Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful Christmas with lots of fun and family! We had our traditional Christmas breakfast at our house again this year and it was great. Hopefully this will be our "Last Christmas" without our daughter. China has finished sending out referrals for families in February 2006. Now they are moving on to March 2006. We still have 3 groups from our agency ahead of us and that equals 75 days of applications ahead of us. I'm really hoping for a 2009 baby!

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday season and wonderful New Year!

Another Halloween

That means I am 1 year older. You can forget about it... I'm not telling you how old I am. What 's important is that I feel young and full of energy, most of the time. LOL!! I can't believe it will soon be Halloween again and we are still waiting for news from China. Thankfully China has gotten midway through February 2006 (We're May 2006). This means there are only 87 days of families ahead of us. If you subtract weekends it sounds even better. I haven't seen much of a speed-up in referrals after the Olympics as everyone in the adoption community had hoped. I also think that the heath issues in China as a result of Melamine in some of the formula may have been one reason that things didn't take-off running after the Olympics.

On other news, we'll be visiting family in Georgia this Halloween for my cousin's wedding. I'm happy to be getting my dose of cool fall weather. We're also heading to Disney this weekend for the Food & Wine Festival. A little getaway before the Holiday madness is always good.

Thanks for checking in on us!! I hope all is well with you & yours.

Susie

An update

Since the last time I wrote in February we've had one more group from our agency receive referrals. This is very good news. It also means we only have 3 groups ahead of us now. The adoption community is really hoping that China speeds up the referral process after the Olympics. If this happens, there is a good possibility that we may be in China early next year. Our 18 month journey has turned into quite the ride, but we know that this is God's Plan and we accept that we will be with our child when the time is right. China is now sending out referrals for families who applied in January 2006. At least we're in May 2006.

We were forced to start working on the baby's room due to an AC leak. We've painted and put in laminate floors in light colors. The closet is next (see pictures). So it has been a little exciting around here. The next few months will hopefully bring more good news.

On other news, Chris's business is going well. He loves being his own boss and it has it's perks too. As for me, I started a new job working for an aviation company in Miami as the HR Manager. I've been there for 2 months and I'm starting to feel at home. I love what I do and everyone is great to work with.

I look forward to sharing more news in the coming months.

Some good news...

News coming out of China has been very very slow. The good news is this week another group from our agency will be receiving referrals for their babies. That will leave us with only 4 groups ahead of us. If we can get through those groups this year, we will hopefully get to see our baby's face by this time 2009. All we can do is hope and pray that things speed up and that all the babies receive the love and the care they desperately need. We'll keep praying!

Thank you for checking in on us.