A special friend

During this long journey I have found comfort in my friend. My friend that has given me hope, courage and the information to get me through this long process. This friend has been her every time I need her, even at 3am! This friend I am talking about is Rumor Queen. Now I know the RQ gets a lot of criticism but the truth is, what we we do without all the time spent and information she gives us. Something the I look forward to every month is her projection table. She gives her best guesstimate of what the future months of referrals look like. Now this info is based purely on statistics of pasts months and polls. So while it is not always right it at least gives us a little info about what the months ahead look like and for some of us hope. It was just recently that our LID is finally on the chart (about time!) Now with us having a LID of 3/29/06 you can look at the chart below and see what our chances are...
I am hoping that we will at least stay with the Small group and get our referral in Sept. We are hoping this is worst case senerio but it could always be Oct or Nov. In looking at the chart it gives me hope to see that Emma time is close. Thanks RQ!

How many months?

38 Month LID Anniversary

I woke up earl this morning and hung out with Mike while he got ready for work. We decided to go to St@rbucks for a coffee since it was such a nice morning. As we sat there talking Mike realized that today was May 29th. Wow, another month of waiting. Every month I think how many more of these am I going to have to post? For the first time I am finally thinking that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, anyway it's happy 38th to us!

I can't get enough!

I just can't get enough of Tate. She is absolutely beautiful!
Congratulations to Lisa as she finally had Tate put in her arms forever this week!

Still living in 2006

I keep meaning to take a picture of my locker at work. Why you ask? Everyone in the OR has a locker and just like when we were back in high school we decorate them with personal stuff. When you walk around you see pictures of families, kids, grandkids and friends. On my locker I have 2 photos, one of Jack (my pup) and one of my Kozmo (my kitty) that passed away last year (just can't seem to take it down). The only other thing on my locker is a calendar. Not just any calendar, but a 2006 calendar. I laugh as I think about all the times someone makes a comment about my 2006 calendar. I hear, "hey it is 2007, 2008 and now 2009", "are you ever going to get an updated calendar?" or "are you ever going to take that down?" They have no ideal what that calendar means to me. My response to them is " You may be living in 2009, but I'm still here waiting in 2006!" To this I get lots of smiles and weird looks, but for me this is my daily reminder of how close (and at one point, how far away) we are to getting Emma's referral. Every day I look at the month of March 2006 and my eyes are always drawn to March 29th. I have memorized March, I know how many days are in front of 29th, how many of those are referral days and what day of the week each day falls on. For me this is a sign of hope that one day soon we too will get our referral and see Emma's face for the first time. Until then, that old calendar will stay on my locker to remind me that our time is coming.

Calendar for March 2006 (United States)

| All of year | April>

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31
Phases of the moon: 6: 14: 22: 29:

Another step closer!

We have been so busy with family activities (dances, graduation, birthday's, sporting events...) that I haven't given any updates on the adoption. This past week the latest batch of referrals came out. The referrals went from March 9 - March 14, 2006! 6 days closer! We are now 15 days away! Tomorrow is a big day for my special secret pal Lisa as she will finally have Tate in her arms. So stop by and see her beautiful daughter!

A special Charlee moment!

We wanted to send out a very special congratulations to Charlee for a very special award she received...
DANCE MAJOR OF THE YEAR

Way to go Charlee!
We love you and are so proud of you!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Happy Birthday Tommi!
We had a wonderful time today celebrating "Tommi Month"!
(For now it is still YOUR month!)
We love you!

Prom again!

Courtney and Trevor Prom 09

Chase again!

We wanted to wish Chase good luck at the State Track Meet tomorrow. His relay team qualified last week at Bardstown regionals. Go Cougars!

A little behind!

I am slacking on my posts so I will try to catch up over the next few days. I wanted to share a few photos of Chase's important day. How could our sweet little boy be all grown up and finished with high school? We are so proud of him and can't wait to see all of the great things that are in store for him. Congratulations Chase, we love you and are so proud of you!

I was a winner!

The big winner!

On Derby Day I was one of the lucky people to have the winning ticket for the Kentucky Derby! It paid $103.00 to win (what a long shot!) Now believe me there was no scientific thought to my bet, the truth is I bet the #8 horse Mine that Bird because #8 is lucky in China (why else!). I cashed 3 tickets at the races, all sporting the #8! Sometimes just having luck is better than knowing what you are doing!

Another big moment

STEVIE'S SPECIAL DAY!
FIRST COMMUNION

Chase's Day!

Chase's big day!

Courtney's Day!

Just wanted to share a few pictures of Courtney on her big day!

21!

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY
CORBYN!
YOU ARE FINALLY LEGAL!

Just wanted to send out a very special birthday wish for your big 21st birthday! It's so hard to believe that you are that old. It seems like just yesterday that I got out of school early to sit and wait, and wait some more for you to finally get here. Now here you are all grown up! We hope you have a wonderful birthday and we love you!

What a weekend

It was a really busy weekend here and I have a lot of pictures and a lot I want to tell you about but for now I just put up 3 quick photos. The first is of Courtney and Trevor on Friday night before her Junior prom, the 2nd picture was of Stevie from her First Communion today, and the last is a picture of Chase from Saturday from his Senior prom. I had the pleasure of taking photos all weekend! I had so much fun and all the kids were good sports. They let me take pictures until my heart was content (anyone that knows Chase knows this is a big deal!) Anyway, it may take me all week to fill you all in on the weekend but I promise to get pictures up of everything: Ring ceremony, Ring dance, Picnic for Galya, Senior Prom, First Communion, Balloon Race, and last but not least a special birthday wish for Corbyn (the big 21!) Stay tuned...

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLEE
WE HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!
WE LOVE YOU!

(This picture is from Florida. Charlee is on the right and her friend Kathleen on the left)

A free moment

I know 2 post in one week! I guess you can tell when I have some time off work. Yes, I have a vacation week again. At the beginning of the year they make us feel out our vacations for the whole year. Now, who knows on Jan. 10th what they want to do for the whole year? It sure isn't me. The hardest part is that for the last 3 years I have been trying to adjust my vacations around going to get Emma. So at the beginning of every year I sit down and think when could I possibly be traveling to China? The best answer is who knows! For 3 years I have thought about it very carefully and even tried not to take so many days off in hopes of the extra time off when we come home. Well, this year I decided that I would just pick some weeks because who knows what the future holds. Now, I still believe that this will be our year (it better be) but I guess when the time comes nothing will keep me from adjusting my schedule to go get our sweet Em! I guess it's a plus to work for a company for a long as I accumulate lots of time off and the best part is that it transfers over to the next year.
Anyway, I am trying to finish a few projects at the house but I am not getting anywhere! I promise when we get things looking halfway like a house I will post pictures!
(I started this post 3 hours ago and got interupted)
The plumber came this morning to hook up the dishwasher and the sink. An hour into his work he discovers a missing piece on the sink so it was off to HD for me to get a new faucet. After 2 HD's and a Lowes I arrive back home with a different faucet only to find the plumber was done with the rest of his work and left. The original faucet that we bought showed you could use it with a 2 hole or a 4 hole hookup but the adapter for the 2 hole was missing. I checked 7 faucets at 2 HD's that had ALL been opened to discover the piece is not in any of them! I called the manufacture and the said that they could send me one, it doesn't come in the set even though it shows it does!! After I give her all the info to expedite one to me she discovers they are on backorder. So off to Lowes for a completely different one and the nice guy there even checked to make sure I had all the parts! So now I have a nice faucet but have to wait again to get it installed.

Got Cold Chills!

As I continue to wait for Emma's referral, this month brought new life to our wait. During this long wait I have met wonderful people and followed so many journeys to see their beautiful daughters. While I have loved seeing the babies every month I am beginning to see the babies of those with dates near ours. These are the people who I have followed more closely. Since this month included March 7th and 8th it brought several precious little ones that I was over the moon excited to see. Among these little ones was an extremely special one to me. For those of you who know me, know that when we started the adoption process we joined a secret pal swap. I was so excited to be part of this and found that I had the best secret pal ever in 2 ways! All along I followed this special person's blog and got so excited every time I got to send a gift and see the joy it brought her and her sweet daughter #1! During this same time I was also receiving the most amazing gifts for my sweet Emma. It turned out that my secret pal and I had each other! The whole time we were sending gifts to each other (CLUELESS). It made it all that much more special as I had been following her hopes and dreams for some time and she had been following mine! OK! Long story to bring you up to date! The reason I am telling you all about this is that my wonderful secret pal finally got to see her sweet little one this month!

Introducing TATE!

I hope she knows how excited Mike and I (and my entire family) are for her. She is so deserving and I could not be more excited for Lisa, Mesa, and Tate. Now what makes it even more exciting is that she expected an older child and Tate is 8 months old! She is going to be such a wonderful MOM! Congrats Lisa, Oh my heck, you are finally going to bring Tate home!

The Stork has landed!

The Stork is Landing!!!I was bummed when I got on the computer this morning and the RQ wasn't showing any news. Then my sister called and said that it looked like people were getting calls. Of course I got back on the computer (dial up at Mom's) to check all the sites and yes they are here. It looks like the 7th and the 8th are in for sure! Congrats to all the new Moms and Dad's out there. I can't wait to see all the pictures, most of all Tate
who we won't see until Monday! Hang in there Lisa!
I really just want to sit back and enjoy their day and check out the babies but of course in the back of my mind I have to think of all the options this gives us. So here goes!

• We now have 21 very long days until our referral.
• If we do 2 referral days a month it will take 11 months.
• If we do 3 referral days a month it will take 7 months.
• If we do 4 referral days a month it will take 6 months.
• If we do 5 referral days a month it will take 5 months.
• If we do 6 referral days a month it will take 4 months.
• If we do 7 referral days a month it will take 3 months.

Now we also know:

• The 7th was the biggest day in front of us.
• There are still several large days.
• 6 of the 21 days are weekends and should not have anyone logged in on those days.
• If you take the 6 weekend days away that really only leaves 16 days.

So in knowing this I would think that we would get a referral between July and November (I hope!) Lets just hope that next month we get to at least the 13th.