Wishing you all a wonderful new year!

This is the time to reflect on all you're thankful for and make resolutions for the new year. I have a wonderful husband, a comfortable house and an amazing family. There's really only one thing missing - our daughter(s)! May 2011 finally be OUR YEAR!

Wishing you and your families a very Happy New Year!

Starting the 100 Good Wishes Quilt

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or “100 Good Wishes Quilt.” It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.

Well, yesterday I went to my parent's house so my mom and I could do round 2 of making our daughter's quilt (I forgot to take pictures when we first started it)

I am so happy with the pattern and how it's turning out. I was in charge of trimming the blocks to the correct size for the pattern I created and then my mom did the sewing (the hard and long part!). This pattern will have 108 squares which I figure means more love was put into it!

Well, without further ado, here's where we're at... We're about half way done with the front. Yeah! I'm going to have to find someone to do the actual quilting of it. I can't wait!

My mom sewing rows together

My mom and I modeling the quilt so far

why family is good...

Thanks to my baby sister for this year's birthday card - never laughed so hard... Just had to share... See, getting old is so much fun!

Tax Relief

On December 17, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 (HR4853), extending the current tax cuts through the end of 2012.

The Middle Class Tax Relief Act also extends the adoption tax credit which currently stands at $13,170 for qualified families.

This is a huge relief for us and definitely one for those behind us in line. Just one less thing to worry about. Yeah!

Matches Arrived!

It's official - matches have arrived and the official cut-off is May 29, 2006. A 6-day referral batch. We were hoping for the CCAA to finish off May 2006 this month, but as is usual - disappointment abounds.

We now have 46 more referral days to go before we're matched with our daughter. Little baby steps closer. So close, but yet so far.

You Would Think I Would Learn By Now...

...that after 4 years of the constant ups and downs of this adoption that I should just keep my mouth shut when people ask me the dreaded question as to "when" we think this adoption is happening. I had finally started feeling kind of optimistic that maybe we'd have a referral this summer? Now, fast forward a few weeks since Thanksgiving and NO REFERRALS coming out of the CCAA. Rumors are abuzz that maybe no referrals until maybe January. The last set of referrals came out on November 1st, so it's been a while. As to the reason why - well, who knows?! It's the CCAA - because they can  is the reason why. Is there some hidden "quota"? I don't know - only the CCAA does. Is this frustrating - YES!

If you find my optimism, please mail it to me ASAP. Thanks.

We have it!

The other day we received our new I-171H form. This allows us to adopt a child(ren) from China. We are now good with our fingerprints and I-171H form until March 2012 so the CCAA better start making those referrals. And LOTS of them!

I'm not sure what's going on over at the CCAA, but they sure are taking a long time to match this month. It's enough to drive a person crazy! We were hoping for matches this week, but now have resigned to hope for maybe next week? We shall see...

Fingerprinting

Checking things off our to-do list. We just went in for what we hope to be our last USCIS (Homeland Security) fingerprinting (yes, this is our 4th time doing this - so unfortunately we're old pros at it!) which will then clear us and enable us to receive our lovely I-171H form saying we can be the parents of an adopted child(ren) from China. Yeah!

Now if only this next batch of referrals will come... I'm curious to see how far they're going to get. I'm hoping they will get through March 2006 and then can start on June next month. It's just little baby steps closer to our daughter!

Being Thankful

One day a year, we spend time with family and friends and have a turkey dinner and get to think about all of the things we are thankful for. For me, it's my wonderful husband, my family, his family and knowing that after 4.5 years of waiting - next year we will finally be a family. While I can't say when (hoping for some time in the summer - say lots of prayers!) it most certainly has to be some time in 2011. So, for us, we're hoping that this will be the last holiday season without our daughter. Now that is something to be thankful for!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.

I also thought I'd share in a few funny Thanksgiving cartoons that made me laugh.

Flight to Janesville

It was a beautiful crisp sunny day here in Madison, so Robert and I decided to fly to Janesville for breakfast. It was just beautiful. Nothing beats quality time with your husband!

Here are a few of the photos from our trip.

Matches Arrived!

Matches arrived today and "the calls" are being made tomorrow! It seems like the cut-off will be May 23rd, but we won't know officially until tomorrow. Yeah to all the families receiving their calls!

UPDATE: It is official - May 23rd is the cut-off. Only 52 more Log-in dates to go...

The Winds

Well, over the past few days we've been having a wild ride with the weather. We've thankfully missed all of the tornadoes that have blown around, but we haven't missed any of the winds. Thankfully, we're not in the worst area - I think it's a lot worse north of here. We've "only" had around 50 mph wind gusts. It certainly sounds like it's spooky Halloween outside!

And with the wind, other changes are afoot... I can't write about it yet, but will when I am able to (unfortunately, it's NOT about a referral - although that will be here before we know it. I hope!)

Well, it should be a fun Halloween weekend ahead. One of Robert's best lifelong friends is coming to town with his wife and 2 kids and we have our annual Halloween Bash with our neighbors. Yeah!

I-600A Renewals out the door!

Well, today I mailed in my request to have our I-600A/I-171H form extended and to be re-fingerprinted for our 4th time. Oh, the joys! On the happy side, we're hopeful that this will be the last time that we're going to have to jump through these hoops. (please keep your fingers crossed on this point!) This process has been so stressful and anyone who's been waiting along with us can corroborate. With each update, they seemed to have changed the process so it was like starting from scratch each time we had to do it. But now it's done and we can sigh a huge relief.

Let's bring on those referrals!

Next up, update Robert's passport... gotta be ready!

September Referrals are Official!

Well, it took them almost two months to report it (partly due to the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival Holiday) but referrals are being made as we speak and families are getting to see their child's face for the very first time. It's an exciting time. I just wish it was our turn already!

This is a 3-day referral month and hopefully one of the last of the small referral batches – after this, we're hoping that attrition starts happening and the number of days being referred starts to increase. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. This has been over 4 years already and by the time we're done, it will be 5 years - which is far too long for anyone to wait for a child!

Only 57 more log-in dates to go until we're referred our daughter!

Here's the official notice:

9/29/2010
CCAA

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before May 18, 2006.

President Barack Obama in Madison today

Amazing experience today, I got to see President Barack Obama when he was in Madison speaking in the Library Mall near campus. My friend Judith got us VIP tickets and we were less than 50 feet away from the President and the other speakers. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. I was in heaven. We had such an amazing time. I'm still wide awake from all of the excitement!

Mounted police - security was VERY TIGHT!

... going through the metal detectors...

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin

the mass of humanity (over 15,000 people) watching the speeches

Ben Harper played - amazing!!

Senator Russ Feingold

Milwaukee Mayor Barrett, running for Governor of Wisconsin

President Barack Obama takes the stage!

Don't forget to go vote in November!!

It's in the mail!

Referrals are in the mail! Yeah! Early rumors have the CCAA getting through May 18, 2006. We shall see in the next day or two if this is true or not. If it is, we're ahead of where we thought we'd be at this point.

Happy Sukkot and Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Today marks the beginning of two holidays - Sukkot and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Both are harvest festivals - one Jewish and the other Chinese.

Today we celebrated Sukkot at a friends house and had dinner in their Sukkah. It was a beautiful night and the rain held off. On Sunday, we have another party and will say the prayer over a lulav and etrog.


The Mid-Autumn Moon festival is a Chinese holiday celebrating the end of the summer harvest. Families traditionally eat moon cakes, light lanterns, and watch fire dragon dances.

Pattern picked out!

Well, I finally did it - I figured out the pattern I'm going to use for our daughter's 100 Good Wishes Quilt. With the help of some of the ladies at my local quilting store, we found a pattern that looks difficult, but is really simple (see brick-looking one on left of cover). It will end up using 108 squares, so it's going to be a bit more than the 100 needed, but I liked the pattern so much, that a few more good wishes wasn't going to hurt! Just means a little bit more sewing for my mom and I. Today I modified the pattern to fit a Twin sized bed. I can't wait to start on it. Probably won't have any time until the last week of September/beginning of October. It's going to take a while to make. I'll try to post progress photos as we get going on the quilt.

Wish us luck!

Happy 95th Birthday Grandpa!

Today we celebrated my grandpa's 95th birthday. I always say that he'll outlive us all! He's still sharp as a tack, drives and travels the globe. He's the world's greatest grandpa (I think I'm only slightly biased here) and I love him so much. We had about 40 of his closest friends and family celebrating with him. It was a lot of fun to see everyone celebrate for a wonderful occasion.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

My mom, sister and I - we even color coordinated... (and no, we didn't call each other!)

my family surrounding the birthday boy! (grandpa is in bright blue in the front row)

Happy 95th Birthday Grandpa!

Cary's visit to Madison

I've become very close with an amazing group of women who are all adopting through our adoption agency (CCAI) and are all logged-in during the month of July 2006. Well, this past weekend my friend Cary (from that group) came to Madison for a visit. We packed a LOT in over a short 3-day weekend. Cary and her husband Dave are also logged-in the same day we are - July 14, 2006. So we will for sure be traveling with them. It was so nice for Robert to finally meet one of the ladies I talk so much about. Here's a few photos from the weekend.

Cary in front of our state capital modeling with our "Forward" statue

Cary and I eating lunch at Graze - a new restaurant on the capital square

Cary on Bascom Hill

Hanging out at Memorial Union

sitting on the famous big chair

In Chicago checking out the "Bean"

Millennium Park

In front of the Art Institute lions

Buckingham fountain

going flying for breakfast

beautiful view of Madison on our way to breakfast

Our breakfast

Hanging at the Memorial Union again

On State Street in Madison with capital behind us on our way to Taste of Madison