Passing the time

My friend Cory is right when she says in the guest book that this is the longest labor on record (I won't talk about the delivery yet!). Actually, people adopting from China in the past have had waits as long as a couple of years; we're grateful that we don't expect ours to be that bad. And a few years ago, the SARS outbreak caught some parents in between referral photos and travel, delaying their trips for many weeks. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a travel delay after we'd already seen our little one's picture!

While we wait, though, we've had some nice surprises. First of all, my smart and talented friend Adrienne Frank -- who creates beautiful purses by hand when she's not working full time or pursuing her master's degree -- has named a purse for me! You can see it here.

Be sure you read the cute description of "my" purse. I've already ordered two -- one for myself and one to save for Rachel. If you don't like "my" design, you'll probably find something else you'll like in her many beautiful designs.

And speaking of fortune cookies (they're all over the purse), a recent cookie contained a special fortune for me: "Be prepared to receive something special." I am, I am! I thought it was a really nice fortune because we are waiting for a beautiful child. However, because we were visiting with my family, they automatically added "in bed" to the fortune and got a good laugh. (My nephew's fortune said, "you are good with your hands").

When we went to Brentwood I took some more quilt pieces to my mother, and she showed me some from our Alabama relatives that I hadn't yet seen. We had a fun time looking through them all (but we still need more -- please send yours in if you haven't yet!!!) and figuring out how they would go together. I even cut some pieces so she can start making blocks, but we saved a some pieces to see if they would go better with something that hasn't yet come in (that's another hint!). We have more than 60 pieces so far, collected over five months' time. Yet, as I held up each one, I could tell my mother who contributed it, and I could tell her a story about that person. So please know that each piece has a special place in my heart; I am enjoying putting your cards and letters in Rachel's memory book so she'll know all about you, too.

I've also been passing the time by decorating her room. I bought some shelves and painted them and hung them up, and I have spelled out her name in colorful letters above her crib. I posted new photos of the room as it looks now. I really love the room; it's cheerful and soothing. The only thing I don't like about it right now is that it's too quiet!

A new batch of referals should be in the mail by the end of the week, so I hope to have an update for you soon on our expected timing.

Waiting and learning

Lance and I spent the morning at an infant/child CPR course, learning all kinds of skills we hope we NEVER use! It was frightening enough to practice dislodging an imaginary piece of food from the throat of a plastic infant, but if we're ever confronted with an emergency, maybe we'll remember enough of the steps to help.

Right now I feel like flying to China to give CPR to some of the folks in the matching room! The CCAA did in fact match only five days' worth of dossiers in all of March, so we're kind of stalled right now. We expect that the Sunny Ridge families whose dossiers were logged in on June 2 will get their referrals at the end of this month or first of May, which means they waited 11 months for their child's photo. If we follow that same timeline, we can expect our referral in late June, which means we'll travel by the end of August. That estimate could change with the next batch of referrals, so stay tuned.

We've all heard the saying that good things come to those who wait. We know we're going to have a very special gift to celebrate this Thanksgiving season.

Patiently yours,
Susan and Lance