It's a BOY!

Well, today was the day! And how exciting it was!! Last night Sara dreamed that they were having a boy and she's said all along that it was a boy... and it IS! His name will be Brennin Matthew (not sure of the spelling for Brennin yet) and today he weighed 12 ounces! So tiny!! After Sara's appointment, we went to breakfast. Chris is a very happy daddy-to-be! Then after breakfast, Chris went to work and Sara and I proceeded to shop! There's no danger of this little one going naked. We shopped so much that by the end of the day, we had accidently bought the same outfit twice! I had bought it at the first store we went to and then on the way home Sara bought it again at the Carter's Outlet store! Not to worry though because Chris' brother is also expecting a boy this summer so we just passed it on to them. (And did I mention, the youngest brother found out his girlfriend is pregnant too! How funny is that Sara's mother in law has 3 sons and all of them are expecting babies!!!) I'm so excited... he can call me grandma, granny, gran, mimi,... I don't care. I just can't wait to meet my very first grandson and little nephew to Lexi. Wow!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Of course, I'm a day late but anyhow... Happy Chinese New Year! We really enjoyed attending our local FCC celebration. I ESPECIALLY enjoyed seeing all of the children. There were people there that have had their kids for quite a while to those who returned in January and even just a few weeks ago. There were also people who just got referrals a few weeks ago and some who were just logged in a few weeks ago. We learned so much from listening to others who have already gone through the process. I think when we go, I'll have Wendy on speed dial. By the time we go, she will be back from getting her third child! There was one family there with a boy that they got in late January. He was simply adorable! On our way home, I told Geoff that if we don't get twins, I'll want to go back for a boy. Yes... I would do this again, without a doubt.

On another note, we had our social worker visit today for our homestudy. Everything went fine. She had questions about what we had been doing while waiting. With school, work, and being involved in different groups, that was an easy one. I also showed her the quilt and my scrapbooks. I went to Mom's today and got the quilt. It's all finished except the binding around the edges. Our social worker had never heard of a 100 Good Wishes Quilt. I was amazed but she even more as I told her the story of the legend, the collecting, the stitching, the scrapbooking, and how this quilt has been such a joy for our family. (Mom said tonight that she would wrap Lexi in it without it being finished if we could get her now... ME TOO!)

So one more thing behind us. Tomorrow, I'll probably be posting again. I am going with Sara and Chris to find out what the baby is going to be. I'm so excited. Afterwards, we are going shopping for the baby. I'll get to buy the first baby-specific clothes! My fellow Precious Panda, Lori from the January DTC group, told me that when her daughter in law found out she wore the coordinating color to work the next day. I'm borrowing this idea. So will I wear pink or blue to work on Wedneday?? I'll report tomorrow!

(note this graphic came from cutecolors.com)

Long time no post

I can't believe I've almost let two weeks go by between posts. It has been busy around here. On weekends I've been working with Carolyn and Mom to help finish the quilt and during the week I've been working on the big D. I got really upset with my dissertation chairperson this week. He sent some feedback via my advisor that made me feel like I was dealing with a caveman rather than an education expert. On my document, some of his comments were "GAK", "BAH", and "AH". I'd love to know what "GAK" means. For me, it's too close to "gag" to suit me. I did speak to my advisor though and have as of today sent in a new draft that hopefully will not have "GAK" as a response.

I'm not exactly happy about Valentine's Day this year either. I came home and checked the mail. I was excited for about 2 seconds to find a letter from Homeland Security. I opened the letter to find that Geoff had mailed our request to be refingerprinted without a check. He forgot to put in the $140. Of course, they took a month to tell us this. I was ticked. I know he felt terrible about it but I had to fuss to get it out of my system. So yesterday, a new request was made with a check included. Let's see if it takes another month to get an appointment.

Our homestudy will be this Monday. Thankfully, this is a school holiday. I can dust, clean up and get everything spotless AGAIN before the social worker arrives. Here's a quick story... I've got this Impatien by the door that came up by itself last summer. I've been protecting it from the frost all winter. We've had more cold days this winter than I can remember in the past ten years. Geoff keeps telling me to let it go but I keep covering it up every time the temperature goes down to freezing. I think this plant is our welcome mat and maybe, just maybe I can let it go after our homestudy. Who knows though, we may be past the frost season after this weekend. Afterall, the azaleas are confused and are trying to bloom all over town. My Lady Banks plant is trying to bloom too. Such is life in the southeast. We never truly have four seasons.

On Sunday Geoff and I are planning to attend our first local FCC meeting in celebration of Chinese New Year. I've thought about canceling about three times this week because I feel the pressure to work on my paper but every time something kept me from doing it. I guess I need to connect with others who have been in our situation or ARE waiting just like us. Plus we will get to see Wendy and her girls. I think this is probably something we are needing.

Mom will probably keep working on the quilt without me and Carolyn but there is plenty to be done on it and I'm sure we can all work some more next weekend.

At least things are busy around here. Busy means time goes faster.

What's Up With Our DTC ticker???

Our DTC ticker has been stuck for days on "12 months DTC". Our 12th month DTC was January 30, 2006. However our counter has been stuck for days. What's up with that???? I guess as long as the LID ticker keeps on going, I can deal with it.

I actually had someone ask me today ... very cautiously... how I was doing with the wait. I'm fine. I really am. Every day that ticks on by is one day closer to Lexi. One day until our lives change forever. One more day until my heart explodes with even more love than I ever can imagine. One more day until Geoff and I finally lay eyes on our beautiful daughter.

Quilt Update

Lexi's 100 Good Wishes quilt is all but done. We haven't worked on it since mom came home from SC this past summer. Well, Mom has decided that it is time to finish it and she gathered me and my sister Carolyn at her house today to work on it. The only part left to finish is a heart pattern all around the edges and then the binding on the edges. We have 3 sides to go. I think we must have spent 2 hours this morning making sure the pattern was even and perfectly fit for the length of the quilt. Once we got to stictching, it moved fairly quickly. I can't believe it but I can quilt both left and right handed. I'm actually more comfortable quilting as a lefty. This is totally not my usual choice. Carolyn was quilting today for the first time ever. She is very, very good. All in all, it was good family fun and with every single stitch we anticipate wrapping little Lexi in it. I told mom today that no how hot it may be when she arrives, I want that quilt there at the airport to wrap her in it and take a picture. That moment can't come soon enough.

On a funny note... the other day Sara came to see me at work and was looking at pictures of pregnant women. When she gets near the end of her pregnancy, she wants to have some pregnancy photos made. Well, she pulled up some pictures on about.com. One of the ones she pulled up showed a young woman at 16 weeks with twins. It is totally UNREAL how much this woman looks like my sister Shirley when she was in her late teams/early twenties. It's like someone took Shirley's head and "photoshopped" it onto a pregnant body. The only thing that gives it away that it is NOT Shirley is that Shirley was more petite. Her legs were little sticks. However, the Patriotic bikini the woman is wearing looks like something women around our town would wear. Mom didn't really want me to post it on the blog, so I'm posting a link to it instead. We talked to Shirley today and asked her where her twins are. This is too funny!!

http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/pregnancyphotos/l/blbelly0316c.htm

Today was Great Day For Adoption News!!

Finally some great news! It started today with referrals coming out. Our agency got 10 referrals for babies 7 - 17 months old ... all from the Hunan Provience. Then just a few minutes ago, I checked my yahoo groups to discover that CCAA has finally changed their site to reflect that they have finished reviewing adoption applications through MARCH 22!!! That means we have made it through review. I think the next phase is moving our dossier to the matching room. Now this does not mean that we will be getting a referral soon. I am still hopeful that our referral will come in late spring to early summer. Worse case... last summer.

I can only imagine how excited all of the new referral families are tonight. I am so very excited to see every single batch of referrals go out. I live vicariously through these people. I love following their stories and learning from their experiences. Oh happy day!!