inch of ice, it took him 2 hours to get home) he was rear-ended. In his new car. He's fine, and is feeling very thankful that it wasn't worse, considering the number of accidents he saw on his way home (there were 20-30 car pileups throughout the area).
So what's up on the adoption front? Referrals came out right before Chinese New Year, and covered through December 27, 2005. It's a small batch, but fairly commonplace as far as the past year or two has gone. There was a rumor over the summer that once they hit the 2006 LIDs, the batches will get bigger (maybe even 15 days a batch, though I find it hard to believe). And there is a rumor on French board that March 2006 will be finished by the end of 2008. Both of those would mean that we should see a referral in early 2009, which I think is about right. But we'll see how the next couple of months go. There are also rumors that the CCAA will be having a press conference in the next week or so; if that's the case, whatever they announce will be VERY interesting. I'll (try to) keep you all posted...
Oh yeah - if you are around tomorrow (2/21) or have the time to set your tivo, check out "A Baby Story" on TLC at 2:30 pm. It features a family from one of my China adoption groups, and will make you cry! It also gives you a better idea of how the process in China works. They filmed it in 2005 in the Guangdong province. Check it out!
Please Help
I'm not one to normally go around asking for money. But, sometimes, situations call for it. As I'm sure you have seen on the news, many parts of China have been hit by a winter storm that has essentially shut down parts of the country. (if you haven't, you can click here for the latest) Many have been without power and water for a week. This includes the orphanages. Aside from the very obvious fact that our daughter might very well already be born and be in one of these orphanages, there are so many other children that we know are affected. Half the Sky Foundation has set up an emergency fund to help these orphanages. For those who don't know, Half the Sky is an amazing charity that works with orphanages around China. You can check out their website at http://www.halfthesky.org Please consider matching my donation to their "Little Mouse Emergency Fund" to help these children who are really in dire need of our help. You can read about the fund and donate here, or click on the Mouse below. Hopefully some referral news will be coming out soon, but this is clearly the most important thing right now.
URGENT!!
WE NEED YOUR HELP- NOW!
This holiday season, China is experiencing its worst weather in 50 years. The world has heard about millions of workers struggling to return home to family to welcome the Year of the Mouse. But for those who have no family to come home to, the situation is also dire. Half the Sky is setting up the Little Mouse Emergency Fund. Your donation to this fund will provide immediate relief to children living in welfare institutions during this difficult time. The needs are diverse and enormous: water, diapers, infant formula, coal, quilts and warm clothing and food. Any excess funds will be used to stock up for future catastrophic needs. Please help the little ones and their caregivers have a warm and safe New Year.
New Year, Same Results
Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. We had a nice trip to Wisconsin and a very laid back New Year's Eve with our friends. Of course, we were snapped right back to reality with the latest batch of referrals. Yes, you saw it right - they referred 5 measly days of LIDs. It stinks. That's all there is to it. In the past year, approximately 3 months of LIDs have been referred. Which means we are looking at a 2009 referral. Blech.
I'm trying to keep busy to keep my mind off of the wait. I had a lot of fun taking my toy voyagers with me to Wisconsin (click here to read Chocolate's travel log). I've been scrapbooking a lot too. And since a lot of people have been asking me about my scrapbooks, I set up yet another blog to share my scrapbooking layouts with you. You can check it out here. And, of course, I'm cheering for the 16-0 Patriots! (and getting very excited for the first round of the playoffs!)
A New Blog...
So, with all of this extra time, it's hard to know what to do. A lot of our adoption friends are traveling, which sounds wonderful. That is, if you've never traveled with me. Those of you who have know that I'm not a good traveler. Between the motion sickness and the nervousness, well, it's tough! So I'm doing some virtual traveling. In September I joined postcrossing, where I swap postcards with people all around the world. I have gotten amazing cards from people all around the world, and have learned so much about so many countries (I've also learned that the one place where public education really failed me is in geography...I don't know where most of the countries are!). I've posted all of my postcards on my new "travel" blog so you can see too!
http://marasvirtualtravels.blogspot.com/
I think I've got it up-to-date now with all of the cards I've received - I'll be better too about posting them now as I get them!
I've also just discovered Toy Voyagers. This is where you send your toy voyager (a stuffed animal usually) to hosts around the world for their own adventures. They each have their own travel journal with pictures of all of the places they have been. In January I'm going to send out my own toy voyagers, and begin to host toys from other families. The toy voyager website is http://www.toyvoyagers.com. If you click on "view voyagers" you can read the different travel logs. I will warn you though - I have spent HOURS reading about the amazing places these toys have been! (that, and the pictures are so funny!!) Once I get started, I'll post pictures to my "travel" blog as well!
We're heading to Wisconsin in a few days to spend Christmas with Chris's parents and Martha and Matthew. Then we'll be back home and ready to celebrate New Year's Eve with our annual pajama party at Shana & Stephen's! Happy Holidays!
Referrals...just not for us...
So, the CCAA has sent out another batch of referrals. No, we're nowhere close to getting ours, but at least we're getting closer to 2006 LIDs. I've made a lot of online friends through this wait, and the 2006 LID referrals will mean a lot of my friends will start to see their babies.
So, what does this all mean? (warning...math nerdiness is coming through here...) Well, they referred 6 days of LIDs this time. That means that we have 124 LIDs in front of us "in line." If they continue at 6 days of LIDs a month, we have 21 months to go (so just about halfway there)...that would mean a referral in early September 2009. Now, if they could pick up the pace by 2 days of referrals a month (totally a possibility), that would cut down our wait to 16 more months (referral in early March 2009). This seems to me to be the most likely scenario - that we would get our referral somewhere around the 3 year mark. Now, there are definitely wrinkles with the math theory - there is nothing to say that the CCAA won't speed up or slow down. And many (including me) believe that we will see an impact on referrals from the Olympics (my gut is that we'll see a month without referrals in August, then a speed-up afterwards). And the fact that a lot of families with LIDs after us are being told that they won't wait more than 3 years means that we will have to wait less. And, finally, there's a lot of talk about the April 2007 LIDs. Yes, this is WAY after us. But I'm hearing a 4 year wait for this group...for that to happen, we would have to see our referral in fall 2008. Here's hoping...
Happy December
So, no, there's no news. And yes, we're really to closer to our referral now than we were at this time last year. (since last December we were convinced we would be home by December 2007...now, I'm really praying for December 2008...) Hopefully things will pick up soon, but I don't think it will. It's been a tough few days for me - how I handle the wait kind of fluctuates, and for whatever reason it's been really hard lately.
Of course, there's a reason to continue to wait. And if you don't mind a few tears, listen to this beautiful new book, The Motherbridge of Love.
(ps - please don't buy us a copy of this amazing book...I already own it!!! :) )
8 Slow Steps Forward
Yes, that's right. Referrals for the month came out this week, and they got to December 8, 2005. That's 8 teenie tiny steps closer to our date. Now, we are definitely at the point where any movement forward is good. But the fact that they barely made it past the first week of December '05 isn't great news. Most people believe that December 2005 has significantly fewer LIDs than November did, so the fact that we're still moving this slowly makes me think that 8 or 9 days a month is here to stay. If the CCAA only refers 8 day batches from here on out, we would get our referral late March/early April 2009. I can't say that that would be that surprising, considering that that would put us almost exactly at a 3 year total wait. I know - it's shocking. If they sped up, even by a couple of days (10 days per batch), that could mean a few months earlier - November/December 2008. It's really frustrating, especially considering the fact that we receive no updates or information whatsoever from our agency.
In other news, did you hear my screams of joy last week when the Red Sox won the World Series? It's a very different feel from their win in 2004, but I'm no less of a nerd about it. I have watched more video and read more articles about the Red Sox than I ever thought possible. I watched most of the rolling rally (aka victory parade), hours of tape of Papelbon dancing, and have ordered t-shirts, pennants, books, and back issues of the Boston Globe. I'm also going through some serious baseball withdrawal...with the baseball package this past year, I watched nearly every Red Sox game, and found other baseball games to watch on off days. So I watched at least 7 games a week since mid-March (yes, I watched spring training games...), and I miss it! We also made our way down to Williamsburg for homecoming (which was a ton of fun) and had poker night at our house last weekend. Now we're getting ready for Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday - aside from the fact that Thanksgiving has the best food of any holiday, I love our family traditions. We always have Thanksgiving at my cousins' house, with lots and lots of "Thanksgiving family" - the same family friends that we've celebrated with since we were little! It's only the first week of November, and I am already excited! :)
My Cookies Love Me
So, no, we have no news. It's been a strange couple of weeks for rumors...lots of speculation that things could speed up or slow down...quite helpful, really. :) I've been crunching some numbers, and I'm hopeful that we could see a referral by the end of 2008, but I wouldn't bet on it.
What would I bet on? The fact that cookies love me. Fortune cookies, actually. A couple of weeks ago, we got Chinese food for dinner. And, wouldn't you know, this was my fortune:
Yes, you read that right. My fortune cookie is hitting on me. So, a week later, we ordered Chinese food again, this time from a different restaurant (we have two that we love nearby). I joked with Chris that if my cookie hit on me again, I was going to freak out. Wouldn't you know it, this was my fortune:
I couldn't make this up if I tried! It does seem like cookies love me just as much as I love them!
Getting very excited for the start of game 1 of the World Series...GO RED SOX!!!!
Referrals and Red Sox
Well, the good news is that some families got to see their child's face this week. The bad news? How few of them it was. Referrals only went through the end of November 2005. 5 measly days. It's tough news. I've always felt like however many days were referred, at least progress was being made. But the past few months, the progress has been so slow that we're barely making progress at all. The word is that November 2005 was a record month for applications, and that once we finally got through it, things should pick up. I've also heard a lot of speculation that there will be a speed-up right after the Olympics. Both of those things make the possibility of a 2008 referral a bit brighter. But it's bordering on absurdity to me that when we started the process our agency laughed at us when I said I felt like we would be in China for Passover 2007 - they said that we would be home long before then. And now here we are talking about how happy we would be with a referral by the end of 2008. Sigh...
On a much happier note, the Red Sox are headed to the ALCS after a dramatic sweep of the Angels. I celebrated t
he win of the AL East with my Uncle Stan - we watched together over the phone, and it was a phenomenal night. Then to watch the Sox come out so strong against a really good Angels team? Well, let's just say it feels a lot like 2004. I'm cheering for the Indians right now, partially because Shana is such a big Indians fan, but mostly because I can't wait to see the Yankees go out in the first round. I guess $195 million just doesn't go as far as it used to. And for those of you who are bound to tell me just how inflated the Red Sox payroll is...yes, it's absurd. But the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox payrolls is greater than the entire payroll of the Diamondbacks (who are also in the playoffs), Pirates, Nats, Marlins, and Devil Rays. Crazy, no? Regardless of who we play, I can't wait for Friday night!