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)
Some Cool Non-Adoption News
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!
Quite the Weekend
We had quite the weekend. We started off in Baltimore at the Red Sox-Orioles game. The Sox lost, and lost big. But we still had a fantastic time. Batting practice was the best I have ever seen. Big Papi put on a show, slamming home run after home run over the fence. He even hit the batter's eye and the giant video board (I've never seen one go so far before). We also got to watch him play around with the pitchers (especially Mike Timlin & Julian Tavarez), and I met Timlin and Javier Lopez. Very very cool.
We also started our fall softball season Sunday. We won the first game, mostly on an amazing amazing catch by Chris! That's right, Chris so would have had a web gem! :) But in the second game, I got hit in the face with a foul ball. It was a high pop foul, I lost it in the lights, and by the time I got under it, it landed on my nose instead of my glove. After 3 1/2 hours in the ER, we found out what I was already pretty sure of - I have a broken nose. Big bummer. It hurts like heck, I'm really swollen, and I have the start of two black eyes. Perfect for Rosh Hashanah tomorrow night. :) (what do you think - should I dress to match my bruises or not?) I'm not nearly as woozy as I was yesterday, but the vicodin is playing with my brain - Chris says it's like talking to someone who is asleep! Hopefully when the swelling goes down it will be a straight break so I won't have to go back to have it set (keep your fingers crossed!).
UPDATE (9/14) - I went back to the doctor yesterday. After getting some x-rays done (I never was x-rayed before...too swollen, and it was clearly broken), he was able to tell that it is broken in 2 places. BUT it is a straight break. The top break is large enough that when I held up the x-rays in the car I could see it!! It should take 6-8 weeks to heal completely, but I should start to feel better soon.
UPDATE #2 (9/21) - Well, I'm getting better, but it's been much harder and slower than I thought. We had to make a trip back to the ER on Monday...I had been feeling more and more dizzy and sick all day, and when I called my doctor, she sent me straight to the ER for a CAT scan. Thankfully, all was normal, but I was sent home with a diagnosis of "post-concussion syndrome" and told to "rest my brain." I know, it made me laugh too. So another week spent on the couch. Hopefully I'll be back to myself soon!
L'Shana Tovah...
The Hard Truth
Well, the good news is that referrals have landed for September, so there are lots of families who are getting the first glimpse of their babies. The bad news is that they only covered through November 25, 2005 (remember, our log in date is April 17, 2006). While I know that things will speed up ever so slightly once they are done with the 2005 LIDs, it's still hard to take. When we started this journey (and yes, I know how that makes me sound like a contestant on "The Bachelor") the wait was 7-9 months. We will be lucky to be home with our daughter in 2008. Looking at things objectively, in the last year, China has referred 4 months of LIDs. So if they keep up this very slow pace, (which I think is a worst case scenario) it will be well over a year before we see our daughter...probably closer to the three year wait that some have predicted (an April 2009 referral). There is word that there are significantly fewer dossiers logged in in January/February 2006, so they will refer more days, but there is no way of telling what will happen. (heck, I though that we would be in China for Passover 2007...now it could easily be Passover 2009).
There has been much discussion on adoption boards and groups about how much is too much - at what point should you cut your losses and pull out of the program. We will not be doing that (I swear, I just heard two sets of expectant grandparents breathing a sigh of relief!!). We are committed to China both emotionally and financially, and I can't imagine pulling out now. But I can see where people who already have a child might seriously consider it. I know several families who have decided that their family is complete. It's just hard. We're so lucky that we have family and friends that are supportive, but I get the impression that our acquaintances (especially those we work with) are skeptical that we even adopting (we are!!).
Thank goodness for distractions like baseball (go Red Sox!!!!), fall softball starting Sunday, and the fact that I have been convinced to play fantasy football with Stephen and Gregg. (exact words as I met some of their friends at the draft..."OH! So you're the girl!"...oh dear...)!
One more thing. My cousins Sherri, Ira, Goldie, and Jacob are spending two years in China for Ira's job. Goldie is keeping a blog of her adventures, and it is a fantastic read. By the time we get there, she'll have figured out everything for us! :) You can read about Goldie's adventures here: http://goldieinshanghai.blogspot.com/
This is the Slowest Ride Ever
Have you ever seen the episode of South Park where the boys go to the carnival? They see a ride with a ridiculously long line, figure it must be a good ride, and get in line. Hours later, they get to the end of the line, and there is no ride...they were on "the line ride." That's what this feels like - we are SO on the line ride. The good news is that we took a few more steps forward yesterday - the next bunch of referrals have landed, and they cover through November 21, 2005. Seven more days closer to our LID of April 17, 2006. It
stinks, but I really feel for the people who still have LIDs in 2005 - these are the people who were told their wait would be six months.
We had the most amazing time in Cleveland celebrating Shana & Stephen's wedding. There is nothing like seeing two friends so happy. Their wedding was a party like no other; we were so lucky to be able to celebrate with them all weekend.
No News...
...and hopefully that's a good thing. There's some rather conflicting rumors out there right now...a few that say the next few months will be big ones (and we're at the beginning of a speed-up) and one that says they won't even get to 11-21-05 in the next batch (which would slow things down even further). There's no telling which is true...hopefully it's somewhere in between.
We're working hard on renewing all of our paperwork. I hated doing it the first time, but at least I thought I would do it once and we would have our daughter home by now. This time I'm a bit more jaded, especially since the reality is that we'll likely have to do it a THIRD time before we travel. There's a chance we could travel within a year (so we would travel on this set of paperwork), but I'll admit it - the chance is slim, especially with the likelihood that no one will travel in August next year because of the Olympics. We're meeting with the social worker next week, so at least we're making progress.
This week we're traveling to Cleveland for Shana & Stephen's wedding. We're really excited. A bunch of us are going to the Red Sox-Indians game there Thursday night, we're going to go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and, of course, there's the wedding (and all the wedding stuff!) to go to! :) It is going to be a blast! Speaking of, we had a blast at the beach. Chris got a nasty sunburn, and I nearly got knocked out by a wave, but the trip was phenomenal. The picture is of us at one of our favorite places ever - Howard's Pub. I wish we could go back now! :)
7 More Steps Forward
One more post before we leave for the beach. We're going to Ocracoke Island, and I couldn't be more excited. :)
Referrals have landed, and they cover through November
14, 2005. That's 7 days of LIDs. Since our LID is April 17, 2006, that's 154 days in front of us. While I'm not excited that this batch only covers 7 days, it's still progress, and I'll take progress in any form!
We've had a frustrating week with our paperwork. We have to renew a lot of our paperwork in the next month or two, and we found out that there are new regulations in place in Virginia. It was a VERY stressful day Tuesday when we found out, but after a trip out to our agency Tuesday and a trip to the police headquarters for fingerprinting today, I think we're back on track. I just can't believe we have to re-do so much of the paperwork that we've already done, simply because of time. Grrrr....
The CCAA was in the US a couple of weeks ago, and the overall feeling of the visits was positive. They admit that the wait will likely extend out to three years, though I think we'll wait closer to 2 1/2. The really interesting thing is that they believe that once they get through the 2005 LIDs, they think that referrals will start to come in larger batches (15 days a month instead of 7). Most people believe it will take until the end of 2007 to get all the 2005 families their referrals. Then, if things speed up to 15 days a month, we would receive our referral sometime in late summer 2008. (so we would travel in the late fall...November '08ish) Crazy, especially considering that when we started the process the wait was 7-9 months (and that our agency coordinator thought that we would be home by Passover 2007 for sure. HA!). There's also a school of thought that things will speed up significantly after the Olympics, which would lend further credence to the idea of us traveling late in 2008. If nothing else, since we've been waiting, 173 days of LIDs have been referred. So, even with slowdowns, we're about halfway there. (is it strange to say "14 1/2 months down, 14 1/2 to go"?)
The wait has been really hard, and the notion that we're not quite halfway done is scary too. But at least we know that in the end we will have our little girl. There's a great article on msnbc.com about another family whose experiences are much like ours. You can read it here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17937816/
We're off to a Brewers game Saturday then the beach...hope to have some good news when we get back...
FINALLY, some good news!
After 14 months, we finally got some good news - we are out of review!! HOORAY!!!! If you don't remember, in the review room, the CCAA goes over each dossier with a fine toothed comb, and can contact our agency to ask more questions. They can also deny our application (actually, they can deny our application at any time, and while any dossier being denied is rare, it is EXTREMELY rare to be denied after you pass review). Now that our dossier has FINALLY passed through review, our dossier goes into a new place to wait some more, then goes to the matching room. This is where we will actually be matched with our daughter! There is a huge backlog of dossiers, so the wait after review can be awhile. (remember, they just matched through November 7, 2005...we're April 17, 2006, and most are predicting that we'll wait a total of 24-36 months) So while we have a ways to go, this is finally (and happily) a step in the right direction. We'll be celebrating...
Referrals and Some Math
Ok, first a little bit (VERY little bit) of news. Referrals for this month have landed, and it appears that they cover through November 7, 2005. That's 6 days of LIDs. Sigh...
Now for some math. I like to look at things logically, and this makes sense to me. We sent our dossier to China on March 28, 2006. Since that date, there have been 166 days of LIDs referred (5/25-5/30/05 were referred on 3/27/06). There are 160 days of LIDs ahead of us. So...if the CCAA maintained their average pace, we're about halfway there. Of course, there's nothing at all to say that they will maintain this pace. Most people think that things will slow down even further as they work through the November '05 LIDs, but will speed up a bit once they hit the '06 LIDs. (hopefully, that will average out) And if they keep referring 6 days of LIDs a month (like they did this month and last), we're looking at two more years of waiting. I'm really hopeful that things will speed up, and that China won't let the wait go much over two years. Of course, I said that about the wait not going over 18 months, yet here we are. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll see our daughter's face before 2009!
Other than being frustrated with the wait, we have been keeping busy. We got away for a one day mini-vacation to Williamsburg over Memorial Day weekend. We've been playing a lot of softball (though not always well...let's just say that we're in a division with teams that are a bit more competitive than us!) and planted lots of flowers in the backyard. And we're doing some traveling - Mara is going to Williamsburg this weekend for a girls' spa weekend (to celebrate our friend Shana's wedding...a grown-up bachelorette party!) and we're both going to Delaware next weekend for our cousin Emma's Bat Mitzvah. We'll also head down to the beach sometime this summer and out to Cleveland for Shana & Stephen's wedding.
Hope to have some more news soon (especially about that darn review room)...
No News But Lots of Rumors
So, we hit the 13 month point in our wait last week, and still we have no news. There are, however, lots and lots of rumors out there. They're all just rumors, so who knows if they're right or not. But it's all the information we have, so I'm pretty happy to have anything! What the rumors are saying right now...
- April is close to being through review. I will breathe such a sigh of relief that you will all be able to hear it when it happens. Yes, even in California.
- The next batch of referrals might be bigger than expected. It could cover two weeks, maybe more of LIDs. If this happens, I will be ecstatic.
- November 2005 (what they are working on matching right now) is huge. And even with a big batch this time, it could take 3+ months to get through all the Nov. '05 LIDs. Really.
- The CCAA is apparently in Australia, and has supposedly told officials there that the wait is expected to go out to 3 years. While this is disheartening, it doesn't surprise me. I don't think we'll wait 3 years, but for those who were logged in recently, a 3 year wait would actually mean a speed-up.
- At the same time as the 3 year prediction, the word on the European boards is that the wait won't go much past 18 months, and they are talking about more SWIs (social welfare institutes...Chinese orphanages) being able to submit paperwork for international adoption. I would love to believe that this is true, but there would have to be a major speed-up for this to happen.