Hello

I have noticed that I am not writing very often these days. This is probably due to the crazy work schedule - taking care of two departments, being on-call and having one of my staff members off with a back injury while one of the others is off on maternity leave. HELP!!! So yea, haven't been writing here often, reading though!!
The other situation that happened was the report from our agency almost a week ago about the wait time. On Saturday, I had a little cry. I have never felt that I was sad that I won't have my own biological child but I felt very sad that we may never have a child at all. I know, I know, we will go to China, we will meet our daughter and build our family but it just FEELS like we won't sometimes. This wait is ok but another year is so far away after waiting for 7 years to have our child already!! Shawn suggested that I walk away from the computer for a little while and take a break, focus on something else in my very "little" spare time. So I am. Here's hoping that the wait time speeds up just a little so we don't have to wait the dreaded 24 months!!!

Waiting Parents...

Last night we went to our local Waiting Parents Support Group. We haven't gone to many of these evenings, actually this is the second time that we have attended in a year. The last time was last October where we met a family who had just returned from China and decided to switch over from our domestic adoption plans. Last night, Ron and Val were there with their daughter Olivia. You can read their story at Olivia's Story. It was really great to have the chance to hear their story first hand and the two hours went by so very quickly. We learned how great our agency Family Outreach International is, how supportive they are and how organized they are once we get to China. This was a relief. It was also confirmed that the wait is predicted to go to 18-24 months in the next year:(
Shawn is turning 40 next year and keeps trying to tell me that I am (not, but closer to 40 than 30 as my own Dad pointed out the other day!!). I read about other adoptive parents who are in their 50's and I know that we are on the "younger" end but we are still feeling old (have to do streches in the morning, drink lots of green tea and make a concerted effort to exercise)to have our first child. I think that is what gets me, every year we get that little bit older. Oh well, as I ALWAYS say, we have time to save, do renos blah blah blah. By the way, if anyone ever has a chance to have a Thai massage, go for it!! It is a workout to be sure but fabulous at getting rid of back pain and headaches - can you tell that I had one yesterday and am still glowing!! I am raising my glass of water to all of the waiting parents out there. As Val told me last night, even though it sounds trite, it REALLY IS WORTH IT!!! I apoligize for spelling errors but Blogger won't do a check for me :(

Happy Holidays!!!

Here at our house we celebrated the Moon Festival on Friday night and tomorrow we eat turkey - lots of it with yummy stuffing (made with my homemade gluten-free bread, have I mentioned that I am a Celiac?), squash, carrots, yams and pumpkin pie (again with a homemade gluten-free pie crust!!). Thanksgiving is super, especially for Camie who ADORES turkey. Last weekend a friend of mine who is a caterer was catering a wedding (for another friend's daughter)and was desperate for turkey cookers. I volunteered to roast one and Camie lost her mind!!! I had to give her a little bit of it, poor thing.

As for our first holiday, we celebrated the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with our friend Glenn. We went out and had Chinese Food then down to the Ocean with our moon stories and moon cakes (thank you secret pal!!). We opened the moon roof (sun roof!!) and cut the cakes into quarters and enjoyed ALL of the cakes (the mixed nuts were amazing) under the light of the brilliant full moon. We then told the Chinese Moon stories (which I have made into a book) and our own full moon stories. After this we felt like tea so we went downtown to a Chinese restaurant and ordered hot & sour soup (it was cold down by the water!!) and jasmine tea. What a great night we had and it was really special for us to have our old friend Glenn join us (his wife and son are in Hawaii on holiday right now) as we will do this again year after year!!

I am off to make lemon cheesecake with ginger cookie crust to go with the curry chicken and rice cooking in the crockpot right now. Yummy on a cold and rainy autumn kind of day!!! Did I mention that I bought a kitchenaid mixer off of the tv after a few glasses of wine (that is another story!!) and am now ADDICTED to it!! So Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian friends and family, hope that you enjoy your turkey!!

Thank you to our March DTC Secret Pal

Thanks to my February Pal for letting me know that the Mooncakes are a gift from you!! Shawn just adores them - he eats red bean paste pastries all the time. We haven't tried the nuts so that will be fun. We are really going to enjoy them on Friday and we really appreciate your kindness!! You are great!! Cheers and Happy Mid-Autumn Fest to you - we hope that you will be enjoying mooncakes too!!!

Thank you to my Secret Pal!!!

Well, she has done it again. Before I say anything, I have to say I LOVE THE FISH!!! I couldn't stop laughing and playing with it. Shawn thinks I am crazy, maybe I am, but it was just so fun. Camie loved her gift and the ladybug book and bug toy are just too cute. The chocolates are much appreciated as are your kind words and lovely card.
Now, I am embarrassed to say that I am not sure who the Mooncakes are from. The enclosed card said "your secret pal" but since I am involved in both the Feb and March secret pal exchanges I am unsure of which one of you sent them... They are MUCH appreciated though as we have a little celebration planned (including take-out from our favorite Chinese Food restaurant as well as an evening at the ocean watching the moon rise, telling the tales of the Moon Festival and I WAS going to buy some Mooncakes but now we have the assorted tin - YUMMY!!). So thank you so much but please let me know who sent them. I know that they are dear (Canadian for expensive) and we do so appreciate your thought!! Speaking of Camie and toys, I had to show you this picture of our Camie, she is really a Yoga kinda kitty!! She loves our Yoga mats and when we have our classes (our teacher is a friend who comes over), she is always involved. I guess that is why she is a healthy 18 1/2 and still going strong (or it could be the raw food diet that I make or the many hours of lying on her kooshie by the fire or...) We love our kitty!!

7 months today

The old British tune "Twenty-one Today" is running through my head as I write this. Yes, our LID is 7 months old today. Seems like I was just writing the 6 month anniversary post. It has been a very busy month for both of us at work - tons of overtime for Shawn and tons of extra responsibilities for me. When you are a Director on salary, boy they can take advantage!! Anyway, I am off for a nice long walk to the library and Shawn is working today so no celebrations this month. We waited and waited to hit that six month point and now it seems that it is not as exciting. I think the rumour (AND it IS just a rumour) yesterday of the wait going to 24 months in the next year really was a downer. As I have said numerous times before, it is so difficult for those of us used to having control over our lives to go through this process.
I have read other bloggers who have written that people have started to question whether or not they are actually adopting and last week I experienced just that. A woman I work with asked me what was going on, shouldn't I have a baby by now, its been a while. I went through the whole rig-a-marole explanation. Yuck.
In other news, Colleen and Bob welcomed their fourth son Frederick Spence, into their family on the 29th at 5:30 pm. Congratulations on your new addition!!!