The "Rumor Queen" ...why do I look?

There's this woman, nobody is really sure who she is, who has been running this website for quite a while now to monitor every aspect of adoption from China. She's referred to as the Rumor Queen. She gathers information from sources all over the world (supposedly) and post information to her website. Then, she rates the information for reliability. She's always speculating about when the next batch of referrals will come in, how many days it will cover, etc. Some people swear by her data, others take the information with a grain of salt....and then there's me. I don't know what to think of it. I highly doubt she knows people who are able to get insider information from the CCAA, but sometimes it almost seems like she must. To be honest, I only read her website, or blog, or whatever it is out of boredom and desperation. For what it's worth, my agency actually looks at it frequently and will question some of what she says on there with the CCAA (they go through the proper channels, of course) and will then post information on our Yahoo group so that we don't get led a stray by anything she may post.

Anyway, my point in all of this is to show you all a projection she made as to when certain months can expect a referral. If her projection is correct, we can expect a referral in June or July of 2008. I don't know if that will be true, anything can happen...things could speed up, or slow down! But, based on the way it's been going, I think it's a pretty good guess.

First day of the 2007/2008 school year!

Well, we made it to our first day of school on time!!! Barely!! The boys were both pretty nervous. It's a brand new school for them (their school closed over the summer...don't get me started on that one). Many of their friends from their old school transfered to the new one with them, so it helped to see some familiar faces when we arrived. Jacob is now in 5th grade and Benjamin in 3rd.

After I picked them up we started talking about how everything went. For the most part they both had a good day. There's a lot of new things that will take some getting used to, however. Anyway, Benjamin was telling me that he had to stand in front of his class and say five interesting things about himself. Here's how HE said it went...

Benjamin: "My name is Benjamin."
Class: "Hello, Benjamin."
Benjamin: "But you can call me Benji"
Class: "Hello, Benji"
Benjamin: "I had a dog named Katie"
Class: "Aahh"
Benjamin: "But she died"
Class: "Oohh"
Benjamin: "My Dad is named Doug, my Mom is named Mary, my brother is named Jacob, (and here's the best part) and my baby sister is named???? well, it don't know her name for sure...she lives in China and will be home as soon as my Mom and Dad finish their China trip. And, that's five things...the end."

Is that adorable or what?! He is one sweet little boy! I'm so glad that I have this blog because these are the little things I want to be able to tell her about when she starts to have questions about her adoption and I'm afraid I'll forget them if they aren't documented.

Anyway, I think we are off to a pretty good start this year. The school is actually a uniform school, but they said they could wear their own clothes for the first week. I'm wondering if they regretted that when they saw Jacob strolling up in his ripped, rolled up jeans and long sleeve t-shirt in 109 degree weather?! He kills me!

Our lazy summer days are coming to an end!

It's time to say goodbye to our lazy summer days. I took the picture above at 10:30 AM this morning. My boys can sleep in!!! I mean look at them....they are practically lifeless (as was I about a half an hour before I took this when Sarah called and woke me up). In their defense, we had the most amazing monsoon storm this very night. It went on from about midnight to 3 or 4 in the morning. Lightening, thunder, tons of rain...you name it. Both of them ended up in our bed (big shocker there)!! I don't think any of us really fell asleep until close to 4 in the morning.

Having said all that, I will admit that it doesn't take an "all nighter" to get us to sleep in. We are night owls for sure. So, tomorrow ought to be interesting. It's the first day of school!! I have to get the boys up at 7:15 in the morning. We haven't done that since....well, it's been a long time. So wish us well everyone! Here's hoping we get a good start to a new school year!



Aren't they such little angels when they sleep?!

Back to the beach

Well, the boys and I finally made it to the beach. What's a summer without it?! We ventured over to San Diego to visit our good friends, the Searls. We caravaned over with my sister, Norah, and my Dad who made the trip in his motor home. I drove the car with kids (5 of them to be exact) and Norah drove in the motor home with my Dad and Lincoln (the youngest in the group). We had soooo much fun. Swan in ocean, boogie boarded, went crab hunting...we even did a midnight swim in the ocean (scary, but fun)! We got to visit with my girlfriend Danielle and her BEAUTIFUL daughter Cosette. We traveled up to Carlsbad one day to see my good friends Shawna and Lisa along with their children. It was non stop fun! Throughout the entire trip, I envisioned our little sugar plum right there with us. With as much fun as me and the boys had together...I still, truly hope this is the last summer we will spend without her.


Here's Shawna and Jayden (don't you love that bikini?!)

Jacob lov'in that warm sand!

Mary and Cosette ...it doesn't get much better than this!

And little Lincoln holding down the fort!

While we were out!!

Last week, the boys and I hopped in the car and headed to San Diego. Right after we left, referrals arrived!!! Our agency received the referrals on August 2nd. This batch of referrals covered families logged in from November 16th to November 21st, 2005. Our agency received 18 referrals in this batch. These families are expected to travel in about 8 weeks.

It was just what I needed to hear in order to relax and enjoy my time at the beach with the boys...news that things were once again moving forward.

There are 9 days left in November 2005 (only 7 of which are potential log in date days). The CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) reported that this month was a "record" month as far as the number of dossiers they received, so it's not surprising that it is taking them so long to work through it. It is my sincere hope that they will finish matching these families with the October batch!

We congratulate all the families who are seeing their child's face for the first time, and congratulate ourselves for moving up in line!!

I'll post pictures of our vacation as soon as Machell mails my camera to me...seeing as how I left it at her house!

I changed my ticker

I decided to change my "ticker" at the top of my blog. It used to show how long we've been waiting since "our formal approval". However, in the world of international adoption, "wait times" are counted from log in date to referral. So, I made a change.
How sad is it that this is the most exciting thing I could think to post about today? The adoption feels dead in the water. The rumor boards haven't even started humming about new referrals coming in yet. So, I'm guessing that means the next batch won't arrive for another week or two. Until then, there's not much to say. The current wait time is 20/21 months. If that were to stay the same, we would be receiving a referral in November/December. Of course, we know it won't stay the same..it will get longer than that during the course of the next year. Every month that passes, we get closer...every month that passes, the wait gets longer. This whole "one step forward two steps back" feeling is causing emotional defeat for me.
I saw a few people I haven't seen in a while this weekend. Each and everyone of them asked whether or not we were "still getting that Chinese baby?". To have to explain to everyone why we don't already have her with us and how we aren't sure when we will was down right painful. They were all well meaning people who were trying to show their sincere interest...I'm sure they had no way of knowing that their probing for information was causing me so much sadness.
OK, Benjamin just came in the office and gave me a totally unsolicited hug and told me how much he loves me. I feel better already. I look awful in this picture, but it was a moment worth saving...I guess this is how I'll survive the wait. No more complaining today!

Just one of those days

I should be cleaning my house right now. I started to, but kept stopping to come into the office to check my computer. I find myself doing this a lot lately. I just keep hoping there will be some bit of news to let us know we are moving forward. I spend much of my time these days feeling like something is missing. I just feel like she should have been home by now...we shouldn't still be waiting. WHERE IS SHE?! It'd hard to explain, but somedays (today would be one of them) I have an overwhelming feeling of sadness.

I decided to look at a blog that I check in on from time to time. The gal's name is Stephanie Wise. She is using the same agency as us and is logged in same month as we are. She's an artist and I plan on buying some of her art work for the nursery when we get closer to finishing it. Anyway, she had a link to this photographer's website on her blog. I went there and viewed some of the photos he has taken of girls who have been brought home from China. They are BEAUTIFUL!! He has their referral photo, and then pictures of them around 2 years old. I bawled my eyes out the whole time I was viewing the album.

Click on the link below, skip the prologue, then scroll to the bottom of the next page and click on "Some Babies Come by Plane". That should take you to the part of his website that has these precious baby girls.
http://www.davidclapp.com/

I guess I'll go clean and cry and pray for a peaceful heart and a calm mind.