12 Days

The CCAA has filled referrals thru 02/23/06 leaving 12 days to fill! 12 Days.......oh my, we are getting so very close. While we wish we were spending our 1st Christmas with Emma, that is not to be, so we will just have to find a way to enjoy the season and look forward to the coming months. I think we will see a referral in March (maybe the 7th, now that would be strange, wouldn't it??)!

We have been busily getting ready for the holidays and are really looking forward to spending time together. This year is a 1st, as it will just be our little family of 9 this year. No big family Christmas, but I'm hoping with our smaller gathering I will really get to spend some precious time with those I love. Sometimes in the chaos and madness of a big Christmas, we loose sight of what's really important - family and memories!!

With 16 days left to go - our cards are sent and we are slowly getting our gifts bought!! For those following our blog - Merry Christmas!! We are so looking forward to the excitement, nervousness, and overwhelming joy that 2009 will bring!

TWO PLEASE!!

Well, we only got 2 days this month. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but we will take them none the less. So, now we are at 18 days. We hear that typically after a small batch like this, the next bacth is larger. Angie thinks they may fill to the end of February next month. We can only hope. We will keep our heads up and see what next month brings.
We have begun our marathon of weekend travels this month. We really enjoyed the musical "Grease" this last weekend!! Angie was very jealous, as it has been her lifelong dream to play "Sandy". But, alas, the honor went to Jaime, and she did a great job!! Not to leave out Jacob, who also did a great job!! This weekend we will be returning going home again for the craft show; yep, more "selling of the scarves" and baby hats!! We are trying something new with inter-changable "hat tops" as well as some "hat accessories"!! So, check us out this weekend!!
Then comes Thanksgiving!! We are looking forward to hanging out for a few days, visiting, eating, playing games, eating, napping, oh yea, and eating!!
On a sadder note, I am deeming Tuesday as "black Tuesday", as I will be turning 29(40!!) again. I am struggling quite alot with this, so I am warning you all now. Angie says it's just a number and to get over it, and I am trying, but I am just not there yet. So be nice!! What am I talking about, you people are ruthless!!
So, there you go!! Angie let me write this update while she is knitting away getting ready for this weekend!! Happy Reading!!

Halloween 2008

Normally this time of the month I would be posting some info about the latest batch of referrals. Alas, there is no news from the CCAA just yet - so we wait, something we are pretty used to. Last word, they were still matching babies with families, so maybe that is a good sign of things to come.

In the meantime, we have had quite a week. Michael's mom and dad went on a trip to Seattle and we were lucky to have him come stay with Grandma and Grandad for the week. It was a special treat to spend so many days with him. We went to the zoo, got ready for Halloween, and spent alot of nights playing golf and FOOTBALL. He's a special little boy and so much fun!!

Rusty got a special treat when he learned that Becky and Brian had given him their tickets to the KU/KSU football game. He was thrilled! We headed out Friday night for an overnight stay and spent Saturday at the game. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, 72 and sunny. The campus was beautiful with all the trees turning. All in all, it was a perfect day!

Stay tuned......rumors should be flying this week - we hope!! In the meantime, enjoy!!

And then there were 20......

20 days!!! Oh my, we can't believe it is down to 20 days. This month the CCAA sent an early batch and we learned this week that they have filled referrals thru Feb. 15th. That leaves only 20 days to fill. If they were to continue to fill 6 days a month, we would see a referral in February 2009. Of course, we always hope for more days and it is starting to sink in that this is really happening and we could see a referral within the next few months! We still are hoping for an early Christmas present, but as the year winds down, it is looking more and more like the 1st of the year. However, one thing we have learned is that anything can happen, so we are just holding on and preparing for the ride of our lives!

Gran's Marchers 2008

Update: My friend's sister had her surgery this week and we were thrilled to learn that the pathology report came back negative - no cancer!! She is now recovering and doing well. What a wonderful way to start off Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

This weekend was the Race for the Cure and once again our family chose to participate. Our team name is "Gran's Marchers" after my grandmother who I am happy to say is a breast cancer survivor. This year she was given a clean bill of health and that is definately cause for celebration. We had 30+ walkers and raised over $1,000.00 for the Komen foundation. It was a beautiful day and quite inspiring to see all the survivors walk in! There are so many battling this disease and so we continue to walk and hope for a cure. My very good friend's sister is battling as I write, and will be having surgery in the morning. She is a young mother fighting a tough battle, and so we continue to pray for her and will say a special prayer this evening in hopes the surgery will go well!

After the walk, we all gathered at my mom and dad's for lunch, fun, and fellowship. We had so much to be thankful for. In addition to my Gran being cancer-free, my mother celebrated her 60th birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!!), my sister is engaged and a June wedding is being planned, we are only a few months from referral of our baby Emma, and we have recently learned a new baby is on the way. All in all, we are extremly blessed and wanted to take a moment from our busy lives and celebrate!! As I said, the weather could not have been better and we spent the day visiting, eating (alot, we had so much food) and just hanging out. It was a great way to spend the weekend, laughing and lovin' up on my family!!

26 Days Left!

Can you imagine.....here we are, waiting and wondering when and if referrals will come this month. Following the Olympics, there has been much speculation as to whether the CCAA would even send our referrals for the month of September. Well, we were pleasantly surprised Monday night to arrive home and learn that they had filled referrals thru Feb. 9th, 2006! Oh my goodness......it has been quite a thrill to finally see February on all the websites and know that our turn is just around the corner. September 7th will mark 30 months since our LID of March 7th. That is a long time to wait and it seems the end (or shall I say the beginning) of our journey is in sight!!

We have spent the last couple of days so happy and excited to see how the next few months unfold. Several of the couples in our travel group decided to make an M&M chain as a way to count down the remaining 26 days. We wanted to join in on the fun - so we spent Tuesday night making our chain and getting it hung in the living room. Russman says it looks like we are getting ready for a party, and I guess he's right! We will definately be celebrating as we take these final steps towards the referral of our baby girl!

Here comes the sun..........

Today is a great day! We have finally learned that the CCAA has filled referrals through January 31st, 2006 - a "6 day" batch. Some would say it's not much to get excited about. Here's the deal. I really do not like the month of January. It's long, cold, dark, and yucky! I have always dreaded January and count down the days till we get to February! Well, it seems that in the "adoption referral" world, January has also taken it's toll. All in all, it has taken 6 months to get thru the monster month of "January 06". So here we are - all that stands between us and our baby girl are 35 days (Feb. 1st - March 7th)! Luckily, February is the shortest month of the year. I know we are still months away from a referral, but January is done and that makes for a happy momma-to-be! Look out world - the sun's getting ready to shine!!

Our Projections............

Okay.....so if you scroll down below the red Beijing clock you will find a new section title "Our Projections". I added this today because our families still seems to be somewhat confused as to how the referral process works. Once a month, the CCAA sends out referrals to waiting families. The referral contains the child's information and pictures. After receiving a referral, the family sends a letter of acceptance for this particular child. An appointment is then set with the US consulate, and travel arrangements can begin to be made.

So, we have projected how far we believe the CCAA will fill each month. This is strictly wishful thinking......but I hope it will prove to be fairly accurate. I guess time will tell. In the meantime, you can see that we were already off by several days for the month of July, as we projected they would fill to 2/5/06 and they only got to 1/25/06. As I said before, it is merely a guess on our part. No one but the CCAA knows for sure how it will all play out!

Each month, we will post how far they have filled. If we are lucky, they will hopefully catch up or better yet - speed ahead and a November/December referral is in our future!!

Our 1st China Camp

Yes, I'm late posting this month! First and foremost, CCAA has filled thru Jan. 25th - 5 more days. We are kind of tired of the 5 day thing and to be perfectly honest, we really, really hoped they would start filling February. But alas, that did not happen, so we will take the 5 days and like always, hope for more next month. With the Olympics starting in a few weeks, August should prove to be an interesting month - we will see what happens.

Yes, I have totally redone our blog. I was really tired of the pink, and wanted a change. I'm pleased with the basic idea, but still have some work to do. I'm hoping since we are getting closer to a referral, more people will be visiting the site and enjoy seeing what we are up to!

So back to the title - we attended our 1st China Camp last weekend! We went to Tulsa on Thursday night and spent Friday and Saturday learning about the Chinese language, food, and basically got some info on the culture and what to expect when we travel. We were fortunate to meet three of the couples we will be traveling with. All of them were very nice and I know we will enjoy our 2 weeks in China with them. One of the couples has done this many times before, so we hope they will be able to guide us "newbies" as to the in's and out's of China and the adoption process.

When we arrived home, Russman was not feeling well and kept complaining of a side ache. We got thru Sunday okay, but by Monday morning he was doubled over and in alot of pain. We managed to get him into the doctor that morning and to make a long story short - we spent the next 4 days in the hopsital recovering from diverticulitis. Definately not in our plan, but we made it through the week, none the less.

And to end on a happy note: Congratulations to Auntie B on her engagement! We are super excited and planning a June wedding complete with a big party and lots of fun!!

Whew.............what a month it's been. Lots going on to keep us busy and make the days between us and Miss M fly by!!

Hip, Hip Hooray......we got 8 days!!

Updated 06/11/08:  Well it appears we may have jumped the gun a little.  Reports now say that they have only filled thru 01/20/08.  That is still 8 days of referrals, so it's still a nice size batch.  However, we would now have 46 days left, not 44 :(

What a wonderful surprise.....it appears the CCAA has filled thru Jan. 22nd! That is 10 days of referrals for June. We were very excited to mark them off, leaving 44 LID's to go. So is this a sign that things are picking up? - I don't believe so. It seems to be about the same number of referrals. However, at this point, we are down to counting the days - so to mark off 10 is a very big deal!! As many of you probably know, the Olympics will be held in Beijing this August. Right now, everything I have read says the CCAA does not think the Olympics will affect the referral process. So, we look towards July and hopefully another big batch! Oh my goodness - is a 2008 referral possible??? I guess time will tell!

3 more days....we'll take 'em

So it looks like this month the CCAA has filled thru January 12, 2006.  A very small batch, but these three days were fairly large, so we weren't surprised.  We continue to count down and now have 54 days left to fill.  

We are still celebrating the national championship of our Kansas Jayhawks!  It was a very fun and exciting game and we, of course, went out and immediately purchased up some T-shirts.  We each got a couple and found one for Michael and Emma.  I'm sure we will be taking it with us to China, as Daddy can't hardly wait to see her in it!

Still hoping for a fall referral - come on CCAA, we want to meet our baby girl!!

1 more month, 5 more days

Referred thru: Jan. 9th, 2006

57 Days Left to Refer

Here we are, April 2008! This month it appears the CCAA has referred through Jan. 9th, 2006. This is only 5 days referred this month. Not very good....but we will take them none the less. It seems this is a rather small batch, but according to some, this batch tends to be smaller as it follows Chinese New Year, when many workers are on holiday. While we always wish for more days, we will take the five they have done and hope for more next month.

There seems to be more discussion lately regarding the upcoming Olympics and how it will impact the adoption process. Everything we have read is speculation and nothing seems to be for sure, but they are predicting a slow down in the coming months. We are still hoping for a referral this fall and continue to look towards October as the magic month. I guess only time will tell!

Until then, we ask that you please pray for the many families involved in this process and especially our agencies next group of families logged in on Jan. 23rd, 2006. This is the last group of families before us, so we are looking forward to their referral date and know that ours will not be far behind!

Is 2008 the year???

CCAA Status - Placed through: January 4, 2006

62 DTF (days to fill)

This friday marks our 2 year anniversary since our log-in date of March 7th, 2006. We are excited to finally report that the CCAA has started filling referrals for 2006. We now have 62 days left to fill. While we know it may take several months to do this, we are thrilled to see our year being filled and are looking forward to a referral this fall. Of course, nothing is for certain but we are trying to be positive and see a glimmer of light at the end of this very, very, very long tunnel.

Our agency has a group of families logged-in on January 23rd, 2006 and then our group is next! You might say we are "on deck"! Again, very exciting!

As I've said before, I will be blogging more often, as we are getting closer. I know I haven't been very good at this thus far, but honestly, there hasn't been much to report. I have a feeling that is all getting ready to change!