I've Got Some Work To Do!

Dan's mom sent me some really great "photoshopped" pictures that she found. They are really cool... Mine seem to need a little more work!
Here are just a few of them. Enjoy.

My Mom Likes Stale Peeps

Well Peeps (that means people, Mom; not the creepy marshmallow things), the rumors were true and CCAA only matched LID dates of May 26 through May 30. That sounds bad. It sounds even worse when you hear that there were only three business days (and LID dates) during that time. Ouch. No one predicted that happening. It also means it is even harder to predict what will happen next. So… I guess we will wait. One thing I have heard many people say is, “You’ll do anything for your child.” If that means wait, we will wait. I believe it will happen sometime, I just have to be patient. (Which is easier said than done when you are well into your fourth trimester.)

I just hope that we will be signing her up for kindergarten rather than her AARP card.

On a brighter note, it gives me more time and fodder to post to my blog! (You know you love it.)

Me and Ruby McGee

Jenny, Don and Ruby came up to visit this weekend. During their visit Jenny made the comment that Ruby hasn't appeared in our blog yet.

I thought to myself, that is weird. I spend a lot of time with Ruby. Sometimes we are with Jenny and Don sometimes we are not. I am not even sure if Jenny and Don know just how much time Ruby and I spend together...

Perhaps I have been lackadaisical in my Ruby postings. Perhaps Jenny and Don don't think that Ruby and I get along well.

Maybe because I don't have a dog, Jenny and Don think that I am a weird "cat person".

To be honest, Ruby and I have been keeping our friendship on the down low. We didn't want to leave anyone out or hurt anybody's feelings.

Well, to everyone who is reading this, I love dogs. I love dogs very much and Ruby is one of my very good friends.

And if this doesn't prove it I don't know what does.

Ruby and I are cool like that.

Karen and Kevin's Inner Child

Karen and Kevin's inner child is a girl! Yippee! They already have good pictures of her on their blog. Even if you are not pregnant, you can still find out about your inner child by taking this quiz. The following results are mine... Your Inner Child Is Surprised

You see many things through the eyes of a child. Meaning, you're rarely cynical or jaded. You cherish all of the details in life. Easily fascinated, you enjoy experiencing new things.

How Is Your Inner Child?

I Caught You A Delicious Bass

Last week I received this sweet pen in the mail thanks to Karen and Kevin.
I caught you a delicious bass is one of my favorite quotes from the movie; as it turns out, it is also a website!

I am off to draw a liger* now with my sweet pen.

Deb: "What are you drawing?"
Napoleon: "A liger."
Deb: "What's a liger?"
Napoleon: "It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed. Bred for it's skills in magic."

Wilson Update: Eye Do Declare!

Wilson had his appointment with his prestigious doctor yesterday. His doctor was great, diagnosed him right away and made us feel better that Wilson will be fixed. (Well, he has already been fixed… I guess I should say repaired.)
Wilson is scheduled for a face-lift April 10th. We think he will look ten years younger.


We were considering having his nose done at the same time, but we thought THAT might look weird.

When Will I Get My Ass To China?

There is also a joke about a “slow boat..,” but I thought that would be too obvious.

Our adoption timeline is slowing down. There are some rumors, although not official, that are probably true and disappointing. Some agencies have gotten information that at the end of March, CCAA is going to match LID dates of May 26- May 30. (Not even May 31st) That leaves us not in this upcoming referral group and perhaps not even the next referral group; maybe even longer. We can’t even predict a worst case scenario because everything so far has been very unpredictable. For the past few months CCAA has been referring fewer and fewer LID dates. All we can do is wait and see. Travel in July is seeming like a better bet and unfortunately a lot more humid. Grrrr!

Does a Gummi Bear Poo in the Woods?

Sloppy Joe

Here is a short movie of Cubbie aka... SloppyJoe

Feeling Better

I am feeling a lot better today. Yesterday was a difficult day because it was the one week mark since Moby died. It was the first day of Spring which normally would cheer me up, but it had snowed the night before and was really cold out and if felt depressing. We also received Moby's ashes back. (I am not sure how happy she was to travel via UPS, but at least she is home now.)

Anyway... just to keep me busy, Wilson (our youngest and biggest cat) has developed eye ulcers. In both eyes. His eyelids are rolling inward into his eye and his lovely lashes are scratching his corneas. Yesterday (another reason for the icky day) I had to call the vet again to come out and see Wilson. Wilson has had many doctor appointments lately and has been on a multitude of drops, ointments, and pastes. The day after Moby died I had to give him drops in each eye every two hours. It was a little exhausting. The vet came over and tried to put in a kind of contact lens to protect Wilson's eyes but they wouldn't stay put so our vet has referred us to a specialist. Dr. Seth Koch.

I didn't know it at the time, but apparently Dr. Koch is the end-all be-all of animal eye docs. He works in Vermont on Mondays, then flies his own plane to Maryland and other areas throughout the week and then back to Vermont to take appointments again on Monday. Here is a little snipet of his bio page.

His patients have varied from guinea pigs to pandas (Hsing Hsing at the National Zoo in Washington, DC had a corneal ulcer which Doctor Koch operated on). He has operated on giraffes, elephants, sea lions, and other unusual animals as the ophthalmology consultant to the National Zoo. He has been featured on TNT; The Animal Planet, and a variety of other TV and Radio Programs.
His hobbies include, reading, the theatre, flying a small plane (he is an instrument rated private pilot) fly fishing, travel and continually never acting his age. He currently has 3 cats and a dog.
His knowledge of ophthalmology is second to none. In 30 years of ophthalmic practice, he has seen a great deal and looks forward to giving you his opinion and in so doing, hopefully be of some help to your pet.

This makes me feel good that Wilson will be in good hands next Monday. Dan has been very good not mentioning how much this will all co$t.

A reminder to those who have not checked out our People's Republic of China map (previous post), click on "comments" and choose your province. Harper is there somewhere and waiting, just like us.

Where in China is Harper Werme?

We are hoping that Harper's referral information is right around the corner. So we thought it would be fun to try to pick Harper's home province. Listed below are all of the provinces from which our agency has received referrals. The percentages shown are there to give you an idea of how frequently a referral occurs from that province.

Some quick hints: Our agency has not received referrals from Tibet, Taiwan, or Hong Kong therefore they have been excluded from the list. Traditionally more referrals originate from the southern provinces. Referrals from provinces with a less than 1% rate are generally "waiting children" which is a different program than the one that we are enrolled in.

So in order to place your guess please leave a comment on this post. If you choose the button labeled "other" it will alow you to type in your name which will post above your comment, instead of reading anonymous. Choose carefully, as only your first comment will count, no changes.

Each province can only be chosen once so get your votes in early!

Good Luck!

Anhui 7.18%
Beijing 0.68%
Chongqing 5.75%
Fujian 3.66%
Gansu 1.05%
Guangdong 16.40%
Guangxi 10.78%
Guizhou 0.90%
Hainan 0.17%
Hebei 0.11%
Heilongjiang 0.05%
Henan 0.30%
Hubei 8.86%
Hunan 17.58%
Inner Mongolia 0.06%
Jiangsu 3.43%
Jiangxi 14.07%
Jilin 0.17%
Liaoning 0.38%
Ningxia 0.06%
Qinghai 0.20%
Shaanxi 1.58%
Shandong 0.03%
Shanghai 0.14%
Shanxi 0.32%
Sichuan 0.53%
Tianjin 0.02%
Xinjiang 0.20%
Yunnan 1.88%
Zhejiang 3.51%

Baby Steps

Ok, first let me say this is not going to be one of the posts with witty comments and a funny picture. I am feeling very unwitty and unfunny right now, but I have something to say. The timing of Moby dying has been a challenge for me. Having her die before we meet Harper feels weird and bothers me; it feels like I had to trade Moby in for Harper. I know that is not how it actually works, but it still feels weird and I hate it. I know that our lives are going to change when we finally meet Harper, but having to adjust to this change right before really sucks. It feels like because the “Moby” door closed before the “Harper” door was opened that those two parts of my life will never be linked together. Moving on seems synonymous with leaving behind and it makes me hesitate to do so. I think a lot of people would like me to move forward and focus on Harper and I completely understand that, but it is not as easy to do. I will move on. I know that is how it works, but I can only do it with baby steps right now. I am looking forward to meeting Harper, but for the moment I am still a little sad.

Comments are not necessary, I know that you care. The next post regarding Harper’s whereabouts was created by Dan and he worked pretty hard on it and so it is important to me. I hope you will all enjoy it because it is pretty cool. And I am moving forward with little baby steps.

.......................................................

We are currently grieving over the lost of our long time companion, Moby. She left us Monday morning after almost 14 years. She had been with us for almost as long as Dan and I have been together. Moby was a beautiful cat, had a charming personality, and was fiercely loyal. She was one of a kind and we miss her dearly. We are really having a difficult time with this loss so we very kindly ask you to bear with us as we try to figure out this change in our family.

This picture was taken this past Christmas. It is a great picture of her and I feel lucky that she picked us for her family.

Parenting is a Juggling Act

I have to say this is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It could potentially give me nightmares, yet... I .. can't... seem... to turn... away...

Jenny and I used to play "Statue" when we were little; we were never this good.

Where In The World Is Harper Werme?

Here is a map of China that is on the wall of our adoption agency. On the map there are pins indicating which orphanages our adoption agency has previously received referrals from.

The large red markers show the orphanages from where the latest round of referrals were received.

We have no idea where we will be traveling until we get our referral. But it will be interesting!

Crap Shoot

We do not know if we will be included in the next group. This may be a long wait for us to find out. If we seem a little punchy at times that is probably way. It will happen when it will happen and we are a long for the ride. It is, as they say, a crap shoot.


The referral information for the last round was posted on our agency's website. Here are the stats.

Congratulations to the families who received their child match on Tuesday, February 28th! We received matches for families with 5/23/2005 LIDs. The CCAA posted that they matched through 5/25/2005. Included in this group were matches for Chinese descent families whose dossiers arrived at the CCAA in August and September 2005. There were 112 families matched with 114 children. We received all girls and two sets of twins! We have no information on the next group of matches. We will update this site when more information becomes available.