Photo of our family from 2005

This a picture from when we were in Colorado at Estes Park in the late summer of 2005. It was a blast riding horses!

 

Oh, and since this photo was taken I've lost 25 lbs - thank goodness!

Referrals are coming! Referrals are coming!

I must admit, against all my better judgement, I'm getting excited and can't wait to hear about referrals this time around from the CCAA!!! There are rumors from the Rumor Queen forum that referrals for this month are in the air and that they go into early November. Did you hear that? EARLY NOVEMBER!!! Novbember 4 is early November, right?

I seriously think that we'll have to wait until next month, but it's hard not to wish and hope that we'll see little Grace's face within the next few days! Well, we just have to wait and see. So far everyone on the boards think that calls will start coming in Monday at the earliest, but it's possible that we may hear of others getting "the call" about their referral today.

What a great Easter gift this would be! Seeing Grace and being able to share the news with our family and loved ones!!! I'm feeling little tiny butterflies in my stomach!

The only downside to hearing now would be that the girls might have to miss school to be able to travel, but then again, maybe not. It just depends on how long it takes to get our travel approval (TA) from China and our counselate appointment (CA). Anyhow, right now I don't care about any of that. I just want to see our Gracie's face, learn her age, and anything I can about her!!!

Come on referrals!!!

A quiet weekend

Well, as our weekend dies down, I have to say it's been a quiet one. We picked up the girls at their respective friends' houses this morning on our way to church. After church we came home. DD2 asked me if she could fix me lunch, so I went upstairs to clean the bathroom while she prepared it (she thinks she wants to be a chef, so I guess I was her guinea pig today!).

Here's what I had for lunch:

1 piece of dry toast with squeeze butter, unsweetened applesause, soy milk with sugar free rasberry syrup, dark chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries (together). I ate all of it because she was so sweet to want to fix me lunch, and it wasn't bad at all. I especially enjoyed the chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries. She had taken some of my dark chocolate Dove candies, melted them in the microwave and coated the frozen strawberries and pretzels with them. Pretty creative!

The bad part about all this is that this set off a day of having a very difficult time following the WW core program. DH bought me a Starbucks mocha for breakfast, and then I'd made brownies last night because he said he wanted something sweet. I resisted eating any last night, but ate 2 today. So tomorrow I have to get back on track, but it was worth it to see my little girl's face light up when I told her how much I enjoyed her creation!

Now DDs are jumping on the trampoline (it's been a beautiful day in the low 80's), and DH went for a motorcycle ride.

March Madness

DH has been sitting here watching basketball on tv for the last couple of hours. He doesn't get to do this too often, so I'm not complaining. But between you and me, it's BORING! So I've been surfing the net, DD1 is upstairs in her room with her girl friend, and DD2 is watching tv - most likely Disney Channel, in our room.

So it's a quiet night at home. I was going to go workout at the gym, but decided not to because we ate dinner so late. We took a shopping trip to Sam's Club, and then I had to go to Walmart for a perscription and some milk, soymilk, and oatmeal.

I have been having pain in my lower parts for about 5 days now, and was hoping that if I just ignored it, maybe it would get better on it's own. Well, I guess cysts just don't do that very often. So I broke down and called the doctor, thinking that since it's Friday, and the weekend is coming up, I'd better do something. So I called Dr. P. after getting a referral from Dr. J's office (believe that sounds easier than it was). The nurse told me that yes indeedy Dr. P. will want to see me, but there are no appointment openings until Tuesday. So they called in a prescription for Augmentin. he was thinking that it might clear up on its own. Oh, wouldn't that just be the best?! So hence the trip to Walmart pharmacy and grocery store.

DD2 is not happy with DD1 because she just won't share her friend. I understand DD1's wanting to be left alone with her friend, but darn it, I was a little sister once too where my sisters didn't want me around either. So I'm partial to DD2's complaint. Not that I've forced DD1 to play with DD2, but I do feel for DD2. I suppose DD2 will understand more about what it's like when her mei mei comes home and wants to hang around DD2 ALL the time!!! I never had that as I'm the youngest sister in my family.

Our friends heard that their adoption of a boy from Africa named Sampson is really going through. It was touch and go for awhile whether it would happen or not, but it's really going to happen. I don't know when they'll be travelling to bring Sampson home, but God REALLY worked some miracles to make this happen. I'm happy for our friends and for Sampson!

Oh, DDs jumped on the tramp for about 2 hours this afternoon. They had the afternoon off from school, and with DD1's friend over, one of the neighbor boys came over (he has a crush on the friend), and all 4 of the kids just had a great time on the tramp. The really funny part is that it rained, and they still jumped! Later after Sam's Club and dinner they went back out with a lantern and jumped some more! That is, until DD1 called me on her cell phone to tell me they saw a raccoon, and wanted DH to come out and save them! DH went out, never saw the raccoon, but got the girls safely in the house. Too funny! Our neighbor, Darlene, called and said she thought it was cute that the girls were jumping with a latern underneath the tramp. So day 3 of having a tramp was a good one!

No rumors, no nothing!

We're still waiting...seems like I've been saying that for years. Oh yeah, I have been saying it for years :-)! There's nothing new as far as rumors go. RQ says referrals for March should arrive sometime between April 2 and 6. So we'll all be home because that's week of Spring break. We're not going anywhere this year, because the girls opted for a trampoline instead.

DH got it put up yesterday, although he still has to get the enclosure up on it. That didn't stop the girls from jumping on it all afternoon. They had a half day of school today, and spent most of their time off jumping. Good exercise!

Even DH and I were jumping on it. It's a blast, and good exercise for us too! A couple of the neighbor ladies jumped on it, and a couple of neighbor kids came down to try it out. This thing causes instant popularity! Seriously, it's fun for the girls and great exercise. We just need to make sure they don't jump on each other and break a bone!

Some photos from our trip to Chicago for my 50th!

Here's a few pictures that Staci took while were in Chicago to celebrate my 50th birthday! This is my family and my twin neices and nephew.

Isn't baby Luke just the cutest?

Getting to know our potential travel buddies

One of the guys with AHH started a google group for all of us that have a LID within the range that AHH thinks we might be travelling together (the list of names came from AHH). So I posted about a week ago, telling everyone who we were, what we requested for our referral, when we expect to get our referral and when to travel. I also mentioned that we had two daughters.

Today I read two different emails from ladies in the group asking about travel with children. One woman from Kentucky, Angie, said they have 3 of their daughters travelling with them, 4, 13 and 14 years old. Another woman, Sandra, from Lousianna says that they are bringing their almost 7 year old daughter with them too. So our daughters will have other girls within their age range to talk with and spend time with too. That's good. I know they'll get bored, and have friend withdrawl. Having these other girls to talk with should help with that.

Still no rumors out there about when the next batch of referrals will come in. I guess it's that dead period where referrals have come out, but it's too soon for any news on the next batch. It's harder this time because we're getting so close!

On a happy note, I got my bonus in my paycheck today! After taxes it's about $1500. Not too shabby! I want to save most of it, but we had some big expenses on our van this month, and the insurance for all our vehicles came due. So God knew we'd need the extra money! So we'll save what we can, and pay the bills with the rest.

My 13 year old baby is growing up!

Last Saturday, I took DD1 to her first boy/girl party. She's 13, and the party was for 3 girls from school that were turning 13. It was at the FOP Lodge. I didn't really think too much about the fact that she'd be going to this party with the exception that she needed to get birthday presents for 2 of the 3 girls as she is friends with them. I guess I also thought about how she might primp for the party, trying to decide what to wear and how to fix her hair, but really beyond that I didn't think too much about it.

So she and I set out for the party using Google maps as our guide. Turns out that Google maps failed us, and we had to wing it to get there. DD1 mentioned while we were lost that the FOP Lodge was by Morris Resevoir, so we used that info and the street to get us there. But we were a tad bit late, about 10 minutes. I was totally stressed thinking that DD1 was going to be kill me for getting her there late. She on the other hand was quite calm and pretty understanding about the whole thing.

We got there, got out of the van, and walked up to the building. One of the mothers was there, so I asked her about chaperones, and the time I needed to be back to pick up DD1. No problem. DD1 said a quick good bye and joined her girlfriends that were hanging around outside. No big deal.

Well, after I got back in the van and started driving home I got this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. Sort of the dread feeling, like I was going to cry. I figured out that I was sad. I just dropped my baby off at her first boy/girl party! She's growing up too fast! I can't stand it. Next thing you know she'll have a boyfriend and want to date. Then she'll be driving. I'm not ready!!! I cried!

I called my sister, and she laughed at me. She said pretty much what I'd been thinking, that is that this is only the beginning! It's the beginning of letting go of my baby girl. The baby girl that I worked so hard to bring into this world with all the fertility treatments I went through, all the longing and praying that I did to have her in my life. I truly feel privledged that God has given me the job title of Mother to raise the girls I've been blessed with. It's all going so fast!

Hmmm..another update

Seems I keep saying "we're still waiting", and yes we are. But since the last post, I turned 50!!! The reality of it wasn't so bad, but boy does 50 sound old! I hope Grace doesn't hate us for being so old when we decided to bring her home to be a member of our family.

We went to Chicago for my birthday and saw Wicked. What fun that was. DDs love the music and have been playing it and singing along ever since we went. The weekend with my DB and SIL was fun too. DN is soooo cute. He's just short of 4 months old. He's smiling, cooing and laughing. Too cute!

DHs father seems fine now, but it was touch and go there for awhile. He's home from the hospital. DH is back at work today after being on leave for two months.

Referrals came out on Monday. The CCAA referred from 10/14/05 to 10/24/05. So unless they speed up, we'll most likely get our referral in the end of April/beginning of May. Not too far away, but it sure seems like too far away. They've got to get through 11 days of LIDs to get to us by the end of this month. Highly unlikely!

Not too much happening. We're all healthy, working and going to school. The weekend will be a quiet one, which is good after being out of town last weekend.

Gotta get our monthly Eukre game scheduled with the neighbors. Don't think it's going to happen until April, since Jay and Darlene are busy every weekend this month.

Spring break is coming in 3 weeks! Bring it on!!!!