Oct 9, 2007

Official update from the CCAA


The CCAA came back from vacation and updated their website. It's official, only 5 days.
I have a lot to write, but it will have to wait till later. Till then....

Oct 5, 2007

E-I-E-I, Silly…

Tonight is one of those nights that I would love to remember forever…
I picked Cackie up from school and she was in a great mood. They have been studying the letter “F” for the last two weeks and had their “F” party today, which means that she came home with a bag full of fruit cup, flower stickers, fabric, fruit rollups, funyuns… you get the idea.
She was soo agreeable and after watching the Backyardigans we went into the spare bedroom to hang out on the bed and play. I rested, or tried to, while she covered the both of us in stickers! Michael came home and couldn’t believe how quite the house was, lol! Cackie and I were having a great time!
Then we went out to dinner for sushi! Yum! They gave Cackie some kids chop sticks and she had fun picking up her rice and chicken, she’s getting the hang of it. The whole time at dinner she was just too cute, very agreeable and silly. Silly is her favorite word right now. Last week she called her swim teacher “silly, silly” and her gymnastics teacher was “silly girl”. Daddy is regularly called “silly boy”, it seems that I’m the only one without a silly nickname. So, while were eating dinner she starts singing “E-I-E-I…. silly” (to the tune of Old Mac Donald).
Cackie kept asking for ice cream… Most toddlers know where McDonald’s is and some parents can’t drive by without their kids freaking out. My girl, she knows where Baskin Robbins is and asks for ice cream every time we drive by. Well, the Japanese restaurant is across the street from Baskin Robbins so she kept insisting on ice cream. The restaurant has an awesome cheesecake tempura with vanilla ice cream, so we ordered it and told her that ice cream was coming (yes, Aunt Caryn, we cheated on you…)
I don’t think Cackie took a breath until all the ice cream on the plate was gone! It didn’t take very long at all!
Then, before we knew it we were home, she got ready for bed and just now we turned out the light.
It was a really good night tonight, the kind that will leave Michael & I smiling until we head to bed ourselves….

Oct 2, 2007

Referrals!

Well, another batch of referrals arrived today. We don't know the official cutoff from the CCAA because they are celebrating the Chinese National Holiday and are on vacation. But from what has been gathered on Rumor Queen the referrals go through November 30, 2005.

FIVE DAYS! That is all! I'm starting to get sick over this wait! I am sooo absolutely thrilled for all the families who are seeing their sweet child's face for the first time, but at the same time I'm absolutly depressed about how long things are taking!

I'm such a geek that I put together a whole spreadsheet to track the referral progress and estimate how long till we get our referral. So, here's what I've calculated...

The CCAA has referred 37 LID since we were logged in on 3/29/07.

Over the last 12 months they have averaged referrals for 9.42 LID per month.

At this current rate of 9.42 LID per month, we should expect our referral in late December 2011!

That sucks!
We "celebrated" our 6 month LID anniversary last Saturday, but we don't feel like it's much progress at all. Can you tell that I'm real down about this?

We did actually do a little something to sort of celebrate... We finally sat down and finished off the medical checklist and submitted it to CCAI. This means that we have identified a few special needs that we feel we can handle and we've asked them to match us if and when a waiting child's file is sent to them that meets what we can handle. We're still in the NSN (non-special needs) line, hoping that referrals speed up. But, if there is a child who has special needs that we can realistically handle, this gives God the opportunity to match us with the child that is meant for us.

Now, all we can do is wait.


Last month I posted a picture of 3 jars with glass stones and promised to give details later. Well, those stones each represent a LID ahead of us in the wait. The jar on the far left has 365 stones in it with the rest in the middle jar. Each time a batch of referrals comes in, I will take stones from the middle jar and move them to the jar on the right. By my calculation, there should soon be 37 stones in the jar on the right. I'll wait to move them until the official update comes from the CCAA. Then I'll take pictures and add them.

This is just a visual representation that helps Michael & I to "feel" the progress that is being made. If things keep up at this pace, there may come a point where we need to make a decision. This is a decision that we don't want to think about right now, but that we need to be prepared for. I keep praying each night that we will not have to make that decision. If you find it in your heart, please pray for the same.

Catching up

Well, it’s been a while since I updated anything. We’ve been totally busy! If I could just get a computer that can put on “paper” the stuff that I “write" in my head, then I wouldn’t constantly be catching up! (and the content would be much more amusing, too!)

I should be working on the cushions for our camper right now, but the house is sooo quiet that I couldn’t resist sitting down. Cackie just went to bed and Michael is at the football game and I’m sitting here typing and eating my sad little Lean Cuisine.
OK, highlights of September… (not that anyone really cares, but I want to document for when we decide to go down “memory lane” years from now)
The weekend after Labor Day we took Cackie to see her first Broadway show, not on the real Broadway, but close enough for a 3 year old. The Lion King was in town and we knew we had to take her. I was a little worried that she wouldn’t be able to sit still or concentrate, but within seconds of the curtain going up those worries were gone. She was totally amazed by it. The costumes and the puppets are just amazing and they definitely kept her attention. At intermission I thought she was going to have an absolute fit because they stopped. We explained to her that they were taking a break and would be coming back to sing some more. Her response was “and then they are going to come back and sing more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and MORE, and then it will be over!”

This was the second time Michael & I had seen the show, first time was back in January 2005 when we were waiting for Cackie and then we bought the Simba doll to be able to give to her. So, we took the Simba doll with us to the show and figured that we would get her another to add to it. Well, during intermission while Cackie & I went to powder our noses, Michael picked out a Pumbaa doll for her. If you don’t know who Pumbaa is, he’s the farting warthog! Good choice Michael!

We had a fabulous time and the show was awesome. Cackie really enjoyed the theater and we found out that they do a couple of family shows a year that are geared towards kids. I’m hoping that we can fit a couple of those into our schedules and help her grow an appreciation for the theater.

Swim lessons have started back up for Cackie, this time once a week. We are soo happy about this; it’s a great opportunity for her to “zip her lips and open her ears” and have fun, too. She really enjoyed the swim lessons back in July and was excited to start up again, especially since her buddy Hallie is in the class with her. Michael & I think this is so great for her to be involved in and as long as she keeps wanting to go, we’ll keep up the lessons when they are available.

We've also started Cackie in gymnastics lessons! (This is one busy kid!) Back at the end of August when I found out her dance lessons were cancelled I was soo upset, I really wanted her to be involved in a long term activity (swim lessons are only for 6 weeks at a time) both for her physical well being and to help boost her listening/learning skills. So, I checked into the gymnastics program at the gym, hoping they had something open. Sure enough, they called to tell me that the class I wanted was open for her! Wonderful! What I didn’t know at the time was that she’s the only student in the class! Even better, private lessons at the group rate, the day & time that I wanted and she’s having a BLAST! She just had her 3rd lesson and according to her “coach” she’s doing really well. The first week they had her on the balance beam (low) and the mini uneven bars! She was learning to flip herself over while holding onto the lower bar and then was standing on it and swinging on the upper bar! How cool is that? The second week she was learning to hang from the rings and swing out over the “foam pit” to fall into it. That night Michael was with us and all he and I could hear from her was “help, help, help!” Tonight her coach said that she’s listening and paying attention real well for a 3 year old and is progressing in her skills. I am soo thrilled to hear that and I love to talk with Cackie about doing somersaults and jumping on the trampoline on the way home. Besides knowing that Cackie is having a great time, there’s a plus for me as well… the gym area is surrounded by a walking track, so while Cackie is taking lessons I get some free time and have logged 2 miles a week for the past two weeks! Win win for both of us!

Let’s see, what else? Cackie came down with a sinus infection a couple of weeks ago, nothing serious thank goodness. Of course, it’s always easy for her, but when I catch it I’m down for the count. I missed 3 ½ days of work last week with bronchitis and pink eye! Just when I thought I was going to be able to catch up on things at work, too. I went to the Dr. last Thursday and the best news she had was “well, it’s not pneumonia!” Yay for me!
I think I caught the pink eye when we went mattress shopping the week before. (Michael has been complaining about our mattress for a while. After one night out of town in a decent hotel, he came home and proclaimed that we couldn’t get a new mattress fast enough!) I think I must have rubbed the pillow when testing out one of the beds and caught the dreaded pink eye!
So the mattress was delivered on Sunday, I was already feeling run down and by Monday morning I knew I needed to stay home. I managed to work Tues and part of Wed before it was back to bed for me. So, my side of the bed has gotten a nice “breaking in”. Good timing on my part, wasn’t it?

The best part about being confined to bed, much better than feeling like I was hacking up my lungs and dying, was that I was able to catch up on my latest guilty pleasure… 24! I started getting the series from Netflix and had made my way through the first season and just into the second. The disks had been sitting for a while since things were so busy, but now I’m caught up. A new one came in today and I can’t wait to see it! (please, don’t spoil it for me!)

Well, I guess that’s the highlights of our September. Hopefully we will make it through October a little healthier and I’ll have more time to add some Cackie’isms and such.