Orlando Afterthoughts

We just got back from Orlando - I had a professional conference there so Jacek came with me. We had a great time. We flew in on Sunday and drove to Clearwater Beach to walk in the sun. The Gulf water was crazy warm - not refreshing at all. Still, it's a nice beach. We spent an afternoon at Sea World in the rain. After the storms cleared up we rode the Kraken - a very fun roller coaster - 7 inversions, 144 ft. drop, up to 65 mph and it's floorless - all this without getting motion sick - look ma! No dramamine! I hate the high hills, but love the loops!

After a few days of conferencing we made our way to the Magical Midway, where Jacek braved the Sling Shot. And yes, we have video to prove it. I have to say it's the scariest amusement ride yet and the one in Orlando is the biggest - the towers are 115 meters tall and it shoots the rider up to way higher. I think the people who ride it are nuts. And yes, that includes Jacek.

Before flying home on Thursday we spent the day at Discovery Cove. It's a beautiful park and they really do it right. Clean, comfortable, relaxing and a lot of fun. Their aviary and reef are way cool. They have several large southern sting rays and spotted eagle rays among the tons of fish. The birds inlcude the colorful, friendly and downright wacky. They really cater to you while you are there and we agreed it was worth the cost.

So it was a really fun work week and we got home feeling relaxed and ready for the weekend. I used to cringe at the thought of taking our kids to Orlando but after this week I'm kinda looking forward to it.

We're Out of Review!

According to CCAA our dossier is officially out of the Review Room! This means they've gone through our information with a fine toothed comb and think we're A-ok to adopt a child from China. Now our dossier sits on the very bottom of a mountainous pile in the Match Department waiting for a child match. Even though our referral is a long way off, it feels great to reach this little milestone in our journey!

14 month LID

Today our official wait turns 14 months or 427 days old. As far as gestation periods go, if I were a giraffe I would be ready to pop out my calf. But I'm not a giraffe. So the wait goes on.

17 Year Cicadas

They won't be back in this area until 2023, so I've been making the best of the 17 year periodical cicada invasion. I had to - I work in an area where they are heaviest and I'm outside with them quite a bit. It's a pretty amazing life cycle and in just a week or two they'll be gone. I've discovered them in my desk drawer, on my shoulder, down my shirt, up my pants the whole way to the knee and buzzing in my ear. They're loud, clumsy and cartoonish and I've actually come to like the litte guys. Here's a shot of me with one on my nose...my family won't believe this!

Actively Dating

Jacek and I have made a commitment to ourselves to get moving again and take advantage of all the fun this city has to offer. Over the past couple of years our activity levels have dropped and we've gotten in a bit of a rut with our social choices - it seemed our priorities changed and by the time we were done with our weekend errands and cleaning it was time for whatever evening get together (read: sitting around) was underway. We shifted our priorities back where they need to be - activity first. There's too much fun to be had in this city if you just get moving.

We kicked off our new adventure on our Friday date night. We started at the bike shop where I got a new seat, lock and handlebar extension to comfy up my ride. Jacek brought out the magic tools, got everything in place and off we went. We biked about 6-7 miles to our new Whole Foods - they have wine tasting Fridays at 5, plenty of dinner choices and live music. One the way home we stopped at our favorite ice cream shop and enjoyed a cool treat and biked on home. It was the perfect evening and it felt great to move.

Today we got up early and took Tuesday to the dog beach - as usual she had a blast with the other dogs and had a nice swim. One the way home we had a light lunch at a place with dog-friendly outdoor seating then hit a nearby street festival - Tuesday's first. She loved the attention and met a couple new dog pals. It felt good to be out in an urban social environment again.

It's really important to us to be good role models for our future child and that includes a healthy, active lifestyle. We talk all the time about how we can't wait to do this or that with our child and finally realized we don't have to wait - we can be doing those things now. And we still got the house clean this weekend...

June Stork Alert

Congratulations to all families logged in November 2 through November 7, 2005 on your long-awaited referrals!

6 days of referrals means there are now 163 LID days ahead of us to be matched. Though we haven't received official word, we're pretty sure we've cleared the review room at CCAA and our dossier is now sitting in a pile in a very very long line waiting for child match. Based on this assumption, I told my boss about the adoption and gave him my best guess as to when we'll be in China. He doesn't strike me as a pro-kid type so I was nervous about telling him, but he seemed supportive and I feel like a huge weight is lifted.

The Big Green Explosion

Summer's here and our gardens are back! The native prairie garden is exploding and there are already butterflies flitting around in anticipation of the flowers to come. The woodland natives miraculously emerged after being trampled and buried by the fence installers last year. Our strawberry patch has already produced about 2 pints of the best strawberries we've ever had and there are many raspberries on the way, too. We foiled the birds by putting a netting over the berry patch - doesn't look all that pretty, but I wasn't as willing to share this year. The herb garden is planted and we're already harvesting chives and dill. The veggie garden is in and reaching for the sun: tomatoes, banana peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, pickle cucumbers, zuchini and mesculin mix. I changed up my big patio containers this year - alyssum along the outsides with mint in the middle of one and lemon balm in the other...I'm thinking it'll be a good year for iced tea, lemonade and mojitos! I have to say the front lawn is looking smashing, too - the pride of the 'hood.

All of this without the use of chemicals. Earth rocks! I'll post some photos after we take the fence down - we keep it up until the veggie plants grow a bit to keep the dog from trampling them. Stay tuned!

It's so exciting to see the perennials return, the leaves come out on the tree and watch things grow...we love to relax on the patio with the birds and the butterflies with the warm summer breeze...our little urban oasis...

So-Cal Meet

I recently attended a conference near San Diego and discovered that a fellow ALT would be in town the same week. We were able to meet for dessert and drinks. It was great to see fellow waiting parents and connect. It was kind of funny, though because my coworker was with me and I hadn't told work yet so we couldn't talk about the adoption...I was thrilled that the evening was still full of conversation and a few super-secret glances.

Looking forward to the next ALT event!

13 Month LID

May 20 marked 13 months LID for us. The pace of referrals continues to creep along. We had our homestudy update this month and met our new social worker - she's very nice and told us that she was adopted domestically and that it was a closed adoption, meaning she has no way to search for her birthparents. It was interesting to hear how that did and did not affect her growing up. She coordinates the waiting mom meetings at our homestudy agency that I'm looking forward to attending. So far they've fallen on days I've had other obligations.

One bit of great news for us we received from CCAI today...Starting July 30, USCIS (immigration) will extend one free renewal of our I-600A/I-171H. Since our I-171H doesn't expire until mid-August we can postmark our I-600A refile for August 1 and save nearly $900!