It's Starting to Look Alot Like Christmas.

We have finally put up our Christmas Tree. In the 9 years we have lived at this house, we have only put up our tree a handful of times. The reason is we are not usually home for Christmas. There always seemed to be no point.

This year, however, we are planning on being home. After we celebrate Christmas Eve in New Hampshire with Dave's family, we are coming home the next day. I will be cooking a big roast pork dinner and we will have Dave's Nana here, along with his father and lady friend.

I am actually looking forward to it. I love to cook, and because we have always celebrated at Dave's sister's house, I have always felt useless, as she cooks the big meal. Well this year I am. I already have the cookbooks out and have been planning my menu.

Also, because it is a small crowd, I can have a nice sit down dinner with all the trimmings. Yay.

Here are a couple of pictures of our tree and my favorite ornaments:


This first ornament, I bought last year. This is a panda, with a good wishes quilt and lady bugs all over it. I bought this in honor of Katy. I remember when I bought this, i thought she would be with us by now. Boy, was I wrong.

The second ornament, is from this year. I bought this at Pier 1. It is a special handpainted design done in the ancient Chinese tradition of (OK, I can't find the paper that describes it) Anyway, it is painted on the inside of the glass ball. THis picture does not do it justice. It is white with gold painting of doves and it says Peace.

December Update (Warning - this post is long)

Hello Everyone,

I am back. It has been too long since I have updated my blog and I thought I would do that today. Boy, to catch up on two months. Let's see, where should I start.

1. ) We had a wonderful dinner with some fellow adopters from our Adoption Agency. What a great nite. We met at Chuck's Steakhouse in Auburn, MA and had a great time. It was so nice to meet new people that have a common interest. I hope we can make this a regular meeting. I think there was talk to try to get together for Chinese New year in February.

2.) We got our fingerprints back and approved. Now we have to work on getting our I600 form redone. This will be another $400. Yuck. But hopefully this will be the last time.

3.) We have officially passed our 13 month anniversery of LID. I cannot believe it has been over a year. Trying to be the optimist that I am, i have to keep saying we are way more that half way there. (I say this with a big fake smile on my face) I think I am going to need some Botox for all the clenched happy faces that I have been making.

4.) We had my husbands big 40 birthday party in November. What a great time. Lots of good friends, family and fun. Unfortunately I can't show any pictures for fear of revenge from the party goers. Everyone said they had a great time. I know that Dave did. He let me know when he rolled out of bed the next day at 1:00 pm. (Just in time for football) Oh well, it was his birthday so i cut him some slack.

5.) The most wonderful of all was the visit from my sister and her family. They flew in from California and stayed for about 10 days. We had such a good time. This was the first time I had seen my neices for 2.5 years. They have grown so much. The last time I saw my neice Lily, she was 3 months old, now she is a toddler. This was also the first holiday I have spent with them in over 5 years. What a great week. We went to the Children's Meuseum, had a lot of playdates with my other sister and her family, we had Thanksgiving at my cousins house, a fun shopping day with just me and my two sisters in Burlington. I could go on and on. Instead I will share some pictures:































6.) The last thing I would like to say is that referrals were given out at the end of November through Sept 8, 2005. That means if they keep going with the amount they have been giving out, we can expect to see our referral at the end of February, or March. This is my best guess estimate for December. Let's see what happens at the end of the month.

So you can see why I haven't been blogging lately. Too much going on. But I am turning over a new leaf and will start to blog more often.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and wish everyone a wonderful holiday season.

Happy 1 Year Anniversery

Today is our 1 year anniversery of our LID. Our paperwork was officially logged into China on this date last year. At the time it was supposed to be a 6 month wait, but as you know, it has turned into a 14 to 15 month wait. (We hope).

Today we are expecting our referral to come at the end of January or February. Traveling to China in March or April.

How do I feel about it? Good and Bad.

Good, because we are that much closer, we won't travel in the middle of winter and i may have some of the summer off.

Bad, because it has been 1 year, with another possibly 4 months to wait until we see her face, and I really don't want to face another holiday season without her. But we need to be positive and look on the brightside. We are getting closer.

Today we took a ride into Boston and had our fingerprints done again. They run out on November 6th. It was a fast trip as there wasn't too many people there.

We also have a dinner planned with some people from my adoption agency. I am so looking forward to meeting these people. Right now they are going through the same thing i am, and it is nice to commiserate with someone. I will be sure to post pictures.

We are celebrating the night by ordering Chinese Food and having a quiet night. Let's hope we won't be celebrating next year without our Katy.

You'll Notice A Change

Unfortunately, in my ignorance of how HTML coding works, I messed up my original blog and could not get it back to the way it was.

Here is a new layout. I thought the pink was appropriate. I will be adding some other items to the blog in the future. Right now I am just glad i got it back to a readable state.

More later.

A Moose Is On The Loose

Today, while I was working on my computer at home, I looked out my window to see two Moose, a mom and baby, wandering up our road. Yes, you heard it right. Two Moose. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of them, but I think my neighbor did. I will try to get those at another time. This is off of the Internet.

Now I have to tell you, I live in a very thickly settled neighborhood, in a town of about 35,000 people, next to a city of about 100,000 people. This is not Alaska, but the suburbs of Boston.

My husband was working downstairs in the basement, and thought the house was burning down when i started yelling for him. But it's not everyday you see a moose walking up our road. They wandered through our neighbors yard and kept on walking up the street.

We called the police, but apparantly it was old news to them. They must have been wandering for quite awhile. Not sure what happened to them, they must have kept going to the big city to check out the sites.

Adoption Update for July

There is not much to say in the way of the adoption right now. We are still in the waiting process. At least our paperwork has been moved to the matching room. This is a good sign.

Dave and I did have to update our homestudy. It is required that an update be submitted every year until the adoption goes through. At least it wasn't as detailed at our first one. Just another CORI check and doctor's exam. We also will probably have to have our fingerprints done again. This won't be as much fun. Anther set of forms, travel to Boston again for fingerprinting, and wait for our I171 form to come in the mail. Plus this cost money. I have to look it up, but i think we are talking around $600.

July Referrals should be posted this week. What we are all anxious to hear, in the China Adoption world, is that all of July 2005 will be included in this batch. There is a slim chance, but we musn't get our hopes up.

It looks like i may have to update my Referral ticker at the top. I think i need to push it out another few months. I am going to wait until this month's referrals have been posted.

This month has been very busy though. We had our annual Fourth of July party, we went on our summer vacation with my family to Ossipee Lake, NH. And we had the Girl's Party i mentioned below.

August will be the month for me to get my butt in gear and start shopping and setting up the nursery. I want to finish my registry, start looking at some of the big ticket items we need to buy and possibly start setting up Katy's room. This waiting is not good for my procratinating problem. I keep putting things off and before you know it, i will be scrambling around as I usually do.

Above are some pictures from our vacation this year. We stayed at a beautiful lake in New Hampshire. I got to spend some quality time with my niece and nephew, relax, shop, and read a book. You can't a

Thank You to My Wonderful Friends and Family !!!

This weekend was my Sister In Law's Annual Girl's Party. Every year she has a party at her house in New Hampshire with all the girl's. She has different vendors selling their wares, she had chair massages, we all bring our favorite dish, read Tabloids, drink cocktail's, and talk, talk talk. There are no husbands or kids allowed.

This year she decided to have a raffel for Katy. Her husband donated some Red Sox Tickets, the various vendors donated jewelery, skin care products, and other things and then she sold tickets. Everyone joined in. What a great time. The best part was she raised $600 for our little girl. Unbelievable.

How fortunate i am to have wonderful family and friends that support us so much. I would like to thank my Sister In Law, her niece, who organized everything and collected the money, all the vendors who so generously donated thier products, and everyone who bought tickets. Included are some pictures from our fun night in her pool house.

We Are In The Matching Room !!!!!

It's official. We are in the matching room. I just visited the CCAA website and this is the news that greeted me.

What does this mean, you ask. It means that somewhere in China our paperwork has officially been reviewed and now has moved to the "Matching Room". They are going to be looking at our file and matching us with our little girl.

This also means they have given out referrals to anyone that had their paperwork sent in by June 28, 2005. Four more months left.

Oh my God. I am so excited right now. It is going to happen. It is actually going to happen.

Update to my long wait

I know it has been a very long time since i posted, but there is just nothing going on in the adoption right except waiting.

Dave and I traveled to Washington DC for Memorial Day weekend. What a great trip. We saw so much and did so much. I will post pictures later. Unfortunately, I dropped my digital camara and can't seem to turn it on now. So i will have to resort to the old fashioned pictures that Dave took. As soon as we get them back i will post.

I wanted to share this beautiful poem i found on another board. This sums up my feelings right now.

Somewhere far across the sea
Waits a little heart for me
Amazing though how it may seem
We both are sharing the same dream
I long to tuck you in at night
And hold your tiny hand so tight
To kiss your tears and keep you near
To chase away your every fear
No one knows the tears I've cried
The emptiness I've felt inside
Only God knew what to do
A red thread tied from me to you
And now my love it's almost time
When I'll be yours and you'll be mine
Soon forever-never to part
My child I bore inside my heart

I don't know the author's name, but i give her all the credit she deserves, because that is a beautiful sentiment.

More later.

Our Secret Pal is Revealed !!!

This month we all got to reveal ourselves to our October DTC Secret pals. I received this wonderful gift from my pal Jodi. She has been so generous and thoughtful with her gifts. This was what she sent to me this month. That beautiful blanket was handmade by Jodi. I will definitly treasure that. Also the book, Shaoey and Dot is a wonderful book by the Chapmans. It is the story of a ladybug who comes across a baby in China and follows her travels to find her forever family.

I can't wait to bundle little Katy in that blanket and read her this wonderful story in her room. The image of this keeps me going in this long wait.

As far as the wait is concerned, we are now at about 11-12 month wait. That means I won't get to see little Katy's face until early fall. I just hope she is home in time for Christmas. That would be the most precious gift i could ask for this year.

I would like to say a very big Thank You to my wonderful secret pal, Jodi. It is nice to finally put a name to the gifts i have received every month.

Our Kitchen is Almost Done

I know it has been awhile since I have posted, but we have been very busy in our little corner of the world.

We have been thinking of remodeling our kitchen for a few years now, and with all the delays in the adoption wait, we finally decided to do it. Our house was built by my grandparents about 60 years ago, and it is very sentimental to me. I have a hard time making any significant changes to it because I have very fond memories of growing up in this house. But now that we are having big changes in our life, we need our house to match that.

Our kitchen was split up into two rooms with this annoying half wall that blocked alot of sunlight and made the room really hard to manuver in. We decided to knock down the half wall and put in a french door out to our 4 season porch. What a difference. We are just about done. We are now waiting on our new countertops. They should be here in about another week. I hope. Below are some pictures of the before and after.


As you can see I still have a lot of painting to do, but i am almost finished. I will be sure to post pictures when the countertops are in and everything is painted.

Happy Birthday Corinna Bean !!!

On March 22nd, my little sister will turn 36 years old. She would probably kill me for writing her age on here, but that's OK because she lives 3,000 miles away from me.

Dave and I just bought a new Printer, Scanner, Copier and I was testing it out with some old photos I have. I scanned this picture from 1974, I think. Cori is on the left and I am on the right. Aren't we cute. I especially love the overall's my sister has on. Also, you don't have to adjust your computer monitor, she does have red hair. She has the most beautiful red hair i have ever seen.

This is one of my favorite pictures of us. If that driveway looks familiar from the snowblower post, it is. Dave and I bought my Grandmother's house after she passed, and that is where the picture is taken. The wood fence is gone, but the rest of it looks the same.

I want to wish my little sister a Happy Birthday this week. And don't worry Cori, your present is in the mail. I love you.

I Am Back from My Trip

Well, I made it home safe and sound. What a long trip. I spent a week in Orlando, FL to work at a client site and then flew to Phoenix, AZ for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to attend a consulting summit. I flew back to Boston on Tuesday, March 14th. It was good to get home.

Sorry no pictures. I forgot to take my camara with me. It was all work, work, work anyway.

I did get to spend Saturday with my Aunt M. She lives in Florida and was able to drive up and meet me. We had such a good time. We went to this little town called Mt. Dora and hit this huge Antique Market. It was a combination of outside and inside booths. There was so much to see. I zeroed in on some wonderful Fiestaware, but didn't buy any. I couldn't figure out how to get it home without breaking it. I did find a beautiful vintage tablecloth. It has such a pretty design on it.

We then went to Downtown Disney for dinner. We ate at this Crab Restaurant on a steamboat. Good Food. My flight left for Phoenix at 7:20 am, so we didn't get to stay out late. That's OK though, because i was pretty tired from all the walking that day.

Well it's back to reality. It is cold here in New England. I miss the warm sunshine. I was definitly spoiled by it.

Happy 4 Month LID Anniversery !!!

On February 28th, it has been four months since our paperwork was Logged in to China. I can't believe how fast the time is going by. Although I am getting a little depressed with the extended wait and rumors flying around.

One exciting thing is they passed out referrals this past week. Our agency received 19 referrals. Congratulations to all those new families. The CCAA has sent out referrals to anyone who had their paperwork logged in to China by May 25, 2006. That was about a 9 month wait. Apparantly their was a large number of dossiers sent to China for May, that is why they have split the month. (LID's with May 13th were sent at the end of January)

What does that mean for me, well it could be another 5 months, or 6 months, or 7 months. No one really knows. I am trying my hardest not to read any rumors or guesses. I am instead going to look at the top of my blog and read that timeline - 4 months, 4 weeks until our referral. See, I already feel better.

Sunday, March 5th I will be flying to Orlando for work. Can you say "Warm Weather". I checked the forecast and it will be a high of 74 degrees on Sunday. I will be staying in Orlando until Sunday, March 12th and then flying off to Phoenix for a consulting summit. Can you say "Really Warm Weather". I probably should start looking for my summer clothes to pack. I think I will look pretty ridiculous in my sweaters and boots. I am already going to look extremely pasty white with my New England "Winter Tan".

I will post more when I get back from my trip.

Happy Valentine's Day Secret Pal

I received another gift from my Secret Pal. This time on Valentines' Day. As you can see she sent me some beautiful books, barettes, a babysitter's checklist and some candy. Also as you can see I have already dived into the candy. What's Valentine's Day without Chocolate.

Thank you to my Secret Pal for all my wonderful gifts.

Dave's New Toy

On Sunday we woke up to a winter wonderland. We had a snowstorm all day, and got at least 18 inches dumped in our lap. We didn't mind though for a couple of reasons:

It was a Sunday, and we didn't have to go anywhere. Just hang around the house.

Also, Dave and two other neighbors chipped in together to buy a new snowblower. They just picked it up a couple of weeks ago and this is the first time they got to use it. I wonder how many more snowstorms until the newness rubs off.

I captured a couple of pictures of Dave playing with his new toy.




Here is our neighbor trying out the new snowblower on his driveway:



Our other neighbor had to leave for Las Vegas on Saturday morning, so he missed all the fun. Better luck next time.

We Have Started our Registry

I know this is early, but I have started our registry at Babies R Us online. Actually, I am glad I am starting now because, just looking at everything, it is going to take me awhile to figure out what I want and need.

Does every first time parent go through this? I don't know what to get. It also makes it hard because the registry is filled with things to stock for a newborn and Katy will be about 9-12 months old, maybe older, when she comes home.

Thank God I have lots of friends and family that have gone through this. I am sure I will be asking everyone for advice.

Now I know what you are going to say, "this wasn't part of her February list of things to do". I haven't actually started that list. But I do have 2.5 weeks left in the month. I am just starting March's list early. I have to admit I am somewhat of a procrastinator, but when it comes to shopping, that word does not enter my mind.

Happy Three Month LID Anniversery

Boy those three months went by quick. Our official Log In Date is October 28, 2004. That means our paperwork was logged into the Chinese Agency that handles all the matching of the babies to their forever parents.

Originally when we started this adoption journey we were told we would wait 6 months from our Log In Date until we received our referral. Now that wait has jumped to about 9 months. That means we hopefully will receive our referral sometime in July 2006.

I am trying to stay positive. I am not listening to the rumors circulating around the message boards about a 12 month wait. Still, it is hard not to get down about it. That is probably why I have not so much as thought about setting up the nursery, or shopping for Katy. Won't I be surprised if they decide to speed things up.

So, what I have decided is to start a couple of projects each month. This months projects will be:

• Make a doctors appointment and get my shots started for my trip
• Start clearing out the spare bedroom to turn it into a nursery for Katy
• Learn one new Chinese phrase that can be used when traveling (I will learn to say I Love You in Chinese)

This seems like a good start. I will keep you posted.

Our Autumn Dreams Website is Up and Running

After we submitted our paperwork to China, I joined a Yahoo Group called October DTC 2005. This is a group of people that all had their paperwork submitted to China at the same time. We will all be receiving our Referrals at the same time and may even meet up in China when we pick up our babies.

They have developed a website just for us. It is called Autumn Dreams. I wanted to share it with you. This will be a very exciting page once we all receive our referrals. It will be the first glimpse of our beautiful babies.

The URL is http://www.geocities.com/autumndreams2005dtc/.

Chinese New Year is January 29, 2006

We are not sure when Katy will be born, but I have been doing some research and found this info on what the Calender Symbol for 2006 and 2005 are. Depending on what year she is born she will either grow up to be like Donald Trump or Emeril Lagasse. Whatever she is I hope she is happy and healthy.

Year of the Dog - 2006

Dogs are honest and faithful to those they love but they tend to worry too much and find fault with others. They make ideal secret agents or business people.

Famous people born in the Year Of The Dog:
Shirley MacLain, Henry Cooper, Slyvia Sims,Dolly Parton, Liza Minelli Jane Asher

Year of the Rooster - 2005

The sign of the Rooster indicates a person who is hard-working and definite about their decisions. Roosters are not afraid to speak their minds and can therefore sometimes come across as boastful. They make good restaurant owners and world travellers.

Famous people born in the Year Of The Rooster:
Michael Aspel, Yoko Ono,Rod Stewart, Mia Farrow, Eric Clapton

Thank you again Secret Pal

My October DTC Secret Pal sent me this wonderful gift for Janary. The pink blanket is my favorite. You can't see it, but it says "I Love Mommy" on the blanket. This brought tears to my eyes because it is my first item that says those words. I have waited a long time to hear that.

Thanks again Secret Pal for your thoughtfulness.

A Happy New Year

I know this is a little late, but I wanted to post it anyway. We had a wonderful New Year's Eve at our neighbor/friends house. This picture was taken just after 12:00 am. The group is our very good friends that live in our neighborhood. I have to say that Katy is going to enjoy her new home and friends. We live in the greatest neighborhood in America.

Thank you P & H for hosting such a fun party. Can't wait until next year when Katy is going to be in that picture. (If she's not asleep already.)