Good Morning!

Oooh, blogging in the morning. If feels sort of weird. Jeff and I stayed home today because the hot tub guy is supposed to be coming. Jeff is actually working from home, but since I can't do that, it's like a mini-holiday. I slept late. I'm probably going to watch a movie, wait for the hot tub guy, then when he's done, Jeff and I will head to the park. Oh, Bonnie may go to the vet as well. I'm not sure yet. Her eyes are all goopy like she has an eye infection. If it still keeps up today, I'll take her this afternoon.

We've been awfully busy lately, but in a good way. It's been distracting from the upcoming referral batch. Rumors were good, now they're bad. We'll know the truth in another few days at least.

Boring post, I know, but that's about it for now.

The Saga Continues...

The new Hot Tub leaks. No one knows what's going on. Also, it's tripping the breaker. I never got a return call from the local dealer, but the manufacturer called to apologize and say how embarassed they were. In the past year, there have been 3 leaks nationwide and 2 of them are ours.

The next step is to have a technician sent from Utah to find out what's going on. He should be here next week. Ugh.

Are you tired of Hot tub talk?

Just a bit more...I swear. There's exciting goings-on here at Chez Georgia. Our supposedly "leak-proof" spa started leaking. The company is shocked! What? This almost never happens. We'll bring a new spa pronto!

Jeff and I kept using the leaker until another could get here from Utah. It seems the Mormans make our hot tub. And the delivery guy told me that in his almost year of working there, they have never had to replace one like this. We so lucky.

And at this very moment, the guys are struggling to get the old one out. It is definately a tight fit. I think one of our ceiling fan blades is bent and the concrete pad our AC unit sits on is broken. Good thing we hadn't put a new door back on yet!

I'm very anxious to get the new one in. I truly hope this one is a goodie since it has become part our nighttime ritual.
Brush teeth? check.
Wash contacts? check.
Have hot tub time? Ahhhh....

Oohp, the new one is about to come in. These guys work fast. Even emtpy, the spa weighs 800lbs! We won't be able to use it tonight, since it takes hours to get back up to temperature, and of course, we'll be scrutinizing the new one for any leak-type potential. The last one started a tiny leak about the 4th day we had it, so I don't suppose we'll be putting the door back on for at least a week or two.

Must go watch without being spotted. I don't want to be the women that watches over their shoulders (how annoying), but I'm dying to see what's going on. Thus....nervous blogging.


***Update***
Okay, it's all in and currently filling up. But now I feel terrible because as they were leaving, they had me sign a form for the exchange and at the bottom of the form it said in red letters. Tips are welcome. They were leaving. And I was flumoxed. I had no idea you tipped spa delivery people. Tipping always makes me nervous. I don't like to make a production out of it. I merely leave it on the table or counter and slide away. My nervousness usually leads to severe over-tipping. And what do you tip a delivery person? a percentage? a few bucks? a twenty? There were three guys. One will be coming back later to bring a chemical he forgot. Do I hand him something then? Why am I such a putz?

Anniversary

Today marks another anniversay. The Big 17! Seventeen months since being logged in. We're getting close to 2 years since the beginning of the process.

Here's the interesting thing. I don't really care right now. I read on other boards about how people are hurting because of the wait. I'm not really. Sometime recently, Zoe moved back to being that fictional kid who might one day join our family. I don't pine. Don't cry. Haven't been in her room in weeks. I'm not talking about her every chance I get. On mother's day, a lot of my customers asked me if I had children and mostly I just said, "no." Before, that would have been the perfect opportunity to go on and on about my daughter who has in all liklihood already been born in China.

If you told me we weren't getting our referral until next year, I'd probably say, "darn....bummer." Whereas before that would have left me crying for days.

I don't know what happened. Perhaps the wait has finally beaten me into submission. This is definitely a better place to be, but although I'm not sad, I'm not excited either. Kind of like my cat who watches the bug crawl by, but can't be bothered to get up and chase it. That's me right now.

So four or five months more? Okay.

Going Green...or....Sucked in by Oprah

I saw these water bottles on Oprah's Earth day show. They're made of aluminum and oh-so-attractive. I never thought about the impact of all those individual water (or soda) bottles that we use daily. Since I'm very vigilant about recycling them, I fancied myself quite the do-gooder, but if you really think about it, there is still a lot of energy needed to manufacture the bottles, transport them to me, transport the empties, and recycle the plastic. Also, I probably spent $2/day on my vending machine diet Cokes.

I didn't pay too much attention to the bottles until I saw them again on Pomagranate (Fruitful, now?) under the "we recommend" column. I thought it was quite a coincidence and went to the company website. My first thought, "Good Lord, that's a lot of money for a water bottle." But still....so pretty! And have you ever had water from a plastic bottle that's been in the sun? Taste like plastic, huh? And if you ever put something like Crystal Light in them, they are forever stained and you have to work really hard to get the taste out.

So I bought some of these, and love them! It looks like Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear's water bottles! There's no funky taste, and they clean completely due to some coating on the inside.

Now I take my pretty bottle to work and everywhere, really. I fill it up several times a day. In the past week alone, I've saved over $10 and at least 20 individual bottles. I expect that soon I will be over the shakes from my caffeine withdrawal. Even better, Jeff, who doesn't drink enough of anything, now fills his with green tea on the way to work. We're saving money, getting healthier, and look....so Pretty!

Here's the link, if you're interested.

Keeping busy...

Not much blogging going on lately. We've been keeping busy. The mail has been crazy heavy (which is surprising this time of year) Jeff has been working longer hours with extra projects at work. And although we're not doing home improvements anymore, we still seem to always have something to do. And a hot tub to spend time in. I'm telling you, it's a great way to pass the time.

I thought this summer would be interminably long, with nothing but work and waiting for Zoe, but in fact, it's passing rather quickly, and I'm finally at peace with the wait. I still think about Zoe every day...many times a day, really, but it's not as hard as it has been. I think about all the things we have to do before she comes and the times doesn't seem as long.

I really feel October is our month with November travel. I'm not worried about the wait between match and travel, since we aren't shopping or registering until we have a referral in hand. That should take care of that time. My only goal now is to fill the time until match. And here's how I plan to do it:

Work: I'm working every Saturday possible. I thought working so much overtime would make the time pass faster, and it does. Individual weeks seem long, but weekends fly by!! I was going to stop to spend more time with Jeff, but it makes so much more sense to work all the overtime I can until Zoe. Also, I earn extra days off which will help me stay home with Zoe longer.

Running: Okay fine...jogging. I've started again, and signed up for another half marathon in the fall. If we don't get a referral in Oct, I'm thinking about a marathon in November. So now Jeff and I will spend every Sunday morning at the park logging in miles. Then Sunday afternoons will be spent in the hot tub. Hopefully, my butt will also earn a little extra room in my airline seat, and I'll look super-fabulous in all my China pictures.

Friends referrals: We get to watch 4 of our friends get their referrals over the course of the summer as well as follow their trips to China, and meet their babies. To be able to share this joy with people we've met along the way is propably the best thing for easing the burden of the wait. We've seen a few babies come home, but those coming up have truly suffered this wait with us. Their joy will be our joy!

Social Activites: Still have monthly bunco and monthly waiting family gatherings. Trying to schedule more friend time as well.

Holidays: Memorial, the 4th, and Labor Day will all come before referral. That should kill some time.

Trips: We're thinking of going to Florida this summer. Although the trip would be nice, i'm still trying to save all my off days for Zoe. Hopefully, we can get some of the Florida relations up here (hint, hint)

Misc: Birth of our newest niece, release of final Harry Potter book, knitting project (diaper covers), And then there are always the normal things...housework, yard work, laundry that never ends, Ooh, and some good TV this summer should help. The Closer finally starts back in June, and So You Think You Can Dance, which I like better than American Idol.

October is less than 5 months away. I can do it!

Do you mind if I show off a little?

The hot tub arrived today!! It's Big! And it was delivered by hunky firemen who double as spa delivery guys!

Here a picture from the recent party. Look in the back right. That's our dinky old hot tub. Pitiful.

And now here's a simliar angle with the new hot tub in the background.


More pictures. But really, they don't do it justice. We're still waiting for it to heat up. Then we're going to hop in and sample the different jet packs. If we don't like any of them (as if!) We can return them and try out new ones. C'mon....heat up, already!!




**Update**

Spa...very nice...relaxing..mmmm...sleeeepppyzzzzzz...

Can't sleep....must blog...

Holy Cow, it's 3 in the morning and I'm having dreams of hot tubs and tie-dying t-shirts with Julia Roberts (who is very pregnant and made the cutest shirt with hand prints over her very large belly) and someone else who i think is Kathy over at Waiting for Chani. (Hi Kathy!) I'm too tired to make a link right now. It's a bit of work with my browser, what with going to find the html code and all. Of course, by the time I typed all this, I could have gone and found it.....oh, bother. I told you it was late.

The hot tub dreams are because we bought one today. A really nice one. I'm very happy about it, really. But when we got home we realized it wouldn't fit thru our door like we thought. It's going in the sunroom. So Jeff started removing door trim and the jam. I'm still worried about the opening. We'll have to have a handyman come and fix what Jeff will do to get it in. Then, of course, we need an electrician for a 220 outlet out there. Our current dinky hot tub was just fine on 110.

I know what you're thinking... "Georgia, how can you justify the expense of a new super-awsome, mac-daddy, hot tub, when a)you already have one, and b) you're suppose to be saving for this China trip?" Well, let me tell you! Our current one is really not much more than a heated kiddie pool. But we still used it daily all fall/winter. So we KNOW this one will get used even more. We can use it all Summer, too, since the temps can go lower. Also, it should last forever since it will be inside (if we can make the opening big enough, that is.) And as far as the cost.....we've been considering vegetarianism for quite some time, you see. Lots of spaghetti and ramen in our future, Amen.

I still can't explain dreaming about Julia Roberts or the tie-dying, which I have never done.


Oh, and while I'm up, I should talk about the adoption stuff!! Referrals are coming and they're for 3x's the number of days we were thinking they would be for. Although it's still not that much, when you're expecting really horrid news, and only mildly bad news shows up, you think it's practically miraculous!

And this effects (affects?) us how? Well, I'm proud to say I haven't pushed back our expected time line. (and that's saying somthing) I have a good feeling about October, with late November travel. Could be a month earlier, could be a month later, but I think a December referral is out of the picture and that makes me pretty darn happy.

Anything else I can talk about while I'm here?.....hmmmm.... not so much. So Good night! Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of my new improved doorway Jeff's making for the hot tub.

Oh, okay let me go rustle up a link for hot tub. It's big enough for company, so if you won't laugh at me in a bathing suit and you bring the Corona, consider yourself invited!

The new baby.

What a weekend.

This weekend we hosted the lastest waiting family monthly party, and the whole weekend was geared around it. Friday and Saturday were prep. Saturday night..the big event. And Sunday...recovery.

I signed us up to host in January hoping that would force Jeff and I to wrap up this home improvement thing we've had going on. I thought the fear of having house guests would be the motivator we need to get cranked up again and fininsh! And we did.....mostly.

Jeff was still laying flooring the morning of the party (I included a pic of him cutting quarter round that morning!) I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared.

In the end, my first grown up party turned out really well. The weather was wonderful, so people could hang out on the patio. We got to visit with people who we've met along this long adoption wait and who's company we truly enjoy. We also met some new people who I hope we'll get to know as well as this long adoption wait continues.

Today we've been super lazy slugs as we try to recoup from the past 2 days of flurried activity. Tomorrow is back to normal.

Lessons learned:
I need to get together with friends more often.
I really like hosting people at my house.
Next time....more beer.

My First YouTube

I love this dog. She snores regularly, and I laugh every time. Also, she has recently suffered home grooming, so be kind. She doesn't know how rough she looks. Sweet Baby.


**UPDATE: I see that YouTube takes some time before it process the video. Lesson learned. Check back later, please.

Sick day

I called in sick today. hee hee. The wierd thing is, I'm really sick, but the PO has me so conditioned I feel guilty staying home when i really am sick.

I used to drag myself to work no matter how sick, but now that i have over 9 weeks of built up sick leave and have been told I won't be able to use any of it when Zoe comes! I don't feel quite as bad staying home as I used to.

Yesterday, I spent the day coughing and sneezing all over everyone's mail. And I'm not the only sickie at the PO right now. I'm sure half the zip code could be infected soon. So....word to the wise, wash your hands after reading your mail. It's icky.

I said I wasn't going to blog about it, but .... I mean .... c'mon! 2days?!! We waited until almost mid-month to get 2 days worth of referrals? I'm not sure what to think.

Either the CCAA has DRAMATICALLY cut down on the number of referrals they normally issue each month, or those 2 days were humongous! And I mean big. There's talk around the internet that the next couple of batches could be for equally small numbers of days. I believe that could be true. Although my agency doesn't share any information on how many dossiers the send, they do say how many referrals they received. And they haven't had any in the past two batches. I believe my agency handles more chinese adoptions than any other and they didn't get ANY in the past two months (except expedited) I think we are in for a doozy of a batch next time. All of those people who should have been spread out over the month of October were clumped together at the end.

I know no one outside the community understands all that, so let me break it down for you. Remember how I thought I'd get a referral in September at the latest? Well, October is looking more likely. November is a strong contender, and rotten stinking December is an actual possiblity. To summarize: I have no idea when I will see Zoe for the first time. If it's really that bad, she may still not even be born yet. I don't see how it could possibly be any later than December, but I've said that too many times to count.

Also, there's other weirdness in the Chinese adoption world. Someone on RQ mentioned a family who requested a girl as young as possible, and they were referred a 4.5 year old. Also, in every batch I hear of more and more boys going to familes who requested girls. Overall, it's still extremely rare, but it does make this pink-nursery-decorating-future-Mommy nervous.

I'm sure it's just the shock of the 2 days, but I have less faith in the program lately. For the first time, I question whether it will actually happen, whether we made the right decision. With almost any other choice we would have had a baby by now. We could still switch to some countries, start all over and be done before we see Zoe.

This is by far the hardest thing I have ever done.

How can I possibly kill the next 7-9 months?

Skimming over the bad news...

We all know the referral news is horrible this month. I'm not blogging about it, because it is just. that. bad! I've had my cry, I'll probably have more, but I'm choosing to focus on the positive, and we do have some good news...

Our Fish are Healthy!!!



The poor little guys have been looking peakish lately. One especially, was looking as if he was not much longer for this world. We didn't think too much of it, because we've had them for some time, and my sister had them before that, and how long can goldfish live, right? So while I was at work the other day, Jeff looked it up, and goldfish can live for 15+ years!!! Who knew! He also found out what was wrong with our little Nemo and Ariel.

Turns out (and I'm embarassed to say) we weren't keeping the tank properly. Not cleaning it enough. Feeding them too much. (Excess food leads to excess poop) And we didn't have enough gravel in there. We've added the gravel, the appropriate chemicals, an extra light to warm them up, and even a lovely bonsai type tree thing. Jeff refuses to have a sunken ship or treasure chest, but he did let me have some sparkly gravel to sprinkle on top the of normal gravel. We also got some live plant pods that we hope will grow soon.

It was really incredible how quickly they perked up, and we're so happy. I know they're only fish, but it's nice to have them there.

15 months

Oh look, here's another anniversary.

15 months down
4.5 to go???

I have my heart set on an early August referral. I know I said it could be September, and it could be, but since I have no idea, really, and I need something to hang my hat on, I choose to hang it on August.

Party Pictures

1. The Birthday Girl
2. Make this picture bigger and look at Jeffrey
3. Georgia and Nana
4. Cool new shades
5 Even the baby-on-the-way gets presents
6. OMG, are we a cute couple, or what?
7. Only part of the party spread
8. Happy Nana with Grandkids. Soon there will be FOUR!
9. My only good shot of Jeffrey

A Birthday tree? Oh, Yes!

"Georgia," you say, "Why are you posting a picture of a Christmas tree?"

It's not a Christmas tree! My sister and her family have made it home from Germany for a month's visit. And because my niece has a birthday this month, and my mother tends to go overboard, we had big blow-out shindig for the neice the moment they got out of the car! This is a picture of the birthday tree!!

Here's the kids and my brother-in-law as they pull up. Notice the wiped out look on my nephew's face. Poor kid. Long trip. But nothing perks kids up like PRESENTS!! It was like a mini-Christmas. I'm posting pictures, but none are really very good. Those kids are faster now and hard to pin down for a good photo.

I'm thrilled my sister is here this month. Adulthood and babies have made us much closer than we ever were as children and that's nice. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to really visit and catch up while she's here. I know they're here for the whole month, but this is one busy family. They'll be going between grandparents, in-laws, church family, friends, and mission work (the real reason they're in the states.)

The comings and goings of my sister's family will keep us on our toes and should make the month go by really quickly. A real distraction from the Adoption wait. They leave in early April and by then, I'll only have 4-5 more months of waiting for Zoe.

A bit more crankiness...

I've been more than a little cranky since the last batch of referrals. (Just ask Jeff...poor thing) The serious possibity of a September referral has jumped in front of me and it was quite a shock. Not sure what was shocking about it. Every month it moves back more, but I thought for sure. FOR. SURE. that August was the end. It couldn't possibly be any later than August.

But, no....

Once again another month (potentially) has been added to the wait. Now I don't think it could possibly be any later than September. There's no way. But next month, will I say October?

It's been a long time since the adoption wait brought me this far down. I know it's a cycle and it won't last forever, but it surely stinks right now.

Sunday afternoon at my house

Tagged...Why I blog.

First of all, what does MEME stand for? I know what it is, but I don't know why it's called that?

This one is "5 Reasons Why I Blog."

1. I started because my sister had one, and I gotta be cool like her.
2. I really enjoyed reading other adoption blogs. I loved hearing about other adoptive famiilies' experiences, and I thought (ever so humbly) that others might like hearing about mine.
3. I thought it would be a good way to record what we do while "Waiting for Zoe" The extended wait has made it less of an adoption blog and more of a "here's what we did today" blog. Hopefully that will change in the next few months.
4. It's a great way to let family and friends we don't see regularly know what we're up to. It's odd to talk to friends and have them say, "yeah, I saw that on your blog."
5. I've met great friends in the adoption community and hope to meet more.

Thanks, Lisa, for tagging me!

Our Fortunes!

We went to Panda tonight. We frequent the Panda because it's close, cheap, and hey, the Orange Chicken is yummy.

I tried to take a picture of the fortunes, but no-can-do. My camera's not that cool.

Mine said, "A beautiful, smart, and loving person will be coming into you life." Yes, it said "you life."

Jeff's Chinese word to learn was September ( Jiu-yue) And September is the month I now think I'll be in China.

Neat, huh?