PF Changs Half Marathon!!

Well, on Sunday I managed to complete my first ever half marathon!! Official time: 2 hours, 12 minutes!

It was a day I won't forget anytime soon. All the pre-race anxiety, the excitement, the energy from all the people (over 21,000 participated)...it's hard to explain, but it was amazing. I laughed, I cried...and I ran! Most importantly, I proved to myself that I can do the seemingly impossible if I really set my mind to it. When I got tired, and believe me, I got tired, I thought about my boys and my family and friends who were waiting for me at the finish line to cheer me on and I just pushed on. I figured if they could pull themselves out of bed on a Sunday morning, walk for miles and stand in sun among a crowd of literally thousands of people just to support me, than I could muster up the energy to forge on! I also, of course, thought about my baby girl who, despite the fact that we haven't even met, has already taught me so much about endurance and inner strength. It was inspiring to jog pass the Chinese Cultural Center (just after mile marker 8) and think about how close we are to having her home with us!

I never, ever, ever could have done this without the encouragement and support of my friends and family. They are the best cheering squad ever. My B.F.F., Machel, drove all the way out from San Diego just be there at the finish! How great is that? And, my good friends, Chris and Brad trained with me for months....putting up with all kinds of questions, complaints, boo hooing, whining....I'm a pain in the butt to train, but they were great! Chris's wife and my dear friend, Adrianne, got up before the sun to drop us off at the start and spent the whole day out there taking pictures and cheering us on....THEN she made us dinner!

And my sisters....I can never say enough about my sisters. They were there, as always, rooting for me and screaming my name. I actually heard Norah before I ever saw her...too funny! I searched the crowd for Sarah and my Dad, but never spotted them. I knew they were there though and it made me feel so good. It really was a fun and exciting day.

Thanks to everyone for being there!

GEARING UP IN THE PARKING LOT!

CHRIS, MYSELF AND BRAD! "MY TEAM" JUST BEFORE THE RACE!

CHRIS AND ADRIANNE

MY BOYS AND I JUST AFTER FINISHING!

NORAH AND I AT THE FINISH!

ICING MY ANKLE...I WASN'T CRYING, I SWEAR!

VICTORY BEER! (I LOVE THIS BOY!!)

SIMONE (MY DEAR FRIEND SINCE 1ST GRADE) AND I! WE ROCK!

MY NIECE, SARAMARIE, MODELING MY MEDAL

THE FLOWERS MY MOM HAD DELIVERED!

Just Because!

Doug came home last night with flowers and bottle of wine (mind you, it was a $5 bottle of wine, but who cares) "just because". "Because why", I asked. And do you know what that practically perfect man said?! He said, "Because you deserve it and because I should..(slight pause)...at least I should more often than I do." HELLO!!!! Right anwer! He got a big kiss for that one!

I'll enjoy the flowers all week, but the wine is going to have to wait until after the half marathon this weekend. No alcohol till then...gotta keep this body well hydrated.

THEY DID IT!!!

It appears that the the CCAA has finished matching the February 2006 families!!!

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS????? IT MEANS......

THE NEXT BATCH OF REFERRALS WILL BE FOR MARCH 2006 FAMILIES!!!

To be honest, this news is coming off the rumor boards....my agency has not confirmed anything yet. It will probably take them a day or two to be able to do that. Children's Hope was not expecting any referrals in this batch since we don't have families logged in again until 3/2/06, so, they will have to wait for the CCAA to update their website with the official cut off date before they can make a formal annoucement. BUT, ASK ME IF I CARE??!!

I'm making a formal announcment right now.......MARCH IS NEXT, AND THERE ARE ONLY 10 LID DAYS LEFT TO GET TO US!!!!!

This batch of referrals came quickly, but that's not that unusual for this time of year. The CCAA is getting ready to break for the Chinese New Year and they typically try to get a batch or two out before they leave. This batch can technically be considered the "January" batch of referrals even though they arrived in December. Chances are, the CCAA will send another batch right before they close for the New Year break. That batch will most likely arrive around the middle of January, but will be viewed as the "February" batch. After they return from their break they will get back to work and probably send another batch out around the first of March. Of course, this is all speculation on my part.....I'm just going off what I've seen happen over the past three years.

Who cares about any of that right now. All that matters is that MARCH IS NEXT!!

15 more LID days to go!!!

Referrals arrived last week and matched families with LID's of February 18 thru February 23. It was a six day batch, which is good because it's in keeping with the average! For us, this means that there are now only 15 LID days left to be matched before we see our sugarplum's face for the first time. I can't believe we've made into the "teens"!

Speaking of making it into the teens....my nephew, Taylor (pictured about), turned 13 this month!! It's shocking to think about. Why do kids have to grow up so fast??!! I remember the day Taylor was born like it was yesterday. I remember the day he started walking (Doug and I somewhat taught him while Norah was at work...we thought we would suprise her when she got home, but instead we made her cry...oooops). I remember when he and Jacob were in pre-school together. It just doesn't seem that long ago. But, a lot changes in 13 years. The one thing that hasn't changed is that Taylor is a sweet, loving person...who happens to have the softest skin on the planet!!! Sorry to announce that publicly Taylor, but it oh so true! So....I'm sending a big shout out to Taylor, who I've been blessed to have in my life for the last 13 years.

Along with the announcement of the referrals came the announcement that our agency, Children's Hope International, has finally received their Hague Accreditation! This is great news for the many, many families that are working with them. Personally, for us, it doesn't change much. We are not going to need to renew anymore documents that would require that they be accredited, and are not trying to adopt through the "Waiting Children's" program (special needs). But, it's still good to know that CHI meets all the current requirements to work in the China program. To me, it makes things feel more secure (not that security exists in the world of international adoption). I'm very happy for our agency and even more happy for the families and children that this will help to unite!

So, as far as I'm concerned, it's been a good month for the adoption. It won't be long now. The next few months will probably be some of the most exciting, amazing, emotional....non-boring months of my life!

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!!