10 minute project!

I have been wondering what I was going to do with this empty spot on Kaelin's bedroom wall until I stumbled onto these cute wall stencils at Linens n Things. They were so easy to apply and actually look like they are painted on! There were a lot of cute phrases to choose from, but I thought this one was so fitting! When Kaelin is finally home, it WILL truly be a MIRACLE!
BTW, I think the color settings on my camera are off! The color of Kaelin's walls are a much prettier shade of green than what the photo is showing!

Back from moving Sarah!

Phewww! What an exhausting job that was! Every time we move one of our kids they seem to have more and more stuff! This was the 8th time we have moved Sarah since her freshman year at Michigan State! It's a good thing we love her so much! Even though we had movers it was still a lot of work! But we are so relieved now that it is done! Sarah is in such a nice area, compared to her old place. We moved her to a place called Mud Island. Contrary to it's name, it is a beautiful place right on the Mississippi River. Even though it is farther from University of Memphis, where she goes to school, it is a small sacrifice for such a lovely place! Even though we were very busy moving we did take a little time out to enjoy ourselves and spend some fun time with Sarah! Saturday we ate at a place downtown called Huey's which looked like a dive when we walked in, but the food ended up being really good! It stopped raining for about a half an hour so we could take a walk on the Mississippi River Trail. We were a bit shocked to see how flooded the river was past it's banks! By the photos you can see how deep the water came up to the trees! Sarah said there are park benches somewhere by those trees under all that water! It rained the whole time and the river got even higher while we were there! Since Sarah's new apartment is only a couple hundred yards from the river we were a little concerned, but think that she will be okay (thank goodness, she's on the second floor). Now she is good until this December, then she will be done with school and needs to move back! Aye-yi-yi!

Moving Sarah!

Today we are driving down to Memphis to move Sarah and her roommate, Lisa, to a new apartment. One that is in a safer and better neighborhood! When we originally moved her, back in August, we thought we had moved her to a nice place, but as it turns out looks can be deceiving! Without going into scary details, I'll just tell you there has been some gangish (not sure that is a word) behavior going on way too close to her! YIKES! Although, I am not looking forward to the long drive, I am very excited to see our Baby Girl! I miss her sooooo much! I will be so relieved knowing she is in a safe place, now! I'm sure she is so tired of me constantly reminding her to be aware of her surroundings and have her pepper spray ready at all times! I am also happy that instead of us breaking our backs this time, Gary has hired movers! My hero! See you all when we get back on Monday! Just in time for April referrals,Yippee!

Happy Easter, Everyone!
Today is also our 26 Month LID Anniversary! This is definitely our last Easter without Kaelin!!

Almost Next!

Today we received an email from our agency and guess what?! We only have one more group before us and we are next! I can't even believe I am even saying this! It just feels so good to finally be so close to seeing our girl, but it also feels a little weird! I mean we have been waiting for soooo long that the feeling of this actually happening is indescribable! Kind of like excitement, anxiety, happy, and nausea all rolled into one! Now you would think that since we are almost next we would be traveling to China soon, but this probably isn't the case. Since CCAA has only been sending about a week's worth of referrals per month, we probably won't get our referral until June with travel to China in early August (Ugh! This is the hottest time of the year in Guangzhou! Like being in southern Florida!) Even still, we can't wait and are completely not ready to travel! It's really hard to get ready when we have no idea how old she will be! Once we finally get her referral, we will be running around like maniacs! (Yes, I know I already am one!) I am guessing that we will get "THE CALL" on June 2nd or 3rd at around 3:00 PM!

Princess Fiona!

This is my sweet and lovable kitty, Princess Fiona. "Little Fi," my nickname for her, hasn't always had such a privileged and cozy life. A couple of months ago she was a skinny, flea-bitten stray whom Gary found sleeping in the seat of a hi-lo in his warehouse one day. After a few days of hanging around it was obvious that she was homeless. So we took her in as our own and named her Princess Fiona. What a delight she has been! She is affectionate, playful, and gets along so well with our big male cat, Tigger, and our enormous English Setter, Storm. Now, her favorite place to be is here, snuggled up next to this stuffed kitty on the window seat in Kaelin's room. Definitely, a step up from the hi-lo! Little Fi is a very smart kitty and it's almost like she knows. She lays there as if she is waiting, waiting for a little girl that will one day carry her around the house like a rag doll and love her and play with her always!

Panda Referrals Are On Their Way!

Finally! After taking nearly 3 years to get through all the LIDs in 2005 CCAA is sending it's first batch of 2006 referrals! Although they still have to finish 2005 in this batch, it is a sure thing that the LID cutoff will be January 4, 2006. This means that our January 2006 Precious Pandas group will begin seeing their first non-special needs referrals after waiting a very long 26 months! By the time we receive Kaelin's referral we will have waited, and even longer, 28/29 months! Congratulations to all of our Panda friends who will finally see their babies for the first time!

Two Years and One Month LID!

I just looked at our ticker and realized today is our LID anniversary! It's hard to even put into words how we feel about these, anymore! LID anniversaries used to be cause for joyous celebration! Woo hoo! One whole month closer to our referral, which we naively thought was only a mere 8-10 months away! The first few months we would even pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate this monumentous occasion! We were truly living in our own little "China world" (before Yahoo groups and Rumor Queen) clueless about the long road ahead! Yes, it is so true that ignorance is bliss!

Well, that was then and this is now, over two years later! Honestly, these last two years have been nothing but a huge learning experience for us. We have come so far in our knowlege of International Adoption and, more specifically, China adoption. Looking back, if we had gotten our referral in the original time frame we had thought, we would have been so ill prepared and totally clueless about everything! In these last two years we have learned more than we ever thought we could about raising an internationally adopted child, both, the good and the bad. We have had time to read, read, and read some more about bonding and attachment. We have taken classes and attended workshops. We have planned and prepared over and over for this new little person who is about to join our family. We have even spent many Friday nights wandering aimlessly through Babies R Us in awe and utter confustion. My how much baby stuff has changed and evolved in the last 19 years since we did this!

The best part of this long wait has been all of the wonderful friends we have made and even had the privilege to meet! Some have become lifelong for sure! You know who you are!
As for how many more LID anniversaries we have until referral, well we are happy and deliriously excited to say only about 3 or 4 more! Our referral has come down to basic math now that CCAA is getting into Jan of '06! Since they are doing about a weeks worth of LID's per month, that puts us getting our referral in May or June!
So now, raising my glass of orange juice, I toast to this long wait and it's true meaning in bringing our little girl home!

Voile!

I decided to give our blog a new look! At first, I was just going to change the header by adding a photo with text! Which turned out to be way too easy, with the help of my good friend, Rhonda, that is! Then I thought, what the heck, I might as well change the background, while I'm at it! (compliments of http://www.addglitter.com/) I just love the Anne Geddes snoozing little ladybugs I stumbled on @ photobucket! As long as I was on a roll, my ticker also got a new look! Finally, I changed that old picture of Gary and I! That picture was from the summer of '05 when we had just signed with our agency and started the famous paperchase! I can't believe how tan we were in that picture! This new photo was taken a few weeks ago while we were in Orlando. No tan, though, it was a tad chilly while we were there! Anyway, there you have it! What do you think?

You Gotta Love This!

I got this off RQ! I always wondered what was the best way to clean my computer screen! Click on this link and it will make you smile, guaranteed! If you view it in full size it is even better! Enjoy!
http://cache.valleywag.com/assets/resources/screenclean.swf