I am here.....

Hi. I know, I know. It has been almost a month since I last posted. I just needed a break. You all understand, I know. No need to explain why I am sure, however, for those of you wondering that don't know......this wait, the rumors about everything & anything related to International Adoption, the holidays approaching without our baby AGAIN etc. The list could go on & on. We are fine & life is mostly good, but I just needed to be "away" for a bit.

Well, I really don't know where to start. Let's see......we went to this event called The Dumpling Festival a couple of weeks ago. It was fun. I will post some pics at some point, but I forgot to take my digital camera with me, so we bought one of those disposable ones on the way. So, I actually have to get them developed & on a CD so I can load them on our computer. The Dumpling Festival was fun filled with lots of food & Chinese Culture. We saw some couples from one of our "Waiting Families" Groups. It was nice to see them. We had lots of Dumplings ofcourse & many other Chinese dishes that were really good & others that were "interesting". It was good preparation for our trip to China I am sure! (Food wise, I mean) There was a lovely family at our table who had adopted a daughter from China many years ago, like eleven years ago. Her name was Melissa & she was very fun to visit with. They were a very, very nice family & we enjoyed visiting with Jim, Maureen & Melissa. There was a silent auction on this evening as well. We bid on a few items, but didn't win anything, however, Jim, Maureen & Melissa did. One of the items they bid on & won was a private cooking lesson in their home with a Chinese Chef. With this auction item also came a beautiful box set of chopsticks. They are wooden & have carved Chinese writing on them. The box/case that they came in is just beautiful as well. Anyhow, before leaving the event Jim & Maureen said that they would like for us to have those. We told them that was just too generous, but they insisted. We were so surprised, so thrilled & very thankful to them for such a wonderful gift! We can not thank them enough. We will treasure them always! THANK YOU AGAIN JIM, MAUREEN & MELISSA!!!! (Again, no pics of those yet....however, I will post pics of the chopstick set as well.)

Been watching "Survivor China". We hated last week when they did the switch & such a good player got voted off. It was no surprise & was probably the best thing to do strategically, however, it seemed so underhanded! I know it is just a game, but at least they should have just told Aaron & James that they were going to throw the competition or afterward that they had thrown it. Just out of respect as they were both very good players & deserved at least respect. I don't think it was very fair the way that the show made this move as really the two players that had to change tribes really didn't/don't have much of a chance, do they?

Also, we have been watching "The Biggest Loser" too. Also with it last week, Phil getting voted off! UGH! When they let that go to a tie & had the other team decide Thomas & I about fell off the couch! Kim is going to be SO furious! We can't wait for this week to see what happens.

Thomas & I have a DVR. So, we "record" our shows & watch them when we have time commercial free. We LOVE that! Our DVR has really changed the way we watch television.

I have done a little "retail therapy" here & there ofcourse. Have bought some great clothes, books & toys. We are planning to start thinking about nursery stuff soon. I mean, we have thought about it tons ofcourse, but I mean thinking about it as in narrowing it down to what we might actually purchase. We plan to wait a while longer though as to see how fast.....or slow the CCAA moves now that they are surely through November & onto December. We are hoping that once 2006 gets rolling that they are going to pick up speed. That will help us decide how soon we are going to actually start the nursery. I may have mentioned that the town/house that we are in now will likely not be the town/house that we will bring Mia home to, so investing very much in anything that can't be moved isn't a good plan for us. However, we do have the glider/rocker to buy, plus all of her nursery furniture; the crib & stuff........all of those items are movable, so we could start on those anytime. However, if we were going to move soon we would just rather not have to move it. The problem is, we have no idea when Thomas will get a store to transfer to?!?!? So, we wait. For now, we will just wait on the CCAA & see what happens there. For the time being, we would just be really pleased to have our LID officially. With a DTC of July 19th, we are at three months now without it & we are ready for it! Not that having it will make a bit of difference, but.......

Speaking of our LID.....we should get it with this next batch of referrals. If we don't I am going to get a little antsy! So, we are a little excited about the next set of referrals hitting our agency! We hope our LID is enclosed with them!