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!!