One and 1/2 years

Today is our 18 month LID anniversary! This month the CCAA referred another 8 days - making the cutoff 1/4/06, and the current wait 27ish months. Hey, at least they are in our LID year finally!

Bragging rights to the first person to figure out the trick to this site!

Have a great Wednesday - enjoy the beautiful weather!

"Please pack your knives and go"

Top Chef: Chicago starts tomorrow! Can't wait!!

Friday Fun

Check out this link for some laughs...

Warning: there is sound once you click on a horse.

Tip: It's a little tricky getting the timing just right, so here's a tip for some good harmonizing... Click on a horse, then go to the next horse you want to sing and click & hold. Wait until the one(s) singing get to the end of their phrase and then release the mouse to start the next one. You can click the horse again to get them to stop if they miss their cue. We would like to suggest this order (left to right)... 1, 3, 4, 2. Play around and make your own mix. Enjoy!

Garrett is a big brother!!

Congratulations to Joel, Misty, and Garrett on the arrival of Isabel Grace....Isabel was born Feb. 25. and weighed 5 lbs 1 oz. She is getting stronger everyday and it sounds like she'll be home soon!!

There are no coincidences

Did you think we had run off (or for you O'Brother fans, RUNNOFT) to China and forgot to tell you?! I know, it's been a while, not to worry though, we're still here....you're not gonna get rid of us that easy. Guess you could say we've been in a blogging-slump lately. To be honest we've been in an adoption-slump lately. The last few weeks we've been trying to decide once and for all if it would be possible to do a concurrent adoption in enough time to not interfere with our adoption from China. In order for this to work, it would have to be completed in one year. If we've learned one thing on this journey, we've learned that it is unpredictable and there is just not another program out there that is stable/predictable enough to guarantee this timeframe. Had we known at the beginning of 2007 that it would be 2010 before we'd be in China, we would have started a concurrent then, but we just didn't think the wait would continue to this degree. So, we made the decision this week that we would put all thoughts of a concurrent adoption behind us, continue to be faithful in our wait for Anna, and in the meantime start living our lives again.

We also decided that we were due a vacation. We haven't really had a nice one since our honeymoon almost 8 years ago, so after talking to Joel & Misty a couple weeks ago about their trips to Cancun, we heard the ocean calling! So, we've spent the week planning a trip to the Riviera Maya for May!!

Now, as for the title of this post.... We had an amazing, faith-building day at church yesterday!! The day started with a great sermon followed by communion. Then, in Sunday school we had a great lesson from the Purpose Driven Life video series and then at the end of class our friends Kevin and Mandy reminded us that there are no coincidences. We were just getting ready to finish class when Mandy said that she had something for the class, but mainly for us. She went on to say some wonderful things about adoption and how they think about us and our wait for Anna everyday. And then, she begins to pass around a gift bag filled with bracelets that she had made for us and anyone who wanted one!! They are those "livestrong" type bracelets, but they're red and say "Waiting for Anna" on them!! What an amazing, thoughtful gift!!

The timing of this was just - well, not coincidence. After just deciding that a concurrent adoption wasn't possible and that we would continue to faithfully wait for Anna and then to be given this thoughtful gift and to feel this circle of support around us as everyone put these bracelets on.....it was truly amazing and overwhelming. To know that we are waiting for Anna, but that we're not alone, that there are a lot of amazing people here waiting with us, is an awesome feeling. We can't wait for her to meet all of you! Thank you Kevin & Mandy - we just can't tell you what this meant to us and how perfect the timing was. Thank you to everyone for your continued support, thoughts, and prayers....it means so much.

A little afternoon fun...

Happy 17 Month LID...

Isn't "happy" and "17 Month" an oxymoron?!? :-)

The last group of referrals the CCAA sent were for families logged in from Dec 20 - Dec 27, 2005. The current wait from LID to referral is approximately 26 months...and climbing.

In other news, I am sure most people have seen the news about the storms in China. For those who are unaware, China has been battered by extremely cold weather and snow in some of the warmer regions that normally do not see cold weather. This is the worst weather the region has seen in over 50 years so they are not equipped to deal with it. Unfortunatly some of the orphanages are without power and heat. Others have sick babies, are runnning out of supplies, and have had equipment break down. Half the Sky is doing all they can to help, if you'd like to help - just visit their website to learn how. Thanks.

This is pretty much how we spent the day...

Hope you all are surviving the ice storm and staying warm!

Happy Belated Chinese New Year

That was fast!

We already received our new I-171H in the mail. This is the form we had to go to K.C. recently to renew. The new one is good until July 2009...which means we'll have to renew one more time before we go to China. We're now predicting it will be summer 2010 when we get our referral. As children, we thought we'd be flying around like The Jetsons by 2010!

Buckle Your Seatbelts...

First of all, sorry for the lack of blogging lately. It's been a crazy start to the year for us. Allow us to fill you in...

A couple of months ago, we received a message from Laura's doctor telling us about one of her patients who was pregnant and wished to make an adoption plan for the baby. Knowing our desire to have children, the doctor thought of us along with a couple of other families. The information we were given at the time was sparse, but this would apparently be a semi-open adoption and handled through private attorneys. To be honest, this was a road that we never really saw ourselves traveling... So we were hesitant, but decided to let the doctor give our names to a mediator who would help facilitate the adoption.

Weeks passed and we didn't hear anything, so we basically wrote it off in our minds. Then, suddenly... in the midst of the holiday calm we received another call to see if we were still interested in considering and being considered for this adoption. After a little prodding, we agreed to at least meet with the birthmom. We decided to treat it as a "testing the waters" experience. This would be a somewhat awkward meeting for obvious reasons... But despite our fears, it went relatively well and we came away feeling a lot different than we expected.

The next morning we received a call from the mediator and, to our bewilderment, were told that the birthmom had chosen us to be the adoptive family. (Gulp!) Obviously, we were overwhelmed by the unexpectedness of ALL of this. It would be hard not to appreciate the rareness of this opportunity and the way it seemed to be coming together... and yet we had serious concerns about the circumstances that would surround the adoption. Nonetheless, we suddenly found ourselves with the ball in our court. "What do we do now??"

Along with the details of the days that followed, we'll also spare you any more suspense... This child will not be ours.

So.. back to the story...

To say the least, this was a decision that caused us a lot of turmoil (some of you, no doubt, with tiny grins right now thinking about our struggles with even the smallest decisions). What an amazing opportunity to bring a child into our family much earlier than we anticipated, and better yet it wouldn't interfere with our China adoption. On the other hand, our instincts about the scenario continued to keep us grounded.

Oh, a minor detail we haven't mentioned yet... this baby was possibly only DAYS away from being born. (Gulp! again) Obviously this added to the pressure of our decision, but we knew it was possible and that friends and family would rally to help us overcome the extreme time crunch. The question remained... Was this God's will?

We prayerfully considered adopting this child (and were coming much closer than we ever imagined in the beginning)... We decided to move forward with it and even sought legal council to see what the risks were and what needed to happen to make it all work. We leaned upon friends and family to help us talk through this heavy decision, and make sure we carefully considered all of the matters involved in the situation. We proceeded with "cautious optimism", but as things progressed and more concerns cropped up it started to become clear that, for us, it wasn't meant to be.

It brought us comfort to know that the birthmom also felt very strongly about one of the other families she had met with, and we have reason to believe they might be more prepared to handle the present circumstances...

So... the last few weeks have been a roller coaster of a ride. After our final decision was made, we experienced disappointment and sadness that it didn't work out. We realize it might be hard for some to understand how we could turn away from something that seemed to fall into our laps... Could it have worked despite our reservations? We'll never know the answer to that, but now that we're back on solid ground and free from the stress and emotional intensity of the situation.. we feel that we made the right decision - for everyone. In the end, we had to go with the instincts that God gave us. Our time will come.

So, why did this happen? What did it all mean? We may not know the complete answer to that right away, but we've learned so much for having gone through this. It has been a faith building experience. And even though we're very anxious to become parents, it has given us a greater appreciation for what we do have and we realize now more than ever how blessed we are to have people in our lives who will love us and support us no matter what.

What a year... and it's only mid-January.

Goin' to Kansas City...

Kansas City, here we come. We're heading out in the morning to KC for the weekend. We scheduled our fingerprint renewal appointment for Monday (the 31st), so we thought we'd make a weekend of it!

Hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to the best husband in the world!!