Referrals

The roller coaster ride continues. No referrals yet. Rumor has it maybe Thursday they will arrive. We all wait and hold our breath to see what this months cutoff date will be. Hang in there all you August LID'ers. This has got to be awful for you. My prayers go out to you as you wait...

Mean while it has been speculated that even though no referrals were received during the month of October this may not necessarily mean that the CCAA has skipped a month. I won't try and explain the rationale behind that statement because frankly I just don't get it. No referrals issued in October seems to me to be a skipped month no matter how much you try and sugarcoat it. Unless maybe........ a batch of referral's are issued the first AND the Last week of November. So the cliffhanger continues.............

Patience and Tolerance

Where are the referrals?

Gosh the rumors are all over the place right now! Not sure what to believe. Oh the power the CCAA has over us. Anyone else feel like this?

Christmas Stocking

Here is Abby's Christmas Stocking. The women who is making her 100 Good Wishes Quilt made it for her out of the left over fabric I had saved. I got the idea from another blog that I had read a long time ago. I asked her if she would be able to do this for me and she had no problem.



She sent me some pictures of the stocking today. I love it! It turned out beautifully don't you think?

She made the stocking reversible. I can't wait to see the quilt.......

Homestudy update done

My Homestudy update today was quick and painless. All in all I would say our meeting was 15 or 20 minutes long. Wow 500 dollars for that????? I think I may be in the wrong profession. I also told her that I had been thinking about moving. Still in my neighborhood but into a house verses the condo I currently live in. I really want a yard. So I asked her if it would be another 500 dollars to update my homestudy again for the move. She said, " Oh no! It would only be 300 dollars for that." ????????? Again I think I am in the wrong profession.

As far as any new info that I was able to get out of her...... Not so much! She told me that right now the wait for China referral was running around 11 (I don't think so) to 14 months (duh). I asked her to clarify some of the rumors that I had heard. She hadn't heard or didn't think the wait would go to 2 years. She hadn't heard that China was going to close down to singles but did seem to think that they were going to lower the quota for singles. She did not seem to know why the wait has gotten so long either but did tell me that It seemed like China was getting pickier with their approval process. With that being said though I wouldn't count on any of that being accurate. She is on the ditzy side. She thought I already had my referral! HELLO!!!!

Anyway one more bridge crossed! Now on to my refingerprints.

Home Study Update tomorrow!

I have been cleaning like crazy! I have my home study update tomorrow morning. I have to admit that redoing the required documents was a lot easier this time around since I didn't have to have them notarized. Still I'm just plain nervous. I haven't seen her in a year and with my added pseudo pregnancy pounds I am afraid she will say something. When I was in high school and stressed I didn't eat. Lost mega weight on my post "breakup diets". Okay now I know that was not healthy. Not to worry though cause now I eat when I am stressed and we all know there is a lot of stress going on right now. I also have a little more debt then before with adoption bills, home improvements, and the all important retail therapy. My net worth is still way positive and I also have more in my savings and retirement then I did last time so hopefully I will break even.

Oh and I most definitely plan on pumping my social worker to see what she knows or what her thoughts are about this ever growing wait.

On the lighter side

Surely none of our children will ever do this :)

In Need of an Attitude Ajustment!

Rumor has it that referrals due out sometime next week will only be issued for those logged in through August 23. While I am HAPPY for all of those lucky families, this is not good news for me. Remember I was logged in on December 7th. This means that I still have all of the waiting families that were logged in from August 24th through December 6th ahead of me. 2 months have now passed with August referrals issued. That means it will have taken the CCAA 3 months just to get through all of the referrals issued to families that were logged in during the month of August. That is ASSUMING that the CCAA finishes the month of August next month! So take 3 months for a months worth of referrals times the roughly 3 months left until my log in date plus next month for the rest of August and possibly another month to actually get into December and I am looking at 10 MORE months!!!!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, D*@# I hate this freakin uncertainty! Sorry but sometimes you just have to vent. Going to go be sick now........

100 Good Wishes Quilt Update

I'm so excited. Tomorrow I am sending off all of the quilt squares Abby and I received for her 100 Good Wishes Quilt. They are off to a wonderful lady in England who specializes in making these quilts. Pictured above is the fabric I finally found for the backing of the quilt. I found it on Ebay. The front of the quilt will be bordered in red as well. I can't wait to see it completed.

Thank you everybody that sent Abby and I all of the wonderful wishes and quilt squares!!!! We will treasure this quilt forever! I will be sure to post pictures once the quilt is completed. I will also be sure to post a picture of Abby wrapped up in her quilt once I finally have her home. I can't wait for that day!!!!

Somewhere................

FYI

If you go to abc.com you can watch entire episodes of some of your favorite shows that you may have missed. Pretty cool!

A new McDreamy fan

Okay so where have I been? I always find the good shows late. I watched the seasons premiere of Grey's Anatomy this year and got hooked. I bought the first season and watched it in 2 days. Then I rented the second season and finished that up yesterday. Now I am all caught up. Don't know how I missed it before. Even though it is a little unrealistic at times I really like it.

Another Halloween without Abby

I thought for sure that I would have Abby home with me for this Halloween. We all know that didn't happen...... Not to worry retail therapy always makes me feel better. I found these Treats for my future little Gremlin to wear next year.

This is Crazy!

How Smart Is Your Right Foot?

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And you will keep trying it at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot.
But you can't!!!

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles with it.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction!!!

I told you so... And there is nothing you can do about it

LID 10 Months Today!

Wow! Ten months have now passed since I have been logged in with the CCAA. Now I'm smack dab in the middle of updating my homestudy and still have the redoing of my fingerprints and my I 171 to look forward to as well. I'm not liking the rumors or shall I say the speculations that are out there right now. If they prove true and it really does take the CCAA 2 or 3 months to get through each 1 months worth of LID's then I may very well have to update and redo the above paperwork yet again. Say it isn't so!!!!

Happy Moon Festival

The Autumn Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is a popular celebration of abundance and togetherness dating back to China's Song Dynasty over 1000 years ago. It traditionally falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the Western calendar. At this time, the moon is at its fullest and brightest, marking an ideal time to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest, and reminding many of the lore of the mythical Moon Goddess, Chang O.

On this special day, people worship in temples and hold happy reunions at home. Sons and daughters will bring their family members back to their parents' house for a reunion. Sometimes people who have already settled overseas will come back to visit their parents on that day.
After nightfall they stroll under the stars to view the brightest and fullest moon of the year. Children run around with bright, colourful lanterns in many different designs and shapes. The adults usually indulge in eating many varieties of moon cakes with hot tea. Other traditional treats include pomelo, persimmon, steamed taro dipped in sugar and roasted chestnuts.
Families, relations and friends gather to enjoy the full moon, a symbol of promise for abundance, of harmony and luck. Some will beseech the beautiful Moon Goddess of Immortality for protection as well as family unity.

The traditional food of this festival is the moon cake, of which there are many different varieties. Moon cakes can be bought in Chinese grocery stores and bakeries. The small cakes are very rich, with fillings made of lotus seed paste with anywhere from one to four salted egg yolks in the centre, lotus seed paste with melon seeds, black bean paste with mincemeat (like the filling of a Christmas pie), and all of the above with assorted nuts. Prices vary depending on the ingredients

A Tale of Two Kitties

Warning OT post. For those of you who joined my blog late in the game I actually have 2 cats. You might not know that because Quackers pretty much gets all of the photo opportunities. Cassie is such a sweetheart. I call her my bedroom cat because that is where she mostly stays. Luckily it is a good sized bedroom so she has a lot of space and windows to look out of.

Both Cassie and Quackers are "Pet Smart" rescue kitties. I got them at the same time in hopes that they would be buddies. This has never happened. When they first came Quackers was so timid and Cassie basically fell into my arms. 24 hrs later and Quackers attacked Cassie. The fact that Quackers has claws and Cassie doesn't just makes things worse. She has suffered some bad scratches. So I keep them apart when I am not home. My bedroom door stays shut. When I am home sometimes I open it. Cassie goes right under the bed and stays there till I come to bed and shut the door. If Quackers ventures in there before that time there may or may not be a fight. By the time I get in there Quackers is racing out from under the bed so I don't really know who initiates the hostilities. I also bring Cassie out to sit on the couch with me on occasion. She doesn't like it though but will eventually settle down and sleep or hang out. Quackers usually uses that time to explore my room then eventually comes out and settles on my other couch. They then tolerate each other but a lot of stinky eyes are passed.

Bottom point is that these girls need to get along. This needs to happen before Abby gets here. If your still with me after this long post? I would welcome any ideas that would get my babies together.........