Autumn Moon Picnic and Walk-a-thon

Yesterday was the annual FCC-LI Autumn Moon Family Picnic at Belmont Lake State Park. In addition to the picnic, we walked in the First Annual FCCLI Walk-a-Thon around Belmont Lake. The monies raised will be sent to charities that assist China's orphans as well as all those effected by the earthquake that hit Sichuan province.
Originally, the festivities were due to be held on Saturday, but the weather did not oblige us, as it rained all day. Although the weather continued to look threatening on Sunday, the rain held off till later in the evening. And aside from the ground being a bit "moist and muddy", we had a great time.
I've noticed that I'm more of a "scenery" photo taker, as the majority of the pictures above are the views around Belmont Lake. But I did take one of "Maya and Maya", as I walked with their Mom's "Barbara and Tina". I took the pictures with my new IPhone 3G. Boy I love my new "toy". I can take pretty good pictures if I do say so myself, as well as listen to music, etc. But, I digress. The walk around the lake was beautiful, and Autumn arrived when I wasn't looking, hence the beginning falling leaves as well as the beautiful fall colors just beginning to show in the trees.
Oh and Lori , I'll blog about the cruise next!!:-)

Happy First Day of Autumn!

At exactly 11:44am, Summer officially ended and Autumn officially arrived.
Although I had to work today, yesterday John and I visited a favorite Nursery and bought Mums and some ornamental grass plants. I replanted the backyard planters with Mums and ornamental peppers. The peppers are all different colors: purple, orange, yellow and green. I'll take some pictures and post soon, they look awesome. Our impatients still look good, so we'll wait to plant cabbages in their place in a couple of weeks. Our Montalk Daisies are almost ready to bloom.
Only mishap of the day yesterday was that while at the nursery, I was stung by a yellow jacket. Ouch, did that sting, just about all day. Today I feel as if I have a mosquitoe bit.

Happy 30 Month LID Anniversary!

Today is 30 months (or two and a half years) that we have been logged in with the CCAA. We started our "paper chase" just after Labor Day 2005. Our dossier was mailed to China on March 6, 2005, and was officially logged in to the CCAA on March 22, 2006. Wow, how can time seem to go so slowly, but at the same time just slip away. We are hopeful that we are finally in the home stretch.

One Step At A Time

I thought this might be a good time to give an update as to where we are in our wait to adopt Marissa Renee. We are "waiting in line" for China to get to our LID (Log In Date), the date our adoption application was officially logged in by the Chinese Center For Adoption Affairs (CCAA).

As noted above, our LID is 3/22/06. As of the beginning of this month, the CCAA had completed assigning children up to and including the LID 2/09/06. This means there are 41 LID's left till the CCAA gets to our date. How long will that take?? Well I'm hoping that I can finally say that we are in the home stretch and we expect to receive our referral in about 6 months. How do I know? Well I don't know for sure, but I base it upon information I can gather from the websites of others who keep close track of what China has done in the past.

One website I frequent monthly is China Adoption Forecast. This site attempts to forecast when we may receive MR's referral based upon their statistical analysis of what China has done in the past.

The website that really keeps me going is that of the Rumor Queen. I visit her site daily, multiple times a day, to keep abreast of what's going on in the Chinese adoption world. News can travel slowly from our agencies, so this is a place of support and sharing. I probably would have gone crazy a while ago if I hadn't found this site.

Our immigration approval will expire at the end of March 09. That means we will probably have to renew it again, not to mention we will have to be refingerprinted, and have our home study updated as well.

Last but not least, I named this post "One Step At A Time", the new release by Jordin Sparks. The minute I heard it, I fell in love with it. It is my self proclaimed "theme song". I am taking this wait one step and one day at a time. I continue to trust in my Lord's perfect timing. And as the song says ...." It'll happen when it's supposed to happen". Listen and enjoy!!

Our Blog Make Over Is Complete!!

I'm am just so excited! Our new blog design is complete and I just love it. Hope you like it. Thank you Diana of Custom Blog Designs for creating our beautiful blog design. If you look to the right below the side bar is the name of the kit Diana used. When I saw the color scheme and lady bugs, I new that's what I wanted. The picture of John and I comes from our recent Bermuda trip.
So now that our blog has a brand new look, it's time for me to kick it into high gear and start blogging seriously.
So.....here goes.

Complete Blog Overhaul in Progress!

I am having my blog professionally redesigned. So far the template looks great.
Can't wait!!