Good news!

The CCAA posted over the weekend that referrals have been sent for dossiers logged in up to May 25, 2005. We also received information from our agency that we should be in the next batch of referrals sent to them (fingers crossed). Basically from what we understand our agency sends one batch of dossiers a month, so they typically get logged in at the same LID (Log-In Date). All of our agency's May dossiers have received referrals. Now, there may be referrals sent out to other agencies who have smaller batches well before any referrals are sent to our agency. Since our LID is June 23, 2005, we probably will not get a referral until the end of March or early April if the current trend continues. Here's hoping that it does.

On another note, we attended our local Families with Asian Children monthly potluck, last night. We had a great time seeing all the families. The thing that's really nice about this group is the very laid back, family feeling, with all the kids running around being kids. It's a great time to enjoy fellowship and get tips on childcare and our trip to China.

8 Month LID Anniversary

Well, today marks our 8 month LID anniversary. What can you say about this? Not much really, other then the cliche'd comments of how this waiting sucks. We've just been trying to keep busy doing other things (like going to Colorado, yay!) to keep from focusing on "the wait". We've Also been reading a lot of a blogs out there. Johnny's blog had a real thought provoking post today about receiving a referral of a child only to find out when you arrive to get him/her they are "Special Needs" and not the "healthy" child you expected. What would you do? From what I've read, when these instances are encountered, Chinese authorities are all to willing to get you a "replacement" child. What would anyone do? Honestly, I don't know what we would do. We've talked about it, but we just have to trust in the Lord to help guide us and make the right decision if that were to occur. Life is not perfect, we are not made perfect. I myself have a congenital heart defect. I look at the in-waiting lists on occasion and see some of the babies with similar type conditions and they are listed as Special Needs. When we take a hard look at ourselves aren't we all special needs in some way or another?

Caught the Winter Olympics spirit

Well, since we've had to endure the extra delays in referrals and we've been watching the Winter Olympics, we figured, what the heck, LET'S GO SKIING AGAIN!! So next week, we'll jet off to beautiful Colorado and hit the slopes. We're about to go bonkers waiting for our referral so we need as many distractions as possible. In honor of our upcoming ski trip I give to you some photos from our last trip in December:














This is Jen and her sister Janet.














Mmmm, nose hairs. Wind chill was easily below zero and bone chilling on the lift.






This is Jen at about 13,000 feet elevation.

Happy Valentines Day!

Just want to give a shout out to my favorite valentine, Jen! Happy Valentines Day, sweetheart! This is our 12th Valentines Day together. We've been through a lot together, but I can't imagine sharing it with anyone else. Hopefully we'll have a little Teresa to share it with next year. And, on that note, we're hearing good rumors from our June DTC Yahoo Group's Spanish members about referrals coming very soon, and it MAY include a large batch this time, so as always stay tuned :-)

So what's up with this ladybug stuff?

Being a guy I'm normally pretty disinterested in ladybug symbolism for adoption from China. I mean it's cute and all and we do have a couple of ladybug outfits already, but generally speaking it doesn't mean much to me. So here I was at work and Jen calls me from her office. She proceeds to tell me this story of how she found a ladybug in one of the trash cans in their offices. She rescued the ladybug and then set it free. She had never seen a ladybug in any of the offices before and was very excited about spotting one. I politely listened but just wrote it off as a cute coincidence. So later on that afternoon, I'm in my co-worker's office and guess what I see? Of course, a ladybug. In the 10 years I've worked in this office suite, I've never seen a ladybug. Well, naturally I had to catch it and free it. I called Jen and we got a laugh out of how bizarre all this was. So who knows, maybe this was some kind of sign.

Heck of a week

Not much to report on except that it's been one heck of a week for us. Jen's been sick and I have had some horrendous home network and PC issues. Finally got the home network resolved the other day and hope to have my main PC issues resolved next week (involves rebuilding my main PC from scratch). Anyhow, we did have fun seeing my niece and nephew yesterday. We went to my niece's talent show where her and a bunch of her friends danced the merengue. Very cute. I must say this was the first talent show with kids involved that we've ever been too. Some of those kids are very talented, and while others may not have been so talented they were sure cute to watch. Another cool thing we did is finally start checking out day care facilities. We went to one near our house that came highly recommended. One thing we were told is to be wary of any facility that will not take you on a tour right away if you come in out of the blue. Well, these folks were great and immediately took us on a tour. The little toddlers they had were adorable and seemed very curious about these weirdo adults among them. We'll check some more day care facilities in case this one doesn't pan out. The next thing is to line up a pediatrician. I have to admit it seems a bit surreal to be doing all this and it's also hard to believe that we might be getting our referral in 2 months.