It was an itsy bitsy teenie weinie...

yellow polka dot bikini, that she wore for the first time today...
I know that poor Ruby looks pretty silly in that bikini! We were at our friend, Linda Marie's place on the 4th hanging out and relaxing at the pool and we were also doggie sitting for Christine who was on the beach in San Diego. She laughs at me since I like to buy cute little outfits for Ruby, so I couldn't help but dress her up and e-mail her a photo of what's going on while she's not here. Christine, I promise that when we get Lauren, I'll quit dressing Ruby! ;)

We had a really nice and relaxing day lounging by the pool and eating great food. We had two bar-b-que smokers cranked up. Joe smoked some pork ribs...

and Linda made some bacon wrapped shrimp...

we also had sweet corn...

and potato salad with sour cream and bacon...

Oh, and don't forget the sangria with fresh strawberries, raspberries and peaches...

After dinner, Linda surprised us with these...

We released ladybugs in honor of Lauren. How sweet is that? I loved it.

The little ladies quickly made themselves at home in Linda's garden.

Linda, thank you SO much for this sweet gesture. It's really nice to know that our friends are also thinking of Lauren and looking forward to us bringing her home.

The 3rd time's a charm...

or so they say. Well it was true for me today. I went in for my 3rd, and hopefully last, fingerprinting today.

The first time we went it took 4-5 hours, the 2nd time was about an hour and this time only 15 minutes!!! I was in and out in a flash...a banner day for the USCIS.

It's that time again...

...so let the roller coaster ride begin!

There were rumors late last week of packages on the way from China to US agencies, but it seems these packages contained travel approvals for families with referrals waiting to travel.

Now the rumors are that matching is still in progress, which means that we probably won't know the next cut off until next week. With the holiday on Friday, I can't imagine the agencies will have time to receive packages this week and make calls.

So, here we are again on the monthly coaster ride. How far will they get this month? It's any one's guess right now. With about 27 days from our LID, we sure are hoping for a big batch. It would be fabulous if they can get through the rest of January! Come on CCAA, we know you have it in you since it's been done before!

Nursery Decorating

With our referral getting closer and closer, I've been having fun buying things for the nursery and for the bathroom we are decorating for Lauren. Check out the fun things I found here.

Also, I'd like to say thank you for the comments I got on the bookshelf bins. I decided to keep the wooden bins, but I exchanged two of the bright pink bins for soft pink. Since a few of you advised this, I'm going to keep the bins on the bottom shelf so they aren't falling on Lauren as she pulls them out. Also, I got a little concerned about baskets breaking and leaving sharp pieces of wicker behind. Thanks to Mary-Mia for putting that fear in my mind! ;)

Opinions needed on storage boxes...

I picked up these bright pink storage boxes at Target to go in the bookcase in Lauren's room. Now I can't decide if I like them. I've been moving them all around the bookcase trying to decide if I want to keep them...




If you have something like these at home, are they handy for putting small toys in? Are they user friendly for little ones? They are made of wood and I'm wondering if baskets would be better.

Time for vacation??

An anonymous commenter on my last post asked the following question...

I'm confused. Why would you be burning vacation time when you are quickly approaching referral/travel? You are going to want a couple days off prior to referral and prior to your trip to do last-minute stuff. Trust me, in the days before my referral I was pacing around my house bleaching everything in sight and tossing things in the garbage like a MANIAC. :0) And before travel, I was packing like a loon. Have fun in Cali, but save some days when your brain will be mush and you want to nest.

Best wishes

Yes, I totally understand that I'll need some days off prior to travel and I plan on taking 3 days to a week off before our flight.

Even though our referral is quickly approaching, I've worked for my company for almost 23 years now and accumulate more vacation that I use. I accumulate almost 5 weeks a year now and have almost 500 hours of vacation leave on the books. They only let us roll over 450hours at the end of the year, so I'll have to burn about 100 hours by the end of the year. I know, poor me! ;)

I also have over 800 hours of sick time on the books, which will cover my entire 4 month maternity leave with 160 hours to spare.

With this said, I have plenty of vacation time to have a little fun before we get our referral. I'll definitely be taking some last minute time off before we travel because I know I'll be panicked and running around like a fool before we travel. I'll need some time to pull everything together before our flight. Anonymous, I know my head will totally be mush at the end too and I definitely have a plan in place. Thanks for looking out for me! :)

Weekend trip...

We had a great time at Disneyland despite the heatwave in California at the time. Here I am in the It's a Bugs Life theater with my "bug eye" 3-D glasses.

I don't know what the temperature was on Saturday, but it had to be close to 100 degrees with stickiness in the air that knocked us out! Since we live in AZ, we're used to extreme heat, but the humidity could kill you! We felt wet the whole time. While waiting in line for the water ride in California Adventure, the older women in front of us got over heated, her knees buckled and down she went. We ended up calling first aid up to help her. We did end up making the best of the day and squeezed a lot of stuff in despite the weather.

On the way to Disneyland, we stopped at the Cabazon outlet malls outside Palm Springs and I picked up some cute things for Lauren and a few other things.

I picked up these cute little shoes in the Carter's store. I have no idea when Lauren will wear a size 6...does anyone have a clue?


I got this cute little shirt, dress and swimsuit cover up on the clearance rack at Ralph Lauren...




I picked up these place mats and pillows for our kitchen/family room at the Crate and Barrel outlet...



As many of you know, I love handbags. I didn't find any that I absolutely had to have, but I did find a couple of accessories at Coach and a wallet at Kate Spade.

I had my friend, Miyoung, along with me at the Coach store. She works Coach retail part-time and knows which items are from the retail store and which are made for the factory stores. These two items are originally from retail and I got them at a great price. The wallet (on the left) was originally $219 and I got it for $87 and the address/phone book jacket was originally $159 and it was only $63. I love them both...


I also picked up this Kate Spade wallet, which has a zipper all around and plenty of room inside...


All in all, we had a great trip. The best part is that I'm on vacation from work this week since I have a mega-ton of vacation time to burn before the end of the year. I'm looking forward to just doing whatever I want for the rest of the week!

Weekend trip...

I'm heading off tomorrow morning for a girls turnaround trip to Disneyland.

We're heading out early and doing some outlet mall shopping at Cabazon on the way to Anaheim. Saturday we'll be in the parks (we have a one day hopper pass) until we drop and then we get up Sunday and head home. It will be super quick, but lots of fun too.

I'm excited that 42% of those who voted in my poll from Wednesday say we'll have our referral in October. I'm REALLY hoping that's the case! It shouldn't be too long now until we start hearing rumors about the next batch. Nothing like living for the monthly rumors...what have our lives come to?? ;)

What's your best guess?

Opinion Polls & Market Research

28th LIDversary...

Yup, it's 28 months today. Yes, that's 2 years and 4 months of waiting and hoping. There has GOT to be a light at the end of this tunnel and lately we have been seeing a glimmer of that light as our DTC friends have started to get their referrals. Yes, our time IS actually coming and hopefully this year.

This and that...

Hope everyone had a great Father's Day weekend. I had a nice, long chat on the phone with my dad. He lives in NY, so we don't see each other often but I love catching up on the phone.

Joe woke up yesterday morning to a card from our furbaby, Lucy. I also got him a daddy-to-be card...


and an adorable book called Daddy Hugs by my favorite children's book author, Karen Katz. I can't wait to watch him read this book to Lauren.


As we get closer to referral I can see Joe getting more and more excited. He's been pretty laid back during this whole process, but lately he's been more interested in looking at travel photos on bloggy friends' blogs and referral pics. Also, we were in Target over the weekend and HE actually wanted to go see what was on the clearance rack in the baby clothes section!

On another note, look what I got in the mail today...


This totally adorable headband is a thank you gift from Emily (her blog is password protected), who I "met" through my Yahoo DTC group. She is in China right now and will have Ellie Lu in her arms very soon!

It's in the mail...

Our fingerprint clearance expires at the end of June, so I just mailed off a request for us to be re-fingerprinted.

At least this time it should be free, which saves us $160. When we got re-printed the second time around and renewed our I-171H, it was right before they started giving one freebie renewal.

I still can't figure out why they need to re-print us instead of just running the prints we already have on file. I understand why the clearance expires...I guess they need to be sure we haven't turned into homicidal maniacs over the past 18 months. Actually, this wait can flip a person out a bit. ;)

Our homestudy expires in early November, so we'll need to get started on renewing that. Unfortunately, this is NOT free. Our homestudy agency (different from our adoption agency) really makes out on these renewals...they charge $600!! Can you believe that? Had we known that there might be paperwork to renew during this process, we would have shopped around for this service.

Our I-171H expires on March 10, 2009, and it needs to be in effect during travel and until we get back home with Lauren. Once it gets a little bit closer, we'll decide if we need to renew this or now. I'm curious what my waiting bloggy friends are doing about this. Does anyone else have a Feb LID with an I-171H expiring in March?

The happy dance...

is what I've been doing since it seems we have at least an 8 day batch!! It hasn't yet been confirmed whether they got through January 20 or 22nd, but I'll take it either way! The larger batch this month came by surprise after so many tiny batches and is such a welcome change!

To celebrate, I'm gearing up on the nursery and picked up some decor at Pottery Barn Kids over the weekend. Check it our here.

It was great to cross off some days on my little sidebar calendar. Only 23 or 25 calendar days until our LID, depending on how far they got! This is such an exciting time with bloggy friends getting their referrals and others getting SO close!

Maybe a big batch??

Rumor has it that referrals may get through January 22nd. That's 10 days and sounds WAY too good to be true. Wouldn't it be great though??!!

I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but it's really hard not to be excited. On the Rumor Queen forum there is someone with a January 22nd LID that is saying her agency told them they should have a referral by next week. I find it strange that an agency would make these types of promises before referrals actually get here...I know my agency doesn't do this AT ALL. No promises...no way, no how.

On another note, I was flipping through my pocket calendar today and realized that I hadn't written in our LIDversaries for the rest of this year. I got to August 17th and found myself writing 30 months...that's 2.5 years! At that point my eyes filled with tears and I just couldn't go any further. Who would have ever imagined it would take this long. September through December will have to just stay blank for now.

I also wanted to mention that I got to meet a local mom, Ronda, her youngest son, and her beautiful daughter Ella yesterday for lunch. Ella has been home for six months and turned four years old while they were in China. Ronda, I really enjoyed meeting you and your little ones and hearing all about your China trip experience. Ella is such a happy and friendly little girl and I can tell that she's a perfect fit for your family. I don't know how China does it, but they always seem to get it just right.

Well, everyone...keep those fingers and toes crossed for that 10 day referral batch. It's just the thing we need to lift our spirits right now.

Tiki Graduation Party...

My friend Christine's son, Colton, graduated from high school and we have been working on putting together a tiki themed party for him. The party was yesterday, and boy was it a BUSY day! We started out at 9:30am with a wake-up drink at Starbucks, then off to IKEA to pick-up some last minute party supplies.

By the time we got back to Christine's place, the tables and chairs had been delivered by the rental company and we were in full gear from that point forward. We spent the entire day building a tiki-bar, setting everything up, and doing the final food prep. By about 4pm, I was finally able to run home for a quick shower, get ready and head back over to help mix the rum punch and get the food ready to go out.

The party was a big success and it seemed like everyone had a good time. Everyone loved the video we made and our tiki-decor was a big hit.

Here's a little video so you can see what we did (if you have your computer volume turned on you can jam to a little Bob Marley)...

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.

Matching and nursery update...

Well, according to RQ matching has begun at the CCAA. FINALLY!!! I'm dying to know how far they will get this month. I feel like we are SO close, yet SO far at the same time. If only they could kick out an 8 day batch, that would put a nice dent in the 39 days that separates us from our referral. Come on, CCAA...you can do it!

I have a few friends from my Yahoo DTC group (Hope, Susan, and Emily) who should be getting their referral and I just can't wait to see their pics! All of them will be first time mommas and I'm SO excited for them!

Over the weekend, Joe did a little project in the nursery. Click here for an update.

Impatience...

There are 39 days separating last month's referral batch with our log in date and I'm getting more and more impatient! I knew the waiting would get harder the closer we got, but it's harder than I thought it would be.

Wren's Referral Estimator is pointing towards October for our referral and China Adoption Forecast is predicting August as their weighted average based on past statistics and December based on last month's referrals.

I've been trying to prepare myself for December and trying not to focus on referrals each month, but I'm not having much luck. I have a hard time concentrating on other things for the week or so before referrals come out...I guess I'm still holding out hope that a surprise large batch will appear out of nowhere. I know...that bubble should have burst MONTHS ago! I wish there was a way to forget about everything until our agency calls one day.

More for the closet...

I know we don't need anything else for Lauren's closet right now, but we couldn't help picking up this adorable jacket at Target today on sale for $8. It's looking like it will probably be cold in China when we travel. If so, we'll bring this...


I LOVE the colors in this pretty little dress...it matches the nursery!


Well, here's to starting our monthly roller coaster ride. Rumors should start rolling in this week! Let's all keep our fingers crossed for at least at 8 day batch.

26th LIDversary...

Well, today is our 26th LIDversary.

For some reason this milestone is hitting kind of hard. I think it's because it marks waiting exactly 20 months longer than we had expected. By the time we get Lauren, it will be close to the 3 year mark.

Also, with Joe turning 44 this coming Sunday and me right behind him, I'm just getting bummed out and feel a little cheated by the system. We should have been able to enjoy being parents at age 42 and 43 instead of waiting until 44. I'm sure others in this situation can relate.

Ok...end of whine session.

Comfort food, anyone?

Potatoes, bacon, sour cream and mayo...need I say more? Here's a good recipe to whip up if you need some comfort food with the next batch of referrals...


We had some friends over from our Waiting Families group for a bar-b-que and a couple of people asked for this recipe.

Potato Salad

2 pounds of potatoes (I use Yukon Gold for the smooth, creamy texture)
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayo (not miracle whip for this one)
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions, plus more for garnish
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, plus more for garnish
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

Peel the potatoes and boil them whole in salted water until tender (about 15 minutes) Drain well and cut into small pieces. In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream and mayo; add the potatoes when slightly cooled; add the scallions and bacon; season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate at least an hour for the flavors to blend. To serve, garnish with the extra bacon and scallions.

Now, get a plate and fork and enjoy!

It almost seems real...

when you put the crib up, doesn't it? It's one thing to have it in a box propped up against the wall for two years, but it's quite another thing to actually have it assembled in the room!

Click here for pics.

Is she born?

Over the past week or so I've had this feeling that Lauren may be born. I've had a passing thought of this before, but for some reason now it's seems to be sticking with me. Maybe it's because I've started working on the nursery. It will be fun to find out later that her birthday is in April. Joe's birthday is April 20th, so maybe it will be around his.

Until Forever

This morning in China a mother cries
She'll never forget her daughter's eyes
Her heart is broken and filled with pain
The tears run down like the falling rain.
She has no choice but to leave her there
The cost of keeping her is too much to bear
She hopes her daughter will one day know
True love can be found in letting her go.

This morning in China a baby cries
Hungry and scared as tears fill her eyes
Her mother has left her in this public place
Another lost daughter of the Chinese race.
Someone passing by has heard her soft moan
She's soon quickly taken to a foster home
It's there she'll reside in the care of another
Until she's adopted by a brand new mother.

That very same moment, in the U.S.A.
A women cries as she starts to pray
Her heart is heavy but filled with much love
She prays for a daughter she thinks the world of.
"Dear Jesus I ask that your arms would be
Wrapped tightly around the one picked for me
Guard her in China "til I make my way
And then in my arms forever she'll stay."

Tim Fisher
December 24, 2003

Nursery & Hummingbird update...

Check here for our latest project in Lauren's room.

Sad news on our tiny tenant, but she has abandoned her nest for some reason. A day before she left there was a wind storm and one of the tiny jelly bean sized eggs fell out and broke. It was the saddest thing to see...I even got a little teary eyed over it. That night, we checked on the other egg, which looked fine. She sat on her nest for another day and then took off and never came back. I was so worried, I e-mailed a hummingbird society I found on-line and they had confirmed that if she had been gone for more than an hour she isn't coming back. Now I'm wondering if the egg that is left will hatch. Does it need the warmth and nurturing from the momma to hatch? Anyone have a clue on this?

Cookies anyone?

Anyone care to join me for some chocolate chip cookies?

I've been in full scale funk mode since rumors of this month's referral batch started. When I'm in a funk, healthy eating tends to go out the window and sweets start looking really good. When the cravings started kicking in this evening, I thought about the I Can Make You Thin guy from the TLC show and his wacky trigger point tapping technique for about one nanosecond right before I put the cookies into the oven. Oh well, so much for that show!

So, who else is totally funked out with this month's news? Five days...give me a break! After the last two 8 day batches I was having visions of actually getting a referral in September. Ha, that vision has faded and now I'm getting a sinking feeling that October or November is looking more likely. Just thinking of getting through another Christmas without our daughter is making me nauseous...wait, or is that the plate of chocolate chip cookies. Hmmmm....