It's no joke...

Happy April Fools Day! This is NOT a joke. According to a few European agencies the next batch of referrals are on their way and the cut-off is June 15, 2006. A 6-day referral batch. Only 29 more referral days to go until we're matched with our daughter. Yeah!

UPDATE: IT IS OFFICIAL!! I'm too excited for words.

What's in a name?

Well, apparently the CCAA is now the CCCWA which has been a work-in-progress for a while. This was just posted on their website. I just hope that with this new name comes more referrals... a girl can dream...

As approved by the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform of the People’s Republic of China and upon the decision made by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, the China Centre of Adoption Affairs changed its name into China Centre for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (hereinafter referred to as CCCWA) on 15 Feb., 2011. The CCCWA will continue to be responsible for dealing with inter-country adoptions and will assume the responsibility of developing, managing and maintaining the National System of Information Management for Child Welfare. Moreover, the CCCWA will also undertake tasks in relation to child welfare and domestic adoption that the MCA entrusts as well as other assigned missions.

Finding the Humor

When you wait as long as we have for this adoption to be completed, you kind of have to have a thick skin to make it through. You have to find the humor in the little things and enjoy each day. So, when I came across this illustration, it just tickled my funny bone - I mean how can our adoption journey match more closely than this?! (for those who don't know: for some reason the ladybug has taken on the symbology that a child match is imminent). And the snail, well let's just say that this wait hasn't been quick...

The Stars Must Be Aligning

Well, the stars must be aligning because it's only been 3 weeks since the last batch of referrals and they are already out with the next batch. Our agency should be making their calls tomorrow to those lucky families. On the other hand, the last batch took forever to get here and was very low in numbers, so this evens things out a bit.

The good news is that they made it through June 9, 2006 (7 LID dates). So now we're down to 35 more LIDs to go before we're matched with our daughter. Yeah! I got to cross off a few more days on the ol' calendar. Let's keep 'em coming!

Madison Protests

Well, you'd have to be living in a bubble these days to not have heard about the protests going on in Madison. No matter what your political viewpoint is, this story is HUGE. Governor Walker is trying to take away the right to collectively bargain for union workers. It's been just crazy nuts around here. On Saturday, there were any where from 70,000 to 100,000 (depending on who you talk to) people who took to the streets in protest. Most were anti-Walker protesters, but there were also pro-Walker protesters as well.

While many of our friends have gone down to the capital building to be part of history in the making, Robert and I decided to take a view from another perspective - from above in a Cessna 172. Robert flew the plane and I shot the photos. It was amazing to witness. We were also lucky that Madison Approach had several planes circling the capital at the same time with each plane being given different altitudes. We were lucky to be the lowest.

Back from the Quilter!

Got a surprise phone call this afternoon - the lady doing the long arm quilting of our 100 Good Wishes Quilt called and said it was ready and when would you like to come by to pick it up? Needing instant gratification, we rushed over this evening and picked it up. I just love it! She did a wonderful job. Her place is a bit barren in the photos as she just moved a few days ago. I can't wait for my mom to see the quilt. And even more so - our future daughter who will sleep tight under it.

Happy Valentine's Day

Wishing all a very Happy Valentine's Day - especially my wonderful husband Robert - I love you more than I can say. And to my parents - thank you for always being there for me when I've needed it.

Hopefully we'll have our own little Valentine by this time next year.

Sunday morning traditions

Since I was little Sunday mornings always meant my dad would make either pancakes or waffles. Sometimes, to gross us out, he would even add food coloring (I mean what kid wouldn't want a green pancake I ask?!) We used to love it. I've tried to continue the tradition and make them most Sundays.

Today, I decided to be daring and break the mold - I made a German Apple Pancake. Oh my was it good! I've had it at restaurants but always thought it must be difficult to make - was I wrong! I think I'm going to have to add it to my repertoire. I got the recipe from "The Best of Waffles & Pancakes - A Cookbook". The recipe is too good not to share.

German Apple Pancake

1 cup milk
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
2 medium cooking apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored & cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Confectioner's sugar, for dusting
Lemon wedges (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, flour, and 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar.

In a large heavy ovenproof skillet over medium high heat, melt the butter. Add the apples, cinnamon, and the remaining 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the apples are softened slightly. Remove the pan from the heat. Pour the batter over the apples in the pan. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the pancake is lightly browned and puffy.

Remove the pan from the oven and cut the pancake into wedges. Transfer the wedges to warmed serving plates, dust with confectioners sugar, and serve with lemon wedges, if desired.

Happy eating!

Understanding the Referral process

Since the referral process has been confusing for some members of my family, I thought I'd create this calendar along with a brief explanation to help everyone understand.

The child match time frame refers to the wait time between our dossier being logged-in at the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) and the moment we receive our child match from the CCAA. When it is our turn to be matched, the CCAA will match us with a child according to our qualifications and preferences as requested in our dossier. Our child’s photos, translated Physical Examination Report, State of Growth, Background Information, and Immunization record will be sent to us through our international adoption agency - CCAI.

Each month the CCAA looks at the number of paper-ready children that are adoptable and the number of waiting families waiting to adopt them for each LID (Log-In) date and they "match" them based on some unknown magical process until there are theoretically no more babies available. This gives us the "referrals through XX date" that you see every month.

Right now the CCAA has referred through June 2, 2006 and our LID is July 14, 2006. I hope the calendar helps visualize the process. I will try to update this calendar at each referral batch that comes in. As you can see, we have 42 more Log-in dates (which is just calendar days) to go until we're referred our daughter(s).

It's off at the quilter's

Today, I dropped the quilt off at Coleen's who will be doing the long arm quilting of our 100 Good Wishes Quilt. I had such a hard time deciding on what pattern to use for the all-over quilting. Then I had to decide on thread color. So many decisions... and I'd have to live with whatever I chose forever. It was not to be taken lightly.

This is a pretty close representation of what I chose as the all-over pattern. I can't wait to see it all done.

It seems only fitting that our initial meeting got postponed from yesterday to today due to the snow - so now she's starting it on the Chinese New Year!