Catching up....

Here is what is new in the adoption world this week:

A heartbreaking tale occurred this week in China....a couple went to China, adopted their little girl and the dad died of a diabetic stroke while still in China. The lovely US gov't wanted to make the poor mom re-do a bunch of paperwork which would have kept her in China for who knows how long. Our kick-ass China adoption community banned together and basically stalked Condi Rice and a few others until they moved mountains and let the mom and baby daughter back in the US. I just can't even begin to imagine what this family is going through, but all the prayers and calls and letters worked.

On a different note, I went up to Orlando to my agency's Florida office yesterday. I am officially the newest "Homestudy Provider" for CCAI in Florida. Woo-hoo! Not sure how much work I will get (seriously, my agency is telling people it's a 3-4 year wait, who is signing up for it?) but I am very happy to have my foot in the door. The director also told me that with our log-in date she suspects we will have our referral by the end of next year. I won't hold my breath though, as many times as I run the numbers, I keep getting anywhere from Feb 09 to July 09. We'll see!

Speaking of the little Orlando trip, because I am such a chicken sh!t and hate driving out of a 10 mile radius by myself, I drug David with me. He in turn decided it would a great idea to have a trial run with the dogs in preparation for our Atlanta trip in December. Of course the first rest stop we went to I stepped right into dog poo (not from our mutts, they were in the car still). I didn't even notice until I got back in the car. That made for a smelly commute! David spent the day visiting dog parks in Orlando. I thought he was nuts for wanting to take them, but he had a great time. They found a dog park with a lake and the girls decided that they aren't afraid of the water any longer. Good thing he brought towels and shampoo! My day was great as well, the "interview" and training was very relaxed and we were headed home in time to catch Grey's!