Nope, still haven't heard anything...

We really thought that would be some substantive rumors by now. Of course now that it could be our month and the rumors might actually be about us, there is an unprecedented rumor-draught!

So far there have been two rumors: (1) matching has begun and (2) LIDs 1/23/06 and beyond are not included. Neither of these is too surprising.

Rob & I still think that we'll be included this month, but we know now that we won't receive our referral until next week (our agency would have had to have received referrals today for us to get a call tomorrow).

It's going to be another long weekend. Mostly we're trying to stay busy and distracted.

Preparing for our referral

I have our referral announcements ready to go. The two Chinese knot versions are shown to the left, there is also a third version which is a flat note with a ribbon - no knot, but it does have a yuzen paper-lined envelope like the others. I also made matching envelope seals with Nora's initial.

The only thing left to do is add Nora's picture to the template and print!

I'm also working on an email announcement and our email
distribution list. I guess I could probably start addressing the envelopes for the paper announcements as well.

In other news, today we went to have visa photos taken - we need one photo each for our visas and two each for the adoption registration in China. I also checked our passports to be sure that we have at least 6 months validity and 2 blank visa pages. Rob would have been close, but for some reason he has two passports (one must have been lost at a time when he needed to travel) and the second has plenty of room left.

Here's a rough transcript of my conversation with the photo guy at the UPS store:

UPS guy: Smile less
Me: (smile less)
UPS guy: Less
Me: (smile less)
UPS guy: You know, you aren't supposed to smile at all
Me: How will they recognize me if I'm not smiling?
UPS guy: After a 20 hour flight and standing in line at customs, you won't be smiling.
Rob: (laughs)
Me: (thinking ... I'll be in China to get my baby, no chance I won't be smiling)

I did come away with pictures where I'm smiling a little (no teeth though- the UPS guy wasn't going to push the button if he saw teeth). Thanks to my Dad, I always smile with teeth; it looks better that way, right Dad??

28 months today

Today is our 28-month LID-iversary and I sincerely hope that by this time next month we will have been matched with Nora. Well, I hope that every month, but this month it might actually be true.

As of now, our agency doesn't have any information about the next group of matches, but they hope to hear within the next couple of weeks.

We could have Nora's photo in just two or three weeks -- I can hardly believe it!

Calendar update - May Matches!

May referrals arrived today and appear to cover log in dates from January 10 through January 12, 2006. We're almost there -- maybe next month!

Congratulations to everyone who is receiving their referral! Seeing all the happy families being made gives me hope!

Yawn. I mean ... whee....

This month's rumor roller coaster has turned out to be more of a kiddie ride. No ups, no downs, really not much in the way of rumors at all.

First we heard that this month's batch included the 12th. Then we heard it was through the 12th. Then we heard it included the 12th and was maybe through the 12th. Oh, the suspense. Do you think the cutoff might be, uhm, I don't know, the 12th?

I've thought since December or January that we'd get our referral in June and I still think that. Not much of a roller coaster anymore and, you know what, that's ok with me as long it eventually happens.

There are a number of families with our agency who have 1/11/06 LIDs and we're really hoping that they see their babies' faces this week. Fingers crossed for you guys!!

Hoping for anything less than "Horrid"

The Queen is back and I'm liking her projections -- come on bad case!!

As silly as that sounds, four of the past five months have been "Horrid" or "Worse-than-Horrid". As someone said earlier today, "Horrid" is the new normal.

I still think that we'll get our referral in June, but I sure am having a good time thinking about May.

Calendar update -- one more week!

One more week until we're matched with Nora! By week, of course, I mean a week's worth of LIDs. Knowing that the 12th is a big day, I'm thinking that next month will go through the 12th and then we'll get ours in June. You'd think I'd have learned by now that I shouldn't make any predictions about this, but I can't help myself.

Back to bottles ... and an apology for the crabbiness!

So, my mom read the last couple of posts and made the following comment on the phone today, "You're right, you were crabby, but I didn't want to say anything." Gosh, I admitted that at work, but thought I had done a better job hiding it on my free time. Guess not. I'm very sorry to everyone who may have fallen victim to my crabbiness. Especially Rob and my Mom. If I should ever turn crabby again, just tell me to snap out of it!

As of now I have chosen to use my personal energy for good rather than crabbiness. Among the many things on my to-do list:

1. Finish pre-work on referral announcements
2. Work on intermediate digi-scrapping class
3. Learn to use new camcorder
4. Work on baby toiletry/medication packing list challenge
5. Decide on diapers and bottles for Nora.
6. Teach Maddie about her rug

... and, next Friday, NEW FINGERPRINTS! Party on, Wayne.

Update: Oops, and again I forget that I'm supposed to be making a crib quilt for Nora. Thanks, K, for pointing that out!

Getting past the crabbiness

... or trying to anyway.

There's still no final word on the cut off date. Someone posted on the RQ forum that her agency said it was the 10th, but so far she's the only one to have said that and as far as I know no one has received their referral yet. So, we really don't know for sure, but it seems like the cut off is probably 1/9/06. I think that this puts our best case back to June.

Two months for me to worry about what might go wrong. I really need to stay busy. So, I signed myself up for another digital scrapbooking class and I bought a camcorder. I figure I can learn to use it now and get some practice in before the call. If anyone is interested, I decided on the Canon Vixia HF10 (flash memory - sweet!). I have one from the new shipment on reserve at the camera store and am planning on picking it up on Friday.

This is new territory - we've never had a camcorder. Rob's prediction is that I will tap out the capability of our home computer in the first week. We'll see - we just added a terabyte of network storage for photos, etc. Hopefully we can get by with that and the 2.5 year old laptop for a while. If not the Mac - PC war will resume between me and Rob (I'm on the PC side and won the last round, but he makes some good arguments).

Self portrait

Yes, that's right. I'm crabby.

The latest news on the Rumor Queen is that the cutoff for April referrals is 1/9/06. Five (small) days, including a weekend. If it's true, this is a very small batch. This makes May out of the question for us, June is still a possibility *if* they get past the 12th next month.

We know several people with 1/10 and 1/11 LIDs and really feel for them this evening. I so hope that it's not true.

I'm gonna go snuggle with Maddie. She makes me feel better.

Ok, twist my arm

Ok, I'm on the roller coaster again. After some encouraging comments from our agency and a post on the RQ forum today which said that someone had been told by their agency that 1/13 LIDs were included in the April batch, I couldn't help myself.

This is exciting. I think we might have our referral in May! (I hope that doesn't jinx anything)

26 months

These milestones are starting to get away from me. I almost forgot that today is our 26 month LID-iversary. Hopefully I'll only have a couple more of these to remember!

This month's picture is in honor of Rob and "the best car ever", which was actually a 1977 Saab 99 (photo right), but I couldn't find one of those with a number 26 on it.

** Photos in this post are from www.cartype.com**

Work in progress

A while back I mentioned my desire to make Nora's referral announcements (click on "referral announcements" to see that post). Well, after one card making class and some email conversations with my friend Z's lovely wife J, who is an avid scrapbooker, I came up with some good prototypes. The problem was that I needed a tag or something from which to "hang" the Chinese knots that I bought.

After much Google-ing, I found these rubber stamps (click here for more info about the stamps). They are a bit larger than I'd like, but other than that they are darned near perfect. I couldn't decide between "I Love You", "Dreams Come True" or "Blessings", so I ordered all three.

Next problem (of course) was that I knew nothing about rubber stamping, other than what I learned in card making class. Obviously I needed to take a rubber stamping class. Tonight was my free* rubber stamping class and it was FANTASTIC. I tried a ton of products and made all these samples (click on the photo to see a larger version). THEN I went shopping!

I'm feeling pretty good about this. I'm not sure that I want to reveal the card, though, until after Nora's referral. I don't want to spoil the surprise for the people on our mailing list! I'm working on an email announcement too, by the way. If you're curious, here's a little preview of the yuzen paper lined envelopes. There are three different versions because I wasn't able to get enough materials to make them all the same. It's actually a good thing, because I now like "plan B" better than "plan A".

* the class was free, but then I bought a whole basket full of stamping supplies!

Hmmm... I still think June

The table above is from RQ's latest analysis. I've highlighted the cells including our LID in green. The good case, which never happens anymore, has us in April. Bad case has us in May and the horrid case has us in June. The past several months have been between bad and worse-than-horrid, so it seems that May is a possibility, but June is much more likely. So, I still think June.

Now that our referral is getting closer, we're starting to think more and more about Nora -- who is she, where is she now? This weekend, when we were romping in the snow with Miss Madness, we couldn't help but wonder if Nora is from someplace warm. If that's true, will she like our climate? Will she like water (of course she will - she's our daughter!)? Will she share my birthday (June 30), Rob's birthday (July 14)? We can't wait to learn all about her!

Congratulations 12/28 - 1/4 LIDs!

March referrals are beginning to arrive and it sounds like they cover log in dates through January 4, 2006. Finally we have broken through to OUR MONTH!!!

January 4 would be one day worst than RQ's "horrid" case scenario, but it is what I was expecting to see this month, so I'm sticking with my June prediction for our referral. May would be nice, but let's say June for now and I may amend if April gets through January 12. If April gets through January 11 or less, ours will almost certainly not come until June (or later). Have I lost you yet? Makes perfect sense to me - we PAPs* have our own language.

Congratulations to our friends who are receiving referrals this month - we are so excited for you!!

* PAP = Prospective Adoptive Parents

Worse than the rollercoaster

...waiting to get on the rollercoaster.

This is the worst time of the month for me. There aren't many rumors yet and of the few that are out there, none are anything too exciting. So far everything is suggesting that the cutoff is going to be someplace around Jan 4, 2006, which is pretty much what I was expecting anyway.

Yawn. Where are those rumors??

Care package challenge!

Once we get our referral, we'll be able to send a care package to Nora at the orphanage (or foster home). Since it's packing-related, the care package is this month's packing list challenge. This was a very fun challenge - WAY more fun than the paperwork challenge that I still haven't finished.

Here's our care package so far:

Pictured are:

• camera 2-pack
• baby's family photo album (Nora's referral photo will go in the window on the front)
• labels for photos (they are ready, but not stuck in yet because we are missing photos of a couple of family members. You know who you are -- if we don't get photos, we'll draw you. You've been warned!)
• 2 bags of Jelly Bellys for the nannies or foster mom
• 4 small boxes of Frango chocolates, also for nannies or foster mom
• "taggie" blanket that I bought on Etsy (sooo cute!)
• fleece blanket that we got from one of our secret pals
• a bunny lovey
• two sleepers
• 4 pairs of baby socks
• rattle

Missing from photo:

• letter to orphanage director (not finished)
• baby questions book (ordered from Sharp books, but not here yet)

All of this stuff has to fit in a shoebox-sized box. I've had some trouble finding a box like that (I don't save shoeboxes and Pack and Mail didn't have the size I needed), so I haven't had a chance to do a test-pack yet and don't know how much of this won't fit. If there is a space problem, I'll pull out the fleece blanket and the "taggie" blanket.

Feeling ... great!

February 16, 2008 - our 25 month LID-iversary. I wonder how many more of these we'll have - 3? 4? more?

I can't explain what has changed this past month, but the wait feels different to me now. We just completed our third (last?) home study update, so that bit of stress is behind us. We're working on care packages for this month's Packing List Challenge. It feels like we're getting closer to Nora. I'm beginning to feather our nest and savor each moment of preparation. This is great! Sort of makes up for the first 24 really long months of waiting.

When?? (or "How gullible do you think I am?")

I've been saying for a while that we expect our referral in June 2008. I really believe June is our month. If we're very lucky maybe May, but I think that's a longshot.

Today on Rumor Queen, though -- Holy smokes!!

Bad, Mid and Good case scenarios all have us in April!

I would so love for this to be true - a referral in April would mean travel in May or June. We'd travel before it gets too hot and Nora and I could spend the summer at the beach while I'm on leave. That would be wonderful.

Problem is, I don't believe it. I don't think that they'll match all the way to Jan 5 in March. I still think June is our month...

20 more days!

It's official - the CCAA has matched LIDs through Dec 27, 2005! That leaves only 20 more LID days until we're matched with Nora! Now the real question is how long it will take to process those 20 days... I'm still guessing it will be June before they get to us, but really hoping for May.

Big hugs to everyone seeing their baby's face for the first time this week - it's so exciting to see people in our DTC/LID group getting their referrals!