Euchre at our house

We ended up having Euchre at our house this past Saturday, and it was a busy weekend. Friday we had a nice family night with the 4 of us. It was relaxing and nice to be together for a whole evening. This just doesn't happen often anymore.

On Saturday, DH asked me if he could stay home and work on the pergola while I took DDs for their dance recital dress rehearsal. I told him that was fine. So I drove downtown by myself and the girls. We got there shortly after 10 a.m., and then left for home at about 4 p.m. We took DD1's friend home and got home about 5. I had a tad bit of time to straighten up and get things ready for Euchre as people were coming over at 7. My brother and SIL sat in for one of our usual couples that couldn't make it because of their youngest son's baseball game. It was fun. I stunk, but still had fun. I also didn't do well with my food choices, but I knew that would be a problem. So I did as best as I could and didn't beat myself up for not staying on program.

Sunday we went to church and then to the DDs dance recital. They did great! It was fun to watch them, although by the 4th time of seeing it, I'd seen it enough. The girls were very tired. We took Jessica home and got home about 8:30, ate dinner and the girls went to bed. I'll try to post some photos when I get them. I'm even thinking about posting some video, although I've got to figure out how to download it from the camera first.

This week has been somewhat quiet. I met with our Hands of Hope mentor to talk about our progress with getting the adoption ministry going at church. He said we're doing the right thing, so we'll keep on the same path. Our team is meeting on May 5, so I'll pass that on to them when we meet. I'm beginning to feel like maybe this ministry will really fly, but I need DH's help on our assigned area "Educate".

The girls are now done with dance, so i've got to purposefully make an effort to go work out. I have no reason now to go to the gym on Wednesdays because they don't have to go to dance. I'm going to do that because someday (God willing) I'm going to have a toddler to chase around and I'll need that stamina!

Not so good news for us

Although it's not horrible news about the cutoff for referrals, it's not good either. The actual cutoff was in fact October 26. So the CCAA only processed 2 days of LIDs for referrals this past month. Referrals came in on Friday, April 6, but most people didn't get theirs until Monday, April 9 because of the Easter weekend. We, of course, didn't get our referral at all, seeing as how our LID is November 4, 2005.

It's frustrating, and causing me to backslide on my healthy eating resolution. I'm still down 20 lbs. from what I was this time last year, but I've still got 15 more to go to be at goal. And then of course there's maintenance - that will be a lifetime thing. But I'm bound and determined to reach goal and STAY there this time!

In the meantime, there's no word about our adoption. We've pretty much stalled on any preparations, as there doesn't seem to be much urgency. If the CCAA keeps only processing 2 days at the time until they get to us, we can't expect our referral until July! That would put us at 20 months from LID to referra. This is just unbelievable,  considering we thought that our wait would be 6 to 8 months when we started this whole process!

I must admit I'm having a hard time being patient. I don't know why the wait is taking so long, and I don't understand God's plan for us now. Most likely it will become clearer to me after we actually get to meet our daughter, but right now it eludes me. I just have to keep trusting.

Also, there was a tragedy that happened at Virginia Tech on Monday. A 23 year old man, boy really, went on a shooting spree killing 32 people plus himself. How awful for all of those families and for the other students on campus. I can't imagine how they're all feeling. It's got to be difficult. My prayer for them is that they know the Lord is with them, that they can lean on Him, and that although God is sorrowful with them, He will make good come out of this. I pray that many people come to Jesus because of this incident. Also I pray that children everywhere can be safe.

I'm sick!

It's Easter Sunday evening, and I'm sick with a cold. I started feeling poorly yesterday at my Dad's. At first I thought it was allergies, but by 4 a.m. I knew it was a cold. This is the first cold I've had this winter season (even though technically it's Spring, the temperature has been in the 20's and 30's the lst few days). I hate being sick! On top of that DH had to work this weekend, so we were at my Dad's by ourselves. My brother and sister-in-law were over to his house yesterday for egg coloring and an egg hunt. Then today my sister-in-law hurt her back. So she didn't make lunch after church at Old Country Buffet. It was a quiet Easter. I've missed my mom soooo much this weekend.

I don't really know why I've missed her more this weekend, but I did. DH comes home tomorrow night, DDs have school tomorrow, and I have my last day off before heading back to work on Tuesday. I sure hope I feel better in the morning. I started taking Cold Ease tonight. Hopefully it will help with the cold soon.

There's still no word on any referrals beyond 10/26. I'm losing hope that 10/26 is the cutoff date. I guess I've got to live with that, although I don't like it. I'll continue waiting, waiting, and more waiting.

The rumors keep getting worse instead of better!

I swore to myself last night that I was going to stop checking the RQ forum looking for rumors, because referrals most likely weren't coming out this week. So I did. Today I decided to check the OctoberDTC05 yahoo group and on it is a rumor from RQ that says referrals will only go through 10/26. Arrghhh! That just can't be. At that rate, they will never get to us. So I am choosing to believe that this is just a rumor with no truth to it.

In the meantime, DH and I met with a guy from Apex windows last night to see about replacing our very aging windows in our home. Of course, right now we don't really have the spare money to buy windows, but this was an opportunity to be a showcase promotion home for this company. All we would have to do is list our address on their website as a showcase home and put a sign up in our yard that says we are a showcase home. We wouldn't be letting anyone into our house to see our windows or anything like that, so it's not bad. In return we'd get a huge discount on getting our windows replaced with some very nice new windows. By huge discount, I mean a 60% discount!

We're seriously considering it. We've got until Monday to make a decision. We can come up with the money if we have to, and it will be hard not to take the deal. Our neighbors too are thinking about doing it. It seems all the homes around here were built around the same time and the windows are all wearing out (like all things do over time). If we do go ahead with this, we could have new windows in within about 6 weeks! Just in time to be opening up the house for summer. How cool would that be to be able to open the windows without worrying about how I'm going to get them closed again if I do! I know it's kind of silly to be excited about windows, but I am. I guess I've got to be able to have something to get excited about, seeing as how this darn adoption is taking so long!

Looks like we'll have to wait until next week!

Well, the new news is that there's no news. All over the boards today, there's nothing. RQ moderators (RQ is in China getting her daughter) says she thinks that it won't be this week at all unless we're all blindsided. So I'm giving up hope for this week. This means I won't be checking the RQ forum for the rest of this week.

I will, however, be checking my October05DTC yahoo group just to keep up with what's happening with those that are in China, etc.

We're having a pretty good week, although DD1 is getting to be such a...teenager. I don't know how else to say it. She is so moody, talking back, and well, just a pain in the rear! I hope this doesn't last, or at least it gets more tolerable!

In the meantime, I've been able to work out yesterday and today. That's good. We heard that one of our friends' son is in the hospital with appendicitis. He had surgery yesterday. He's a senior in high school. He's doing well as far as we've heard. Tomorrow we're going to the Childrens Museum. DD2 is soooo excited. I think it will be fun, and THE trip for the week besides going to see Grandpa for Easter.

No referrals today

Turns out that the RQ rumor that referrals were on their way was actually Travel Approvals (TAs) for those that already have referrals and are waiting to travel to China. So right nowit looks like no news of referrals, and we still don't know if we'll be included in this batch or the next.

So, we wait some more! I think I'm going to have the girls color Easter eggs today or tomorrow, so that should be fun. I took DD1 to the dermatologist today. She's having a little acne, but it wasn't responding to OTC stuff. So I decided it was time for professional help. She was talked to by the physician's assisstant about washing her face properly, using sun-block and we got a prescription for Retin-A. That should do the trick. Afterwards DDs and I went to Meijer. DD2 got her Easter shoes, DD1 got a planning notebook, I got a few more space bags for travelling to China, and in the Clearance aisle they had reusable swim diapers 1/2 price. So I bought one for Gracie. If it's too small, I'll give it o Luke.

So far on my first day of vacation, that's how we've spent it!

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!