LID month 31

In a couple days it will be 31 months logged into China....thirty....one....with all likelihood add another 12 and we might be getting close....forty three...gee and I wonder why I hate math! Enough of that, onto more festive thoughts...

Although we will miss not being with family this Xmas, we are looking forward to being home, not having to worry about travel...Cara has already stacked the time with tons of visits.

On Xmas eve the drama group I help direct is doing the evening service. Should be an adventure, it is full of talented youth ,but still youth have their moments, heh, but they always seem to pull it off in the end, and are remarkable.

Had a fun time doing a gospel Xmas magic show for a church in town, that was fun, broke out 2 new tricks I have never done before, and they were hits, so now I can work on refining them even more, plus I treated myself to a dvd with tons of tricks to learn from it, from my favorite magician Jeff McBride, so I hope to work some practice time in over the break.

I am also determined to finish Brisingr before the year is up. It has been a slow pace, which if it picks up I would certainly be more involved in finishing it.

Couple months left, likely, before we have to consider what to do, US adoption wise, as well as with updating passports...

Looking forward to the Xmas break, Celebrate JESUS!

kick in the pants-General edition

A blogging friend I follow (Hi Janet- thanks for always posting on my blog :)http://tuiningatreasures.blogspot.com/ ) came upon a fun idea which she has been posting about occasionally, so I decided to steal the idea and do my own version. It is deciding who needs a kick in the pants and why, and in virtual reality giving them one. So here is a general kickin, Kung fu style...

One crescent kick to the chin to the folks who speed thru mushy intersections spraying pedestrians with snow, water or muck. Show some courtesy!!

One sharp front kick to the face for those nitwits who can't count and go to the self serve grocery store checkout with more items than allowed. sure a bit of grace in counting but not 10-12 items more, give me a break!

One quick shin kick, to the shin(obviously) for those irresponsible pet owners that let their animals run free, leaving little gifts in everyone else's yard and running the risk of getting killed on the street. These folks also get a kick from my mom, and she will aim a BIT higher and centralized, if you catch my drift!

One heart kick to the morons who make processes for adopting families harder,rather than supporting them. Now they might have a sliver of knowing what it feels like.

One back kick to those ignorant folks who think we shouldn't help those in the third world with relief and support efforts.

My favorite kick, one roundhouse kick to the head of people who spam emails with all their immoral crap, keep it under the rock where you live already, we don't need anyone seeing that nonsense!

Finally,One quick side kick to the kidneys to those drivers who don't know the rules of a 4 way stop. Grab a manual folks and learn before you kill someone or back traffic up because you wave everyone and their dog thru even though you don't have the right away to begin with!!! Okay, seriously, this one deserves 2 kicks!

Gee that was fun! must find more folks to kick in the pants...

My full but boring life

I want to blog, I want to have something to say, but really, there isn't much to say...

I certainly keep busy enough with work, meetings, kung fu, household stuff,so life is full, and things are in a good cycle now. I have a job review coming up, and although that can bring stress(and due to some whacked out processes I have experienced should make me more gun shy this time around, but I am not...so that is good, but not too captivating, no drama to blog about :) )

Snow is on the ground, not a lot, but winter is here...oh same for you...so nothing new or exciting there...

I still can't book magic shows, event hough I am getting calls. I will be doing a small show for a neighbor church on December 9, that will be fun.

I have developed the annoying typing habit of spacing things wonky with my "th" combos(see the paragraph above "event hough= even though"). This has been happening for months, "int his=in this" etc. etc. Sadly spell check isn't picking it up, and I do it so much, just don't know what is up with that. I would say, aside from adoption wait annoyance, this is the next most annoying thing in my life...captivating ain't it ;)

My big thought process conflict at this point is trying to discern if this wait has made me disengage the whole process and just stuff my overall annoyance and even anger at the fact this is taking so bleedin' long, or if I am just resigned that it iwll happen when it happens and living on edge isn't doing anyone any good.

(I have also developed an annoying habit of reversing the "i" and "w" with the word "will" almost every time i type it- spell check picks that one up :))

Is it trust or giving up hope? I certainly hope we get little bean in the next couple months, or we will be back to plan "a" of China being our first stop for a child, I honestly don't know if (US Adoption) will happen, when things are totally out of your hands, how can you know? Will we adopt from the US, for sure, who knows when it will actually work out, but I believe we will have a child from there and China by the time this ends. As I read over that, that sees to say hope. Okay, so thinking on screen seems to have resolved that...what other mysteries of the universe shall I ponder...

Milk

Okay, file this one under "another dynamic of the long wait we didn't expect" file.

We made the decision to breast feed our babies, and by Cara taking certain herbs etc. she can generate milk. It takes a couple months for things to start flowing, so we began this process months ago, shortly after we decided to also pursue the US side of adoption.

There are lots of benefits to breastfeeding, attachment, health benefits for the little bean etc... so Cara has been faithfully taking the herbs and producing the milk, which we have been storing, as it is good for a year once frozen. Well, she has been at it now for months and the problem is, we have milk coming in, but no baby to use up the milk, so our deep freeze now has nearly half of it full of milk, so the other half is grown up food, if we don't get a baby soon...we are gonna starve ! LOL

So seriously, let's get the kid already, the room is ready, we are ready, the food is ready...only one piece missing.... :)

Random musings

The picture is a pic of the matching room at the CCAA. Our dossier is in there somewhere!

Been silent as there hasn't been anything to report on either adoption front.

Winter is a couple days away from the feels of it outside.

Cara and I have decided to stay home this Christmas, rather than travel. Take some time to slow things down and get refreshed. We had an awesome late thanksgiving with the inlaws and outlaws last week.

I am STILL not done Brisingr, nor had time to play further on Batman Lego.

I have cooked up some cool magic routines to work on, and once we get baby, then I can start booking shows. It is frustrating turning down shows because I can't promise I will be here. :(

Buckwheat , my goldfish, is growing bigger.

I am prepared to be stiff tomorrow as I have been away from Kungfu club for nearly 2 weeks, and will enter into that again tonite!

And that is some random ramblings!

Batman and Brisingr

What am I up to since things have evened out back to our normal wait and see pattern? well... lots at work to keep me busy. It is a REAL blessing working with the staff we have. It is nice to be part of a team as compared to what my past experiences have been here.

Lots of chances at the church so just riding that through and trying to ensure the church kids don't get too much upheaval during all the tweaking that is going on.

I am in the process of developing a number of 1 minute devotionals with a family focus to air on our local Christian radio station, we will see how that goes. I have a great FACE for radio, not too sure about the voice.

Other than work, free time is now spent playing BATMAN LEGO on playstation, a very fun game and reading the 3rd book from Chris Paolini. He was like 15 when he started writing this medieval type story Eragon, which they made a movie of(the movie totally missed the depth of character and relationship the book captured...:( ) and this is the 3rd of 4 books to tell the tale. It is a big book, 800 odd pages I think, so it will be a book that will take me a bit of time to read...secretly hoping I will be reading it on a plane heading to the US to get a baby...

I also bought a fish tank and a gold fish named Buckwheat, he entertains me at the office when I am brain blocked or looking for distractions :)



Seems that Feb 15 2006 LIDS have been matched, meaning we have 3 months and 3 days of LIDS to go. March is supposed to be a bear month, with LOTS of files to match. Congrats to those matched!!!

We SURE hope we get the US adoption worked through before the end of the year, otherwise we may be faced with dropping it and waiting out China, to ensure there is a year between adoptions...*SHUDDER* don't even want to go there, but we will see.

The US roller coaster continues

The birth mom changed her mind...wow...what can be said... we are back to waiting...but God had His hand in there, and saved us from a harder journey if we had gotten down there...we were heading out of town to go get a flight and had to mail some stuff to the agency, the postee said they didn't think they could courier it there, so I better check with them, so I called the US agency, and they were, "Don't send it,the birth mom just changed her mind"...

Wow, stunned, deflated, scratching our heads...it wasn't the day...but that day will come...

We are matched in the US!!!!

We just got the call that a birthmother in the US has matched us with their soon to be born child. We do not know the gender. Delivery due date was Oct 19, but she is having early labor pains, so they are hoping for her to hold on another week and then deliver.

We have paper trail to wrap up, the suitcase has been packed for months, book flights, get the bird and fish looked after...and within a couple weeks, we suspect, we will have our little bean!

I am seriously numb, and in the deepest part of my spirit it feels filled in with a missing piece, in the shape of our little bean!

Feb 9 2006 matched

In China news it appears at least up to Feb 9 is matched making it a 9 day match cycle this time. Congrats to all who made it!

I am not even going to start wrapping my brain around how long until May 19 comes up. In December we will look at it, see how it fits with ensuring we keep a year between adoptions (if we aren't matched in the US before then), and then go from there.

I have joked(starting years ago) that I hope I am a father before I am 40... well only 365 days to get that taken care of, can we move this along a little please?!

Not doing much of anything for my Bday this year, just taking it easy. I painted our bedroom over the weekend, got some outdoor stuff done before the snow falls, repotted a few of my bonsai and ordered some magic from Bday cash.

Dealing with some gaps and changes in Fall church stuff and trying to get things going for the Fall. Been feeling pretty relaxed about it until middle of last week, time I thought I had got gobbled up with unexpected stuff, and people I thought I had in place, had stuff chance for a few which opens up more work for me to do, again, no fault of theirs, just life stuff.

39 and feeling fine...
Wife making me stirfry in which to dine.
Bought a fish tank and a fish named Buckwheat...
He's swimming and darting and is kinda neat.
I know this poem sucks, but you don't have to whine!

sigh... it has come down to this...LOL...if i can't start reporting about baby stuff soon no knowing what will end up on this blog next!
:)

Thoughts on our US adoption

First off, I want to be VERY clear, I will be delighted with whatever gender of child we get from the US.

Since I was like 16 or 17 I always desired to be a parent and a dad, but it was always a dad of a daughter, I never really gave thought to being the dad of a little boy, but the last few months that is where my head has been. I still entertain thoughts of a little black girl curling up on my lap, looking into my eyes and saying "daddy", but I have started entertaining thoughts of a little boy, and that has been fun. The toys I can buy for myself...err for him ;)...no seriously, the thought of having a boy around, someone to eventually be able to buddy around with, have to help with doing things in the house and yard together, being able to model(or at least trying) to model how to be a godly man for him to learn from, seeing him grow strong, having someone to wrestle around with, laugh when he does typical boy stuff that will make his mom's eyes roll and freak her out are thoughts that are keeping my mind occupied(when I am not neck deep in camp stuff-still one week to go)!

One of the roller coaster things about this journey is that there is no guarantee we will get matched, now we obviously think we will, but it is one of those x factors that make planning life so hard...with Julia, we will have time to plan travel, plan to get ready, make transitions in home and job etc. whereas for little bean it will be a wait followed by an intense volley of info and talking, a decision and bang, flying into a new adventure...

Ahh the joys of adoption journey...life has been so full with camp ministry...that there isn't a lot of brain space for adoption stuff, which isn't so bad since it makes the wait go faster :)

Summer brings camp

Summer = minimal blog posts. I am neck deep(and loving it) with camp ministry so that is keeping me outdoors and away from the computer. China just finished 5 days of files, taking them to January 25 2006. We have our Us coordinator looking for agencies that work more with us than just the birth mom. We were not too impressed with the demands of the one agency we were getting info from. They would send a 5 line description of a situation and ask if we wanted our profile shown to the mom. If the mom picked us, we would be legally bound to pay half at that point. i was like "WHOA" I don't think so, We still need to have some say in this. So we are no longer connected with that agency.

We know that our profile is being shown at times, so now we just wait for a phone call to start step 2.

Cara has actually made up a packing list(when she actually gets to list making, it is serious stuff in our house...she is hardcore ready for something to happen :) ).

We have had quite hot weather...my lawn is taking a few hits, me sad :( .

We got word that our good friends Tim and Kristy are starting their long process of adopting from Ethiopia. We are sooooo jazzed about that!

It is too hot to do anything, so I am off to try to make a slurpee from this "bullet" thing that Cara bought from Costco. It has worked well to make smoothies, but has been hit and miss working with ice...Grab a stack of comics and hopefully end up falling asleep:).

I still have 1 week to finish off the last bits of teachings for my elementary camps, can't wait to be at camp 24/7.

Long awaited baby room pictures

On the May long weekend I took a couple days off work to get this project completed

This will end up over the closet door, it is the only thing incomplete, but it looks cool against the window also.

Really enjoy painting, it was a refreshing project, although painting the closet and door white was TIME CONSUMING...







Corner of the bed, very cute flower!



Doesn't go with the room ,but we are keeping a bed in there, this way if baby is unsettled there is the chance for Cara to feed them and sleep and still allow me to have a decent night sleep(I am planning on helping with evening stuff, but Cara will be shouldering more of that time).

This bed will go when baby 2(we assume Julia) comes into our family and we will replace it with another crib.










We are going with a bug theme and the clouds, sun, flowers and dragonflies are a start,we have some butterfly mobiles to put up and some wall stickers of bugs, once the kids get older.



Storage is going to be tight, but we will make it work!


Sun light on the ceiling. It looks cool, but really washes the green out of the room and makes it more yellowy. :)

We are really happy about how it turned out and can't wait for it to be complete...just add one baby!

Garage sale fun

We went garage saling last Saturday, and got some great deals. Above is a couple of outfits and 3 dvd's that are mint condition.




More fun stuff, this whole stash we got for under $30!!!



Cara has a deep desire to put every child in tights, and has finally been given some room to pick some up for our own.



We got a bottle sterilizer, a baby mat mobile thing, 10 or so receiving blankets(not pictured)...


We got a couple small buckets of little peoples stuff and the farm set. We got animals for the Noah ark set, but now are hunting for the boat...very stoked about these toys!

I am not big on garage sales, but this has warmed me up to it, clean stuff, great price, it was fun!

We are out there

Got a call last night about some potential matching situations in the US.There were 5 birth moms looking to match and our adviser there called us to see if she could show them our profile.

What this means is that in the next few days these moms will be looking at our "storybook"(our profile of who we are, where we live, why we want to adopt etc.)and deciding whether to pursue an interview with us to see if a match could happen.

It is exciting to be in the potential category, makes this seem more "real". I have been anticipating the reality of having a little African American baby to call my child, but it just hasn't seemed real until now. Now we are out there and we could be matched...that is unreal...it is a real test in trust. Once you do your paper work, you can't do anything else to control the outcome...that is a challenge for someone like me who likes to be hands on during any process and help get the results I want.


So we wait, but with a bit of a butterfly in our stomachs anticipating some hopeful news :).

What I did on Monday

Monday was a good day,so I thought, "HEY, let's post about it!"

Had a good night of sleep, woke up without an alarm and in time for some morning cuddles with Cara, then it was off to work.

Staff meeting included our 2 Assistant directors of camp, who are awesome folks, and fun to be around. I appreciate, with the interim pastor, his focus on prayer. We actually spend time praying for needs in our church, and seeing answers.Brief time of comparing notes from Sunday and what is ahead this week, then I was off to work on camp messages...time is closing fast and much needs to get done...

Detour(welcome to my world), end up cleaning up classrooms and the gym so they are usable, so it is around 11:00 before I get out of office. Hung out at Wendy's for lunch and got a BUNCH of ideas, 3 out of 4 messages now have a theme. I am STOKED!


Going to follow and Indiana Jones type idea and have puzzles and challenges to open the message and the conclusion of those points to a key word and teaching point in the message which will direct us to the Bible to discover what truth the kids can apply to their lives.I found a hat that is close, but need to find the whip...not sure that advertising in the church bulletin would be a good thing..."wanted for kids camp 1 bullwhip." :) :)

Back to the office to do phone calls and interview a camp staff person. Seems like another gooder, so our staffing is coming along good.

Cara calls me and tells me she has mowed the lawn, man was that a blessing! Figured I would have to do it at 9 at night when I got home as there wouldn't be time this week for it. I really feel loved when she does stuff like that. Acts of service is definitely my love language(if you don't know what I mean you need to read Gary Chapman's book The 5 love languages, a great read to help you know how to best love ANYone you are in a relationship with.)

Then it was off to Kung Fu. In a couple weeks I test for my first sash, which will be good, but I am hitting a wall in that there is some stuff I have done and know, but tweaking it to be just right is making my brain block so I am stalling on stuff. Stalling is deadly, you don't go with the flow of it, you end up getting socked in the head or ribs or something when you do the technique with a partner. Fortunately we don't do that much partner stuff at this level, it is just annoying as I want it to be smooth come the testing. Otherwise it is still really enjoyable and a good way to start the week off.

After that a quick shower and then watching a show I am currently addicted to-Jon and Kate plus 8



It is the daily adventures of a family who, through fertility treatments, ended up with twins, and then later sextuplets. The kids are soooooo cute, and they are quite entertaining. He is laid back, calm, faithful dad. She is,at times a high strung, ultra organized, sometimes controlling-but hey wouldn't you need to be with 8 kids- personality. Not sure if it is the cute kids, the fact it is reassuring to see another family deal with daily chaos to make my world feel better, or what, but what a fun show!

Went to bed waaaay too late but it was a fun, productive, positive day, a day worth making note of!

Video of Maria Chapman

Steven Curtis Chapman loss

Heard such sad news of an accidental death of one of their daughters, adopted from China...
West Michigan Christian music fans are expressing their sympathy for Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman after the death of his 5-year-old daughter in an accident Wednesday in the family's driveway.

"We opened up the phone lines and people called in and wanted to pray right over the air," said Troy West, morning show co-host on contemporary Christian music radio station WJQK-FM (99).

Maria Sue Chapman was struck by a car driven by one of her teenage brothers, according to authorities in Franklin, Tenn., who added they believe no charges will result from what they termed "a tragic accident."

The child died 10 days after her fifth birthday. Chapman's manager, Jim Houser, also noted in a Web site posting the family had been hours away from hosting a high school graduation party for their son Caleb when the accident occurred.

Maria was the youngest of three Chinese girls the family had adopted, two of them through the the Nashville, Tenn., office of Bethany Christian Services. Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, also have three biological children -- two teenage sons and a 21-year-old daughter.

"They are loving and wonderful parents and a great family -- they must be devastated," said Brian De Vos, manager of Michigan operations for Bethany Christian Services. "He's been such an advocate for adoption -- I know their commitment to kids."

DeVos has known the Chapmans for eight years and worked with them on Shaohannah's Hope, a foundation the couple named for one of their adopted daughters and established to help families through the often expensive adoption process.

During Chapman's most recent concert tour -- which included a stop at Sunshine Community Church last September -- the singer raised $340,000 for the foundation. While here, he awarded a grant of about $3,000 to a local family for adoption expenses.

He also has raised funds for construction of an orphanage in China for special-needs children who likely will never be adopted.

Chapman, 45, has sold more than 10 million albums, has had dozens of No. 1 Christian radio hits, and has won more than 50 Dove Awards -- exceeding any other individual artist.

Yet he would much rather talk about his family or his work with adoptions and orphans.

"I have sung a lot of his songs," said local Christian singer Marty Miller, of Belmont, posting comments on an area Christian musicians' Web site. "Please be in prayer for the family."

Chapman's current hit song on Christian radio is "Cinderella," a ballad about precious times spent together by father and daughter. It was inspired by a real family moment.

Video from his current album...

Room update

The room is painted and 99% decorated...pics forthcoming. Cara bought a new digital camera but it didn't load onto our computer,so this post is being done on a laptop we purchased. Once I get all the necessary things going on it, we will get pictures up. We are really pleased with how the room turned out.

The earthquakes in China are major, and we have no idea what that could mean to the time lines etc. I know most, if not all the orphanges in the area were okay, but the school disasters were major, so a lot of loss of young life.

No new news on the US adoption front, we continue to wait and pray a birth mom will pick us so that we can run with that connection...

Cara's sister and baby boy are visiting for a few days so that is fun...

Well, my windows update is done... time to reboot...I sure hope Windows Vista isn't as bad as what the Mac ads say!

SC baby names

Well the discussions have been intense and long, much thought, discernment, battling it out in the trenches to come up with names...okay, actually it was a pretty fun and enjoyable ride...

The "pet name" at this point is "our little bean".

Because we don't know if we will get a boy or a girl from South Carolina we have come up with a name for each gender...

For a boy- Stephen James. Stephen is my middle name... James... we just like the ring of it, plus the book of James is one of my favorite New Testament books. :)

For a girl- LilyKate ...middle name still in progress. We went with names that just sounded right to us, we didn't research out meanings or anything this time.

And, hope you are all seated for this amazing news....Cara has FINALLY decided on a paint color for the baby room. I know, I know, miracles still do occur ;). We will pick it up this week and my goals is that before the May long weekend is done, it will be painted.

What color is it? Well we will leave that a secret, as I am sure she will be snapping pictures to chronicle the event, so we will post some of those soon.

We also went shopping for baby essentials today, monitor, baby bath, fingernail clippers, bath towel(hooded duck) and face cloths, some bedding...when we bought our car seat months ago, we bought it thinking we would start with an 8 month old or so...fortunately there is something made which you can use in an existing seat that maes it work for newborns, so that was a relief, so we snagged that!

It was REALLY nice to do something that made things feel real, it has been a while due to the China wait.

Our home study is now sitting on Anne Scully's desk awaiting official approval, but we are saying we are open to be matched now, and IF we get a match and the paperwork isn't signed there, we will just be firing a call to that office on the way to the airport telling her to move that thing to the top of the pile and sign it already! :)

I am also sooo jazzed on the prospect of a new senior pastor coming on board. We voted 100% to invite him, we will know later in the week if he accepts. I am excited!! I think the potential to be a great team with him is big and the possibilities are exciting!

Been busy, busy, busy and looking forward to a few extended days off soon to catch up on the rest of life, and so in a nutshell there we have the latest!

WOW Review room is flying!

Room 2 of 3 has is flying fast. They have processed November and December 2006. They have matched up to January 9 2006.

I have said it before, I will say it again, get those review room folks into the matching room those folks know how to move the papertrail along!

Congrats to those who are thru the review!

National Geographic info on China

Natioanl geographic video of China

NG has some cool pics etc of China, nothing adoption related, but nice to see some cool pictures etc...

South Carolina update

Updated(ing) the blog to reflect the dual path we are on. We got our home study updated over the weekend. SOOO thankful to our social worker, who has gone out of her way to push things ahead quickly as possible!

So once the editors give it a nod, it if off to the AB gov't for their nod, then we are in the race "officially"!

It is a crazy feeling. Our hearts have been full focus on Julia, while knowing we would look at a second adoption, and it is a crazy shift to think that it is possible that we may end up with a little brother or sister for Julia before we get her. They could end up being around the same age... too much to wrap the brain around, but our hearts are having no trouble being ready to welcome ANY child God chooses to bring into our home.

We have had to adjust our brains though. When you have been on a one way path and suddenly there is an unexpected turn in the road, it is a great twist, but opens up all sorts of fun conversations and things to think through...such as... does the room work for 2 cribs(then the thoughts of what colors would work...what if we have a boy from SC and then Julia...my suggestion of painting the room white didn't fly with my creative wife ;) ).

Because we have said we are open to either gender from SC we have no idea what gift we will get. We have done up name lists for both genders, but obviously don't know at this point what name to put to this "face" of a child who is birthed in our heart at this time.

It is fun looking at the emotions and thoughts you have during these adventures.
For China, Cara and I were totally on board for wanting a girl, considering the circumstances they are in. For SC, it is a totally different thing. Obviously we will take in and love equally whatever gender of child we get, and in whatever order we get them, but as you speculate and talk through stuff at present Cara is more inclined towards a little black girl. I am thinking it will be a boy.

Then the male logic side of me goes,"A girl would be easier, don't have to worry as soon about them sharing a room, they could share clothes, less duplication of things..." Then in the next thought, "YES! Think of the toys I can buy for my son, even though they may be more for Dad..SWEET DEAL! A boy would balance out the genders in the home, that is a good thing..."

Heh, who knows, it will be an interesting adventure. Some of the differences between the adoptions is that for SC we sent a profile of who we are and our Lawyer/Agency down there shows that to birth moms they have contact with and that mom picks us. With China the match is done by the "agency" (CCAA) in China. SC, when the match happens, will be a quick notification and turn around. For China we will know when the match is coming and then have 6-8 weeks to plan for the travel.

Well, there are some random thoughts as we continue on this journey!

Approval gotten

Great news, we got the little white envelope with the approval to adopt from the US within it, someone other than Anne signed it, but it was signed, YAHOOO! We now try to get our homestudy updated quickly and effectively. Smiles around our home this morning! :):):):)

Adoption 2 but 1 status

Our US adoption is clicking away. We are awaiting official word from the Alberta gov't that they give us the nod, the profile and the smaller paper work trail is complete and mailed off to our US contact today. Once we get official Alberta word, we will get our homestudy updated and from there it is full steam ahead.

April 16 we have a phone interview with the US contact.
Got the financial updates and refinancing stuff sent off.
Cara bought 2 sets of PJ's for the baby...here we go again! ;)

So the sooner Anne Scully gets that approval done for the Alberta Gov't thing will go quick for a splurt, and then if the homestudy update goes quick, we are completed in amazing time what we can do.

A day off

What do I do on a day off, well since no one asked, I will tell you anyway ;)

Typically I like to do as little as possible, but to seem like a super hero I will tell you of my last day off.

The day starts with me helping Cara make pancakes and bacon for breakfast, we then talk and plan our calender for the month(visits, meetings, her craft classes, my kung fu stuff...)

I then do some calls contacting some folks about US adoption stuff, getting finance stuff going etc.

Then off to the store, need to check to find a good deal on a lawn mower, stop by Walmart(no good deals yet), browse through the dvd and playstation games, then off to the comic shop to pick up comics. A run across the street to the Christian book store to get some supplies for Sunday(Okay it was work related, on a day off, but it was close!)

Stop by 7-11 for a slurpee and home to read some comics and enjoy a slurpee. From there I went out and raked the front lawn(the snow is gone from the front). I put a lot of work into it last year and I want to keep building it up and getting it healthier and a deeper root base. After that I ironed some shirts(Cara will do it for me, although she hates ironing, but I felt like it and we take turns doing it). From there my domestic gene kicked in and I did some dusting(something we both don't like to do) and washed the floor.

Then half and hour of playstation games, supper, catch Survivor on TV and then off to Kung fu. Home to shower, unwind for an hour then off to bed.

Terribly exciting I know. :)

Concurrent

Been quiet on the blog lately because we have been praying through some stuff, and we have decided to pursue concurrent adoptions.

Some friends of ours have had great success and ease of process with adopting from South Carolina, little black babies.

We have decided to pursue that track while still keeping on track with China.

We have at least 20 months(barring a miracle of speed from the CCAA) before we would be near China bound. Alberta Adoption law(and China) states there must be 1 year between any children/adoptions. So doing the math... 20-12 is 8. So we are going to pursue the US with adoption(we have sent half the paperwork at this point, we need to get updated homestudy and medicals still.)And we don't have to put any US money upfront until a match is made, just costs with updating some paper work now. We will pursue the US avenue until we near the time when we have 1 year til the China match. If it happens, we will receive a beautiful little black baby as the first child in our family. If no match happens, we will, as we initially thought, have our first child be a little China doll.

Our hearts are for adoption, in my mind pursuing a second adoptive child was a no brainer,I figured China would be our first stop, but who knows, it may end up the second stop...but pursuing it this way, with the boundaries on time etc. we are putting in place allows us to be hands off and if God will deliver the gift the US direction first, He is totally in control to do that, and if it is China, same thing, and we would look to the US second.

So who knows what track this crazy train will take, we are just extending arms of love to receive whatever gift God will deliver. :)

January 4 2006

Yahoo!!!! They are finally into 2006 matching!!! They went from dec 27 to January 4 another 8 day batch. that is two 8 day batches in a row. So 4 months and 15 days worth of matching still to go, so approximately 165 days to match, divided by 8 days per calender month...ugh that would mean at least 20 more months until a match if they do 8 days per month, and there is no guarantee they will do that many, or that they won't have some months where they do more... another year and a half of waiting... GAH, yet another reason why I am known for hating math, math sucks, waiting sucks, mid 2009 for a match? BLECH! Why are we doing this? Oh right, there is a little girl out there needing someone to call Daddy and Mummy...the first time we see her face will erase all this other nonsense!

Fun date...

On this day of love I thought I would share a very fun, very easy date we did a couple weeks ago.

Ever had those gourmet jelly beans, the kind that have flavors such as popcorn, watermelon, chocolate etc? Well we picked up a bag of them, and you never know what the flavor is gonna be.

So we planned to watch a fun show, and I brought over the beans, a knife, and a small cutting board. I cut the jelly bean in half, so that we could both experience the taste at the same time, and it saved hunting through a bag of beans trying to find a match. We then chatted about what we thought it might be before we tasted it, critiqued them after we tasted them ,and it turned out to be a really fun time.

Stuff like this may not fly in your home, but we sure find unexpected delight in little things like this, it builds fun memories and good feelings.

Happy Vday to all!

Still around

Been a bit, but had good reason...my mom had a heart attack last week, she is doing well and recovering, so we were down to visit for the last little while.

What else is happening? Well another LID month anniversary has come and gone, we were just too busy to celebrate it, but we go the newsletter from FOI of some trip reports and pictures of babies adopted out now, we love to sit down and look and read through that.

I also got to visit, in Calgary, the Vietnamese church I pastored a number of years ago. It was so refreshing to reconnect and see how they are doing. They still have such a special place in my heart, such desire to worship God(I love being able to worship with them!) They are currently without a pastor, had to say I had a couple of thoughts about a change...but that isn't on the horizon...

GP church stuff is keeping me more than busy... the youth pastor is no longer serving at the church, and since he played a role in camp, an area we shared together, that adds a "more on the plate" dynamic. I am also waist deep in planning family fun(and teaching events) a new adventure for me and this church, so lots of research, planning, calls and more good stuff to have my hands into...

I started Kung-fu, and thinking this will be a very good thing. My class was cancelled last night due to cold weather... woke up today to -40 Celcius(not including windchill factor).BRRRRRRRRR!

My cousin is here for a week visit,so that is good.

Cara has a number of craft classes/groups starting up, and has the fireplace a-humming in her "studio" to further add to a nice atmosphere to promote creativity.

LOST starts up again on Thursday. Hopefully I can catch most of it after my Kung-fu class. You just can't miss an episode or you are lost...

So signing off this post,

busy, but still waiting...

Randy

combined fun of 2 shows we love

some fan combined a promo for Heroes, with the Office characters, very fun :)



Jim's pranks on Dwight are awesome, here's a collection

less info now than before

CCAA has published on their site info about when they finish reviewing and when they do new matches, they are taking that info down and it will only be available to the agencies. SOOOOO stupid, this has just made the agencies have to do more work and field more calls and emails from people wondering where the status is with things. VERY frustrating. Seriously, can they make things more of a rollercoater...oh I guess they just did!

Insults.....

Not a big email/forward person, but found this print worthy :)

When insults had class...

These glorious insults are from an era when cleverness with words was still valued, before a great portion of the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words!


The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison," and he said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: " Sir , you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir ," said Disraeli, "on whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr


"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).


"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." - Abraham Lincoln

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend.... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill


"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." Jack E. Leonard

"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." - Robert Redford

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx