The Scientist

I guess the CCAA often times sends out a "surprise" small batch of referrals before they all take off for a few weeks to celebrate Chinese New Year. They would've mailed them out by now because Sunday is New Year's. Someone, somewhere in the world, would know they were mailed and the Chinese adoption web community would be abuzz. As I search around the web for rumors to this effect, I can practically hear the crickets chirping so, you know, this year...not so much with the "surprise" referrals. Um... what's up with that? In a word - discouraging. Brings to mind the lyrics of a Coldplay song. Do you know the one I mean?
(For those of you who don't follow pop music, Coldplay's lead singer , Chris Martin, is married to Gwyneth Paltrow. Apple? Moses? Do you know who I mean now? Yeah, they're a bunch of sad-sacks but I'm a sad sack at heart, so I heart them.)
Ok, so anyway - here's the lyric straight from their website:

Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said that it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start

Referrals are here, referrals are here!

February's referrals have hit the shores of the U.S. and families are posting their baby pictures all over the web! Always a very happy and exciting time, though bitter sweet for us, as you might suspect. Our good news is that the numbers seem to be in line with what we've been thinking for awhile now in terms of when we might get our referral. A smaller batch might have pushed things back even further, while a larger number may have lessened our wait. As is, we're still on target for May/June to see our baby's face.

*Speaking of, many people ask me if we know that we will be matched with a girl. Good question. Referral batches from the CCAA are generally about 98% girls. Pretty much everyone in this process assumes they're going to be referred a girl because of that, but a few boys show up in each batch, so ya never know... *

Okay, so we're up to Oct 13! Doesn't that seem so close to Nov 21? Hard to believe it will take at least 3-4 more months! There were so many applications turned in during Oct and Nov of 2005, that this time frame is the best we can hope for. It is finally getting close enough, though, that we're starting to feel the pressure of getting ready. On February 17th, we'll attend a child care class at our agency that specifically prepares adoptive parents for caring for an adopted infant/toddler with their specific needs as opposed to a biological child with you from birth. I am excited to have someone tell me what to do! We're thinking of insisting that Missy (my sister) Barb, and Mary (Stew's sisters) carry their cell phones with them at ALL times from the moment the three of us land in the U.S.!!!

*Kitchen remodel is finally complete with just 1 or 2 final details left. We're so happy with the way it looks and feels - totally worth the hassle. I'll post some Before's and After's as soon as those final details are wrapped up.*