Good Bye Snow

Key West Here We Come!!!

Tonight we'll leave for Columbus. We'll fly out in the morning and be in Ft. Lauderdale before noon. It is currently pounding down the snow again. I cannot wait to get out of here. We're supposed to take fisher to Mike's farm in Summersville to stay while were gone but I don't know that we'll be able to make the trip because of the snow. He may have to stay closer to home in a kennel. We hate that. It's still early. Maybe the snow will slow down.

Not Beauty but Still Pretty

I don't care much for snow. But it does cover up the winter brown. It brightens things up. We woke up to a snow storm this morning. We got all of this snow in about 2 hours. 

Beauty

We do get some beautiful sun sets out here. This was on Saturday Evening. 

Maggie

It wouldn't be fare to leave Maggie out. She will be 11 in August. 

Our Favorite Dog

What a handsom boy. His face is sure getting white. That makes me sad. Fisher will be 6 in March. 

Smoking Section

Fisher is actually chewing a raw hide stick not smoking a cig. What a funny dog! 

HUMMM??

Ok, when we had chinese food for our 4 month LID anniversary, I didn't eat my fortune cookies that day. It was a few days later and my fortunes have haunted me since then.
Fortune #1...Effeciency is doing better what is already being done. The learn chinese word on the back is July Qi-yue.
Fortune #2...Haste does not bring success. Chinese word...September Jiu-yue.
I think I could read anything into a fortune cookie fortune, but these are just too real.
I don't want to wait til September.

Bob

Bob wears many hats at work as a neonatal intenisve care nurse. Tonight he was a Long John Silvers Pirate. LOL!!! Can you imagine this giant man taking the most kind and gentle care of your 1 1/2 pound premature baby. Well he does. And he does it well. 

Sleeper Needed

The bed is no longer a holding area. Getting the dresser and the bookshelf made room to get things put away. 

Window Wall

It is a little room, but it sure is cute. At least we think so. Wouldn't a big puffy rocking chair look nice in that corner where the bean bag is? Oh yeah, and we need a blind. It is super sunny in that room in the mornings 

The New Bookshelf

I put the little bookself together today. We think it looks great. The only thing missing in there now is, of course, a baby girl. Well, and a rocker to replace the bean bag chair :) 

Secret Pal Gift part 2

What a great secret pal we have. Mike went out to start my car before work and there was a box on the door step. It was a box full of Chinese New Year stuff. I made reservations in Key West today over the CNY weekend. I will certainly be packing up this stuff to take. How fun...I can't wait!

Thank you Secret Pal!!! 

Look at this outfit!!

I found this outfit at Tuesday Morning. It was the only one there and I had to have it. 

Love the Curtains

These curtains are so cute. They make the room look so much more "together".  

Lilli

This is my Great Niece on her 1st birthday. She is such a cutie 

Toy Box

This was Mike's toy box when he was a kid. We've had it for a while with blankets in it. We've moved all of the blankets out and painted it and now it's a toy box again. 

Light Switch Cover

It's kinda silly how something will just grab you and you have to have it. Well, that's what this light switch cover did. I say the little rhyme all the time. It says...
There's no need to light
a night light
on a light night
like tonight.
For a night light's light's
a slight light
when the moonlight's
white and bright 

The New Dresser

We finally got our baby girl's dresser. It's great! It's the perfect size. Notice the tiny blue box? Yeah that's girly's first real Tiffany's gift from her Daddy. The little mirror looks pretty lonely on that wall. 

Our Girl's Bed

Updated Nursery Picture

I was able to hang some pictures since we finally got the dresser. I love this pic. Baby Girl's Grandma and Pa gave her the green frog, Monnie the moon..she's received so many gifts already. :) 

Books from our secret pal...shhh

Our secret pal has given us all of these books. We love them and can't wait to read each of them to our own baby girl. Happy Adoption Day has the music to the song in the back. I might have to dust off the cello and try to play it. 

The Dancing Dragon

This is The Dancing Dragon. It is a CNY book from our secret pal. It is so cool. it unfolds as you read it to reveal the dragon. It's beautiful! 

Happy Chinese New Year From Our Secret Pal

Happy Chinese New Year from our CCAI Aug/Sept secret pal.

What a great bunch of stuff. the card is beautiful. There is a really funny story with the card but I'll keep it a secret for our secret pal's sake. :) The little bug on the stand is one that you push on the bottom and the legs fall. He's super cute and brought back some childhood memories. 

The Blue Betta and the Peace Lilly

Baby Girl's Momaw sent her this pretty blue fish. the fish looks great but the plant...not so great. I'm hoping to salvage it but I think it might get the best of me. 

First post

Hello!
This is my first post to our blog.
We are now in the waiting phase of our china adoption. Actually we are about 3 1/2 months into our wait. Yeah, I'm a little late getting started.
I will give you a quick timeline of our paperchase and wait up till now.
March 05
Applied and were accepted as potential parents by CCAI (an absolutely superb agency so far)
Both applied for passports (as you can tell we are not world travelers)
Filed I-600A with the USCIS
State police clearance and fingerprints
Mikes BC certified
Wait
April 05
Applied to Burlington United Methodist Family Services for our homestudy
Received our passports
USCIS fingerprints
Jill's physical
Wait
May 05
Home visit with Jennifer our social worker from Burlington
Home study completed
Mike's physical
June 05
Home study to USCIS
July 05
Received our I-171H!!
All documents notarized
All documents certified by the WV Secretary of State
Sent documents to be certified with the US Department of State
Wait
August 05
Received documents back from Dept of State
Documents authenticated at the Chinese Embassy
Documents to CCAI
Documents to China
Wait
September 12, 2005
Official LID!!!!!
Now the real wait begins.

Since Sept. 12 we have had Chinese food as a monthly celebration on the 12th of each month. (not to mention the numerous times in between)
When we began this journey, the wait was between 6 and 8 months. Since then the wait has increased to 9-10 months. We have no idea when to expect our girl. The CCAA, the China Center of Adoption Affairs, is the governing agency in China that is over adoptions and dictates all that goes on as far as adoptions are concerns. Either they or all adoption agencies are pretty tight liped about the increase in the wait time. No one really has a good explanation. The CCAA claims not enough "paper ready" babies...Whatever. Some of the government agencies have been changing locations in China. I'm hoping that once everyone gets moved and settled and Chinese New Year is over we'll get back to the shorter wait. Only time will tell. One way or another, our baby girl is waiting for us to come and get her and bring her home.
We love her so much already. We can't wait to see her face and know her name so we can give her one of our own.