Monday, September 28, 2009

You put your left foot in...

You take your left foot out. You put your left foot in and you shake it all about. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around. That's what it's all about!
 
Conflicting reports are in. Some folks are reporting referrals won't be mailed until after the Chinese holiday period. Another agency is reporting a package on the way due to deliver Wednesday, and while they don't know what's in it, they are speculating referrals.
 
At this point I don't know if I should jump on the roller coaster or not...
 


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Friday, September 25, 2009

This is a post about not much

This morning we got a little news. Seems there are more agencies reporting that they think the 29th is in. This doesn't really affect us, since we are for sure next, but it may explain why they are taking longer with referrals. Still no news as to when they are going to send referrals. I am hoping for next week before they break for their holiday. But if they send them after Tuesday I may have to wait another weekend. Will this wait ever end?
 
In other news, I am a big ole hot mess right now. Super duper amounts of nervous energy. Enough to drive Derek crazy. So I am planning projects to do over the weekends to keep myself occupied.  This weekend I plan to paint the stairwell and landing, our guest bathroom, and our guest bedroom. I am a painting madwoman. I actually plan to do this all on Sunday. Hopefully I can get it all done. If not, I've got another weekend on the horizon...
 
Color choices: stairwell and landing: China Doll. Most of my house is painted China Doll. It's a really light tan, very much a cool neutral.
Bathroom: Down Pour: this is a dark blue, more in the royal family than the navy.
Bedroom: Light lilac
 
Will post pictures!


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Thursday, September 24, 2009

I think the stork got lost...

Perhaps we should have given the stork a  GPS unit for the trip....
 
 


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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Enough already!

You know, after 41 months and 27 days of official waiting, I thought I was a patient person. Really I did. I have been so good during this wait. We've accomplished so much and really, both of us have not struggled. We've enjoyed each other, we've done things we knew would be hard with a little one, we more or less lived our lives, and lived them fully.
 
The past 2 weeks have been absolute torture for me. I don't know about Derek... he really is my calm center... he has the patience of Job! But I am going crazy. I think for me if I had a date when I knew I could count on, I would be ok. But this not knowing part, but knowing it's close... it's insane.
 
Right now there are rumors that the Chinese govt is going to wait and send referrals just before they leave for their national holiday, which begins 10-1. That means if they mail on Sept 30th, they will land in the US on 10-2 or 10-5, and we will receive the information the following day. There are also rumors that they aren't going to send them until after they return from holiday, which is 10-8. That would mean we wouldn't hear until 10-13 or 10-14. That to me is unbearable. How in the heck am I supposed to wait until then? Arghhhh!!!!!!! And, if we don't hear until then, we will likely be travelling in mid to late November and will miss Thanksgiving at home. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
 
But, there are also people who believe that they may mail referrals out at the end of this week, and there is always the chance that they've already been mailed.
 
Do you see why I'm going nuts?


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Monday, September 21, 2009

A post about nothing...

Can you hear it? Silence.
 
 
BOOOOOOOOO.
 
Hurry up stork, flap those wings faster!


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Thursday, September 17, 2009

A post about something other than the impending referral

Pictures from our first football game of the year!!! This weekend we play Boston College at noon on Saturday.
Thank goodness there is a big game to distract me this weekend. Oops, I guess I mentioned something about the referral. Oh well, this is then the post that is almost about something other than our referral...

Rumor Queen

You've probably read many references to Rumor Queen on my blog. Who is she? What is this website?
 
Rumor Queen is the reason I know so much about the adoption process in China. She is an adoptive mom herself, to two little girls who she refers to as GlitterGirl and TwinkleToes.  She is anonymous, as the CCAA and her agency would probably be very upset with her if they knew who she was. Why, I don't know.
 
She reads all the different adoption sites daily, and she takes information that readers send her from their agencies and compiles it. If she's hearing it from a lot of different sources, she will rate it as a R4 or R5 which means she stakes her reputation on it being correct. She may also do this if the information is being put out by an agency that is usually right about such things. If she only hears rumors form a few sources or unreliable sources, it may only garner an R1 or R2.
 
She has been invaluable to all China adoptive parents in waiting because without her, we would not have any information. Agencies are very guarded with the information they put out, so as to not offend the CCAA. Trust is everything, and if the CCAA(the govt agency that handles adoptions in China) knew that a specific agency was putting out sensitive information, they would definitely jeopardize their relationship.
 
Not only does Rumor Queen know about the rumors of what's going on, she is very knowledgeable about the process on the Chinese side of things. She has spoken with people who are VERYCLOSE to the process in China and has some insider information. Seriously- this lady knows more than most US agencies.
 
And so she's been a lifeline for all of us waiting families. I check site daily, and here lately, every hour. Waiting for the announcement that referrals are on their way. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. If it weren't for her, I would not have a clue when my referral was expected.
 
And so I hit refresh. And wait. And read. And wait.
 
Next week is our week. I feel it in the depths of my soul. We will know our daughter next week.


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Monday, September 14, 2009

Soon

The rumors have started.... so that usually means that matching has begun... which means we are 1-2 weeks away from seeing our sweet baby girl's face!!!
 
Would anyone like to start guessing what province she's from and her age?
My totally random guess is Jiangxi and I think she will be 9 months old...
 
We still are working on names. Planning to see her sweet face first and take it from there....
 
This weekend was a fun one. I did the Tour de Paws Metric Century bike ride to benefit the Spartanburg Humane Society. The ride went really well and I was averaging a good speed when a rider in front of me decide on a hill it would be a great idea to down shift to a smaller gear and his speed dropped SOFAST. I couldn't react fast enough and hit his back wheel with my front wheel. So what does one think about when one knows she's about to hit the pavement? PROTECT THE BIKE!!! Luckily all I got was some road rash on my knee and hand (yay another scar on my poor knees!), a few bruises, and some ripped up tape on my handlebars. Easy to fix. Phew. I was not a happy camper though about the incident. When you are riding in a group, no abrupt changes please!
 
I also took Edra shopping- we had a great time and found lots of cute things. I mostly stayed away from the baby clothes. I did buy one pair of orange stripped pants in a 6-9 month size. I couldn't resist! Gosh, I can't wait to go shopping for baby girl! At least then I will feel like I'm doing something productive!
 
Next weekend is the Boston College/Clemson game at home. That will help the weekend go by fast.  Thankfully. I want all weekends to go by fast until we are together as a family!!!


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