Friday the 30th

UPDATE: Our agency should be receiving referrals on Monday. They have a package scheduled to arrive on that day but can't be 100% sure they are referrals but most likely they are. No one knows the cut-off date so Monday will be the day we find out if we're in or if we're out. We're packing up the car tonight with lots of good food and wine and heading up north, thank goodness. Monday's going to be a hard day. We should know by the afternoon. We're very excited and very hopeful that our baby is on her way!!! We shall see...

************************************************

It's a relief to know that referrals are on their way. It's not a relief not knowing if we've made the cut or not. If the referrals start arriving in Europe today then it could be a very telling day. Since they are 8 hours ahead of us, they get the referrals first. So, if Europeans with a Nov. 2 Log-In-Date start reporting that they got their referral then we can safely bet that we'll get ours too. The CCAA's website also shows the cut-off date each month but they usually don't update it until after we've already figured it out (I swear they do this on purpose to make us crazy). In rare instances they do it on time and we can find out that way. Considering it's Friday evening in Beijing right now, I don't think it will happen. The last way we can figure out the cut-off date is simply by waiting for our agency to actually open the package of referrals and tell us point blank if we're in or not. That would mean that we'd have to wait until Monday or Tuesday for that and of course I'd much rather know right NOW.

I'll update what I hear/read throughout the day but I'm going to try and get out of the house as much as possible and away from this computer...

Big Rumor

UPDATE: The packages are referrals! They are just now leaving China. They probably won't arrive in the U.S. until early next week, Monday or Tuesday. We still have NO idea if we will be included... stay tuned.


I will quote exactly what just appeared on the Rumor Queen's website by a moderator:

"It has been reported...........(as it has in the past)...................There are packages in the air that for all intents and purposes seem to be referrals and are heading to agencies.1 agency in particular ......but where there is 1 package there are usually many!!!!!!!!!!!!!HANG ON FOLKS Roller coaster going up!!!!"

If these are in fact referrals then that means we could see them as early as tomorrow or Monday??? I really don't know! I want to know...are we in or are we out?

Nada

Still nothing. Not a single rumor out there. This is strange because referrals should be arriving very soon (next week) and no one is making a peep about it. The Rumor Queen's site is saying that Nov. 2 (that's us) is still a possibility of being included but there's nothing really concrete to back it up. SO, we are just waiting and hoping for some hint of when these referrals will arrive and who will be included.

We bought our camcorder last night along with Adobe Photoshop. We're about as ready as we can be.

In an attempt to spruce up the graphics on the blog, I'm adding this picture. It has no significant importance other than it's the beach on the island and it lifts my spirits to think that very soon we'll be swimming in that gorgeous water...

Going Mad

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.
- Robin Williams


This is reassuring because surely I'm going mad...


We're going to get our camcorder tonight.
Hopefully i'll have more updates later...

Update on Rumor #1

Nothing new has surfaced today. The reliability of yesterday's rumor is still uncertain and truthfully it's just that...a rumor. Our agency called the CCAA in Beijing last night to see if matching has begun and what the cut-off might be but their lips are tightly sealed. They are forbidden to tell our agency anything (all agencies for that matter). Our agency said this is all very normal for the CCAA. Our agency is only told if referrals are on their way and never know the cut-off until they open the package and see for themselves. I believe matching is taking place right now and referrals will arrive next week. Here's a link to a site in which a woman visited the CCAA and was shown the process of matching. It's mind boggling to see that this is how our family will be formed. http://www.wesselsworld.nl/ccaa.htm

We are truly so happy that you are following along in our journey. This is an unbelievable time for us and we're so happy to be able to share it with those we love. Please feel free to leave us a comment, we really cherish them and will be so grateful to share them with our daughter someday.

We are treating this last week as if this could be the final week of our long long wait so stay tuned, I will be posting much more frequently with what I hear.

Rumor #1

I just said to George yesterday that we are strangely calm, why are we strangely calm??? He said because we've waited so long and we're just ready for her. Well. That strangely calm feeling ended abruptly last night when we checked the Rumor Queen's site for any rumors. This is what we found: A U.S. agency has reported telling one of their Nov. 2 clients to expect to be included in this next batch. If this rumor is true then we're in!!!
This is considered an early rumor and early rumors tend to be too optimistic.
We shall see. Stay tuned. I'll post what I hear as I hear it. There's a stir of excitement and hope around here. :)

Home Again Home Again

What a weekend! Only 24 hours on the island and man did we get some stuff done. After unloading the cargo van, we loaded it up with the demo'd kitchen and bathroom and took it to The Island Exchange a.k.a. the dump. It was a beautiful day. I took the above photo on the drive to the dump. In the field next to us were two huge sand cranes. I just love the simple beauty of the island. George got right to work painting one of the bedrooms.
Then he painted the bunkhouse.

Every now and then when we are leaving on the ferry from the island we get to see the "Seediver." I am fascinated by this vessel. The plywood doors, the seagulls that perch on it, and the sheer fact that someone is actually inside of it. It's like something out of a movie.
This should be an exciting week with adoption rumors...stay tuned. I'll try to keep the blog updated with what I hear.

Garage Sale?

Nope, we got a cargo van and we're heading up to the lake house tomorrow. This is the final "moving" trip up there. This is only half the stuff that's ready to be packed, we have a queen mattress arriving today and all the patio furniture too. It might be a challenge getting it all in there, yikes! George, as usual, finished his project in good time. The trundle beds turned out adorable. My wing back chair, on the other hand, is still sitting in my sewing room half finished.
Ferry schedule to the island is still limited so we are getting only 24 hours at the house. We are going to try to work nonstop unloading, painting, and putting in the new shower.

Next week should be a little more eventful in the adoption world. Rumors should start coming in on what the cut-off date will be and when they will arrive. I really don't think we'll have any idea if we're in or not until that very day. We are truly on the line. It's very exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time! Stay tuned...

Break from Obsessing

Last week was sheer torture just waiting and waiting knowing that we MAY or MAY NOT see our daughter's picture in the next batch of referrals. Thankfully we went up to the lakehouse and got a break from it. We painted and cleared more of the forest. The view is getting bigger and better. The labor is so back breaking but so good for us. I thought George blew himself up starting this bonfire, he said he won't use as much gasoline next time. Good idea. The lake is still frozen. We woke Sat. morning to 6-7 deer along the shore, they were beautiful. This morning we woke to another 3 inches of snow. We're hoping for a thaw so we can do more work outside, we're almost done inside, yeah!!!

Now we're home again and the wait resumes... I don't think we'll see the next batch of referrals until April 2nd, which is two weeks away. We'll be lucky if we're included. The prediction is that the cut-off will be around Oct. 31st, or Nov. 1st. Being Nov. 2nd, we may miss it by just a day or two. Stay tuned...

Visitors!

Mary and Lilah came for the weekend while Tim was working up north. I LOVED seeing Lilah, she is hilarious. She is really talking. I loved asking her questions and watching her think them through and finally getting a yes or a no. Mary went to work on Sat. so George and I had her to ourselves. She was relentless in asking for cookies...seriously it's a little OCD but don't tell Mary. This picture cracked me up because I found an old box of rye triskets, they were clearanced out at Big Lots and totally stale. Cookies, crackers, triskets, a tasket, a green and yellow basket, she was so happy, she crawled in my lap and munched on them forever. She was a complete delight, I miss her already. (thanks Mary for doing my hair, those were some pretty bad roots)

Kid Stuff

Our bike seat and backpack/child carrier arrived in the mail yesterday. What fun! The backpack is so cool...it has a "cockpit" that opens and the baby can ride in it. This one is mainly for George since I have so many other carriers that fit me. He loved trying it on last night and decided it makes him look like a dad....a pretty cute one I think. I also found this little cardboard table and chair set yesterday shopping. I love it because it's completely recycleable when we're done with it. It's surprisingly strong, it holds me! In the other box is a see-saw for the backyard. I love having baby things in this house...brings some life to this place!!! It's like Christmas Eve around here. I've never been so excited. I can't sleep at all!!!

Staying Sane

The only way we have been able to stay sane during this unbearably long wait is to keep busy with projects. Right now our projects are mostly for the lake house.

I'm reupholstering this chair I found at St. Vincent de Paul's. I've never done a wing back before and it's definitely a challenge. I love the fabric I bought for it so that's fueling me to get it done.



George is building two sets of trundles that will go in the bunkhouse. We put the beds together last night. Next he will build the trundles, sand, and then paint them!

Referral are arriving!

How exciting! Referrals are arriving and it is has been confirmed that the cut-off date is October 24, 2005. That really isn't the best cut-off date we were looking for but nonetheless exciting, we are SO close! That means they covered 11 days in this batch. Between Oct. 24 and Nov. 2 (remember, we're Nov. 2) is only 9 days. That could almost make us feel pretty confident that we'll be included in the next batch but the end of Oct. has such large days with so many families, that there's a good chance we won't be included. I feel like it's 50/50, 50% we'll be included next round and 50% we won't. Either way, we can confidently say that we'll be seeing our baby's face in either 4 weeks or 8 weeks! It's been 2 years since we started the adoption process and nearly 7 years since we decided to start a family, we are finally getting there. The boat is slowly pulling into shore! Yippee! Stay posted!!!

All Look the Same Test

We just got word from our agency that the CCAA has been very busy matching families to babies this week...how exciting! That means we definitely won't be seeing them until next week. We don't expect to be included in this batch but we really hope they match up to Oct. 26th which would give us an almost guaranteed in for the next round. I must say, I have permanent butterflies in my stomach. I'm so excited it's hard for me to think about anything else!

Here's a quiz that was posed to me...how well can you differentiate Asians. Take this test and see how well you do on deciphering a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean person. All faces are 100% from one race with none being mixed. I am embarrassed to say that I did terrible.
http://www.alllooksame.com/quiz.php?tid=1