Happy Birthday Shirley!!

Happy Birthday to my dear Mother-in-law. This is a picture from our annual beach trip last summer. In the picture also is our niece Caitlin. Hope you had a wonderful birthday!  

Happy Birthday Fisher!!

Today is Fisher's 6th Birthday. So, I took this opportunity to humiliate him with a homemade birthday hat and put the picture out here for all to see. It did take lots of cheese to get him to leave the hat on long enough to snap a picture.
The rumors are flying again. August dossiers are in the review room...September dossiers are in the review room. OH MY GOSH...we are September! The only thing definitive is this, cut and pasted strait from the CCAA web site,
"The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before July 31, 2005."
If they have finished review of all of July I suppose they would have to be moving on the August. But September, I'm not so sure. And just because they have been reviewed doesn't mean there are babies ready for them. I'm still not holding my breath but I am finding it harder to breath. Our girl is getting closer. There is no rumor on the next batch of referrals, as this last batch was just referred last week. My guess is sometime near the end of March. We are all hoping for many more than 12 days worth. That would just barely get into June. My stock answer these days to the endless "have you heard anything yet? When are you gonna get your baby?" is, "sometime between June and January is my best guess. Maybe later but hopefully sooner".
Happy Birthday to my big furry baby boy!!
 

The Latest Addition

I found this perfect blue twinkle, twinkle little star sign while shopping this past weekend. It is exactly the right color. As you can see the plant in the fish bowl is doing fine. Most of the original plant died but Mom gave me more to put in it. 

Spring has Sprung

Spring is officially springing out in WV. These are actually buds on this tree in the front yard. There are daffodils popping out of the ground beside of the house also. Bring It On!!
Yesterday, 112 families with a LID of May 23 from CCAI were given their referrals. How wonderful for those families!! I cannot imagine their joy. Maybe someday, many moons from now, we will know their joy. If the CCAA continues to match only 12 days of dossiers each month it could be a very, very, very long time before we get to experience that joy. What ever happened to 6-8 months? It seems as if 9-10 months has come and gone too. The I171H is only good for 18 months. It seems inconceivable that everyone would be expected to renew that expensive yet crucial part of the process but it sure looks like we're headed in that direction. 

What the Hell?

Well, CCAI has posted that the next batch of referrals have been mailed. They are "hopeful that they will include their May 23 LID". Hopeful, hopeful that they will include May 23? I was hopeful that they would include June 23. With each batch of referrals that have come out since we were logged in, the 6-8 month wait that we started with has increased at least a month. This is ridiculous. I am fully anticipating having to re-file for our I-171H. Ours expires in January. That's a nice little chunk of change that was not in the budget. I am totally exasperated and am sure that my head may spin around backwards on my neck at any moment now. I'm going to try to keep it together until it's definitive that the hopefulness of CCAI has been confirmed. That should be sometime early next week. After that, I'm not making any promises.

Please Mom?!!!

What Fisher would not do to get Maggie to play with him. And, as you can see, she has zero interest and is awfully guarded when he is around ;)
No news this week so far about referrals. Last week the rumor was that referrals were coming and that they include LIDs into June and maybe all of June. Wouldn't that just be fantastic! Although, I'm certainly not getting my hopes up. In fact I am still in the self defensive mind set of not even thinking about it. I hate that! I feel as if I am slighting my own daughter as a defense for myself. Disappointment has been abounding in our life for so many years now that turning it off is how I deal....or maybe I just don't deal anymore. Can you say therapy anyone? In our quest to be parents, we have only experienced disappointment and grief. I really don't know how to feel any other way about it. I do know that one day, not too far in the future, we will look into the big dark eyes of our own daughter and kiss her on her beautiful face. Saying that is so much easier than believing, but I do know that it is true. Maybe, once she is safely surrounded by our love and affection, and physically in our grasp I will truly believe. 

A Day Late

Happy Valentines Day!! (a day late) You can see some of the leftover snow through the window. That was yesterday. Today it is 60 degrees outside. Tomorrow it is supposed to be warmer still and then this weekend it may snow again. What a strange winter it has been.