Checking In, Catching Up & Settling In~

How is everyone? Not online much these days. No time. However, be warned, I have a little time this AM while drinking my coffee so this will likely be a marathon post!

We got moved. Load day was a little difficult as it poured rain. However, everyone worked really hard & did the best that they could under less than perfect circumstances for a move. Nothing got damaged & other than us all being a little wet behind the ears & damp down to our socks no one & nothing was any worse for the wear. The next day we met the moving truck to unload at our new place. It was a chilly & brisk morning, but sunny! We unloaded without any problems. Over all, the move as far as a moves go, I would have to say was pretty uneventful.

We are attempting to get settled. What a process! We are planning to paint every room, so there really isn't much that we can do until we start that process. We sold a lot of our furniture prior to moving & have plans to make some purchases, but again until we choose paint colors & get rolling with that we really can't make many choices. The house is fairly empty right now & we would like to keep it that way until we get a lot of these initial projects underway. It will just make them easier to complete. Right now, our main focus is to just get the boxes unpacked & get somewhat settled with the way things are & what we have now so that we can live fairly comfortably in our home as we begin to tackle projects one at a time. It is difficult to even choose blinds or curtains until you know about paint colors. It is slow, but we are making little bits of progress every day.

The house was a new construction & had never been lived in before. It was completed, other than the flooring, for a while before we moved in (almost a year actually). There are certain things that you just don't know/find until you move in & have lived in the home that needed to be finished off or that should have been done differently. The house is good. We really like it. "My list" is all just cosmetic issues mainly~but, the list is ever growing! I am so picky & pretty close to being neurotic about stuff like that. I just get focused on something that I see that needs to be or that I want done & I want it done right now. I have no patience for waiting around on stuff like that. So, I am learning that it isn't all going to get done in a day & that I need to just relax. It will all eventually get done.

The breakfast nook & most of the kitchen is open to the family room which we absolutely love. That is our favorite part of the house. I have finally been cooking in the kitchen. (Now that we can see the counter tops!) There are so many windows on the back side of the house & just like the family room being right there by the kitchen the windows run that back wall of the house right by the kitchen. I love that. We purchased a new television for the family room. We really like it. It is the biggest t.v. (52 inch) we have ever had & has the best picture. We haven't had much t.v. time, but when we have indulged ourselves with a little down time in front of the t.v., we have really enjoyed it! I don't generally get too into the whole electronic scene. That is usually Thomas's thing, but I must admit that I was pretty excited about this purchase too.

We really like the area. We love all of the options of so many places to shop & lots of activities & events always going on. We really like our neighborhood as well. We have already been invited over to a bonfire at a neighbor's house. We are looking forward to that! Everyone is so friendly & we have found the service in the area to be exceptional. We weren't sure how the people would be in a metro area, but we have been very pleased to find that the people that we have come in contact with so far have been super.

I have been venturing out on my own more & more. For those of you that know me, you might know that I can literally get lost in a cardboard box! Thomas is insisting on getting me a GPS. So far I have resisted. Mainly because I think I will probably just crash the car while trying to work the crazy thing while driving or that it would be a waste of our money as I would get so frustrated with not being able to figure it out that I might be tempted to throw it out the window at some point! (Also not great with electronics either!) I haven't gotten lost yet. Driving I will say though is a whole different experience here. People flat drive & if you don't they honk to let you know about it! Thomas & I just crack up. We still have Missouri plates on our cars & can only imagine what they must be saying about us Missouri drivers! There are so many stop lights, but the speed through them is 50 & 55MPH! We have been use to 30-35 MPH through areas with a lot of stop lights. Plus, there are business's everywhere & people are always stopping & turning. I won't even hardly talk on my cell phone while driving any more as there is just too much going on!

Our home back in Missouri hasn't sold yet. We really don't expect that it will now until spring. It would be a great surprise if it did. We really hate to have the burden of worrying about the care & maintenance of it through the winter months, but we have some great neighbors checking on it & our realtor is watching it as well. It has only been on the market a very short time & in this market-well, we won't even go there with that conversation. We have all heard way enough about "the market", haven't we? (Stock market, real estate market & grocery market...& any other market that can be gone on & on & on about!)

Thomas's job could not be going any better. He has fallen in love with his career all over again. He is very pleased with how things are going & is filled with anticipation for the future, especially in regards to the grand opening of his store that is tentatively planned for March. He is very happy. The other day we were of all things bagging groceries together at a discount grocery store. He looked at me & said, "I love my life." I smiled at him, winked & said, "You love your wife? Isn't that what you said." He laughed & responded that since I am after all a huge part of his life, that yes, that was exactly what he said. Right now he is with work having to do quite a bit of driving. This doesn't thrill him. He is use to living less than five minutes from the front door of our home to his store. Lately, he is about twenty to thirty miles away from our home to his work plus he does a lot of back & forth meetings. He is working in one store & then has to go to meetings in the town where his store is being built. Plus, living here it isn't like twenty miles=twenty minutes. Oh no! Can you say traffic!?!?! & usually lots of it! This also means that he doesn't get to come home right now for lunch either. Other than that, all is well for him at work. This is not really a problem. It is just a new part of our life that we are not use to. When his store is finished though & he is working in it full time, we will be about five miles from our home to his store.

I have been only working in the home keeping things running around here. I am thinking of picking up some PRN or part time hours somewhere though. Haven't decided what or where yet for sure, but I have been thinking about it & have spent a little time researching some of my many options. I don't know that I will go back into the hospital setting, but if I want to there are many to choose from. It is very different here though as everyone in the patient care field is required to be licensed with the state whether you are a CNA or Tele Tech. It is no different than being an RN. Obviously, it is a different education level & is a "license" with the state verses a degree, but it is impressive to me that they consider all patient care staff positions very seriously & require the utmost commitment & education from all positions. You must pass the state accredited course & be licensed. I think that is awesome, especially from the point of view of a patient!

We really like the gym that is available to us right here by our house within our subdivision. (I don't know if you can call what will soon be 2500 homes a subdivision. Maybe community would be a better word.) They have great drop in classes too & a lot of activities going on in the community center as well. (I am headed there after I am finished with this post.) I have been trying to get there as many days a week as I can. It is really a great break. They have flat screens all across one wall. You plug your ear buds into a jack on the machine & set the jack to whichever t.v. channel you want & you can hear whichever t.v. you select. It is a great place to meet people too. I have made a couple of friends there already. They also have activities & drop in care for children of all ages.

For those of you that have been asking/wondering, we haven't heard any more as of yet about the possible twin adoption. That is not a surprise. She will only be four months along on November 9th. She said weeks ago that it may be several months before we heard anything more. And then of course, we may never hear another word about it. As most of you know, you just never can tell about these situations.

As for China~no news really there either. It will soon be time to begin our renewal for our paperwork. We are not looking forward to that process again, financially or emotionally. Having moved to a new state it will be double the fun, no doubt. When we started this process & went through the initial "paper chase" the first time around we just kept thinking that if we just could get through it once we would be home free. We never dreamed that we would be doing it over & over due to lengthening wait times. They are telling us now that we could potentially wait a total of four to five years. Some speculate even longer. As of today it has been one year, three months & ten days since our log in date. So, that gives you an idea of the wait that could still be ahead for us. We are prayerful that something will change & that wait times will shorten. As we are faced with this timeline, we continue to pursue other options domestically, as well as we are strongly considering InVitro in the future. There is a great fertility clinic nearby our new home that offers a shared risk program. You pay initially $18,500.00. This includes everything for three fresh & three frozen cycles. At the end of the entire program if you have not had at least one live birth, they refund you 70% of your money. They of course have to qualify you to be a good candidate for the program first, so we will see. Also, the state in which we moved is one of the few states that requires employers who insure over 25 employees within their company to provide Infertility coverage. However, since my husband's company is not headquartered in the state in which we live, they may not fall under this requirement. We are still doing some research on this.

As a lot of you know, our email hasn't been working properly. Our Internet provider is working on it & tells us that it will be up & running by tomorrow (Friday/Halloween!) morning. If & when it is working our email address is:
thomasandjennifer@comcast.net

Don't forget! Sunday is Daylight Savings Time. You get to sleep an extra hour or have an extra hour in your Sunday to get in some R&R, however it will get dark way early which I don't love.

Are you all ready for the trick or treater's? In our community the kiddos are only allowed to knock on doors from 3PM-7PM. The weather is suppose to be good! Be safe everyone!

We actually had some snow the other day. No accumulation, but snow for sure. It started spitting ice. Sort of like hail, but quickly turned to snow. And let me tell you, when they say "the windy city" they are not kidding! My goodness, the wind is really something here!

Are we ready for the election? I am pretty excited. I am not 100% Obama, but I just can't get behind McCain for a variety of reasons that I won't drudge out here. (Mainly one word mainly explains it all where I am concerned, or rather one name-Palin. Ugh.) Regardless of your political stand, let's hope for a fair election & a new President that will bring our country the change that it needs!

It has been somewhat difficult & a really odd experience not knowing even where to get a haircut, where to go to the dentist, who to choose for a general physician etc. Our realtor & the people that we have met have been great to give us some referrals. I find myself very indecisive these days about the simplest decisions. I think it is because all of the sudden I have so many options. Instead of one Lowe's we have four (not to mention Home Depot (several), Menard's (several), umpteen hardware stores & a litany of other places that sell the same stuff that I had never heard of before. Instead of a couple of salons we have fifty plus, instead of a handful of dentist there are pages & pages in the yellow book, instead of one hospital there are six within driving distance, instead of a Wal-Mart & a HyVee~now we have at least twenty grocery stores & I don't even know how many retail shops (mind you~NONE even coming close to the awesomeness of Wal-Mart!~no favoritism there, huh?). And don't even get me started on the churches~we could visit one every Sunday & never go to the same one twice I think! Thus my indecisiveness. I finally chose a salon & have a appointment on Saturday to get my eyebrows & hair done. Thank goodness. I am looking pretty shaggy!

Speaking of choices~how many of you have an Ikea? Where has that place been all of my life!?!?!? A lot of what they have is a little modern for our home. Some of it is more for what we imagine in like a loft in downtown, but oh my goodness! They have everything! And the prices~wow! We love it. We have only been here a couple of weeks & have been there like three times already & it's about fifteen-twenty minutes from our house! Oh & Costco~never been there either. Now we are members & really like it too. And Laurie~your post about your frequent trips to Red Robin with the family prompted us to check that out shortly after arriving & YUM is what I have to say about that! Also, "The Weber Grill" restaurant~if you have the chance to ever try that out, do so! The smell is amazing. When you walk in there are about twenty Weber Grills lined up in a row in their open kitchen in which they do all of the cooking on. For those of you that know Thomas, this was a near Heaven like experience for him. He is a Weber Grill fanatic. I got him for our anniversary a few years back the big daddy of all Weber Grills & he loves that thing! He won't use gas, even though we all know it is much easier he is a charcoal man & it must be a Weber. The food? Awesome! However, get one entree' & split it. The portions are hugely ridiculous! Oh & you all know about our love for good coffee~Starbucks on every corner just about! I have put myself on a Starbucks budget. Really. It may be good, but cheap it is not! At Costco they sell $100.00 in Starbucks gift cards for $79.00. We are thinking about doing that. That is a good savings.

So, all in all it is starting to feel like home. We are getting into a routine, finding our way & are beginning to settle in a little. Some have asked for pictures of us "getting settled" to be posted. Uh...not yet. Firstly, I have no idea where my camera is & even if I could find it I doubt the batteries are charged. Second, I have no idea where my USB cables are & third-to be very honest although I may sound like this is all somewhat coming together, honestly most mornings I am fairly certain that I may very well lose my mind at some point in the day from the utter lack of disorganization & chaos in our home. (You know my type A, control freak, organizational, planner, almost neurotic personality at times has not went away just because we moved!) Really, believe me. You don't want to see photos of boxes stacked in the garage or my hair standing on end from the stress of it all. (As Thomas will tell you it is really not all that stressful, I just tend to get amped up about clutter & disorganization-thus, my utter fascination with all of the organizational components at Ikea!)

Not far from our home is a brand new GoodWill. A lot of you know that I love a good second time around store. Tomorrow is the GoodWill Grand Opening. I suppose you can guess what I will be checking out in the morning.

Okay, the gym & the boxes are calling my name~

We are outta here~

As most of you know we are moving. Thomas is back home now & we are in full packing/moving mode! We will likely be taking the computer down & packing it away today or early tomorrow, so this is me signing off for a bit. I think this couldn't have come at a better time for me. A little Internet hiatus. First, forced due to the move & now, I think I might just roll with it for a while.

Just quickly, I want to say thank you for the many private emails that I received regarding all of the hype & drama from the other day in the open forum. I am so fortunate to have so, so many who understand not only where I was coming from, but so many of you understood my true intentions. I appreciate all of you!

I hope the next months bring only good things for all of us regardless of where we are in our journey! I hope that when I do check back in that lots of you will have big news to share!

Take Care!

Wow~

Wow, yes that is really all I could think of to say about something that I started yesterday. I posted something in a forum that is a very popular site that many people within the adoption community visit. I did it without malice, but boy was I naive. My words were read in a much different way than they were written or intended & well, the rest is history! I will not hash out all of the nasty details of exactly was or wasn't said here again on my blog. Most of you know the website & can go, if you have an hour or TEN, & read the thread if you want to. I will say in short that all I wanted to know was where everyone's minds & hearts were in regards to an issue. The issue I knew would be a very, very sensitive topic~but, I felt that the forum in which I was raising the issue was a safe place to bring it up. OOPS! Wrong again! I knew that it would not likely make me the most popular gal around, but little did I know...I was bringing up the subject of families returning to China for multiple adoptions or even families with several biological children adopting when there are many families who are childless as a result of Infertility who haven't even been once yet. I talked about back when the climate with China Adoptions was very different; the wait was much shorter & according to the CCAA; there were many more babies available for adoption. I stated that I realized that there are MANY variables to this situation, such as special needs~but, just overall I was curious as to everyone's thoughts on the subject. The one great thing that did come of it was that through some of the outrage & slamming that occurred, & believe me there was a lot of that, there were some great post. Some that I am happy to say really opened my eyes to other's points of view. There were many post just basically yelling at me telling me that I should be ashamed of myself & that I should apologize for bringing up such a topic. There were many who said that they were very offended. Some who even went as far to say something like (not quoting here, just paraphrasing)~they were planning to take their children that they have now to China with them when they go this time for their next adoption & to think that there are those who feel this way just devastated them. Surely they already knew as I am told this issue has been brought up many times in the past. I am sure that they realize that only mere years ago that this was in fact one of the rules for China-at least that is what I was told. I know too that there are some countries still today that require that the family be childless & there are those that even require Infertility to be the reason. Now hear me clearly, PLEASE~I did say FOR MY FAMILY that it would be a difficult choice for US to put ourselves in line in front a family that was childless if we already had children in the home. That being said, I said up front that I was very sensitive to the sibling issue & thankfully due to some fabulous discussion amidst all of the hype yesterday I even have a better understanding of this now. I never wanted to push my feelings on anyone else or expected them to change their views. All that I really wanted was for people to share their thoughts, opinions & feelings on the subject so that we could possibly all open our minds & walk in another's shoes if only for the discussion. I thought that this would bring people together & help us to understand one another better. Whew, I was so naive. I even said that I knew that the CCAA makes the rules & that even if someone wanted to, you have to stay in line where you are placed. I get that. Someone emailed me privately & mentioned an idea that they had about separate lines. It was a very good idea. She was afraid to post it on the forum as she said she wasn't up for all of the slamming. Her instincts were better than mine!

I haven't been back on the site recently & don't intend on it. I did however try to post a brief comment last night & now the moderator is having all post (well, at least mine & a couple others as they have mentioned it.) go through her prior to allowing them to be posted. The thing of it is, my comments were far from the hateful tone that many took. I never told anyone to be ashamed of themselves or demanded an apology. However, my comments are not being posted, nor does it appear that anyones are who has an opinion or comment that falls on the minority side of the issue. I thought forums such as this were suppose to be fair & un-bias. Now, it is like only one side of this subject is being allowed to be posted & that is very sad. I can understand moderating a site. I mean obviously we need to keep things clean, but I would hope that we would not see censorship, especially if it made a subject seem very one sided when clearly there are many on both sides of the issue. I am not saying that is what is happening, I am just saying that as of last night it appeared to me as such.

In closing, I will just say that I wasn't offended, upset or hurt by what anyone said. I appreciated the discussion. I read the thread & just tried to see through the slamming & hatefulness to get to the good stuff. Overall, it was a good discussion & I still contend a good topic that was fair to bring up in the forum in which I did.

Here We MIGHT Go Again...

If you can believe it ~after two failed domestic placements we have received yet another call this past week & yes, we are jumping in with both feet. It is VERY early & still VERY uncertain. The Mother has not completely made her decision. Therefore, we won't be able to share many details as of now-if ever, as we will always keep her & her entire families privacy at the center of our consciousness. We will keep you posted as we can. I can & will tell you one fun, VERY exciting detail-IT'S TWINS! We may not know any more than we do now for months & we may know more details next week. The main thing to know is that she knows that IF & WHEN she is ready, we are here & ready to go forward.

Thomas is coming home Saturday via the train! YAY! I am so excited! After two weeks of being in two different states, we are way ready to be reunited!

We will make our big move next week. We are ready~well, we are ready to be moved, but still have much to do to get moved. I am a good organizer & am a planner by nature. I have a date book that has every step of this move planned out day by day, so it should all go smooth. There is just so much to do as all of you that have ever moved know.

I am off to take myself a little break though. I am DVR'ing Survivor & then Grey's Anatomy~so, off for a little television watching.

Oh & for those of you watching the stock market~YIKES! I don't even want to look at our 401K & investments. Ugh. No sense in looking right, nothing to do about it but wait it out I suppose & hope for the best in the long term. It is just difficult to think about what was there & what is there now.

Blogger ? & Some Misc. Thoughts~

First, the blogger ?, whenever I sign onto my blog I use my email address & then a password. I assume you all do the same. When we move, we will lose this email address & have to get a new one. What is going to happen with my blog? Is there a way for me to change the email address associated with my blog? For those of you out there that have been through changing your email address while having a blogger account & wanting to keep it & have done this already, thank you in advance for any help that you can give me.

I just first have to give a shout out to the weather~WOW! Could it get any more beautiful?!?!? Unfortunately, I have been stuck mostly inside packing & organizing, other than a few trips outdoors to the mailbox, trash & the few minute breaks here & there that I have forced myself to take just to sit & take in the awesomeness of this day! Fall is here & I love it!

Thomas has called me several times today. Being the weekend, he is not working today. So, he finds himself with time on his hands & us separated by a lot of miles & many hours. He has been keeping busy today though. He is working out the details so that he can take the train home next week. He will leave the car there in our new town & then take a taxi to the Metra Station. Then, he will hop on the Metra & ride to Union Station/Chicago. From there he will walk over to the Am track Station & catch a train to home. I will pick him up at the station closest to our home, only about ten miles from where we live now. This will be great, as we will only have one car to drive back when we move so that we can ride together. He purposefully took the smaller car & left our SUV here so that we will have more room to load that down with some of the most fragile items. He headed over to Ikea today. We love their stuff & are hoping to make a few purchases from there once we get moved, so he is checking it out today getting some more ideas. He keeps calling me from the inside the store to tell me about things that he is finding. He was in awe when he pulled up~he called me before he even got in the front door telling me that the building just for Ikea was like a mall & that it was about four stories high. He had lunch at the Weber Grill restaurant. Thomas is a huge Weber grill fan. He won't use gas, only charcoal for him. I got him the mac daddy of Weber Grills a few years ago for his b-day & he loves that thing. Anyway, he found out that they had a restaurant & he has been excited to try it out ever since. Very close to our new home they have several, so he called me from there today & told me to guess where he was having lunch. He was pretty excited. He said that he can't wait to take me there. I told him that I could almost smell it from here! http://www.webergrillrestaurant.com/
Check it out at the above link.
Anyhow, he is doing well. He is getting the lay of the land & will no doubt have much to show me once I am there as well. I am looking forward to him being my official tour guide.

My day has not been nearly as fun filled or exciting. I am sure you can guess what I have been doing...I think I already mentioned it matter of fact~packing & organizing & more of the same! It has been fine mostly. However, who would have thought that packing & organizing would bring with it the flood of emotions that I was overcome with today?!?!?!? I was working in the garage. I bought a bunch of Rubbermaid Tubs to do some-yep, you guessed it, "organizing & packing". All of our baby stuff was already mostly in tubs & labeled. (It is not however organized by sex or size, however, that will come later when we get closer to our referral or the delivery of our kiddo if that would come first via InVitro (myself) or delivery via a surrogate...) Anyway, everything was mostly already washed, folded neatly & put away in tubs, labeled & ready to go on the truck. However, there was some stuff that still needed to find its place. Most of that was from our most recent failed placement ("Emma Kate"). Having those things in my hands again brought back memories~memories that if I were to write about in a post again I would likely title it, "The best of times, the worst of times...".

The other day I may have mentioned, that my friend Kristin & I met & had pedicures & then went to lunch. Lately any type of beauty regimen for myself hasn't even been on my radar screen. Okay, let's face it~most days I do good to get a brush ran through my hair! Usually by 3PM, you can find me with my hair on top of my head, still in the t-shirt & shorts that I slept in, standing amidst piles of, yep~you guessed right-boxes! So, thank you Kristin for what was a very welcome break. The massage chairs at the pedicure place were great. I didn't want to get up even after my toes were dry.

Well, I just needed a little break. & yes, now my break is over & it is back to, yes, again you guessed correctly, "packing & organizing"!

So, What did you think?

For all of you that watched the debate, what did you think? Me? Yes, I watched it beginning to end & all that came afterward & this morning. Gov. Palin drove me nuts every time she kept turning & addressing Sen. Biden. One of the main rules of a debate is that you can not under any circumstance address the other candidate. Every comment, statement, question etc. must be addressed to the moderator. As you noticed, Sen. Biden addressed everything that he said to Gwen, the moderator as the rules clearly state~that just bugged me. Follow the rules please Gov. Palin. As far as the issues, I thought that they both did a lot of side stepping & avoiding, changing the subject & just carrying on about whatever was on their individual agendas irregardless of what the moderator asked or directed. Gov. Palin even went so far as to state that she would do it her way irregardless of what the moderator or Sen. Biden might ask or want to know. I got quickly tired of hearing about how they do it in Alaska & quickly grew weary of hearing about the soccer moms of the world & BTW, who the heck is "Joe Six pack"?!?!? And since when did John McCain change his name to "Maverick"? Ugh. They both need to get their heads out of the clouds~both of them referred to the middle class time & time again as to a family earning annually less than $250,000.00. What?!?!?! They neither one at any time spoke in reference to the lower income families. The families in which a family of four is barely bringing home $49,000.00 annually or the senior citizens living on a fixed income who are going hungry so that they can pay their electric bill & get a few of their much needed prescriptions. They wanted to talk about the bail out, but at no time did either of them care to explain why the "middle class American" is left to pick up the pieces & clean up this mess that Wall Street has caused. And then the health care plans~one is subsidized & the other is a $5,000.00 plan that is going to cause millions of us to get dropped by our companies who now provide us with good health care policies & have to replace it with less than half of the money that it cost in the first place.

I don't know about you, but all I got out of the debate last night was something that I already knew~we are in big trouble folks!

Elaborating~

I thought that I would break it down for those of you not logged in for China that might not be as familiar with the timeline as those of that are logged in. A lot of you have friends or family that are logged in & are as impatient & curious about this wait as we are. So, here it goes!

Okay, so as I told you in my last post the CCAA got through the 15th, of February that is-2006!! Remember our log in date is July 20, 2007. They have been on average doing about six days of referrals per batch & on the average they do about a batch a month.

There have been a lot of rumors about a speed up. So, let's just say some miracle occurs & they start doing a month at a time. (The only reason I say that is because it makes the math really simple!) So, let's figure as if they are done with February, again to simplify the math. If they were through with February 2006 (they are not, as I said they are through the 15th-but anyway~), then it would take seventeen more months to get to us. In order for them to do a month at a time, the CCAA would have to start referring four times the batches that they are now-NOT likely.

If the CCAA would start doing double what they are doing now, that would get them to almost two weeks at a time. This would be half of what I described above. Two weeks at a time would put us waiting another thirty-four months.

If they continue at this rate, well...can we even do that math in our heads? Let's see, that would be another 68 months...also known as 5.67 years.

Keep in mind, this is just straight ol' math. Just the numbers as they are now without considering any of the variables that we all know now have to be considered. The biggest one is attrition. So many people have dropped out of line~some have moved to special needs, some have switched countries & some have just dropped out all together. Also, it is worth mentioning the decrease in the number of Dossiers now being submitted for China. After May 2007 the regs were tightened & changed dramatically, so there was a big decline after May. However, the months right before May were huge months as everyone who would not qualify under the new regulations were all trying to get in under the cut off.

As of today, those that received their referrals this month have waited on average for about two years, nine months give or take a month here or there.

We are being told by our agency to anticipate a total wait time of about three years. That would mean that we will wait another 22 months. That will put us at or around August 2010. We must remember though that when we first started all of this we were told that we would wait about nine-twelve months & here we are at just over fourteen months with no end in sight.

We fully expect to wait three-four years total, but nothing would surprise us. I will be 36 next month. At this point, I just hope & pray to see Mia's face by the time I celebrate my 40th birthday.