Boo?

It's the same story every year - Tuesday puts on her halloween best and enthusiastically greets all the trick or treaters - and when it's all said and done she goes into post halloween depression sadly looking to the door and then to me as if to say "Where'd all the kids go?"

As the trick or treaters trickle away, so have my blog posts...I'm incredibly behind but I will catch up. Stay tuned for some swappy goodness, a plumeria update, vacation fun and more!

UPDATE 11/1: Told you so...here she is the next morning...won't the trick or treaters come back, puleeeeeeaaaaaaassse?!?!?!

18 Months LID

We have been logged in at CCAA and waiting for referral for 18 months - a year and a half. Still guessing we will receive referral sometime between fall 2008 and spring 2009 as referral batches continue to creep through LID dates.

October Stork Alert

Congratulations to all families logged in November 26 through November 30, 2005 on your long-awaited referrals!

5 days of referrals means there are now 140 LID days ahead of us to be matched. Rumour is that not only was this a small referral batch in terms of number of LID days included, but in numbers of children finding homes. Sad. Really, really sad.

Happy 4th Anniversary!

We celebrated our 4th anniversary in new way this year - with dinner in San Juan, Puerto Rico and a vacation to the island of Dominica. It was enchanting and I'll share more in comnig posts. 4 years ago, we said our vows on the beach in Hawaii and are still holding hands...I love you honey! Happy Anniversary!

Bite Me!

You all know I'm hoping to raise an eco-baby and some of you suffer my occasional tree-hugger style tips for green living. Now I'm sharing with you the one and only clutter-my-inbox subscription I voluntarily requested. Go ahead, click up there on the shiny green apple - you know you want to! For you who like the idea of being green without being too crunchy, this site is definitely for you! The tips are short, sassy and perfect for those who prefer to be a lighter shade of green. There's even a coordinating blog for more entertaining tip talk, links and earth-goodness fun. Enjoy!

17 Months LID

We have been logged in at CCAA and waiting for referral for 17 months. When we started the process the wait was 8-10 months. The families currently receiving referrals were logged in 21-22 months. The wait continues to grow and our wait will continue to stretch further into the future. Our current guess is that we will receive referral Sometime between fall 2008 and spring 2009 - a guess based on pace of referrals over the past year. Obviously this is not an easy thing to wrap our minds around, considering there are many children in Chinese orphanages waiting for families.

The Sichuan Diaries: A China Journey

The Chicago Tribune's current newsblog The Sichuan Diaries: A China Journey is a wonderful off the beaten path travel log that offers a glimpse into China's heartland. Follow along this amazing journey - start at the beginning by clicking on the week/day numbers on the bottom of the map on the blog's home page.

For centuries, China’s remote interior has churned with war, revolution, growth and collapse. Today, inland China is churning again. With the help of Chinese guide Zhang Xiaoguang, correspondent Evan Osnos and photographer Wes Pope are walking a stretch of inland China to discover what it is today and what lies ahead for China’s Heartland. Along the way, they will answer your questions in English and post some features in Mandarin, thanks to news assistant Lu Jingxian in Beijing.

Remember...9/11/2001

Sunday Meme

From Singing Bird's blog I snagged this meme for some fun mid-month blogging:

Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line four, and write what it says.
"...it is the best joke in the world." from Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala. The irony of this phrase is that this novel encompasses a very serious, violent and sad subject matter.

Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch?
Tuesday, the pretty, pettable, personable, precious pit bull. Oh, and did I mention putrid - yeow, she must have rolled in something...bath time!

What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Tivo'd Steeler game..woo hoo! Go Steelers!

Without looking, guess what time it is.
8:00 PM (not too far off, it's 7:42)

With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Cleo kitty purring.

When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
I was out a few minutes ago to let Tuesday out and to check my recovering (hopefully) plumeria to see if needed to be watered.

Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
Email, other adoption blogs.

Did you dream last night?
Yes. In my dream my sister was getting suckered into buying a time share and I was trying to talk her out of it, saying that all the great dive resorts are not time shares - she was getting pretty annoyed with me. Then the alarm went off. I work on Sundays.

When did you last laugh?
I last laughed about 10 minutes ago watching Tuesday prance around the house with her new treat ball toy - she was so proud. She cracks me up!

What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Greenish-grayish-brownish paint. We recently redecorated the office and haven't hung anything on the walls yet.

Seen anything weird lately?
Yes - a little growth on my gum between my two lower front teeth and the little hole that is now there after removal. Good news is the periodontist said it's definitely not cancer and said it's something that's common in pregnancy (hey! I'm paper pregant, does that count?) or where there's been trauma that heals funky (more likey, I'm always poking my gums by accident with food).

What do you think of this Meme?
Grateful - I'm too annoyed with the pace of referrals lately to blog about anything directly adoption related so I'm lovin' the instant filler.

What is the last film you saw?
I watched Far From Heaven starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. Gotta love tivoing from IFC.

If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
My house - I'd pay off my mortgage. I'd also buy a vacation home in some tropical scuba diving mecca.

Tell me something about you that I don’t know?
I'm lactose intolerant but didn't know it until I stopped eating dairy to reduce hay fever symptoms - oh, so that's what all those stomach aches diagnosed as stress were my whole life! No more stomach aches and other GI unpleasantries and haven't had prescription allergy meds for 10 years (and only OTC sudafed 4-5 times). Dairy is poison.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would you do?
Since Singing Bird is already taking care of the violence, I'll wave my magic wand for 100% sustainable, pollution free living world wide to eliminate hunger and ensure clean drinking water for all.

Comment to President Bush.
Don't let the door hit you in the *** on the way out, Georgy-boy!

Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yes! I think it would be an incredible experience. I'd prefer somewhere with an exotic edge and not all the comforts of home.

What do you want to say to God when you get to heaven?
I'd ask him how he's going to explain to the "one true religion" souls how the rest of us got here! Ha!

If you haven't done it yet, consider yourself tagged!

September Stork Alert

Congratulations to all families logged in November 22 through November 25, 2005 on your long-awaited referrals!

4 days of referrals means there are now 145 LID days ahead of us to be matched. I really don't feel like discussing the prospect of if or when we will see referral. For the first month of this wait it was somewhat difficult to look at the referral photos on everyone's blogs without wondering if this is really ever going to happen for us.

Storm Story

Yesterday afternoon a line of wicked stormed moved through the entire Chicago area causing a lot of damage. Winds up to 74 mph were reported in the City. It came on fast and furiuos. I was still at work and was amazed at how difficult it was to get people in the outdoor areas of my workplace to move indoors. Tornado warning in effect, people! I almost got hit by a flying tent - that would have hurt.

As we were assessing damage at work I got a call from Jacek who got call from his brother who got a call from my neighbor - we had a large tree branch down on wires in the back yard. It took a while but I was able to determine the lines were not electrical. Our patio umbrella is trashed, half of our garden including our cucumber trellis is gone, and the worst is this:

That's the remains of our plumeria and the beautiful handpainted pot that Jacek made. Go ahead, click the link see it's story. I'll wait. Yes, that plumeria (this link is a photo of its first flower. This plant brought as a simple stick from Hawaii was ripped in half and toppled over. The top half was found about six feet away. I temporarily stuck its end in the dirt of the broken pot. We'll do a clean cut and see if it can be saved, but I'm not all that hopeful.

Tuesday, on the other hand, is loving it. When we went out this morning to take photos and futher assess the damage she was gleefully hopping from one little stick to the next. She LOVES stick chomping...I thought her head would explode with the excitement of yesterday's bounty!

16 Months LID

Sixteen down ??? to go...

Say What (part 2)?

Welcome to installment 2 of our Say What? series. In the last installment I discussed comments we've received related to forming a family through adoption vs. birth. In this installment I'll outline other comments we've received related to our adoption. Beleive it or not, we've heard the following from friends, family and acquaitnances.

"But you know, she'll look Chinese!?"

Said with sincere concern that perhaps we hadn't thought of it when told we decided to adopt a child from China. This was said to Jacek when I wasn't around. I so wish I had been there to feign surprise: "Really? Chinese?! Jacek, we have to talk about this!" (yes, I have a sarcastic side).

"She'll just be American!"

Said in what I preceived as a combination denial/annoyed tone when informed our child will be Chinese-American and that we will do our best to teach her about her Chinese heritage. Not sure if this was sheer 'patriotism', an effort to deny that our child will born in China or what. I chose at the time to simply ignore the comment.

"Will she speak Chinese or have trouble learning English?"

Said with much curiosity (keep in mind our child will likely be 8-14 months old when we go to China). Cute. Children are very resiliant and pick up on new sounds and language very quickly, so even if our child is older and speaking, she will transition to English. When our child is old enough we will give her to opportunity to learn Mandarin.

"You don't know what your getting - What if something's wrong with her? What if she's retarded or sick?"

Said out of concern and I think with hope we would cancel the adoption and try for a bio-child - also said right after telling me about distant relatives who had just gave birth to a developmentally disabled child. The logic escapes me. Genetic material does not guarantee the health of a child. While we know there are no guarantees in terms of undiagnosed conditions, we are adopting a non-special needs child. If our child does get sick or we discover an previously undiagnosed condition we will take care of her and ensure she has great medical care.

"Will you tell her she's adopted?"

Said in the midst of tearing up with me while previewing the adoption related child's book Shoey and Dot (in all fairness, this person barely finished the sentence before realizing the sillines of it - remember she'll "look Chinese" and we do not). We will always be very open with our child about her adoption, starting the day we receive her. As she grows, we want her to feel comfortable talking to us about her feelings, good, bad, and ugly related to her adoption story so that she can work through them and not let them define her entire being. Adoption is not a dirty little secret.

There are more crazy comments that I've heard from other adoptive parents who are already home with their child. I'll talk about those in the next "Say What" installment.

August Stork Alert

Congratulations to all families logged in November 15 through November 21, 2005 on your long-awaited referrals! As usual all the photos I've seen posted are absolute cuties!

7 days of referrals means there are now 149 LID days ahead of us to be matched. We're still guessing that we'll receive referral sometime late next summer/early fall.

I Believe...

As seen on Red blog...pass it on...

Big City Nature

Jacek and I ventured out on a 3 hour bike ride Saturday and were reminded of the great resources our metropolitan area provides. I’m not talking about the museums, theater or nightlife. I’m talking about the great outdoors. Cook County (Chicago's base) is home to over 68,000 acres of Forest Preserves. We chose the North Branch Trail that starts on the north side of the city and spreads through the northern suburbs to the Chicago Botanic Garden. We didn’t quite make it the 20 miles to the CBG, but we did make it 13 miles one way to the Skokie Lagoons, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch while watching the canoes and kayakers have fun on the water. Our ride took us through beautifully restored midwestern prairie - a sea of native wildflowers - and through the forests where we saw 6 deer – three doe and three fawns, spots and all. On one break we rested in a field watching swallows zip around and around and saw a majestic hawk fly above. It was such a beautiful refreshing day.

15 Months LID

We have just passed our 15 month LIDiversary. It feels like we've been waiting longer.

July Stork Alert

I'm a little late to the game this month, but still sending out big congratulations to all families logged in November 8 through November 14, 2005 on your long-awaited referrals!

7 days of referrals means there are now 156 LID days ahead of us to be matched. Our current guess is that we'll receive referral sometime late next summer/early fall.

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!