Here She Comes !!!

The stork is going to be landing at our house in the next few days. You heard it here. We have received confirmation that we have been included in this batch of referrals and we should be receiving a call any day now.

We probably won't see Katy's picture until sometime next week. At least we will know her Chinese name, where she is, how old she is and hopefully more. Then we meet with the social worker next week and receive our packet of info.

Stay tuned for some exciting news.

With A Heavy Heart We Are Forced Again To.....

We may not get our Referral this month. It has not been confirmed, but it seems likely.

Rumor Has It....

I thought i would fill you in on the latest rumors. I have heard that Referrals have been mailed, and are somewhere in the US.


This could mean we could get our call as early as Monday or Tuesday!!!!


The funny thing is, next week will be two years exactly that we received our packet in the mail from Wide Horizons. We started this wonderful journey on April 5th, 2005. Now we are going to see our beautiful baby's face possibly on April 5th, 2007. WOW.


I am going to be a Mom. I can't believe it.

This Says It All

This seems to be my motto for the last 17 Months. As i get closer to our referral date, I look back at the last couple of years and can't believe how slow it seems to have passed.

Every month that the referrals were issued I knew we were getting one step closer but it still seemed so far away. Now, we are weeks away from looking at our daughter's face for the first time and can't believe how quick it is coming. I feel like I have a million things that should be done, but I can't bring myself to do them yet. I want to see her picture and then it will be real.

So, from the time we receive our referral to the time I board the plane for China, I am going to be a woman on a mission. I have my lists ready, I have my ideas in my head.

I am just Waiting, Hoping and Dreaming, and definitely won't have to Repeat.

Look for coming attractions of Katherine Linda's beautiful face. It should be anywhere from April 2nd to April 12th.

Happy Birthday !!!!

March is a very busy month of birthdays for me. So I thought i would send out a Happy Birthday to my family.

Cori, Lily and little Brian - I hope you all have a wonderful birthday.

Love, Sister and Aunty.

Referral News!!!

The latest rumors are referrals were sent with a cut off date of October 24th. What does that mean for me.

WE ARE NEXT !!!!!

We will be in the next batch of referrals due at the end of this month. I am beyond excited. I am trying to remain calm, but i keep breaking into a big smile everytime i think about it.

I am not going to be posting again until i hear more news from the referral front. I have been incredibly busy with work, trying to tie up projects until my baby leave. (it feels weird to say that) I also need to start getting ready for a baby in the house, and my trip.

Hang in there, good news coming soon.

The Shopping Has Started

Today was a really fun Sunday. I met up with three other October Mommy's at the Holyoke Mall for some shopping therapy and lunch.

I think they have created a monster. I attempted to buy out the whole mall. The picture is my loot from today. As you can see, it is a lot. And this isn't even showing the layer of clothes underneath.

It was fun, because we bought alot of the same clothes so we can dress our girls up in matching outfits in China.

Thanks Girls for such a fun afternoon. I hope it is the first of many.

Referrals Have been Posted through October 13th

We have got the word. Referrals have been given out through October 13, 2005.

I got an exciting call today from my social worker, because she wanted to let me know, we were next on the Wide Horizons list to receive our referral. Can you believe it!!! It seems surreal. I still cannot believe it. We are next.

I have had a goofy smile on my face all day. So we are extremely close. I am still thinking we will get our referral at the end of March, but best case scenario is the END OF FEBRUARY.

I think this is going to be the longest month of my life.

(This picture was borrowed from my friend's blog. I think it is so cute.)

Happy 15 Month Anniversery

Happy Anniversery to Us. We have been waiting for 15 months for our baby. This is the date we turned our paperwork in on October 28, 2005.

The good news is we are so close. We could be seeing our baby's face at the end of March. This will be unbelieveable. If we get our referral in March, we could be holding our daughter in May.

Let's keep our fingers crossed, and as my fellow October LID'er says,

Let's Go China !!!!

More things to cross off the baby checklist

I have been slowly checking off things from my to do list for the adoption. I so far have quite a bit done.

Get fingerprints redone - Check

Re file with CIS for the I600 A - Check

Finish Baby Registry - Check

Refinance our mortgage - Check

Get shots for trip - Check (ouch)

Buy new mommy mobile - Check

Here is a picture of the new vehicles. I say vehicles, because D had to buy one too. I am in love with the truck. I don't think i have ever had such a nice vehicle in my life. It has everything. My favorite options are: the heated seats, the sun roof, the 4 wheel drive, the navigation system and the automatic car starter. Those are just a few of the new bells and whistles. You can see a peek at D's new truck behind mine.

Now I just have to figure out how to pay for them. (just kidding. The plan is in place)

We are getting closer. Rumors look good for this month. I don't want to jinx it, so i am not going to mention my prediction for referrals this month. Let's just say we may possibly be seeing the Easter Bunny in China this year. (Note the keyword, POSSIBLY)

Keep those fingers and toes crossed. More later.

We've been shopping again.

We have had a refrigerator down in our basement for about 5 years, since we bought a new one. The night before Dave's big birthday party, he decided to defrost the freezer downstairs.

Very important tip: Do not defrost your freezer with a sharp object. He was chipping away at the ice and put a hole in the freezer.

Actually that is good news for me, because i got my new refrigerator. I found the best deal at Sears and bought a bottom freezer refrigerator.

Let me tell you, I love this appliance. It is big, roomy, and i love having the refrigerator at eye level. I highly recommend this to everyone. (OK, I know it is sad that I am now getting excited about appliances. When did this happen)

I thought i would share some pictures of my new favorite thing.

Referrals Are Here!!!!

Today CCAA changed their website. They have matched and sent referrals through September 27, 2005. We are getting closer.

Congratualtions to all the new moms and dads out there. Can't wait to see the pictures.

We are October 28, 2005. If they keep up this pace, we may see a referral at the end of March. Keep your fingers crossed.

Happy New Year !!!

I am so glad 2007 is finally here. That means Katy will be here soon. We are anxiouly awaiting this months referrals and hope they finish off September 2005. Why? Because that means they are going to start with October, and we are October 28th.

I am predicting today, that we should see our referral in February or March. Can you believe it. That is only 2 or 3 short months away.

We had such a fun New Year's. We again had our annual New Year's Party with our neighbors. What a great time. We decided to do something different this year. We hired babysitters and all the kids went to one neighbors house for crafts, food and movies. And the adults went to another house for food, fun and drinks. We then all tramped back to the "kid" house and rung in the New Year with everyone.

I have attached our group picture.

What a motley crew we are. Anyway, thanks to P & H and J & J for opening their house to us.

So the countdown begins. I will write again soon, when we find out what referrals were given out this month. Should be any day now.

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.