The Best Week Ever!

I must say that at first I was really disappointed that we were unable to travel last week as we had planned. I thought that an extra week of waiting would have killed me. So in order to keep sane (or at least a little sane), I made lots of plans for the week. First, I had dinner with my darling husband on Wednesday at a very chic Chinese restaurant (Le Piment Rouge), followed by a fabulous dinner with my girlfriends on Thursday at a hip restaurant (Monkland Tavern). Friday was MY day... got my hair done, a pedicure, a facial and a massage. Saturday was packing day followed by a lovely dinner with travel partner, Laure, and her family at a local pub (Ye Olde Orchard). On Sunday, we had breakfast with friends and their lovely daughter at a local bagel shop (St. Viateur Bagel). As you can see, we have no food in the house! And finally... a lupper in honor of my baby brother's engagement to long-time girlfriend, Tanya. Congratulations!

Aren't they cute?

Now, husband is probably asleep on the couch (what else is new!) and I am off to bed for a final dodo in this house as a family of three. Next time we are here, there will be another little being living with us making us a family of four. Crazy stuff! Here's a final picture of us taken just hours ago.

Good night!

The Waiting Game

19 months and 2 weeks since LID. Who would have thought that we still would not have our daughter after all this time? It was been almost 3 weeks since the last referrals. We get back the 3rd of July so hopefully we will start hearing some talk that week with a possible phone call early the following week. One can only hope!

We have taken this week off and we are at the cottage having a grand old time. We have not been here since March so Cara-Li is having a blast re-discovering all her toys. I, too, had to re-discover many things. Couldn't find a cutting board to save my life. My memory is not like it used to be! But one thing I didn't forget is just how wonderful this place really is. Life is so much easier and relaxed here. I can understand why this is where I do all my thinking. It is here, on the dock sipping coffee at 6AM while listening to the birds chirping, that I made up my mind that adoption in China is what was right for our family (my other half was on board long before me). And so here I am, 6 years later, sitting in the same spot with one daughter sleeping peacefully in her bed and another daughter somewhere in China waiting for her forever family.

Blah, blah, blah....

Well there hasn't been much to report these days. We are trying to keep busy, trying not to think to much about the next referral batch. That's still a few weeks away... one week down, three more to go.

We are getting ready for the summer. It is Cara-Li's last day at school tomorrow. It is very sad as most of the kids are heading off in different directions for Kindergarten and therefore making it more difficult to maintain their friendships. We are excited about heading up to the cottage though. We haven't been there since March. I do hope that we find a cottage still standing when we get there. We will spend the last week of June up there for a last vacation as a family of three. Hopefully, we will get our phone call the week we get back!

Cara-Li went to the dentist this AM and she has four wiggly teeth. How sad is that? My baby is going to lose her baby teeth! Mommy is NOT ready for this!

Mother's Day

How I love this day! We get to spend the day with our child(ren), we get to put our feet up and the weather is always great.

My day started on a rather sour note however. Last week, after much pondering, we purchased 2 beautiful topiary trees , planted them in urns and placed them on our either side of our door. Much to our chagrin, they were gone this morning... trees, urns, dirt etc. STOLEN, right from under our noses! Can you believe it?!? Cara-Li is beside herself telling everyone about our incident and insisting that we call the police. Poor thing! She is now afraid to leave anything outside.

Things picked up after that. Breakfast was prepared, apple turnovers were baked. Gifts were given. Cara-Li made this beautiful bracelet for me from Magic Dough at school last week. It is just beautiful! I wore it all day with pride.



Later in the day, as we were outside chaining our new urns to the railing (new topiary trees are backordered), Cara-Li's new babysitter drove by to drop off a gift that they had been working on all week. It is a beautiful pillow with Cara-Li's handprints on it. I just love it! I couldn't have asked for a better gift. Thanks L. for all your help with this project!

And now to report the latest early rumours. Rumour Queen has stated that she has heard from 2 sources that the next referrals (that will come probably first week of June) may go to November 16th - 21st. Remember, we are LID November 11th. I am NOT getting my hopes up as it can lead to disappointment. But one can't help but be excited when no one is looking!!

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Pre-Referral Funk

I have just named the state of mind that I am in... the pre-referral funk. We are at that time of month once again where we wait to see if we will hear anything from China soon. Rumours have it that we might hear something on Monday. If we don't, then we will have to wait until mid-May as the Chinese are off for the first week of May. So here we are once again, in limbo. Although we are pretty much guaranteed not be in this batch anyway. But the further ahead they go, the better our chances will be for the next batch.

Add to this the fact that today was Cara-Li's nanny's last day with us. This is the day I have been dreading about for the longest time. After all, she has been with us for 3 years and they are very close. Hugh... so sad!

One good thing happened today. We had a travel meeting with our adoption agency. These are always fun as everyone is always very excited about their upcoming adoptions. We decided to bring Cara-Li with us as we did not want to leave her with a sitter after what happened today. We walked into the room with her a couple of minutes before the meeting was due to begin. It was funny because everyone gasped simultaneously when they saw Cara-Li, her being a live example of what they will soon be travelling to China for! And another couple brought their 5-year old as well with whom we hope to travel with. And the best part was, the girls hit it off! Cara-Li went home happy to have made a new friend who is also going to China to pick up her Mei Mei.

Not a bad end to what was a pretty difficult week. To new beginnings!

Shoes & Cribs

OK... so we have resigned to the fact that we will probably not receive our referral call until the July batch... at best :( Which puts us in China sometime in August. It better still be really hot as, when we thought we'd be there in June/July, I went out to buy 3 pairs of shoes just for this trip that are perfect for really hot weather. These Rockports are my personal favorites as they are a closed shoe (perfect for travelling and walking through some of the dirty streets in China) and the white fabric is a mesh therefore very breathable. And they are machine washable! If we go in fall/winter (Aghhh!), I will have to add these shoes to the ones I bought last summer when we thought we were going then. Did I mention that I am not what you would call a big shoe person... I hate buying shoes. Too stressful!

I was off work for a couple of weeks as Cara-Li's nanny was not around so I took this opportunity to set up the baby's room. I rebuilt the crib and set it up. Yes, folks... the crib is up! Some of you might remember back in 2003... Twas the night before departing for China... and there was no crib in the house... not even a diaper! Did I think that this baby was never coming home? Yes, because of SARS, we were delayed several months. I was definietely having crib issues! But no longer. The crib is up and this baby will come home!

Now, I've got to get those hedgehogs painted on the wall....

(OK... make that 5 pairs of shoes. Just got back from shopping! Boy, I really do get weird toward the end of the wait.)