Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

John and I wish everyone a very blessed and peaceful Christmas.
It is our prayer (which I am sure is joined with everyone who is waiting for their child as well), that next year at this time, we are all home with our little ones.
As I've noted with many of my blogger friends, today is a happy day although bittersweet, as many of us had felt that we'd be to China and back already.
Regardless, John and I are so thankful for all we have been blessed with, and we wish you all God's perfect peace and blessings for 2007.
Enjoy your day!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Day Is Almost Here!

Where has December gone? The last time I checked it was still the day after Thanksgiving, and now Christmas Eve is only 3 days away!! Oh, I know.... I've spent it working, shopping, wrapping, working, shopping, wrapping...get the idea??
In all this hustle and bustle though, I stop and remember "the reason for the season"!, we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Peace and good will toward men is something we all need to practice every day, not just from Thanksgiving to New Years.
Along with the above busy activities, decorating the house and our Christmas tree, also took considerable time this year. I felt like we would never get finished. We're still "tweaking" here and there.

This is when the tree was just about done, and before our Christmas present to each other. See if you can guess what that is??
If you said the curtains and new valance, then you are right!! We decided to pool our resources and do what needs to be done in and outside the house, so things are ready for when we finally bring Renee home. Yes the draperies need to be ironed a bit, but we were so anxious to get them up to see how they'd look!!
Also, note below the 3 light blue wrapped packages. They are my December Secret Pal gifts, and will be opened Christmas morning!!!
Lastly, here is a picture of the Christmas lights John put up this year. He is just a kid at heart and loves all holidays, especially Christmas.

Hope everyone has a wonderful, peaceful, joy filled and happy holiday!









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Look What I Made!

My partner at work, Karen, belongs to a group called "Homemakers" and they meet every Wednesday evening and "craft". I've looked into it and there are groups closer to where I live. I'm thinking of joining as I love to "craft" too.
Karen showed me pictures of a wreath she had made out of fabric and it was awesome! So she told me how to make one and so I gave it a try. The results are above and below.

The view above shows where I've placed the wreath. It's on my dining room wall just off the kitchen. My plans are to create a "Tuscany" feeling in the kitchen and dining room, so I chose to do the wreath in rich colors, like deep green, burgundy, purple. It's really easy to make. Hope you like it!!

Gone Fishin'

Any one who knows my husband John,knows that he is an avid fisherman. It is his hobby and his passion. He truly believes the saying "A bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work!!".
John was informed by a good friend of his, that there was a "blitz" (that means lots of fish :-)), of striped bass off the south shore of Long Island where we live.
John is what is known as a "surf caster", which means he fishes right off the beach. He has a special "4 wheel drive pass", that allows him to drive directly onto the beach with his truck.
Well, to make a long story short. Last night (yes I said night), John went fishing and caught the above pair of striped bass. He came home extremely cold, but extremely happy!!
I'm not a big fan of striped bass, to me it tastes really "gamey and fishy :-)", I like fluke and flounder. So...since our freezer is already overflowing with frozen fish he has already caught, John provided the neighborhood with fresh fish last night!!

Holiday Party with the FCC- Long Island!

On Sunday, John and I attended the annual FCC "Families With Children From China" Long Island Chapter, annual holiday party at the Dominican Village in North Amityville. We really enjoyed ourselves. My favorite part was watching all the little ones in their beautiful holiday clothes, dancing to the DJ.
It was a "Brunch" menu, and was delicious.
John got to meet "Maya", our friend Tina's 11 month old daughter. They have just been home about 2 months. It warmed my heart to see how Maya took to John. They looked adorable together. We hope that our Renee will be with us by for the next holiday party.

The CCAA Site Has Been Updated!

The CCAA updated their site on November 30th!! Congratulations to all who received their referrals!, including our friends Barbara and Dave, who have finally after 15 months (from LID) seen their daughter Maya! John and I are just ecstatic for them!!!
I'm now waiting to see the CCAA update the review date at the top. It now reads, January 31st, 2006. John and I will breath a sigh of relief when it reads "March 31st, 2006", as that would mean that our dossier has made it through the "review room". The next step would be matching us with our daughter. Oh my, just the thought makes me weak with excitement.
How much longer do we have to wait???? Well, that all depends on the CCAA, and how many children they assign each month. The wait from LID to referral has increased to approximately 15.5 months. So, based on that, we might receive our referral in June 2007. If the CCAA should suddenly speed up, than we could see the referral sooner (but I really doubt that), but if they continue to slow down, it could take longer.
Part of the reason that I haven't posted that much (I think), is I've just been a "ball" of emotions. Not sure how else to describe it. Although I'm not emotional outwardly; I don't cry at the drop of a hat, and I'm surely not depressed either, I just haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like (or see other's do).
I think I know some ways to make that easier on myself. I intend to get a new cell phone that can take pictures as I hate it when I forget my camera (and that happens way to often!). I always have my cell phone with me, so since our contract year is up, John and I are going to get new phones !! (as soon as I can get him to the store :-)!!)
Also I have a new lap top!!!! When I left my last job I had to give back my work lap top, and I've missed it ever since. Our home computer is a Dell, and Dell (great advertising on their part)kept snail mailing and emailing us sales circulars. Early November (I spent almost all of Election Day waiting for UPS!) we finally decided to purchase a lap top. I am now blogging on my Inspiron E1505 and I love it!! It's sure easier to blog from here at my dining room table then go downstairs to the office. I'm also thinking about how great it will be to blog from China on it, when we finally travel to get Renee. I just need to load my digital camera software, so that I can load pictures on it as well as on our home computer.
So, I WILL blog more often. For me, for whomever may read it... for Renee... bottom line is I just will.

"God is greater than man. Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man's words? For God does speak-now one way, now another-though man may not percieve it."
-Job 33:12-14

Happy 8 Month Anniversary!!

Today is the 8th month anniversary of our dossier being logged in at the Chinese Center For Adoption Affairs (CCAA).
Rumors say that the CCAA may be matching as we speak, hopefully they will get through most of September 2005. That's my hope, because that would keep us on target for a 14 to 15 month referral. That would mean receiving our referral May or June and traveling this summer. Oh, how wonderful that would be!!!!

The CCAA Site Has Been Updated!

The CCAA has been pretty busy this week! First on November 2nd, the CCAA website was updated that referrals had been made up to August 25th 2005. Then 24 hours later, they updated the review section to show they've completed the review of dossiers up to January 31st, 2006!!
What does that mean...?? Well, first off congratulations to all the August 10th through 25th families who have received their referrals. Many blessings do I wish you all!!! For those August families with log in dates from the 26th through the 31st, you are in my prayers as well. I know how hard this must be for you, and now you can be as certain as possible that you will see pictures of your babies next!!!

Secondly, it means that families with January 2006 log in dates, can now breath easier as they have passed the review phase. What does this mean for John and I??? Well, since our log in date is March 22, 2006, there is a good chance that the CCAA is now reviewing February and March 2006. Which means we are finally in the review phase!! Phew!!

John and I are hesitantly optimistic. The wait is long, but getting shorter, day by day and hour by hour.

Part 5- The Trip Home

We caught some awesome pictures getting ready to drive home, and as we made our way back home. The trip home took almost 2 hours. I forget how "long" this island actually is. What an awesome day we had.

Look at the sky, isn't it miraculous looking?? The clouds suddenly came up just as we got to the point. We had a couple of quick drops of rain, some wind, but that was it.
Last but not least, this is the beautiful sunset we were able to catch as we headed back west. What a great day!!!

Part 4- Our Trip to the "Orient" Continued

I have been trying to post the rest of our pictures from our Saturday "adventure" on the north shore of Long Island, and blogger, for whatever reason has not been letting me upload the pictures. But note above, that we were only 9 miles away from Orient Point, the northern most tip of the north fork of Long Island.

Here we are, this is the northern most point of Long Island.

Here is the ferry at Orient Point that will take you to New London, Conneticut

Week In Review: Part 3- A Visit to the "Orient"

Yesterday, we decided to get into the car and head east!! We live on Long Island and what a beautiful island it is in the fall. Here we are driving (actually north by this point). We decided to visit the north shore of the island and then go as far east as you can. Which is "Orient Point". The leaves are changing in spots, there is lots of color. I think we'll peak this week coming.




Aren't the mums beautiful, what colors. We visited Lewin farms next store for fresh vegetables, oh and a couple more candy apples :-)
We also stopped at Roanoake Vineyards. There are many vineyards on the north shore. We did some wine tasting. Even John enjoyed, even thought he really isn't a wine drinker. Picked up some good wine for the holidays. Here is a picture of a vineyard (sorry if blurred, we were moving at the time).



We stopped for a late lunch (or early dinner!) in Greenport, as the sign notes below we have only 9 miles left till we reach the northeastern tip of Long Island!
PS blogger is getting "Kvetchy", I'll try to post the rest a little later.

The Week in Review: Part 2-Anniversary Dinner

Thursday night October 12th, was our 4th wedding anniversary. Yes John remembered!
Not sure where he hid it, but their was a beautiful bouquet of peach colored roses waiting for me when I woke up that morning.
Later that day, although I had been feeling rather poorly that day, we kept our tradition up and went to the Snapper Inn for dinner. We were married there under a tent in the pouring rain!!, but it was one of the happiest and most fun days of my life!!!
The picture above is what you see when you drive up to the Snapper Inn, John asked why it wasn't a Snapper?? Good question,don't know. Well we had a wonderul dinner! The Snapper has a dinner special on Thursday nights (how perfect!!) called the Shore special of lobster, mussels, clams, barbaque chicken and red potatoes. Yumm, not to mention soup or salad before and dessert after. We enjoyed the dinner so much.
And afterwards, visited the tent were we said our vows 4 years ago. The last 4 years have been awesome, filled with lots of love and many blessings. We thank the Lord for bringing us together and for blessing us with this wonderful marriage, and ask the Lord to continue to be with us as we wait for our daughter to join us.

The Week In Review: Part 1- Pumpkin Picking

Lots of fun things to share this week. Should have posted at least three times. Well here is everything today, though seperated out for easy viewing :-)

Went pumpkin picking with my sister Karen, my niece and nephew, Dana and Anthony and our friends Cheryl and her son Corey. What a beautiful day! Here's Dana on a tractor.


Here is Dana, Anthony and Corey as we enjoy a hay ride.



Dana and I were the "brave" ones, we took on the corn maze while the rest of the group picked out pumpkins.

See why we were brave?? "Welcome all you yummy boys and girls", what exactly is in that corn field?
Whew!!!
We found the exit!!


Here is Dana eating her "First" candy apple. Her Aunt Suzi had one too :-). We had a blast and really enjoyed the day.

Renee's Room Update

Sorry for not posting sooner. Gosh where does the time go!!
Saturday my sister Karen, my niece Dana and I went to the annual "Autumn Moon" picnic for the FCC-Families with Children From China) of Long Island Waiting group. It's actually for both waiting families and families who have already returned with their children. It was held at Belmont Lake State Park. It was chilly under the trees! Dana made a monkey puppet, personalized little bags for her and Renee, and we both made a daisy lady bug catcher. Oh, and we ate "moon cake cookies", yum.
My sister kept noting how adorable all the children were. I can't wait till we bring home "our own adorable" little girl.
Now on to the "Renee Room Update".
If you remember the last pictures, we were just taking down the furniture, spackling the walls...essentially the prep work. Well, John has made a lot of progress...

The room is painted but the new carpet has not yet been put down.

New padding in place for the new carpet.

New carpet in place, changing table and rocking chair in position!

John putting the crib together.


Voila, crib now put together and the border is up!!!
I realize it may be months and months till we receive Renee's referral and ultimately travel to China, but I can't express what joy there is to just sit in the room (and rock!)and pray for our daughter whom ever and where ever she is. It's a peaceful feeling that I hope stays with me for the rest of our waiting time.

Happy Anniversary!

Boy did I scare John yesterday morning! I woke him up by saying "Happy Anniversary".
He bolted up in bed and said "Oh no!" (our wedding anniversary is October 12th and for some unknown reason he remembers it as September 12th so he thought he had missed it!). I quickly calmed his fears and reminded him that it was our "6" month anniversary for our dossier being logged in, in China.
Visably calmed, he layed back down for a couple more minutes of snooze time and I got ready for work :).
But yes, it's been 6 whole months since our dossier left and was logged in to China. Rumours on the web say that the CCAA may be reviewing March dossiers as we speak, and they have completed December 2005. Only place to go from there is 2006, Hip Hip Hooray!!
I wish Happy Anniversary as well to all my friends on the Marching Panda Yahoo group, as day by day we all are reaching that 6 month landmark!!
We are still at least 6-8 months away from receiving our referral for Renee, but, inevitably time is moving forward, however slow it feels, it still moves along.
On Renee's room:
John has completed painting, and I think we've picked out the carpet color.
I'll post later with photo's and the details!
Till then... Happy Saturday!

We've Started Working on Renee's Room!

The rumors on the web have been depressing me (increasing wait times till referral), so I said to John that what I thought would cheer me up, would be to start on Renee's room. Well...this weekend we started by clearing out all the office furniture and bringing it down to the new office in our finished basement. The house looked like a bomb went off, with books, journals, papers, furniture all over as it was all brought down stairs. Now I have to organize the office, I'll get that done, soon...
So, I took a couple of pics of the "before" of Renee's room so you can see where we began. We have lot's of work to do. John started by taking down shelving and spackling. I'm actually leaning on Renee's bedroom furniture!!
Oh, we chose the paint color for Renee's room, it's so beautiful. It's called "Cascading Water". No it's not blue but a very pale green. When I placed the bedding set on top, the pink just "popped". Trust me this room will be gorgeous when we are all done!!!!
Well, I'm sitting on the floor of this room cause that's where the computer is right now. I've gotten the PCI card so we can move the computer downstairs and still be connected to the internet. Just have to install it. Ugh. Will get that done too!
15 more days till our 6 month LID anniversary!! Woweeeee!!

Our One Year Anniversary and Time Line

I was thinking back to last year this time, and I realized that as of today, it's a year since we began our journey. Wow!
Last year on this date, I believe we were traveling home from "Camp Hope", actually Camp Taconic in upstate NY. We had just spent a blessed week with our church Calvary Chapel of Hope and it was Friday and John and I were driving back home.
Let me back up a little bit. I had received a packet of information from La Vida International (our adoption agency), in January of that year (2005), about adopting from China. Looked it over briefly, but new in my heart that John and I weren't ready. So I prayed that the Lord would reveal to me what I, and John should do. Well, while at camp, I felt the Lord urging me that "it was time", so on the way home from camp (it's about a 2-3 hour drive) I decided to talk to John about adopting from China, and specifically I asked him if he would watch the video with me that La Vida had sent me. John just said "sure". How one little word changed our lives!!
We both were never the same after watching the video. That Monday, I called La Vida and the wheels went into motion.
We were officially accepted by La Vida on September 6th, 2005 just after Labor Day, and that was when our official "paper chase" began.
Our home study began in October 2005 and was finally completed in December 2005.
We were fingerprinted on January 21, 2006 for our immigration approval and received that approval about 4 weeks later. That official form once authenticated and sealed completed our dossier, and our dossier left for China on March 6, 2006.
We were logged in on March 22, 2006 and just celebrated the 5 month mark.
Currently the wait till referral has been slowly increasing and is now to 13-14 months.
That means that as of now, it looks like we won't receive any news about Renee till at least April or May 2007, or later.
Well, that's where we are up to as of today. We are now 1 year into what may be a much longer journey then originally thought. As always, we give thanks and praise to our Lord, and look to Him for all we need during this wait.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy. Proverbs 13:12

Yesterday Was Our 5 Month Anniversary!!

August 22, 2006 was our 5 month LID anniversary!! Our dossier was logged in to the CCAA on March 22, 2006. Wow, 5 months to go on what looks like to be a 12-13 month wait till we receive our referral. So, we have at least another 7-8 months left to wait. I don't know where in processing our dossier is, but I know for sure we won't be in the "matching room" for a while longer. That's OK, we are 5 months closer to meeting our daughter Renee!!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Thank you To Our Secret Pal!

Several months ago I joined a Yahoo group for all of us who had a dossier sent to or logged in to China in March of 06. We are the "Marching Pandas". I have been involved in not only the 100 Wishes Quilt Swap, but also the Secret Pal Gift Exchange as well.
I'll post on the quilt swap shortly, but in regards to the secret pal swap. I have a secret pal that sends me awesome gifts each month, and I have a secret pal that I send gifts to each month.

Every month has a theme, August being "Animals". Previous months themes have been: baby bath time, nursery theme & colors, pamper the parents, and meal time accessories. I have in the last 4 month received just beautiful gifts for Renee (and John and I as well!) from our secret pal. We are supposed to reveal our identities in January during our "cyber baby shower"!
What good memories I will have of the time I spent waiting and preparing for Renee's arrival. It helps to make the loooong wait that much more bearable. Not only that, but I'll be able to share these memories with Renee as she grows.

So concerning the animals theme this month, my secret pal sent me socks with little animals on them and two gorgeous outfits. I hope the picture I took above helps you to see how lucky I am!! Thank you secret pal you are the greatest (whoever you are!!).