Last night we had a little send off for Ana and Ron who are going to China to meet Gigi in 10 days. The guys went bowling and beer-ing while the girls went to Wendy's and ordered from our favorite Asian dinner, chatted and played with baby Brea and Sammi. The kiddos took a bath together....I am sure 12 years from now when they are teenagers they will be thrilled that this picture circulated on the world wide web!

I could have written this!

This story sounded like us to a "T"!


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17937816/

Birthday celebration and One month closer

Happy Birthday to Me! Looking forward to a day full of fun! My friend Traci and my Godson, her son, Jake are meeting me for lunch. Later in the afternoon we will be meeting friends from Michigan, Zack and April, at Watercolors for a Zackery Daquiri. Tonight we are headed to GOL for a dining experience I have been looking forward to for months!

It's also Fergie's birthday today too. I tried to take a picture of her in her tiara, but she was having no part of it!

On the adoption front, the lovely CCAA referred just one week again this month. What cracks me up is they have reviewed all of the May 06 files. It took them 4.5 months to get through April, our month and just a week and a half to get through May. What is that all about?

Because nothing is new with the adoption I bring you.....

POSSIBLY THE VERY BEST CHICKEN JOKE EVER!!



A chicken and an egg are lying in bed.

The  chicken is leaning against the headboard smoking a cigarette, with
a
satisfied smile on its face.

The  egg, looking a bit pissed off, grabs the sheet, rolls over, and
says,
"Well, I guess we finally answered THAT  question...



If  anyone needs it explained - read it a second time.

Figures my brother sent me this.....

Beast Update

As for the girls, they are wonderful. We had a scare with Fergie a few weeks ago. We had to take her to the ER vet twice, she was vomiting blood. This gave me flashbacks of Quincy, especially since it was the same ER vet we took him to when he passed away. She is fine now. Just a dog flu bug that was going around. She is so mellow that I check to make sure she is breathing every hour since she doesn't do much but lay around. She will play hard for an hour with her sister and then will sleep for hours. Just a Wheaten thing!

Annie is still eating everything....cell phones, remotes, my MP3 player, part of our dining room table. Last month she pulled a big ceramic cat dish off the counter and proceeded to chew it, there was blood on the tile, the couch and a part of the wall. It was like a crime scene. Smart girl she is, huh? I thought if we left her uncrated for an hour while we gone, what was the worst that could happen? Ha ha! And she never stops harassing the cats and Fergie. I can't for the life of me find the off button on her. I have met several other Goldendoodle and Labradoodle owners at the park, and they all say that their furbabies were just as big of troublemakers until they were at least two. If she does stop to take a two minute nap she usually plops her 50 lb body on top of her 30 pound sister with a thud. Not the politest mutt in the world. Did I mention her garbage fascination? She brought me a tampon applicator the other day. How nice!

We could be dancin' yeah!

David and I are still having an amazing time with our dance lessons. We have pretty much been concentrating on two dances....the Foxtrot and Salsa. As much as I love the Tango, you really can't find a place to dance it other than in the studio. You can Foxtrot to any slow song and can salsa anywhere down here. It's a great calorie burner and you can work up a sweat in an hour of practice. Our instructor taught us some fancy move the other night where I have to be bent in half while turning 180 not once but twice. I thought I was on the mad teacup ride after a while. I am not a born dancer, but we are starting to look better than we did before. Until a few weeks ago we looked like we were doing the Elaine dance from Seinfeld!

Time for the RQ roller coaster

People have compared the RQ rumors to the Charlie Brown-Lucy kicking the football cartoon. Every month there seems to be bad rumors, followed by good, followed by actual bad news regarding the amount of referral days. Referrals come out generally the first week of the month and are preceded by rumors the few days or weeks leading up to them. Yesterday a nasty rumor came from an agency that only TWO TEENY days are expected next week. Today the rumor is up to TEN DAYS which would be amazing. The more they do, the closer I get to an 08' referral!

In the meantime, D and I are keeping extremely busy! My calendar is booked up until the third week of August with baby showers, birthday parties, wedding showers, bachelorette parties and a trip to Orlando-Universal. And during the week we have ballroom lessons, adoption meetings and dog obedience. I highly recommend to anyone adoption from China to keep yourself so busy that you can't remember which day is which!

Ok, I am still a bloggy novice, can't for the life of me figure out why the font is twice as big at the end compared to the start of this post!

A speed up in 08'?

According to the Rumor Queen (all hail the rumor queen!) the CCAA just held a meeting with agency representatives. There was alot of good information that came out of that meeting but the two items that excited me the most were:

1.The CCAA feels that in 2008 they will be back to something closer to 15 days per month.

2. The CCAA hopes that families do not give up hope. Families waiting will get a child. They hope for patience and understanding.

So, there will be a child from China in our future and if they do get back to half months starting in January, but continue with 5-7 day months until then, that still puts us with a referral by next Christmas. I hope they keep their word. They haven't been spectacular when it comes to that, but I will take any shred of hope I can get!

14 down, anywhere from 12-22 to go.

On Sunday our official wait turned 14 months or 427 days old. As far as gestation periods go, if I were a giraffe I would be ready to pop out my little bambina. But I'm not a giraffe. So the wait goes on.

You know you have been waiting too long......

Top reasons I know I have been waiting too long for my child from China

1. Those Baby Einstein DVD's I bought may be as obsolete as the 8-track by the time we bring her home

2. I am going to have to see if any international flights offer senior citizen discounts for us

3. The baby name I choose, because it was unique and #843 on the popularity list, will be in the top 5 names soon.

4. I am afraid to paint the baby room in case the paint completely fades.

5. I am going to have to buy an additional carry on suitcase for our hemorrhoid and memory boosting medications.

Anyone think of some more?

I'm back!

Alright, alright, I am back to the bloggy world! I may have lost all my readers, but here goes.

I decided to let me deflated ego take a break for awhile a few months back while we were waiting to get out of the review room. Well, guess what? WE ARE OUT! Only 4.5 months of review room anticipation. Of course, the CCAA decided to slow way down once they got to our month. Figures. I have been a nervous wreck for months on end, but as each day passed without a call from our agency asking for more info, I figured no news is good news. I was right. Whew!


Hmmmm.....what else has been going on? Oh, Ana and Ron got their referral for Gigi. This is one SERIOUSLY CUTE KID! Ana's shower was this past weekend and they should be heading to China in July.

What else, oh...not so fun news, David and I have to redo all of our adoption paperwork in order to get a new 171H (the document that allows you to bring in a foreign child into the US). Luckily, a good deal of it may be free this time around. And at least I know what to do this time!

Oh, and I met two other adoptive mom's to be in Maryland last month. I am hoping that we will be traveling together to China since our dates are very close!

Now some pictures of Gigi and of Gigi's mama at her shower last weekend!

Bloggie Break

Just as I was priding myself on doing really well with the whole wait, the CCAA referred two whole days of referrals this months (Oct 25th and 26th). TWO days. Seriously. Since we aren't until April 24th, I can't imagine how long it will take. I am going to stop speculating for a bit (2009, 2010?). I am taking a break from blogging and all else to do with adoption. We will be heading to the airport to great Miss Brea tomorrow night, but after that I am going to have to just mentally step away from all things adoption and China for a bit.. Not forever, I just figure it's better than getting down about the wait..........

Magic 8 Ball

For all those who want to know if they will get their referral by a certain time, you are in luck! The Magic 8 Ball is at the bottom of this page!

The twins

Finally was sent some pictures of my new neice and nephew. Ain't they cute! Meet Allison and Gregory.....


On another note, I can't believe it's April already. In just 3 weeks it will be my one year LID anniversary. The latest RQ rumors have us at a 3 year wait. WHAT!?! I need to stop reading RQ for a bit, don'tcha think!

More pics of Brea

Could she be any cuter? They say she is a very big girl, she looks like it in this picture, even though she won't be 1 for another month and a half!

Introducing Brea!

Kim and Todd arrived safely in China and on Sunday they met their precious baby girl Brea! We will all go meet them at the airport when they come back next week. I can't wait until they are home!

Two down, Three to go.....

Within our FCC group, we have been a part of a smaller "clique" of 4 other couples that we adore. Wendy and Ed came back from China with Sammi late last summer. Our friends Kim and Todd left yesterday to get Brea. On Friday Ana, Wendy , Andi and myself went to Kim's to help her pack and take some notes. You can only take over a 44 pound suitcase each for the three week trip- and you have to bring gifts to everyone in the orphanage. Needless to say one needs to be very creative with the packing process! We had alot of fun helping her pack and can't wait to be some of the first to greet Brea into the country at the airport when they get back!

This picture is of the other gals late Friday evening. All packed and ready for Brea!

Mafia connection

David and I helped some friends with their new business venture at the Palm Beach Boat Show this weekend. David was coming out of the sales center and another friend took a picture.

I think it looks just like he could be Tony "the Butcher" Larosso and the FBI took survallience of him after he just made someone "sleep with the fishes".

What a riot!

Meanwhile, I just ran downstairs to check out something that smelled like it was burning. I put a kettle on for some tea a half hour ago and forgot about it. I had the tea bag in there and because it burned through all the water, I got there just in time to see the tea bag go up in flames. Think I am a little sleep deprived? Ha!

Mean people suck-part 2

Ok, like wasn't bad enough that this dumb girl made the rude "Chinese kids aren't even cute" comments to me last week. I ran into her again when I had to go in my friends store to pick something up.

Setting: Friend's business

Cast: Me, husband, dumb girl (FoaF-friend of a friend-now to be called Idiot FoaF or IFoaF), and other Friend of same friend but she is smart and sweet (hmmm, I will give her the acronym SaSFoaF)

So.......

Me (entering business): Hey girls, is A in?

SaSFoaF: No, sorry. You guys look nice.

Husband: Thanks!

IFoaF: Hey, what do you guys do for work anyhow?

Me: We own our own mortage and financial services business

IFoaF: Oh, fun, I need to make some more money. Could I do that?

Husband: Sure, we could always use help, we could talk about it.

Me: (silently kick him)

IFoaF: So, are you planning on working next year when the baby comes home?

Me: Very part time, we'll see.

IFoaF: I was thinking of starting a tee-shirt business. I could make you one with a Chinese Takeout Box and a Chinese kid coming out of it-it can read Chinese Take Out.

SaSFoaF: (rolls her eyes) Um, I don't think that would be very PC

Me: (blood pressure going up) She is right, I don't think the other adoptive parents, nor do I, think that is funny. Besides missy (nervous laugh), you are already on thin ice with me after your comments last week.

David: Honey, we have to go, we are running late.

IFoaF: I just don't know why you guys don't get a white baby? Why get an Oriental? (I swear she really did go there, again)

David: I , um, have to make a call, um, outside. Bye ( SaSFoaF)

SaSFoaF: (Looked as though she wanted to crawl under the desk)

Me: Oriental is for rugs, not people. I just, wow, you are misinformed. Bye, (SaSFoaF). Let A know we stopped in.


WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?

And one more makes 11.....

Saturday will be 11 months of waiting since LID. Since I won't be home except for sleeping hours the next 4 days, I thought I would mark this in the blog now.

So-11 months now. In some ways it has passed extraordinarily fast, in other ways it seems like an eternity. I have been coping well the last few months, and you can probably tell by my posts. I wonder how we feel at the one year mark? Time will tell.

Everyone wants to know-- how much longer? When we were paperchasing we were told A would be home for Christmas 2006. After we were LID last April we were told it was probably going to be spring 2007 . In the summer of 2006 we were told around Christmas 2007. Now we are being told she will probably not be home before spring 2008. So, although I would like to believe we are half way through the wait, realistically no one really knows. I am now telling people July of 2008. It can't be longer than that, it just can't be!