Referrals - might they be arriving soon?

What an incredible day! Our agency has confirmed that our referral will be included in the next batch of referrals. Even better, our agency has indicated that referrals have already been sent from China! We can't believe what good news this is. With China having a holiday from May 1-8 we did not know if the CCAA would send out referrals before leaving for holiday. It seems that they have! As I write, we are waiting for the stork to bring news of our baby! Please, fly fast, fly safely, and bring our precious daughter! David was really sweet and brought home some pretty flowers to celebrate. We also took a picture of what might be the last photo of us as a childless couple - God help this little girl with these two goofy grinning parents!

Monday April 30, 2007 - The Excitement Builds!

What a day so far. Apologies for typing errors - it's a miracle I can think to write and it's almost impossible to type. Came to work, could tell that I had missed a call from my friend Ellen. Later in the morning after catching up with e-mails etc. I thought I would take a minute to check Rumor Queen. Well, RQ, herself had posted:

I phoned David to tell him that it looks almost certain that we are in this next batch of referrals but nothing on when referrals will be sent. I phoned Ellen and she had been calling about the news on RQ. I was laughing and then started crying my eyes out - so choked up with emotion. Can it really be that we are going to get our referral? At this point I just could not even focus. Tried to see David but he had someone in his office. E-mailed my mom with the RQ news, she wrote back and said she was crying which made me start crying again. That's the news so far. We're so happy that they are going to get into November. We want our November friends to get their referrals too.

Great weekend with lots of ladybug sightings!

What a super weekend. I went to a B&B in Lovingston, VA with a bunch of girlfriends. We did scrapbooking, I read a book, did some knitting, took some lovely walks and sat out enjoying all the birds. It was restful and restorative. The inn keepers at Orchard House were gracious hosts and took super care of us. The girls were fun and we enjoyed late nights of chatting and laughing. Back at the fort, David was incredible. I came home and he had done a lot of yard work and planted some beautiful flowers. He had done a lot of projects inside the house too. All weekend I saw ladybugs. I am posting a photo of the best one I saw. Last night we ordered Chinese food and my fortune said something like "very soon you will be traveling over wide waters". David planted the Bleeding Heart last year - we can't believe how it has bloomed this year! Our flox is also starting to look pretty.

The addiction of Rumor Queen

Arrggh... As much as I have tried so desparately to avoid getting caught up in the rumors, this week, Rumor Queen has been a complete addiction for me. We are so desparate for news of how many days will be covered in the next batch, when will the next batch of referrals be coming etc. that any little tidbit is something to dwell on and speculate about. That site just sucks you in. There is so much information about adoption from China - even down what to do with "thin hair" - how to cut it, wash it, who to have cut it etc. Who knew that there would be so much to consider? Work has been super busy so the days go pretty fast. Tonight I have a cheetah volunteer meeting at the zoo. Should be very interesting because one of the keepers is talking about her recent trip to Kenya to study the endangered Grevy's zebra. The Grevy's is the largest of the zebra species, with more stripes that are very narrow, as well as huge ears! Hopefully she will have a lot of photos. Otherwise, just waiting, waiting, waiting...

Earth Day April 22nd

Today was another beautiful day. We took the dogs out on a nice walk and then I had a shift at the zoo and David did a lot of work in the yard. My zoo shift was fun as the cheetahs were out and visible and were given beef femurs to gnaw on. The zoo was packed with people and it was a great day to be there. After my zoo shift I went out to the stables to see Dan. I met up with my friend Robyne out there and we gave him a good bath (while her twins washed the barn floor) and then we took him out in the outdoor ring for a while. A good day with lots of great outdoors time for both of us - good for the soul. Oh, how we wish the weekend would not end. Think about the Earth and do the right thing. Every small change makes a difference. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Saturday April 21 - finally, the weekend!

We had a fun and busy Saturday. In the morning I was up and out early to get to a migratory bird walk in Rockcreek Park being led by one of the bird guys from the zoo. We met at 8a.m. for a two hour walk. It was the most glorious morning - perfect weather. We had several good spottings, have included just photos of a male wood duck, red-bellied woodpecker and a yellow-bellied sapsucker.
After that a quick rush home to clean up and head out to the house of friends Shawn and Karen, one of the Chinese adoption couples that is part of our monthly group. Six of the couples were there and we had a wonderful time. Shawn & Karen were wonderful hosts and we all really enjoyed the wonderful company, time on the deck and the terrific food. It was so nice to get to spend some extended time together, and considering the disappointment for some of us about not making the referral cut off, we were a pretty cheery group - possibly thanks to the delicious sangrias? Michele & Mark, who were LID 10/24/05 leave May 9th to bring their daughter home so we were very excited for them. Karen set the cutest table and had red plates and everyone had a namecard and ladybug at their plate! We were again spoiled by people's generosity. Karen had made us each the most beautiful little quilts with a soft backing, Toni & Tom gave us a lovely "colours" book and Ellen & Rick gave us some cute frog bath toys and some Nemo appliques to put in the tub that also check water temperature. We all had a lovely time together.
We then headed back to our area where we met up with some of our relatives who will be moving back to this area from Connecticut and a sibling of the same cousin who is in our area in an intensive schooling program. We had a fun night out together and were glad to celebrate Rachel's birthday. We were quite exhausted by the time we got home that evening.

April 19, 2007

After a rough day at work we had a really fun evening. Shelli and Rou Rou met us at our house to go out to celebrate Rou Rou's one year anniversary of being with her parents. Unfortunately Jason is in Japan so he could not be there with us. We went to a lovely Chinese restaurant near us and the wait staff just loved Rou Rou. She was so beautiful in her Chinese dress. Everybody just adored her. We also celebrated her birthday and the waiters bought pie with a candle and sang. We came back to the house where she played with horses that were mine as a kid and David read her a bunch of books while Shelli and I got to yack. Shelli also gave us a beautiful Chinese design style bag that was filled with special things such as a Chinese friendship ball, a storybook about the true story of the Galapagos tortoise that adopted the baby hippo, lovely ladybug hairclips, a beautiful accordian photo holder (can't wait until we have the photo to put in that) and many other lovely little things - so sweet and generous. It was a lovely evening.

We're getting back on the roller coaster!

Okay, it's been over a week since we posted an update. We have felt a bit deflated since not making the cut off. However, we are back on the coaster and riding it to the end. We have been keeping ourselves busy with house projects and retail therapy. We had been keeping things light on the social calendar but we're planning a bunch of things now to get this time moving faster and get our minds as much as possible off the "when will hear and what will we hear, and will we make the next cut-off." All of this is currently unknown information. China has a holiday the first week of May and so we're presuming there will not be referrals until after that. We really hope that our LID of 10/28/05 will be in the next referral batch but we're trying to prepare ourselves in case it's not. The 27th is apparently a really big day. My zoo shifts have started again this month so I have been involved with zoo meetings and cheetah interpreting. We're planning a quick trip to CA in June for a friend's wedding which we are excited about. We have David's mom and my parents visiting in May so we're looking forward to that. I have a little getaway weekend next week and then we'll be into May. One of the couples from our Chinese adoption group is hosting a gathering this weekend which will be fun. The weather, which has been crazy here, is finally starting to look up and I see our azaleas starting to bloom. PLEASE let these April showers bring May flowers of the best and most exciting variety! Here goes the coaster - Yeeh Haah! We (well, not David), my parents and I rode these two coasters at Cedar Point in 1996.

We celebrate the arrival of our friends' daughter!

I wanted to do a separate blog to congratulate our friends from our monthly "Chinese group" who got their referral yesterday. We are so excited for Eric and Kristi (and Herman the dog) on their fabulous news about their beautiful daughter Zoe. Eric & Kristi are one of the couples with whom we have been getting together monthly. Their LID was 10/26/05 and so they were included in the batch of referrals from yesterday. We are so happy for them. The four of us families that are 10/28 had been looking forward to traveling together with Kristi & Eric but now we're counting on them to provide us with all the details of how everything goes down once you make it to China to get your child. I did not want to mar the joy of this news with my sad blog of yesterday as this news is so marvelous. This happening yesterday was one of the things that got me smiling again because a funny thing happened. We knew early in the morning that the cut off was 10/26. Later that day, we received a "stork alert" from the agency telling us that 30 girls had been referred to families with our agency from 4 different provinces. Kristi & Eric had been certain that they would be referred a boy. I thought the agency would only announce that information once each family had been called. I called Kristi all excited about her girl and at first she thought I was the agency calling. I was congratulating her on news of her daughter and she was saying "but we still don't know if it's a boy or a girl" At that point I realized that she had not seen the e-mail and had not been called so I was excited that I was able to say "it's a girl" and then sent her the e-mail right away and got off the phone so she could receive the "real call". All I can say is that with us being that excited for them and so wanting to see their girl's picture and hear every thing about her - I can't quite imagine the state that we might be in when it's our turn! To see Zoe click the link on our site to K&E's site.

Stunningly and unbelievably we resume waiting

What a crappy day. We have been hit emotionally right out of the ballpark. As mentioned at the end of last week we had been starting to hear rumors about the cut off for referrals being 10/26/05. We tried hard to remain optimistic but our agency confirmed this to be true this morning. My emotions ran from numb to shear emotional exhaustion, anger and perhaps now some acceptance of the news - we have no choice at all but to regroup and focus on the fact that we will soon have our daughter. Our day can be characterized by the pictures, dark clouds, scowling sun with shadow, sad face, and then perhaps 1/2 a happy sun and 1/2 a sad sun. We remain really thankful for our blessings - supportive and loving family, fabulous friends and our fellow 10/28'ers from our group with whom we plan to share a few "beverages" soon. We know that so many people wait with us for this child and we thank you all for your loving support. We hope that next month will truly be our turn. After total elation at the start of last week, we are cautious about being certain about anything, but when we are matched, it will be with the perfect child for us.

Where is the stork with our daughter?

It's been a tough week of waiting. We thought for sure by now we would have received our referral. Now we are really hoping it might be tomorrow but it might not be until next week. There have been terrible postings on Rumor Queen (RQ) about the cut off not making it through October but we're choosing not to believe that is possible. Our agency sent a somewhat promising email on Wednesday indicating that perhaps we should be prepared on Friday for news but they were very careful in saying that they did not have any certain news at that time. Please, please, let it be before the weekend. So many people are waiting for news! I even have friends at work now checking RQ! They will probably end up knowing there is news before we do. Anyway, it's been several days since we posted that oh so hopeful e-mail about abundant news on upcoming referrals that I thought we add a note to say we're still here waiting - not very patiently. We are so done with waiting...

Spring is here and rumors of referrals arriving this week are abundant

We are bursting with excitement! Just as all the flowers in our garden are blooming in full color, we feel as if our world is suddently becoming a ton more colorful. We cannot believe that we are so close. Bring on those referrals!! David and I, on our wedding day, spoke of our love being like a tree whose roots had taken hold and which was growing tall and strong. Seeing all the flowers out makes us think that our tree is bearing flowers and the best fruit ever is about to fall. We hope that our next posts are about our referral and bring news of our daughter!!

Some special things

We have been really touched by many of the special things that people have given to us. There are really more things that we can mention or post photos of. Some examples are the very special sweater, hat, scarf and mittens that my Auntie Rosemarie in England knitted for us. Also, a horse hooded towel from my friend Tricie, a giraffe hooded towel from Kristi and Eric, a blanket knitted by Pam and a bear made for us by Michelle and Mark. Ellen, who also made our beautiful curtains has given us lovely things every time we get together as a group for lunch, a stuffed dog because our daughter is likely to have been born in the year of the dog, ladybug raincoat and other fun things. The very first time we met the group Karen and Shawn gave us a little red apple hat that Karen's mother knitted for all the girls! Additionally we have been given pictures for her walls and books for her shelves. We feel so very blessed.