Day 17

We are SO excited around here...just about halfway through this month. We will see our daughter's face VERY soon! We just can't imagine who she is, where she is, what she looks like. The anticipation is killing us!

Yesterday was my day with Jing, my Chinese friend. I just adore her. She's so funny and sweet. She brought us Lychee which is a Chinese fruit that is dried. The shell is very thin, you crack it open and there's a delicious dried fruit inside.

We practiced the four tones in Mandarin. I had to tell her that I really am tone deaf and that's why I wasn't catching on very quickly. She taught me to say "Pardon me, I don't understand" and "Where is the bathroom." I have a feeling I'll be using these phrases a lot.

I have just been looking at the Chinese Cookbook Peter and Allison sent us. Makes me crazy hungry every time I open it. I am cooking Chinese for the second time this week. Thanks P & A for this beautiful book, we love it!

Day 16

Believe it or not, we still don't have a name picked out! We keep saying it will come to us when we see her. Now we are kind of worried that won't be the case. We are after all, just going to have 3 photos to look at...not a lot to go on. We have been confident that we'll just know her name when we see her face but of course, the "what-if it doesn't" is plaguing us. Only time will tell!

Day 15

Can't even say we're halfway through the wait yet...still about 19 more days to go! Ugh!
I'm not even following Rumor Queen right now, none of those rumors matter to me anymore, we are NEXT! Only rumors I'll soon look for are when they are actually arriving. We feel strangely calm, nervous, and excited all at once.

It's a hard transition to come back from the lake house to this house...both with long to-do lists. To say I'm keeping busy is an understatement. It's gloomy today and I'm forcing myself to stay in and get the wingback finished (I'm reupholstering it). Scroll down if you want to see our weekend photos.

Day 14

Great weekend! Loved having Mom and Dad up. We were very grateful for all of their help too, thanks Mom and Dad for everything!

We discovered that we have rhubarb and raspberry bushes. Mom made THE BEST rhubarb crumble ever.Our cedar trees that we had cut down were planed and stacked when we arrived. George is thrilled to have all of that beautiful wood. We can't decide what to build with it...we are thinking a tree house might be good. It will take about a year to dry out.
The canoe is now on the beach. George and Dad took it out Sat. afternoon. Water is so shallow that they said water was warm.
Hammock is up.
Mother's Day morning. We sat in the sun and drank coffee. Dad gave us our first lesson in fishing with our new rods. We practiced casting off the deck.

George and Dad put in the outdoor shower (with hot water!). It's awesome we all tried it out (except for Mom). We'll put up a curtain of some sort next weekend. We put in the stone pathway and filled in with cedar chips.
I power washed the bunkhouse deck. It took me almost 4 hours! It's pretty clean and looking good. We put some chairs out there and it has a wonderful view of the water.

We had a pretty good fish fry on Friday on the island and I ate fresh lawyers for the first time.

Lawyers, believe it or not, are a kind of fish. :) The owner of the place caught 400lbs. that day and since it's a fish that can't be frozen, I was served a HUGE plate of them, fried. Dynamite.

We'll be back up there this weekend, can't wait. Still 3 weeks away from referral, we're so grateful for this house as a distraction...

Day 11

My Mom and Dad are here for the weekend. While Mom and I shopped, Dad went out and got us completely outfitted to fish on the lake! We are so excited, we each have our own rod and a full tackle box! We then went to Gander Mountain and got canoe paddles. We are leaving this afternoon for the island. We can't wait to show them all the work we've done and to finally get the canoe in the water. Should be fun.

Time is flying this month, I can't even keep up with the countdown. This is a very good thing! Mom brought me my baby gift which is a handwoven diaper bag by Susan Johnson at the Avalanche Loom shop. I love it! Can't wait to use it. Typical mom fashion, she brought a lot of stuff for the baby, thanks mom!

Check back again for photos from our weekend.

Day 9

My Chinese friend, Jing, was over today for 5 hours! We talked the whole time, we're just like old friends. She brought me the best green tea I've ever had and taught me how to brew it properly. She's very concerned about teaching me things to be able to teach our daughter which I really love and appreciate.

Today Rumor Queen is speculating when referrals will arrive. She's predicting around June 4th, that sounds about right. Yeah!!!

Highchair and car seat arrived today. I told the UPS driver that we're expecting a baby soon. He looked at my stomach and I told him he would be delivering her next month. (He really will be delivering our referral) He walked away too fast for me to explain. I'm sure he's still trying to figure that one out!!!

Keep scrolling down to check out pictures from our trip to STL.

Day 8

It's Day 8 already. We won't see our referral until the first week in June. So, it's Day 8 out of probably 36-42. Day by day, right?

Our weekend in St. Louis was fun. It was great to see everyone. We had dinner at George's dad's house on Saturday. Here are some of the photos. (Keep scrolling down to the previous post to see the photos from the engagement party)

Jackson (George's little brother)

Elizabeth, Lee, baby Charlotte, George, Christianne

George & Charlotte

George, Elizabeth, & baby Anderson (George's little brother)

Isa
Cate
Elizabeth, Charlie, Lee, George, Anderson

Cate & Musa
Back at Nonni's reading bedtime stories

Thanks everyone for having us this weekend, we had a great time and loved seeing all of you!

Have a wonderful summer and visit anytime!

Day 8

Ben & Bridget's engagement party was beautiful. The country club was gorgeous, the weather was perfect and it was so nice to see all of our friends!

Day 4

Yikes, only 4 days! This IS going to be realllllly long.
We're leaving for STL very early tomorrow. It will be good to get away and to see family and friends. We've had beautiful weather and I've been out walking a lot with my good friend and neighbor, Christine. I can't wait to get this canoe off the patio and into Lake Michigan. Next weekend Mom and Dad will come and help get this big red monster onto our car.

George made very good progress in the workshop last night. Along that wall will hold 3 saws, his mortiser, and his router. Note the extensive dust collection system overhead. Looking good.
Check back soon, we should have some fun pics to post from our trip to STL and by then it will be DAY 8!

Day 3

Everything is blooming in the garden. This is our little apple tree ready to flower!

I ordered the carseat yesterday! I also ordered her highchair, it's just a little seat that hooks on to a counter or table. Those were the last two big things I needed to get. Feels weird, like this is really happening. It IS really happening. Wow!

Day 2

Day 2 out of how many? It could be anywhere from 28-36 or maybe even longer. Seems easy now, I imagine the closer we get, the harder it will be.

Our agency received 15 referrals yesterday for the Oct. 27th families. All girls! Ranging in age from 7 months to 11 months and all from the Jiangxi Province! Rumor Queen's site has links to blogs of families who just received referrals. Check it out if you want to see some pretty cute babies! http://chinaadopttalk.com/category/referral-announcements/

I met with my new friend, Jing, yesterday. She's Chinese and just wonderful! She's going to teach me Chinese and I'm going to help her with English. She is really concerned about teaching Chinese culture to our daughter and wanted to make sure I would show her how to eat with chopsticks! I assured her I would.

George's project of redoing his workshop has turned into a pretty big project with an extensive dust collection system. Our three car garage is now a NO car garage. George is on the phone with his very good friend, Tim, learning of the news that they are expecting a baby girl!!! Yeah! Our daughters will be only a year apart.!!!

Day 1

Since it's May 1st and since we know we're next, I thought it would be a perfect day to start a countdown until referral day. So far it's been a pretty calm feeling around here. We're beyond jaded so I think our mentality is still "I'll believe it when I see it." I think we just need to be pinched.

Of all things, this is what I did yesterday. I took all of her clothes that I've been collecting from dressers (yes, two dressers and a basket but not including all the stuff in the closet!). My mom's voice is in the back of my head telling me to wash all of that stuff. For most people, washing wouldn't be such a pressing matter but since I buy just about everything used, it's driving my mom crazy that I haven't washed it yet. The nursery does smell a little like Goodwill...

I revealed this pile to George last night who wondered why he hadn't put a cap on me earlier. Of course, he loved looking at all of her little clothes. I also discovered that she has 6 swimsuits! The nursery door has been closed for nearly 2 years...I'm rediscovering a lot of fun things in there.

We're Next!

The CCAA just matched families with Log-In-Dates up to November 1st. We're November 2nd so we're next! I can't even begin to tell you how excited we are! This is it. We can finally say that we are next! We can safely begin to count down the days until we see our daughter's face!
This month is going to fly by. We are so busy! Beginning of June we should know. That makes such perfect sense to us that it will be June, June is a special month for us. What a wonderful anniversary gift! So happy, so happy, so happy...
Our heads are spinning, who is she, what will she be like, what will she look like, how old will she be, where is she?! I think she was born last fall, September, October, November, or December! We will be in China during the heat of the summer! We will have her home long enough to enjoy the lakehouse with her, still warm enough for walks, and swimming. I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!!!!!!!!!

Lilah

I went to visit Mary, Tim, & Lilah this weekend while George was in Florida. I had such a nice time seeing them. Lilah is such a doll, so sweet, so good, and she's talking so much! We went to the new mall to shop and have lunch. They had a little quad of green grass where we stopped to play for a bit.

Spring has Arrived

Next week is May and we're just now getting buds on the trees but still not in bloom. Who cares, we'll take it. It's been a long and cold winter.
We had to stay at home this weekend because we had a benefit to go to with George's work. It was a dinner and auction for the local Catholic high school. We didn't dare bid on anything, we were way out of our league, there were some big spenders there! We were happy to duck out early.
Lots of yard work and cleaning, the weather was gorgeous. George is completely revamping his workshop. This is the before picture, what a mess. No after picture yet...this project will take some time.
Wish I had more exciting pictures to post but this is it...nothing exciting happening around here.
Rumor Queen is back and is saying that referrals might be out as early as first week in May. We're not holding our breath nor are we thinking we're even close to being included. At least this month has flown by. It will be very interesting to see how far they get in this next batch. Stay tuned.

Home Away From Home

With no hope of a referral anytime soon we have distracted ourselves with the lakehouse once again. We arrived this weekend to some snow but the rest of the weekend was gorgeous and sunny. We worked like crazy outside. Saturday we had HUGE bonfires on the shore. It was such hard work dragging branches on the rocks and the fires were HOT, we were exhausted. I took this picture of the smoldering fire on Sunday morning as we drank our coffee on the shore.

Perry came and chipped all of our brush and logs and cut down some big trees. It's giving us a lot more sun around the house. We're going to use all the chips to lay pathways around the property.

While the trees were getting cut, I cleaned out the gutters. George is trying to figure out how we are going to unclog those downspouts!

The Adirondacks George built look great, we tucked them in the woods to watch the sunset.
The sewer light went on! Excitement early Sat. morning was to watch them drain it!

Everyone that we've had come to do things for us is related one way or another, all sharing the same last name. The sewer guy comes out and says it looks like my uncle has been out clearing brush. When a cord of wood has been delivered he tells us his father-in-law can do the chipping for us. The chipping guy says he can take our cedar trees to his brother to get milled so George can build furniture with it. We find all of this completely charming. The island is a wonderful community and we're getting to know some pretty neat people. It will be a whole month until we can return. We really hope spring arrives while we are gone.

One Child Law

I came across the actual One Child Law and found it interesting. There are between 10,000 to 13,000 babies adopted out of China each year (at least in the past 5 years) and half of those numbers are babies adopted into the United States alone. These numbers are staggering to me because these are only showing the number of babies abandoned each year...not the babies who are actually born and killed or those aborted once the sex is determined by an illegal ultrasound.


In December 2002 the one-child policy became a LAW (versus a policy).
The new version of the law is:
1. Families may have only 1 child if they are Han or of a minority group with 100,000 or more members in the group.
2. Families who live in rural China on farms may have a second child if the first child is a girl.
3. Infertile couples may have the husband's brother & brother's wife bear a child for the infertile couple to raise as their own.
4. Families living in Beijing and Shanghai can have 2 children if they openly pay the required fee to the government.
5. Couples who marry and are only children themselves may have two children.
6. Couples who have only one child may adopt a second child without penalty (though they still have to pay the adoption fees which are greater than the penalty for having a second child through birth).
7. Families who exceed the one-child policy or above exceptions, are fined and must pay for the over-quota children's schooling, medical and any other services normally provided by the government. Usually people to not register these children anyway - they are like non-citizens.

It's Been Confirmed

Our agency is not receiving any referrals this month. The cut-off date is Oct. 26th. The CCAA has set an all time record low of matching only 2 days. We were only 9 days away. So close yet so far away. If they continue to match only 2 days worth, we could be looking at another 3 months of waiting. Simply unbelievable and utterly devastating. Trying to figure out why we continue to be tested in having a family is pointless, it has just become a cruel reality for us. We don't know how it is any other way at this point. The scary thoughts that run through my head is what if we don't get our baby at the end of this? What if they halt all adoptions because they simply don't have enough "paper ready" babies? It's a real fear. We know what it's like to be so close to our dream only to have it snatched right out from under us in the blink of an eye. It can and does happen. So, another month we have to wait and see what will happen. I don't see us being included in the next batch because the last days of October are bigger than the ones that were just matched. I predict it will be another season we have to go without our baby, I just know it.

On a much lighter note, we had a wonderful weekend up on the island. We find complete peace and happiness there, it's always a much needed break from our reality. We stopped at our favorite restaurant in Fish Creek, The Whistling Swan Inn before we caught the 9:30pm ferry ride over to the island. It was one of the best nights out we've had in a long time. Roaring fire, great local beer, dynamite food. In the dining room an older couple came over and asked if we were celebrating an anniversary because she saw our camera, we said no but we'd love our picture taken. We were totally grubby in our lakehouse clothes not to mention we realized we had on matching shirts... a positive mistake but an honest one with us...it happens more and more the longer we're married. So embarrassing, oh well. It was snowing when we walked out. The ferry ride over was, well I'll quote the captain of the boat, "one to tell your kids about." Blowing snow and ice, high winds, and very very dark going across "Death's Door" with the boat tilting completely left and completely right at what seemed to be full speed. We landed safely, opened a bottle of wine and watched a movie on our new Epson Movie Mate. The toilet and shower are in, what a relief. We had someone come out to see about chipping all of the brush and trees we've cut down. He's going to do it this week! We rushed around Sunday to add more and tagged the big trees we want down. Thank God for this house, we live for the weekends to return to it. It's definitely a bright spot for us.

(just learning to insert hyperlinks, no need to click on them unless interested, just practicing)

Not so good

What a draining week this has been! Rumors now are saying that the cut-off will be Oct. 26, not even close to us (Nov.2)! That's only 2 days of matching in one month! It would certainly make a new record for the CCAA. Our agency notified us today that they have a package scheduled to arrive next Monday or Tuesday and likely THESE are referrals. So we will just have to wait and see. We really don't expect to be included in this batch afterall. It will be interesting to see if these rumors hold true. Monday or Tuesday will tell all.

It will be snowing with high winds on the island this weekend. How's that for spring? We're going anyway. It's the only place we can imagine being right now, truly a place for some solitude.
Hopefully I will have some pictures to add after the weekend...this blog is looking pretty dull.

False Alarm

Referrals didn't arrive yesterday, won't arrive today, and probably won't arrive tomorrow.
Our agency stated today that it doesn't see any packages (referrals) scheduled to arrive as of yet from the CCAA. Even if they were sent today from China then our agency wouldn't receive them until Friday of which they are closed for the holiday. SO, I think it is safe to say that we won't see referrals until next week. Even so, we don't even know if we will be in this batch. This is so much harder then we ever thought. I am going to stop here because I just erased an entire paragraph of me going off on all of this and it really isn't necessary to broadcast how I really feel right now. So, I hope you'll keep following along because it will get better and more exciting, I promise. After all, our baby is out there somewhere.

Monday UPDATE

UPDATE
Our agency just informed us that the package that arrived today DID NOT contain referrals. I have no idea when they'll arrive. Maybe tomorrow? I just don't know. I'm getting out of the house. I'll post what I know later.

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


It is now the afternoon in Europe and we've heard nothing from them. Does this mean referrals won't arrive until tomorrow or later??? They are usually the first to receive them, it's making everyone wonder what and the heck is going on. Our agency told us specifically that they expect a package to arrive today. They couldn't be completely positive the package is referrals so we'll have to wait and see. They expect DHL between 10 and noon.

I'm glued to the computer right now...afraid if I leave for one second I'll miss something. I'm dressed and ready for the day. George went to work this morning and should be home before noon. This is simply crazy. Are we in? Are we out? Are referrals even arriving today? Will they arrive tomorrow? Will they arrive at the end of the week? I would like to clean the house but I can't move, it's like I'm frozen in a state of anticipation. I just need to print out a list of questions to ask if we do get the call and I need to make sure I have the video camera positioned next to the phone... Better do all that just in case. More later.

We made it through the weekend

We were surprised how fast the weekend flew by. We had so much to do up at the lakehouse and without having a computer, t.v., or movies, we got A LOT done. George installed the shower and put trim in the bathroom. I painted the bunkhouse (kelly green!) and today we decorated it...it's totally for kids. Turned out pretty cute. The weather was dreary but the sun came out briefly today and the water was coming in with a little surf. It sounded like we were at the ocean!

It was wonderful being away for the weekend which could have otherwise been pretty miserable. Now we're home and exhausted and not sure how tomorrow will go. We really hope we've been matched and that we will get "the call." It's going to be a long day. George will work from home and I'm not going anywhere. I want to go to bed so tomorrow will come faster. It's like Christmas Eve but times 500. More tomorrow.