Our four day weekend

Well, our four day weekend is slowly coming to an end. We've had a great couple of days. The weather has been awesome...we even got a little rain which is always exciting. We've been sleeping in, playing football, golfing, hiking, running, shopping...we even went to the Wild Animal Park with our friends. Lots of fun! Doug braved Walmart on "Black Friday" and bought me a new camera. I've been without a camera (courtesy of Jacob...don't ask) for months now, so I was pretty excited to be able to take pictures again.

It's days like the ones we just had when we are all home, relaxing, doing things together that I think about our sugarplum non-stop. We spent a lot of time talking about her this weekend, which felt great. She's so much a part of our life already. In fact, sometimes it feels like she's already here. It's the strangest thing. I swear, I feel like I could walk in the living room right now and see her sitting on Doug's lap while he's watching football. I wish so badly that was the case. As we enter the last few months of our wait, she is on the other side of the world experiencing the first few months of her life. The four of us are together, enjoying our life. Feeling so much joy and excitement as we prepare to bring her home. We have each other to hug and hold, play with, laugh with, eat with...just be with. Our little girl, on the other hand, is experiencing a much different reality. In the months ahead she will experience so much emptiness, loneliness and fear. She will have to suffer through the horrible loss of her birth parents. She will go from the warmth and safety of her birth mom's womb to the harsh, cold world of orphanage life. I hope and pray that someone, whether it be a nanny or a foster parent...or anyone, takes the time to hold her and tell her that she is loved and wanted. I hope they tell her that everything is going to be OK, and that we are coming for her. I hope that somehow, in depths of her sweet little soul, she can feel the love that we have for her. I hope, I hope, I hope....

I also hope that everyone had as nice a weekend as we did! And, I also hope that referrals come in soon....and I hope that it's a "big" batch!

November referrals

Children’s Hope International is proud to announce the arrival of 8 referrals for our 02/17/06 LID families. All of the referrals were beautiful little girls from the Jiangxi Province that ranged in age from 8 to 13 months, with one referral being 3 years, 5 months old. The referrals also included one set of twins. The family that received the 3 year old requested 0-18 months though the referral fell with the CCAA age guidelines. These families waited 33 long months from log in date to referral. We expect these families to travel in about 8 weeks.

Congratulations to these families and all our China families who have moved up in line!

Children’s Hope International’s next log in date is 03/02/06.

I received the announcement above last week. This batch of referrals started with February 16th and went through February 17th. A two day batch. It's discouraging, to say the least, but it also "is what it is". So, there are now 21 days left to match to get to us! I don't know if the CCAA will be able to maintain their 6 day average as they finish matching February and start March, but if they did we would probably receive our referral in the March 2009 batch . That's only 4 batches away! That's exciting. It is also exciting to think that the next time our agency receives referrals, it will be for March families. What a thrill that will be!

Did I mention the 1/2 marathon?

Have I mentioned that I've decided to train for a half marathon? It's January 18th, and today marked my first official week of training. I've been conditioning myself for the past month or so to build up my endurance for the 12 week training schedule I'm going to follow (you have to be able to run about 3 miles without having to walk...I'm at around 3 1/2 to 4). It's going to be a huge commitment for me to train for this, but I'm so determined to do this.....I've even cut out alcohol until after the marathon (about 5 seconds after).

So how did my first week of training go? Well, I'll tell you. I haven't been able to run ONCE this week. Wanna know why? Because my freaking ankles has been swollen since last Saturday when I went jogging with the boys (they road their bikes). Why is my ankle swollen (and my shins killing me)? Because I have a pronation problem with my feet. I discovered this last year when I first starting running and my knees swelled up and wouldn't go back down. Two trips to the orthopedic, a pair of custom orthodics ($$), new running shoes (more $$) and more ice packs than I care to mention and all seemed well. I was back running and with no swelling! I ran my first 8K ever and decided then that, after summer (It's too hot for me to run in the summer), I was going to train for the half. So, I started running again a few weeks ago. All was going well when, rather unexpectedly, my ankles went south. Back to the orthopedic. Same diagnosis as the first 2 times ("you're pronated...probably shouldn't run, but since your going to anyway I recommend new running shoes, plenty of stretching, some strength training and possibly physical therapy....(oh yeah) and a cortisone shot"). I passed on the cortisone shot. Something about a needle going into my ankle wasn't appealing to me....AT ALL!

So, I just purchased my newest pair of running shoes. Say hello to my new Brooks, Adrenaline GTS 8's. I really, truly hope these do the trick. I already feel like I've worked so hard for this. I really want to be able to do it. It's such a stress reliever for me and I feel so good about myself after I complete a run. Especially when I want so badly to quick a mile or two into it and I push myself to keep going!!

I have to get this swelling to go down. I need to be able to start running again in the next few days or I am going to fall way too far behind on my training.

Anyway, that's my running saga. I'm excited about the new shoes and hope I can break them in soon.....real soon!!