Countdown graphic...

A friend of mine at work, Janet, asked me to add a countdown to our LID on my blog. I figured, okay, we're finally close enough for a visual countdown calendar. I'm going to get this onto my sidebar and start marking off the days matched until our LID.


There is something sort of satisfying in crossing off the days! Let's keep our fingers crossed that we get to cross a whole week off very soon.

Bullet Post...

It's been a week since I last posted and I don't have anything major going on, so I thought I'd try a simple bulleted update post...

• It seems that matching may have begun, so rumors should be rolling in soon on how far they got and when we'll see referrals. It's that oh so wonderful time of the month when I stalk Rumor Queen waiting to find out how much closer we are to our daughter. There are 35 calendar days until they get to our LID. Come on, CCAA, you can do better than 3 days this time around!


• I've been down for the count with a stomach bug since Sunday night, so I spent all day Monday on the sofa just a quick sprint away from the bathroom. Not a great way to spend a holiday weekend, but I'm finally feeling better today.


• I added a new blog on my sidebar under "Just for Fun". If you like Costco, check out Addicted to Costco. Jim, thanks for the link.


• I've been helping a friend of mine out with a big, themed high school graduation party she is throwing for her son. It's a tiki party complete with a tiki bar, limbo, torches, pulled-pork barbeque, and lots of other themed stuff. We also put together a video slide show and will be projecting it onto a big wall, which should be pretty cool. Here's a photo of the cupcakes we're baking for dessert (this was our test run). I'll have party pics on Sunday.

Great video...

I discovered this DVD, Found in China, while searching on Amazon to see if there was anything new out there. Joe and I just watched it this past Saturday and we both highly recommend it for anyone adopting from China.

It's a documentary that follows several families, including eight Chinese adoptees ages 9-13, back to China on a heritage tour. The group travels to quite a few provinces and visits the orphanages where the girls are from. One of the girls actually gets to met the man who found her in a box outside his office about 11 years ago. Another girl gets to met her foster parents and another meets her primary care giver from the orphanage. It's very interesting and touching to see everyone's reactions, including the parents, the girls, the staff in China and the Chinese locals. The show includes interviews with the girls and their parents after the trip and it's interesting to hear what the girls have to say about their experiences.

Long before we saw this documentary, we knew that we would take Lauren back to China at some point. Watching this confirmed just how important this trip will be and at what age is a good target. Every child is different, but it seems that 11-12 years old would be a great time frame to shoot for.

If there are any local families who would like to borrow the DVD, just let me know.

New look

I've seen so many cute blog makeovers lately that I thought it was time to change mine up too. I know this design looks a little like Valentine's Day, but I love the colors and was up for a change. I had a digital scrapbook kit I had downloaded for free and that's what I used.

Maybe it's just the thing I need for my blogging slump.

27th Month LIDversary...

Yesterday marked 27 months waiting to bring Lauren home.

This is the first month I actually forgot to post on the 17th of the month. I think I've been in a bit of a blogging slump lately and that's why I didn't think about it yesterday.

I kind of feel like I'm loosing steam or momentum with the wait dragging on and on. With rumors of a slow down over the summer for the Olympics, I'm thinking how could they possibly go any slower than this month's 3 day batch. Then I think, well they could do 1 day batches...ughhh!!!!

I'm not going to say I'm loosing all hope that this will ever actually happen, but I can say that my hope is waning a bit.

Happy belated Mother's Day!

I haven't been much in the blogging mood lately for some reason, but wanted to chime in and say that I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day. I'm sure it was a very special day for everyone celebrating their very first Mother's Day! I hope it was a good one.

Joe and I, along with my brother and his family, took my mom to brunch at a local, historic hotel (for the locals...we went to the San Marcos). They had a really nice buffet and we had a long and leisurely meal. My nieces and nephew made a big platter for my mom at one of those pottery painting shops. They did a great job and even included Lauren's name. My niece, Emily, gave me this gift bag...


with this little ladybug in it...


It's like a little ladybug chia pet! I'll have to post another photo later when it sprouts.

Just think...next Mother's Day I'll have Lauren home! Gee, I hope I'm not delusional...what do you all think?

Help, I need a techie...

I got an e-mail message from my digital cable & internet provider over the weekend saying that I've exceeded bandwidth limits and violated their user policy. With that, they deleted my web file manager with all my blog graphics. The e-mail states that they also deleted my web site since it exceeds the allowable traffic. The funny thing is that I don't even have a web site through them.

As a non-techie person, I'm assuming that using them to host my blogger graphics is what's causing the problem. I'm thinking that each time my blog gets a hit, it counts as "traffic" to the graphics I store in my file manager through the cable company. Is there a techie person out there who can tell me if this might be the case?

After speaking with my cable company by phone and in person at the office, I still haven't gotten a straight answer out of them. Now I don't know if I should upload all my graphics again and re-link everything in my Blog or give up on that and redo my blog in the new Blogger and upload the graphics directly.

Help!

**Update**

I found a site to upload my graphics for free and link them in my Blog, so I should be back to normal. Let's see how long this lasts.

Referrals and food...

Referrals are officially through January 12, 2006. That means there are another 34 calendar days before they get to our dossier. The two referral calculators I check each month are guesstimating October or November for us...that's 6 to 7 months. Hmmm...seems it's ALWAYS moving out and forever another 6 to 7 months!

This past weekend was a good one. On Saturday, Joe and I took my mother and nieces out to dinner and to the Chinese Art Academy's spring performance.


They had artwork displayed in the lobby, which was amazing, and the dancing was just beautiful. The costumes were very colorful and the dancers used fans, Chinese hats, wands with long ribbons, and other props for their routines. The music was very different, but very good. I think the kids really enjoyed getting a taste of Chinese culture.

Sunday was a lazy day and my friend, Christine, stopped by to work on her son's graduation video. We're using Window's Movie Maker to put together a video to show at his high school graduation party at the end of the month.

We were flipping through the latest copy of Everyday with Rachel Ray and spotted a recipe for Sliced Steak Gyros that looked really good. We decided to head out to pick up the ingredients and make some dinner. Joe grilled the sirloin, while we put together the Greek sauce and sliced up the veggies. Also, we put together a quick cheese tortellini side salad.



Dinner turned out great and it was a nice, spur of the moment way to spend the evening...cooking and sipping on some nice red wine.