Another month closer.......

Today's the 19th again. The 19th is always bittersweet. A reminder that we are another month closer to our daughter and a reminder of how long we have been waiting ----- 28 months today. Or 2 years and 4 months. In reality it doesn't mean much -- since I'll wait 36 or 42 or even 60 months to bring my baby home. It does make for a long winter and holiday season with just counting down the days and months instead of counting the days we have been a family or how many teeth she now has or how many nights it's been since I've had more than 3 hours of continuous sleep. But, I know in my heart that those things to count will be here soon.

To all my June buddies waiting with me --here's a toast to our health, our friends, our spouses and family who listen to us whine about the wait, and to another month closer to sleepless nights.

Right now the CCAA is up to and including February 15th, 2006 with sending out referrals. We are June 19th, 2006 -- so we have 4 months and 4 days ahead of us. Please pray that 2009 will be our year.

I got our 2 year LID anniversary garden all completed two weeks ago. Sonny got all the dirt in, and put the mulch down the week the plants and bulbs all came in the mail. I waited a couple of days to do the planting because it was going warm up a bit in a few days. I got everything planted after spending way too much time deciding where everything should go. I got it all done and was so proud that I got it done and had thoughts of how great it would look in the spring. Then it happened. I'm sure it happened as soon as I went in the house or maybe it was the next day while I was at work. Those pesky little squirrels came and started to dig up my bulbs and steal them. I'd check out the garden area every couple of days and there would be more holes dug. Then on Thursday they left the evidence -- bold thefts that they are -- they left a bulb on top of the mulch --- just sitting there to mock me. I stuffed in into one of the holes they left and threw some dirt on it. Then I came in the house to stew some more about it. But, there is no way those bratty little squirrels are going to win this one. I did some searching on the internet and found these metal bulbs cages. But, they were $19 a piece. Are they crazy!!!! I did some more searching and decided that Sonny can make me something close enough to the cages for $19 to keep my bulbs safe from the snacks they have become. So I ordered new bulbs yesterday -- assuming that all of mine are now gone. And they we went to Home Depot and bought some metal landscape cloth. We got a small roll of it for $9. Once the new bulbs arrive I can replant everything --- again --- and then I can take some pictures of it -- since I forgot last time. That will also be my evidence against the squirrels that the garden did look nice for the second time.

Wish me luck on trying to keep my bulbs safe from becoming squirrel snacks.....again.
:)

Sherry

Another Anniversary

We are 27 months closer to bring our baby girl home. It can't be too much longer.....can it? I know --- I know -- in due time. Someday I'll know what that really means.

At least I can smile today about it.
And be thankful for what I have and what's to come.
That's always helpful and a good thing to remember before going to bed.

Nite.

~ Until next time.

Passing on some good news!

Drea -- my friend - from Canada -- left this morning for China to pick up her daughter!!! She gets Mia on Monday.

Here's her blog link: http://andmiamakes3.blogspot.com/

I'm so excited for them and can't wait to see the pictures of her.


I've been absent for a few weeks. Lots going on -- but nothing exciting. I wanted to post on 9/11 but didn't really know how to put my thoughts into words. As I was driving to work the radio station I was listening to where playing 9/11 related songs -- then about 1 mile from my house I saw the first flag at half-staff --- I lost it driving to work. I should have turned the radio off but I thought it was good to remember and turning the radio off would have made it too easy to forget.

I was going to blog about my baby boy -- Thunder -- but couldn't bring myself to talk about it. He's been very sick since the beginning of summer. We have spend more money on tests than I care to admit. But, he's our baby boy so the money doesn't really matter -- well it does but..... He had a cancerous tumor removed last Tuesday from under his arm. The vet called this week with the biopsy results -- it was some kind of a contained cancerous tumor so hopefully he'll bounce back to his old self soon. He also had 5 fat tumors removed. So he looks like a patchwork puppy with all the shaved patches.

Sonny has the new flower box built -- sorry no pictures yet. He was going to get the dirt this past weekend but since Ike's rain decided to visit -- the dirt didn't happen yet. It rained during the night on Friday, all day on Saturday and part of the day on Sunday. We had over 5 inches of rain last weekend - with most of it coming on Saturday morning.

Not much else going on. Looking forward to following Drea's 2 weeks in China. It renews my spirit that I'll get there someday.......soon.

Have a great week!

Sunrise Challenge

So over at Pioneer Women's blog under her Photography section she posted some wonderful pictures of some grass. Yes just grass. But taken during the sunrise -- with the sunrise behind the grass it looks like it was dipped in gold. It's very pretty. So her challenge was for everyone to take some pictures at sunrise. There were lots of whiners that didn't want to get up that early but I thought it sounded like fun. Crazy girl that I am. So I checked and the sunrise here this morning was at 6:40am. No problem -- that actually sounded late to me. I set the alarm for 6:15am -- only 15 minutes earlier than it's set for work. Wore pjs to bed that I could wear outside and was ready.

Funny thing is -- we don't get sunrises in the city. Between the fences, trees, houses, etc I couldn't see the sunrise. I stood there with the dogs and waited. They thought I was nuts and thought going in the house and feeding them was a much better idea. I waited until 6:50am and still couldn't see the sun. The dogs convinced me it wasn't going to happen. So I went in and feed them. After that I ran back outside -- just in case -- and there was the sun poking through the trees.

So I guess I'll never get the cool dripping in gold sunrise pictures but I did get some cool shoots with just playing with the setting on the camera. The backlight setting made a beautiful colored sky. And no -- it didn't really look like that outside. And no -- no photo shopping was involved there either. I just bought a copy of photo shop but I'm still clueless as to how to use it. I guess that will be my winter project.
So here's a sample of what I got:

Here's looking east -- where the sun should be -- using the landscape setting.

Here's the same shoot - 1 minute later using the backlight setting.










And here's the sun -- finally was able to see it around 7am.

Olympics and more signs

The opening ceremonies were GREAT and very moving for me. I just love all the kids that got to be a part of the celebration. Of course, I wanted to hug them all. They are just so cute. What a great night for China. I'm very proud that my daughter will be from China. I'm going to be one lucky mommy.

Speaking of adopting, I decided last night that I'm going to adopt one of those guys -- I'm not picky I'll take any of them -- from the gymnastic team. Did you see their arms?!?!?! And the crazy stuff they can do on the rings with them? If I adopted one of them I'd never have to lift another heavy thing --- ever --- or never have to move furniture again -- that would be nice. I asked Sonny if he'd agree and he said no --- he didn't want a son who could kick his butt with both arms tied behind his back. So I guess we'll stay in line for our baby girl. But did you see their arms and how they flip and twist and their elbows look like they are on backwards --- just crazy! My arms ached just laying in bed propped up on my pillows watching them. I really needed to rest while I watched them all work so hard.

On to more signs and this time Sonny even made the 'signs' comment --- not me. I have him trained so well. Behind our property and fence is the church property that is basically just overgrow weeds, brush, trees and tons of mosquitoes. About once a year we spray/kill the weeds behind our fence. If we don't they start to creep in to our yard. In the past couple of weeks I have noticed a thistle bush that is about 5 feet behind our fence and about 3 feet taller than our fence. Our fence is 6 foot tall. Sunday after Sonny cut the grass he sprayed the jungle -- at least what he could get too - since we'll have to wait for some of it to die down and spray again -- it's that bad this year. After he filled the sprayer and was getting ready to go spray I went out there with him. I however stayed about 1 foot from the gate so I didn't get lost in the jungle. After being out there for about 3 minutes guess what I spotted???? A million -- ok maybe not a million -- maybe 100 or so CHINESE LANTERN plants/bushes. They are everywhere. Once I pointed them out to Sonny and he walked around and saw them everywhere. He said -- so if that's not another sign I don't know what is then. Of course I was very happy to get another sign. I told Sonny not to spray them -- however some of them got sprayed just because they where so many of them and they where so mixed in with the weeds. I can't believe how many are back there. And to think that before June I had never seem or heard of these plants. I'm just amazed at the journey and renewal of faith that this adoption has led me to.

Plus, the CCAA sent out referrals through 01/31/06. Only 6 days worth but at least another month is completed. With a 06/19/06 LID there is only 4 months and 19 days ahead of us. So lets pray that things speed up really quick or else I might just have to adopt me a gymnast instead.

;)

I got nothing

I really have nothing to talk about but since I promised myself to keep up my blogging -- I'm going to write something.

The Olympics start on Friday -- I'm looking forward to the opening and closing ceremonies. I bet they will be really entertaining. Then I'm hoping after the Olympics that referrals speed up a tiny bit. Ok -- who am I kidding -- I want them to speed up more than a tiny little bit -- I want the to get back to referring a month at a time. That would be a dream come true.

Speaking of dreams -- I went to bed really early last Friday -- like at 8pm. I woke up at 11:35pm when Sonny came to bed and smiled because I remembered that I just had another dream that we were going to pick up our daughter from China -- and it was APRIL. I love those dreams. So I'm holding on really tight to the dream that we'll be in China in 8 months. I can wait that long to hold my daughter -- in fact I can wait even longer if I have too. But I really don't think it will be longer than 8 more months.

Please, please let me dreams be true.
That's all I got for now.

~Until I have something else to talk about.
Or another dream.

Could apt # 419 be April 19th, 2009?????

First date sign yesterday.

So by now everyone knows about my crazy 'signs' I see every where. Well, I have be asking -- YOU KNOW WHO -- for signs on when. When will I be a mom. Well, I haven't got those answers yet but I keep asking and asking and asking. Then I think maybe the signs are there - I just keep missing them or maybe I keep dreaming about them but then I can't remember the dreams. So I keep asking, watching and wondering.

Well yesterday I needed to go weed and plant some new flowers I bought on the way to the grocery store. But, it was like 9 million degrees outside and 10,000% humidity. So I decided that I'd take a little nap on the couch until it cooled off to about 5 million degrees. During my quick 2 hour nap I had a dream. Yes, a dream. A weird dream but a dream I remembered.

So in the dream I was in some apt and knew I needed to get out....quick. I tricked the person that was making me stay there and ran to the door, unlocked both locks and got out. I didn't know which way to go -- then the elevator across the hall from where I was standing opened up. There was a women in the elevator -- she looked friendly -- so I got in. I told her what had just happened and told her I was in apt 419. She decided to go talk to the mean person in apt 419. And when the elevator door opened again all I could see was the door and the numbers -- 419 -- they really stood out. I think the women got out -- don't really remember that. I don't remember much else -- just that I was standing there looking at the 419. I do remember that the door next to the apt 419 door said 'Stairwell' on it -- but I didn't go running towards that door to get out of the weird situation I was in -- I just keep staring at the 419. Then Thunder barked because it was 30 minutes past his dinner time -- but the whole dream stuck with me -- I can still remember everything about it.

Then I got thinking --- maybe this was the sign I have been asking for. Maybe this has something to do with the adoption. So I think that if this was my sign -- then 04/19/09 will be our Gotcha Day. Since referrals usually come out at the beginning of the month. If this is true then our wait will be exactly 34 months. From LID to Gotcha Day.

So I did some calculations and if our Gotcha Day is 04/19/09 then here are the birthdays and ages our daughter might be then:

Born on 01/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 15 months
Born on 02/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 14 months
Born on 03/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 13 months
Born on 04/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 12 months
Born on 05/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 11 months
Born on 06/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 10 months
Born on 07/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 9 months
Born on 08/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 8 months
Born on 09/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 7 months
Born on 10/19/08 -- age on 04/19/09 -- 6 months

Very interesting.
I guess time will either prove my dream right or just that.......a dream.
But it's good to have dreams.

Happy Monday.