Report on Our Holiday

Sunday we went to my mom's house. My older brother and his family couldn't make it due to the weather which was too bad. We had a good time though with my other two brothers. Mike got to take all of my coconut date balls home since Dan wasn't there and my mom doesn't like coconut. He told me I could just put To: Mike on them next year and he'd be happy. The girls got the Webkinz they wanted, some makeup and a couple of games which they played with their cousins right away.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we stayed home and relaxed. Well, we cleaned Monday because I told the girls Santa wouldn't leave anything if the house was in the shape it was in. We opened our gifts to each other Monday night. The girls were thrilled with the movies and CD's I got for them. They each got pajamas they love. And while Anna got a great princess towel, Jessica got an inexpensive digital camera. She was in heaven and snapped pictures the rest of the evening. The girls got me some nice picture frames so I can put their school pictures on the wall in my living room, and a bowl with body wash, shampoo, conditioner, hairspray and some Olay lotion. Just what I wanted!

Santa was especially generous as he always seems to be. He just doesn't know when to stop. Maybe some day he'll learn. The stockings were full, the cookies eaten, and lots of presents under the tree. The girls each got an American Girl doll (Julie and Ivy). Anna got lots more princess stuff and a Harry Potter game which we haven't played yet. Maybe once we get past New Year's. Jessica got her Nintendo DS and 2 games. She declared this the BEST Christmas EVER!!! I guess she didn't really think she'd get the Nintendo DS even though she asked for it. More Li'l Webkinz were in the stockings. And Mom got a refurbished iPod nano. It's an older 2 GB one, but I totally love it. Of course it took me 2 days to figure out how to load songs on it and Jessica picked it up and 60 seconds later was playing solitare. But I really like it. I seem to always get something on the girls' list that they can't have yet, but they're always okay with that.

I just love laying in bed on Christmas or Easter morning and having them run out and check things and then report back to me. "Santa came!" "He ate the cookies and left a note!" "There are presents under the tree! 8 for me, 8 for Anna and even some for you!" "The fish got presents." "Lucy and Jinny got a lot of stuff in their stocking." "Amanda got a present, too!" "Mom, get up!" I tried to stay in bed until 6:30, but it was pretty hard when they were awake by 5:20. I told them my mom and dad wouldn't let us get them up until 7:00. They thought that was silly. I tried to stall by telling them about the time my brothers and sister and I got up at 4 a.m., but still had to wait until 7:00. By the time my parents came down, we were all asleep again on, under, and behind the couch in the living room. Christmas is so much fun with kids!

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!

May you all have a wonderful holiday.

13 Months Since LID

Just thought I'd post it. No deep thoughts. Just another month down.

Photo Cards Sent, Almost Ready to Relax

I got my photo cards last night and managed to address them all with only 8 left over. I keep adding people, but its nice to meet so many new people and feel they are a part of our lives. If anyone wants one that I may not have already included, let me know. This is the picture I used in the card.


I've also finished shopping except for the fruit I told my mom I'd bring for our Christmas celebration on Sunday. Tonight I will finish baking and hopefully wrapping, so that I will have a nice relaxing long weekend. I have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off to enjoy with my girls with no other obligations. I'm looking forward to it.

Holy Moly, November Is Now In Review!

Just got CCAA's update this morning that they've finished reviewing through October 31, 2006 LID's. That means I'm moving into the Review Room!

That means once my dossier has been reviewed (and approved), I move to waiting for a referral and only something very major would change that status. Referral is still who knows how many months or years away, but if I make it out of review, China has approved me to adopt another child.

Christmas Baking and Shopping

I'm almost done with my shopping. Just one brother, my mom, and my daycare provider to go. Of course not everything is wrapped, but I should make more progress on that tonight as a friend offered to take the girls for a little while so I could do whatever I need to do when they aren't around.

Sunday I started my Christmas baking. I love baking as long as I have time and don't have to do it every day. If I could do whatever I wanted in life, I'd consider being a caterer because I love doing parties. Although I think it would get old if I did it for a living. I may be thinking too big, but I'm hoping to finish my cookie baking tonight as well. Gotta get some out tomorrow for teacher gifts since Anna only sees her DHH teacher on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'll try to take a picture of the final product. I'm trying a couple of new cookies/candies this year. And I'm leaving out the cut-out cookies unless the girls beg to do them. I'm trying to not stress over Christmas. Okay, I've stressed, but I'm trying to stop!

A Blue Tree

I used to have all blue lights with silver tinsel and blue and silver balls.

You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace. You avoid family fights, and you don't get too stressed out - even when things are crazy! You like to make Christmas about making everyone's life a little bit better. You don't get caught up in greed or commercialism. You're too sincere for that. Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It's a Wonderful Life What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies

What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

Pals

Lucy and Jinny are getting along very well. Much better than I ever thought. I'm enjoying having a kitty. She's so easy to take care of compared to a dog, yet she's very snuggly, too. Right now she's sitting on my shoulder, playing with my hair, and purring up a storm. She's definitely what I needed to help me get over losing Penny. Anna is finally not constantly holding Jinny and letting her explore the house. Jinny and Lucy seem to find it enjoyable to play chase around the time I'm trying to go to sleep which is fine except when Lucy gets too verbal about it.

PRS or Pre-Referral Syndrome

It's that time of month again...I don't mean PMS but PRS or Pre-Referral Syndrome. This is a much more dangerous time of month than PMS is for most women, even worse than PMDD.

Typical Symptoms:
Women in the process of Chinese Adoption will sit in front of their computers, for days on end trying to find one tiny shred of fact regarding the latest LID cut-off or actual date of said referrals; either through forums, chat rooms or blogs.

Most women WILL lose some sleep during this time by choosing to surf for clues until the wee house of the morning, get a few hours of sleep only to get up extra early to see if anything has surfaced in the 3 hours they were asleep. Most women feel anxious, go through bouts of excitement and depression and appear to be losing her mind to those around her. When she will allow herself to be torn away from her cyber hunt, she will be prone to bouts of sobbing, shopping spree's for baby items (mostly in pink), and will tend to eat copious amounts of Edy's Slow Churned ice cream.

In extreme cases some women will lose short term memory, they will forget to take care of their daily responsibilities such as letting the dog out, planning dinner, going to work, etc. Some women will even forgo hygienic rituals, skipping showers, putting hair in ponytail, or wearing sunglasses to the grocery store to hide the dark circles and pale complexion due to lack of sleep and make-up.

Cycle Duration:
Women usually experience PRS symptoms from 2 days to 2 weeks before the onset of Adoption Referrals being received at adoption agencies and can show continued symptoms for 2 days to 2 weeks AFTER referral information has been officially announced. Warning: Those experiencing symptoms 2 weeks before AND 2 weeks after SHOULD SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION or at least have an extremely supportive network of family and friends who can make sure that she doesn't go to work in her underwear or fall asleep in unusual places.

Life-time Duration:
This is a chronic disorder that will continue on a regular basis until the cure* is administered. Years ago experts in this area believed the duration of PRS to only last 6-8 months. Then 10-12 months, 22-24 months and now some believe it could go as long as four years. As you can see there is not a definite end to this syndrome and those considered experts actually have no idea either.

*Cure: One adopted daughter, home in her mother's arms.

Up To December 14, 2005

CCAA has now referred LID's through December 14, 2005. Another 6 days. Congratulations to the families receiving referrals! Unfortunately at this rate, it'll take another 4 years to get my referral for Amanda. Let's hope next month shows more of a speed up. It'd be nice if they finished December with the next group.

Birthday and We Put Up The Christmas Tree

Today is my birthday. I still have my ticker down at the bottom of the site, the one for days to referral set to my birthday next year. I know at some point I'll change it to 2 years from now, but I want to wait until the first referrals come in 2008 just in case there's a minor speed-up. My girls gave me a couple of cute ornaments, some Blockbuster gift cards, and a Zen daily calendar. A friend took them for the afternoon and evening so I could go to a movie and dinner before my concert tonight. I kind of wish I'd spent the day with them. It was awfully quiet. I saw August Rush. A good movie with sort of an Oliver Twist theme. I didn't have time for a sit-down supper, so got take-out from Leann Chin. Like I said, kind of quiet, but then again, Sundays usually are. Dance was cancelled yesterday because of the winter storm warnings, so we didn't really see anyone.


My horoscope, under "your birthday today" says "There is an exceptional amount of financial luck flowing through your realm this year." Boy do I really hope that's true. Of course it also says "Wedding bells ring in October." Like that would happen. Maybe it means a friend.





Yesterday and today we also worked on putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the living room. This year I decided to get Amanda a stocking and hang it up even though she isn't here or even close to here. I figure she may be born and we're waiting for her, so there you go. Her stocking is hung by the fireplace with care.