Okay, here are the Easter Pictures

Here is the beach volleyball game...

This is our house...

Happy girls on the beach...
Us...
Easter Eggs in the sand...
Hunter is pretending to be Erkle...
Audry is 0ur potential pro volleyball player...

Easter at the Beach

Well, we have taken a trip to Destin, Florida and it is 59 and raining - on Easter. Our friends that we came with planned to hide Easter Eggs in the sand for the kids and we were going to have a little Easter Worship on the beach and read the bible but since it is COLD AND RAINING neither one of those are going to happen. So we are all in long pants and sleeves and sock in this beautiful house sitting right on the ocean and we cannot go out and enjoy the sand, but on the flip side, it beats Kentucky. We shopped last night and I have yet to take the first picture.

On the adoption side, referrals have not come out yet and everyone is antsy and edgy! I feel very sad as last year I thought that I would have Izabella maybe by now to hide Easter eggs for but instead we are still waiting and the wait does not seem to be any closer. If anything longer.

I will post some photos later. I have not even taken the camera out of the bag!!

NEWS NEWS - We're Getting Closer!!

I looks as if referrals are now out through October 24, 2005!!! Yoohoo!! So here is a potential schedule that someone in our adoption group came it with. I'm loving it:

Oct 25- Nov 13thish - Referrals beginning of April 2007 - Travel end May 2007

Nov 14thish to Nov 24thish - Referrals beginning of May 2007 - Travel end June 2007

Nov 25th-ish to Dec 13thish - Referrals beginning of June 2007 - Travel end July 2007

Dec 14th-ish to Dec 25thish - Referrals beginning of July 2007 - Travel end August 2007

Dec 26thish to Jan 13thish - Referrals beginning of August 2007 - Travel end Sept. 2007

This last one would be us since our referral date is January 10, 2006!!!

It is exciting - I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!!

Here is our niece Fallon saying HI FIVE to the Good News!!!

The last of the Adoption Classes!!!

We spent he day and night in Lexington again. We spent the day in our last class required for the adoption. It was a lot of fun. We met some really neat people who are actually on the verge of going to China and one that is almost on their way to Guatamala to all pick up their baby girls. VERY exciting for them!!

We decided to celebrate Valentines in Lexington. We spent the night, had a nice dinner out and went to see Norbit. It was really fun.

Before we left I received another package from my secret pal. It was full of fun goodies...

Here is what we got:

1. Princess Tag Book

2. Baby Einstein's First Words Around the House

3. Fisher Price Tabletop Playmat

4. Leap Frog Fridge Farm. It is really cute. It sticks to the fridge and makes farm animal sounds.

My secret pal is awesome!! Can't wait for Izabella to get her hands on these!!!

My Wonderful Ladybug Swap Gifts

In my LID group that will possibly get a referral at the same time as us, we have these swaps. This one was for ladybug things. In the Chinese Adoption Community, ladybugs bring luck!!! My wonderful swap partner Kathy sent me the best bunch of Ladybug stuff!! THANK YOU KAHTY!! Here are pictures...

Good News - One step closer...

A new quote from CCAA:

"The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 13, 2005."

This means that we are getting closer - our documents were registered with their office January 10, 2006. If they do a 1/2 month at a time we could have our child's info by maybe June/July. That is my hope.

I'm so sick and tired of waiting!! The weekend is here again so I am going to do something fun...

I am Officially a China Baby Aunt

One of the families in our travel group that went to Philly back in September, we call ourselves the East Coast Panda's should be back from China now. Her name is Lia. She is so precious!! Makes me more excited!! I believe she has some type of minor special need and that is why they travelled early. Congratulations Cappello family!!!

And on another note, Scott and I have just been exercising like crazy every morning at 5:30 am. I know it sounds crazy but in some sick twisted way I think it helps us with our stress level. We are much easier to live with when we exercise. Plus it helps with losing weight which we can both afford to do.

This passed weekend I went to General Butler State park with a group of 19 other girls to scrapbook from Friday at 3:00 until Sunday at 6:00. We had so much fun!! It is nice to get away and just hang with the girls. Of course I didn't get to hang with my mom like I thought. She was having some back trouble and I was sad!!

This was our little room we worked in...

My crazy friends Kim & Morgan...

My Friend Cris - the craziest. She wouldn't let us sleep at night, she kept on giggling and leaving the lights on... LOL
We just had a going away party a week ago Saturday for our good friends Jon and Lisa and baby Hudson. They moved to Austin, TX with his job and we will miss them!! This is a picture of Scott holding sweet little Caroline, her daddy and Scott grew up together. She is so precious. Wouldn't you know that I didn't take any pictures of Jon and Lisa with Hudson. There were like 50 people and 25 kids running around so it was a bit distracting but good to see them one more time.

IT'S OUR ANNIVERSARY - LID THAT IS!!

Family

Today is our 1 year anniversary for our LID (Log In Date, which means the date our paperwork was logged in to China). I cannot believe it has been a year. It has gone by so quickly!!

I just wonder if Izabella has been born or is close to to it and I think about the mother who has to give her up. How hard would that be?? I know how hard 3 miscarriages have been, and I cannot imagine the pain of carrying a child full term and holding her in your arms and being forced to abandon her!! Anyhow, little does she know, we already love her, pray for her, want her and have more things than she will ever possibly need!! She is Blessed and doesn't even know it!!

With that said, I pray that this is a magical year!!

CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs) Update

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before September 27, 2005.

This is the newest news we have been given. Looks like it may be this time next year before we get to go to China!! I really think we could pursue a domestic adoption at this rate and get a baby before all this happens!! I am really frustrated today!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

See I promised all my Christmas Card recipients that I would keep my blog updated better in this new year. Well our holiday was pretty uneventful!

This picture is our nephew Garrett around the holidays. This is my favorite picture from Christmas. It is so funny!! He always makes funny faces when he is trying to smile. It is hysterical.

Well it seems that 2007 is already showing some improvements on the adoption front. Referrals have only been matched with families with Log In Dates (LID) through September 9 of 2006. It seems that the rumor is that they will be matching families with LID through September 28, 2006 which is almost a whole month!! And it will happen the end of the week. I hope this is true because it means they will be getting closer to matching those of us with LID in January 2007!! This is really good news!

I am getting ready for my big scrapbook weekend in a few weeks. It will give me time to work on Izabellas life book!! There are 20 of us going to General Butler State Park for the weekend. I am so excited!!

Presents, I love Presents!!

Well here is the most beautiful gift from a couple of my East Coast Precious Pandas. We were suppsed to decorate and make sparklie and we were having so much fun eating and laughing that we totally forgot about them. So, just a couple weeks ago, I got this in the mail and I'm not sure if it were Stephe, Donna, Cheryl or Wanda but I love mine and it made me cry. There was a beautiful little poem on shiny paper. I loved it. And, just a couple days ago, I got my cute little onesies from the onesie swap!! Thanks Michelle!! They are sooo cute. I just love getting gifts in the mail. I have been obsessed with getting mail since I was a child. So everytime there is a package on the porch or in the box, I revert back to childhood!! I know, I'm strange!! If only I would open the box and find a little baby girl from China!! Then I would never be the same!!

FREAKED

Okay, I guess I am just living in my happy little oblivious part of the world these day. News of referrals taking 14 -- 16--18 -- even 24 months, thinking, awww it won't take that long, just don't think about it. Well, on my way into the driveway, the neighbor pulled in behind me and I got excited thinking OMG, they got their referral - they are adopting from CCAI and were logged in in September '05. He proceeds to tell me that they got a call a few weeks ago saying it would be at least February before they would get their referral - so if it is 5 months behind now, how far behind will they be in January??? My happy world of oblivion has just crumbled...

My Thursday Night Fix...

Ok yes, I am addicted to Grey's Anatomy. Hey what ever it takes to pass the time. Dr. McSteemy - wow - who wouldn't be addicted. He looks just like Scott in a towel - how'd that happen?? LOL
























I went to Scott's football practice tonight. I'm not sure what football is all about other than huddling and crashing into each other but hey, to each his own!!! Here are some photos from the practice... Look at that cute little Bell kid in his helmet!!!!!!!




















And, look at the awesome gifts our secret pal sent to us!! Many of the items WILL be traveling with us to China!! Lots of cute items!! Love Them!!!!!!!!!!

Look one of them says... Made In China!!!!!!!!!!

2 More Classes To Go....

Tonight Scott and I took our CPR/AED certification. So we have only 2 more classes coming up in the next month and we will be done. Of course we still have to finish updating our homestudy and re-doing our fingerprints!! Uggghhh!!!!!!! If this whole freakin process would just speed up, we wouldn't have to keep re-doing things a spending even more money on this exciting process!! I wasn't going to, however, I think I'm going to start selling on ebay again. I did really well last fall. Plus, it is garage sale season and for some reason, I just love garage sales. You just never know what kind of treasures you will find!!

Free Willy

I have to tell a funny story. Today at work I brought in a new cd to play in my office. It was bamboo flute music. It is relaxing and soothing and my friend kept telling me it sounded like whale mating music. So she got on the internet and found Whale noises and kept calling my extension and playing them on my speaker. I kept saying I just wanted to embrace my daughters Chinese Culture and of course that part didn't matter so today was all about Whale mating!! I kept wondering how she knew what whale mating sounded like???

Precious Panda East Coast Girls Weekend

Okay, I'm finally getting around to posting about my awesome trip to Philly last weekend!! This was the view from my airplane ride!! It was gorgeous. It is amazing how beautiful it is up above the clouds. I had to focus on something since I'm terrified of the planes!!!









This was Susan with her hands in the meatballs!! She was our chef extrordinaire!!! She did an awesome job on our dinner the first night!! She is the queen of baked ziti!!!











This is Precious Panda Pirate -- our official mascott. He was so cut with the little outfit and the bling in his hair!!

Great Finds

Today, our church had a children's consignment sale and I got some great finds!!! If we don't get our referral soon, I will have enough clothes for Izabella until she goes to college!!

New Bundle

Our friends Drew and Sarah are new parents to a baby girl named Caroline. She weighed 4 lbs and 15 oz. She is so tiny! Congrats to Drew and Sarah!!!
She will be one of Izabella's playmates!!

Treasures

I received this cute little Ladybug book from my brother this past weekend. It is so adorable. You pull a string and he will buzz across the table. I'm sure Izabella will love it!

Nothing Too Exciting...

Well nothing exciting on the adoption homefront right now, however, I got this funny email that would make a couple of non-parents like us FREAK! Especially me!! Something to think about while we wait in our clean, non-destroyed furniture...

MESS TEST - Smear peanut butter on the sofa and curtains. Place a fish stick behind the couch and leave it there all summer.

TOY TEST - Obtain a 55 gallon box of Legos (or you may substitute roofing tacks). Have a friend spread them all over the house. Put on a blindfold. Try to walk to the bathroom or kitchen. Do not scream because this would wake a child at night.

GROCERY STORE TEST - Borrow one or two small animals (goats are best) and take them with you as you shop. Always keep them in sight and pay for anything they eat or damage.

DRESSING TEST - Obtain one large, unhappy, live octopus. Stuff into a small net bag making sure that all the arms stay inside.

FEEDING TEST - Obtain a large plastic milk jug. Fill halfway with water. Suspend from the ceiling with a cord. Start the jug swinging. Try to insert spoonfuls of soggy cereal into the mouth of the jug, while pretending to be an airplane.Now dump the contents of the jug on the floor.

NIGHT TEST - Prepare by obtaining a small cloth bag and fill it with 8-12 pounds of sand. Soak it thoroughly in water. At 3:00 p.m. begin to waltz and hum with the bag until 9: 00p.m. Lay down your bag and set your alarm for 10:00p.m. Get up, pick up your bag, and sing every song you have ever heard. Make up about a dozen more and sing these too until 4:00a.m. Set alarm for 5:00 a.m. Get up and make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

AUTOMOBILE TEST - Forget the BMW and buy a minivan. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there. Get a dime. Stick it into the CD player. Take a family size package of chocolate chip cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There, perfect.

PHYSICAL TEST - (Women)Obtain a large bean bag chair and attach it to the front of your clothes. Leave it there for 6 months. Now remove 10 of the beans.

PHYSICAL TEST (Men)Go to the nearest drug store. Set your wallet on the counter. Ask the clerk to help himself. Now proceed to the nearest food store. Go to the head office and arrange for your paycheck to be directly deposited to the store. Purchase a newspaper. Go home and read it quietly for the last time.

FINAL ASSIGNMENT - Find a couple who already have a small child. Lecture them on how they can improve their discipline, patience, tolerance, toilet training and child's table manners. Suggest any ways they can improve. Emphasize to them that they should never allow their children to run wild. Enjoy this. It will be the last time you will have all the answers.

My only comment is this: if you're still not getting any sleep when your child is five years old, time to call Dr. Phil!