Sunday, December 31, 2006

2006 comes to an end

Although I really believed that Ava would be home for this holiday season, I'm not complaining. I'm still expecting to see my beautiful Ava's face this coming week! Of course, my referral is not a sure thing until the CCAA changes their site indicating Sept 26, 2005 is included or my agency receives my referral, which ever comes first. I believe the referrals left China on Friday or Saturday and will hit the agencies on Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2007!

Friday, December 22, 2006

6th Annual Cookie Exchange

The cookies, 10 varieties this year.













Baby Shower for Nancy & Brian

Nancy and Brian received their referral at the beginning of December for their adorable daughter, Lily. Some of the waiting families, along one family that just returned with their twin daughters, celebrated with them last weekend.

Kim & Scott with their twins Jayden and Jenna, Brian & Nancy, Donna & Joe, Dan & Laura, me, and Heather & Damon.

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Thursday, November 30, 2006

14 months down- 4 weeks to go!

The latest batch of referrals are already arriving at the agencies. They run Aug 26 thru Sept 8, 2005 - 13 days. This falls right where I expected.

Congratulations to all the families receiving referrals this time and especially to my local friends,
Nancy and Brian. I can't wait to see baby Lily!

If you look at the number of referrals and not the number of days in each group, the last few months have been pretty consistent. Whether the CCAA went through 11, 18 or 13 days, the same number of families received their referrals
.

So, based on the number of referrals remaining consistent, the next batch of referrals should go through Sept 29 - Oct 8, 2005 (keeping in mind that the CCAA was closed the first week of October so there is no one logged in between Oct 1 -7). Sept '05 is when the CCAA slowdown started and so there are a number of days in September with no one logged in. This is good for me :) since the referral groups over the past few months have been based on the number of babies available and not a time frame.

It's not a sure thing but I feel very confident that I will receive info on Ava in the next batch of referrals - which should come out sometime between Dec 25 and Jan 1. Whoohoo!!

Monday, November 27, 2006

Thanksgiving

Baby Jason's first Thanksgiving. Although he didn't get to taste the turkey or build a gingerbread house, I think he still enjoyed himself.



































Gingerbread houses

On Thanksgiving, the kids all made a gingerbread house. I made the houses ahead of time and bought all the decorating stuff and the kids had fun putting them together. I'm pretty sure Kayla and Kenzie ate more than they attached to their houses.














Zoo Lights






















Sunday, November 12, 2006

Fun with Paige and Bianca

I spent Friday with my nieces, Page and Bianca. Started out with a pancake breakfast, then made some Christmas ornaments, went to Islands for lunch and then to the movies to see "The Santa Clause 3". It was a busy day.

FCC Ladies

A group of FCC (Families of Chidren from China) ladies got together on Friday night to put some gifts together for the annual FCC dinner in honor of all the AZ families that brought their child home in 2006. I was surprised to hear that 95 AZ families adopted from China this year. Three of the ladies have their daughters home and were a wealth of information for us first time waiting moms.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Halloween '06









Thursday, November 02, 2006

32 days to go!

Finally, the CCAA's site has updated and the latest group of referrals went from August 10 to August 25, 2005. I was hoping they would make it through atleast Aug 24 (since it is a huge referral day) so I'm thrilled with the 25th. Looking ahead, I figure the next group of referrals will go through somewhere between LID Sept 5th to the 10th. Then the December referrals should easily go past my LID of Sept 26. Not ready to say that my referral will definitely come in December but feeling pretty confident.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Chicago

On Thursday night, I went to see the musical Chicago at Gammage. Well worth my time. We sat in the nose bleed section but could still see fine.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Mediterranean cooking class

Took a great cooking class at Sweet Basils in Scottsdale on Thursday night with my long-time friend, Michelle. It was a blast. The chef was really good. The class of 10 people split up to make the 7 different dishes shown below. I have to admit that I had my doubts whether we would be able to complete all the dishes within the three hour class but it all came together.

The finished dishes:
Pork skewers over couscous
Quinoa Tabbouleh
Goat cheese homemade Ravioli with creamy walnut sauce
Lentil, rice and veggie casserole with eggplant sauce
Zucchini balls
Rosemary & lime roasted red snapper with Mediterranean salsa
Zabaglione with quick-poached pears