Christmas tree 2007

Our tree is done! We bought the train because Jeff remembers having one around his tree as a boy and wants something similar for Zoe.


Eddie loves hanging out under the tree, but isn't so sure about the train.


If you marry at Christmas, prepare yourself for a bunch of "Our First Christmas" ornaments. We have 5 hanging on our tree.

The Pediatrician

I took today off to meet the pediatrician. It was fine. He was nice. I had my list of questions which seemed silly when I got to them.

We talked about what will happen at referral... He'll look over the medical info even though it is usually pretty general as well as notoriously unreliable. I still want it looked at in case anything weird jumps out at him. I forgot to ask what we would do if something weird did jump out at him. Oh well.

We talked about how to get help in China. E-mail. I was really hoping the man would offer a more direct number, but, no. Also, he won't write any prescriptions for a child he hasn't seen. I'm sure he's right, but every other adoptive family is trekking to China with a virtual pharmacy in tow. He won't even pony up some antibiotics since every kid pretty much has a cold in winter and we shouldn't be so willy-nilly with the meds. hmm. I know of other families who take syringes with them to China, since China is known to reuse needles. He said we didn't need to take them since we wouldn't be giving her shots. Duh! I'd still like a nice clean needle for a doctor to use on my child.

And we talked about when we come home. He'll run every test imaginable. Revaccinate and send me on to the developmental specialist if need be.

Overall, I like him okay. I wish I liked him more, but he's fine.

He started talking about how I should take care of myself right now because we're about to go thru a major change in our lives and if I needed to talk to someone, counselors are available. I could tell his being nice to me was going to make me cry, (it comes easily these days) so I tried thinking mean thoughts. I had a second of the lip quiver and I think I passed off a tear as being a contact lens problem, but he kept going on about me, me, me. And it was nice.

I'm about to have a baby here. It is emotional. So now that I have the rest of the day off, I think I'm going to put my PJ's back on, find a Law and Order marathon and knit that bunny at the top for Zoe. In pink, of course.

So much for daily blogging...

In my defense, we have been out of town, and it *is* the Christmas season at the post office. Most days I'm dragging myself home late with a tired body and sore hands. Besides, there's not much to blog about. How many fun ways can I say, "still waiting."?

Today, however, was a freakishly light day at the post office, and I'm home by 3pm. Hooray!! I called Jeff, asked if he could come home early, and he is currently enroute.

We're going to spend the afternoon putting up Christmas decorations! This is exciting because we haven't put up Christmas stuff in 4 years! We figured, we have no kids, so why bother? I'm not sure why this year is different, but I'm loaded with the Christmas spirit and I want a tree! We even bought a train to go around the tree. You know I'll post pictures later.

In the mean time, here is our tree from 4 years ago.

23 Months

Today is another LID anniversary.

23 months.

It hardly seems worth noting. If you asked Jeff what today was, he would probably say, "Tuesday." But still...23 months down is nothing to sneeze at.

Do they ever grow up?

Today Jeff and I went to ToysRUs and started looking at Legos. One of the Lego sets said it was for ages 14 and up. I turn to Jeff and ask, "Do 14 year old boys really want to play with Legos?"

He says, "Heck yeah, I wanna put that together!"

So if you're looking for a present for Jeff...try the Lego Ferrari.

48 days

Anyone who knows me personally, knows I have started the daily countdown until referral. I know it's silly since we wont be in the next batch, and we can't be sure of the exact day anyway.

But for the purpose of counting down, I have chosen to focus my energy on January 4th as our referral day. For the past year or more, referrals have arrived during the first week of the month, and January 4th is the last weekday in the first week of January.

Make sense?
Bare with me....it gets worse.

When I got up this morning, one of my first thoughts was that today is 48 days until the Jan. 4th.

I also know that when I return to work on Monday, it will be 46 days.
When I get back from my Thanksgiving vacation, it will be 40 days.
From the beginning of December, it will be 34 days.
From Christmas it will be 10 days.

Back at the beginning of the wait (706 days ago) my minister friend told me God was teaching me patience. Obviously, after nearly 2 years, the message still has not sunk in.

Look at This!!

Yesterday I got to visit with a good college friend who I haven't seen in years...I'm ashamed to say. Only an hour's drive separates us, but it is so easy to put things off, isn't it?

Look what she gave me? A Zoe book!!! With a Chinese girl!! What are the odds of that? Her son found it at a book fair. I'm in love with it and can't wait to read it to Zoe.

Pediatrician Quest

I started the hunt for our pediatrician today. I have an appointment at the end of the month with my first Dr. who came highly recommended from another China adoption Mom.

I'm pretty stoked to be doing something so proactive and Mommy-ish. I'm also nervous. I'm really rather meek and the idea of interviewing doctors to see if they're good enough goes against nature somehow.

Also, I need to ask them if I can be sqeezed in IMMEDIATELY after getting our referral info and, oh...by the way, can I call you from China? That will be the middle of the night. I will be a first time Mom in a foreign country. My baby will just have gone through a very tramamtic event and I want to know that I can get ahold of you in an instant.

How do you think that will go over?

Other adoptions

The China adoption process is so very straight forward. You do the paperwork and then you wait your turn. China matches you with a baby and off you go. Nearly everyone who reads this blog knows the process.

But other countries do things differently. Guatemala, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Russia, and India. They all have their own rules and procedures. Right now, I'm following a Ukrainian adoption blog and it's very interesting. The bloggers are friends of my sister's and it's worth taking a look. They are in county right now and believe they have found their son.

Go have a look.

Late Halloween Pictures

Poe went as Superman.

Happy Birthday, Mom

Babies!

Each month when the referrals arrive, the Rumor Queen posts links to the new family's blogs. Follow the links and look at all the gorgeous babies!!!

Babies!

Our Incredibly Busy Weekend

It started with me yelling at Jeff to hurry home on Friday because I needed help getting ready for my Bunco party. It was my turn to host the neighborhood ladies bunco and like before every party we have (all 2 of them), I'm desperately scared 1)no one will come. 2) They will think my house is dirty/unattractive. 3) No one will have fun.

So Jeff was ordered to come home and help clean and to go pick up the neighbor ladies' spare card tables. He was a champ. Calm and helpful, while I was coming unglued. In the end, the party was great. My house looked great and everyone had a fabulous time. The only flub was when someone had to leave because of the cats. I should have warned them we had so many. I like having parties so much, you would think I would do it more, but those pre-party nerves are hard to deal with. (Wine helps.)

Saturday, we went to someone else's party. Our friends Mick and James had us over for the day and we had a super time. Jeff and James played their own version of "name that tune" on their computers by digging up all those old tunes you should be embarassed to have in your itunes library. I won't tell you who James has (achoooneildiamond) , but I did her Jeff stumping James with a little Debbie Gibson. (I can't make the transition to Deborah Gibson...did you hear she's dating Constantine from American Idol?))

Mick and I planned our German dinner, went to the store and came home to cook. You all must know I don't really cook. Jeff was even worried, but Mick kept a watchful eye, and everything was lovely. We had schnitzel, spetzle (sp?), and this gravy thing. I don't know what it was called, but it was very good. Dinner was topped off with Apple Fritters. And I must say I sprinkle some mean powdered sugar! Good Stuff! I wish I'd gotten a picture of the food, because it was also a very attractive meal

Sunday, was the home improvement day. Will this stuff never end?!!! We put new lighting in the hallway, and we continued to work on turning the old office/dumping ground into our new guest room. I wasn't going to post a picture until it was all done, but you'll get the idea of where we're headed. Here is the office before and after, and the hallway lighting.

It's Official

The CCAA just updated their website. The cut off for the November batch is December 8th, 2005. We've known this for days, thanks to the Rumor Queen, but it is now official. It's another small batch. We were all hoping things would speed up when they hit December '05, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The good news is that our LID is December 20, 2005. Only 12 days away from the current cut off. Surely....SURELY, they can manage at least 6 days per batch over the next two batches. Surely, we are guaranteed a January referral. I can't imagine that they could go any slower when they could manage 7 day batches in November.

Do any of you "in the know" think there is any way would see anything other than a January referral? Any chance they could manage 12 days in December???....I don't think so.

We have already seen a few referrals for this batch, but tomorrow should be the big day. REFERRAL DAY!! I don't personally know anyone in this batch, but it's still fun to see the babies. Where they're from, and how old they are. And of course, the pictures!!!

Soooooo....assuming it will be January for us....that is now 8 weeks away. I'm going to go see if I can find one of those countdown thingies to stick on the blog.

Baby Abby

I had to swipe this picture from my sister's blog, because it's just that cute! Look at those cheeks. Those thighs!!

She is soooooo kissable, and I will finally meet her in about 2 months when my sister comes home for Christmas.

I hope she doesn't mind being my guinea pig for all of Zoe's goodies. Car seat, high chair, stroller, baby carrier, maybe even clothes. Even though Zoe will be older, I have a suspicion, based on the pictures, that the girls may be close in size.

Oooh, I can't wait! Abby in eight weeks. Zoe in nine.