Flowertown Festival

Today I went to the annual Flowertown Festival in Summerville with my niece, Jess and little Zada. It was packed as usual...thousands of people milling about the streets and park of beautiful downtown Summerville. We went to see the "bow" lady and bought bows of different sizes and colors for Zada, Olivia and Emma. I can't wait to see them!! I also stopped at a booth of a Chinese artist who made me a bookmark with Brielle's name written in Chinese. It has a little panda bear at the top. Very cute and of course I wanted to cry just seeing my little girl's name in her language. It looks pretty messy though..... the sweet little man cocked his head sideways when trying to pronounce Brielle. It made my day.

Another batch brewing??

It's rolling around...it's almost referral time again!
An early rumor was just posted by the moderators that the cut-off date may reach November 2nd. That would be incredible!! Every now and then - like when I just read that rumor - my heart almost comes out of my chest that there is hope that this may happen one day.

I've decided to only look at it by the number left of referral batches til we receive ours. Counting down from 6 really isn't sooooooo bad....

I love you, Brielle. Wherever you are & whomever you are with, we are praying for your comfort and safety.

Will we ever get through november???

Holy moly...

RQ put up another poll for 2005 LIDDERS and results indicate we may not break into Novmeber until May referrals !! This is not good. By the looks of it ~ January folks are now pushed out to September or October before receiving a referral... and, that too may change! Will we ever see an end to this bizarre wait? It's so stinking hard not to think of my little one every day... how old is she?...what does she look like? does she look like me? (haha) where is she now?? is she happy and healthy?

We've started the ugly task of re-doing the tedious paperwork. Reading over our home study brings the wait to reality. It's absolutely amazing how things have changed since 2005. We've added another beautiful little girl to our family, Emma Julianna. Rob has started his own business...Dale has started his own business and Sherie has a new employer as well! And I've changed my car but that's typical for me. :} The one and only good thing is that we do not have to resubmit photos. Now that would definately tell the story of how long we've been waiting!!

Another Saturday without Brielle

It's around 6pm EST in SC, and we've had an absolutely gorgeous day here... one of those days where it's really warm and sunny - 70ish - and it makes you want to go buy every kind of flower and plant you can find. I'm sitting by the pool as the sun is quicky escaping behind a neighbor's house ~ trolling RQ's forum and reading a few of the blogsites of fellow RQ fans who also are patiently and impatiently waiting for "our turn." Looking at the beautiful pics of China babies who've just been matched with their forever parents is my favorite pasttime. How many more Saturdays will I go shopping, run errands, catch a yard sale or two... without our little Brielle?? With a LID of 1-13-06 I'm guessing it'll be about six months if I'm lucky - more if not!

I really would like to figure out how to put some music and a visitor counter on this blog. Help somebody!

Majorly Bummed!

My friends who have a LID of 10-27-05 got word from their agency today that they did not make the referral cutoff!!! No word if referrals have been mailed out from CCAA.... not alot of rumors floating around but for the major rumor that CCAA would be matching through December 2005 by May 1, 2007. NO WAY!! By the way it sounds this evening...they will be matching less days in March than they have been matching the past few months. I was really excited at the thought of a speed up! :( Looks like it WILL be this Fall before we even see our precious girl's face. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Whaa.

This is definately a work in progress

I am still trying to figure out how to manipulate this site. There are so many things I'd like to do but don't know how. I'll probably keep changing the format until we finally leave for China. I've added just a couple of my favorite links. Rumor Queen of course and Radio Free Florence which is my son's internet Christian Radio Station. Take a look around the site. Kids love it! The other two blog links are for two families which will probably travel the same time we will... as we all have January 2006 LIDs. RQ forum has had some talk today of the CCAA matching families through 2005 by May 1st. What a miracle that would be!!

I can't believe I'm finally doing this!

We have been on this amazing journey for what seems like an eternity! I've wanted to adopt a little girl from China ever since.... well let's just say a very long time. I've been fascinated with the country ever since I was a small girl. It wasn't until about four or so years ago that my husband, Rob, brought home a picture he received from a friend he had made at a Kairos weekend. The picture was of this guy's daughter - adopted from China - whose name is Bree and is absolutely ADORABLE! From the moment I saw her my heart exploded and that's when I knew deep down that I, too, one day would have a daughter like Bree. Not very long after this...the journey to Brielle started to unfold.

My brother and sister-in-law decided to adopt in 2004 and after much soul searching and exploring options, they decided to adopt from China. I couldn't believe it when they called to tell us the news!! I still remember that phone call like it was yesterday. We were actually going to have a beautiful little one from China in the family - and OHHHHHHHH how I wanted to do it too!! Of course, Rob was totally against us doing this. He thought I was crazy as we've already raised two children who are now adults. Why would I want to do such a thing!! Well... let me just say that I knew in my heart it would happen and prayed that God would work it out (sooner rather than later please!)

My brother, Cy, and Dawn traveled to China in March, 2005, to get Kali Mia. I practically held my breath until they came to visit us in April. I couldn't WAIT to get my hands on her. By the end of the visit, little Kali had worked her way into Uncle Rob's lap and then his heart! Only a couple of short months later God spoke to him through the book of James (care for the widows and the orphans). Of course he didn't share this with me right away - darn it - and then was channel surfing the radio one day while working and happened to hear an annoucement from an adoption agency. He called me on the phone and told me to call and register to attend........ I almost fell out of my chair. My fingers couldn't dial fast enough. This is a multi-country agency but it just so happened this meeting was dedicated only to adopting in China (which we did not realize until we got there!) Imagine that!? Well.. that was on a Saturday in June, 2005, and you guys know what happens next! A mad rush of appointments & paperwork & more paperwork & more appointments. Our dossier finally went to China on December 22nd of that year, and we have a LID of January 13, 2006. It's been hard for Cy and Dawn to see all this time pass for us as well, as they only had about a six month wait. But since their adoption everything almost came to an excruciating halt... down to a low of only 5 days of referrals in a month compared to referring one whole month at a time.

Over this past year, I've learned alot just from reading the blogs of other families going through the same process and waiting along side of us. There is such an awesome adoption community out there. I am so grateful for everyone who posts their referral pictures each month and for those who expose their thoughts and fears in addition to their encouragement and celebration. And I'm especially grateful for my beautiful niece, Kali, who is waiting for her cousin to arrive!!!

I hope I can figure out how to make this interesting....