Jacob is 11 today!!

I don't remember telling Jacob it was OK for him to turn eleven, but he did it anyway. It is so crazy how fast kids grow up. TWO more years and he'll be teenager!!! Give me strength!

I tend to be very emotional this time of year. When I think back on the events surrounding Jacob's birth, I'm always amazed that we were all able to make it through. It was such a bitter sweet time in our life. On one hand, we were thrilled to have this "perfect" little baby boy, and on the other we were in complete distress dealing with all horrifying things that go along with prematurity.

But, look at him now!! Jacob is one healthy, active boy. And, when I say boy....I mean it. He's into skateboarding, boogie boarding, riding his scooter, roller blading, basketball, swimming, gymnastic, riding his bike (usually off a ramp of some kind), jumping on the trampoline (and giving every mom in sight a heart attack with his tricks)....you name, he does it!

We are very proud of Jacob!!

Here's hoping he'll still be 11 when his sister comes home. He was only 8 years old when we started our adoption journey...how crazy it that?!

There's nothing like validation

Our agency has set up Yahoo groups to help send out very important information and to work as a support system. Recently, a woman named Bonnie posted a message about how discouraged she has become with the wait and expressed that her and her husband have discussed stopping their adoption. Many people responded to her post. One such person was a woman named Dani who just so happens to be logged in the same month as me!! Read some of what she said....


Dear Bonnie,
You will go through soooo many stages/emotions during this what seems like endless impossible wait. It is normal. There have been "high months" for us-you know where you both walk around the nursery oohing and ahhing at every cute thing you've purchased. And talk endlessly about the stuff youre gonna take to China, all the things youre going to do with baby, etc then you jump on the internet and watch 3 hours of China adoption videos and cry your little excited hearts out. Then there are the "angry months". You walk by the nursery and you don't even open the door. You avoid people so you don't have to hear "how's the adoption going". You jump on Rumor Queen and revel in the fact that "see, everyone's miserable-stupid China!!". You say things like "Save for China????Forget that-I want new woodfloors!!

!" Then there are the "just plain low" months- your husband comes home to find you on the nursery floor surrounded by a cloud of tissues. You see babies and cry. You both
lose hope-"It's not gonna happpen for us...Lets go get that Doberman puppy...". And then ta da!!!!!! New Hope arises!!!!!!!!!!!! Did they just refer 3 days worth of LID's this month instead of 2????!!!!!!! You grab your calculator and work out 1,000 mathmatical possibilities each one a little better because "it might happen". Suddenly there is forward momentum again! YOu both open the door to the nursery and WOW!!!! HOW CUTE!!! You notice you don't have a changing table and so you jump in the car and drive to Target!!! You tell everyone in the store(even though they weren't paying attention to you) 'We are adopting from China." You spend 10 minutes answering their questions(gladly).... Just remember-don't panic at the angry and low times....just ride 'em out..... Lots of luck! Dani


Other than the fact that our nursery isn't done and I would never get a "Doberman" puppy, do you not get the feeling that maybe she has a webcam in my house?!!

It helps so much so know that we are not alone on this emotional rollercoaster!! Just thought I would share this with you guys!

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!