Happy New Year

Well I can't believe I haven't posted since November. I was politely reminded by a friend that many of you are wondering what is happening and possibly worrying because the posts seem to come to an abrupt halt. Sorry!!!!!!

Basically our adoption process has slowed down drastically on China's end. When we started this process a year ago things were actually going at record speed which gave us a false expectation that we would be traveling to China in early 2006. However we were warned that China is a bit unpredictable so I guess we should have prepared ourselves for a longer wait. Now it appears that we might not be traveling until summer to get our little one. Needless to say I have an ache in my heart that is indescribable. John and I just keep telling ourselves that we are meant to have a certain little someone and when the time is ready she will be ours.

We have tried to keep as busy as possible so that time goes a little faster. During the Christmas break we decided to paint Maya's room. It was a good distraction and has certainly made things more of a reality. We painted the walls a pretty spring green with white wainscoting and a blue sky with clouds. I think our little Maya will love her room.

We celebrated Chinese New Year with our friends Kristi and Brad. They are in our adoption group which has been a wonderful aspect of adoption that we didn't anticipate. We have met so many great people through this experience. We are especially lucky to have Kristi and Brad as our friends and we are finding that we have so much in common. And having each other for support has been an incredible gift. We all participated in cooking a Chinese meal and agreed that we needed to make this a yearly tradition. The shrimp and pork dumplings were particularly good.

One very lucky couple in our group did get their referral (info and picture about their baby). There paper work was expedited due to Chinese ancesestory. "Geez,where is a Chinese relative when you need one!" Anyway, the baby is absolutely gorgeous. Check out the link for yourself.

http://www.paxbud.com/Hope%20Referral.htm


This past weekend we had an adventure in babysitting. John and I babysat Lennon (4 1/2) and Lily(2 1/2) while their parents Shawn and Jennifer got a much needed break. We thought it might be fun to take them to Fit for Fun.....an indoor playground. Unfortunately it was closed until noon so we had to find something else to do. It was a bit cold and windy so we decided to go to the indoor playground at the mall. John and I quickly learned how difficult it can be watching more then one child at a time. Conveniently Lennon and Lily darted in two different directions. It soon became apparent that we had to split the duties.


Before long kids were everywhere. Weaving in an out of control. Basically an accident waiting to happen. Of course we didn't want to bring either child home injured so we decided it was time to leave. We headed to the pet store to look at the puppies and kittens. On the way Lily ran into the stair railing...... EYE FIRST!. Yep that's right......we only have them in our possession for one hour and we have already maimed their little girl. What kind of parents are we going to make? HOPEFULLY CHINA WON'T CATCH WIND OF THE INCIDENT! :) She was such a big girl she didn't even cry.

We wrapped up the day with lunch at their favorite restaurant...Tres Margaritas. When asking Lennon what he would like to drink he replied "blubbly water." We tried to figure out exactly what this was by naming other drinks. "Sprite?", "lemonade"? No just "blubbly water." We thought maybe he was talking about mineral water which they didn't have. So we opted for the closest thing.....club soda. After one sip Lennon with a funny look on his face said, "I don't like this blubbly water." Needless to say we used the emergency number to call grandma and ask her what the heck blubbly water was. As it turns out.....SPRITE!!!!!!!

After coaxing and trickery to get the kids to eat it was time for our adventure in babysitting to end. Luckily Lily's eye didn't look too bad. The swelling went down by the time we dropped her off. Thank God! We said our goodbyes and when we got into our car John and I took one look at eachother and admitted that we were completely exhausted. How do parents manage? What are we in for? All questions I'm sure we'll find out when our eyes are glazed over from lack of sleep and we are getting through the day on autopilot. I certainly have a whole new respect for parenting.

Lori