Officially 2

July referrals are in and the official word is 2 LID's worth. That is really what we expected, so we will look towards August or September, and hope that they can get through 5 LID's in those 2 months! Most people seem to think that August referrals will cover 4 LID's, through 3/26/06, and that our big day, 3/27/06, will be included in September. That's what I have prepared my head and heart for, but I will secretly wish for 3/27/06 to sneak into that August batch. Although, I guess it's not such a secret if I'm proclaiming it here, is it? :)

I think one of the biggest changes in my mind, is that I am now able to tell people the number of WEEKS that we are waiting until our referral, instead of months or years! A small semantic difference, but a huge one in my mind. I can now say 5 -9 weeks until we see our new baby's face - that is soon! Erica's birthday is on a Friday, right around the time September referrals should arrive - maybe we will be celebrating 2 big events that week! :)

One interesting little paperwork tidbit is that our fingerprints expire December 12th. We have to have current fingerprints for our entire travel time. If we receive our referral in September, and I estimate our travel dates, that would leave us about 2 weeks to spare. I don't know if our social worker will think that's ok or not. So, we might get the big privilege of contacting the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration office once again, writing them another check, and heading to Indy to be fingerprinted by this organization for the fourth time. That doesn't count the times for the FBI or State of Illinois. We are well-documented in the fingerprint world.

In the meantime, we have our favorite vacation to look forward to, as well as Erica's week of marching band camp, the start of junior high and high school for the kids. I think it will be a quick month until the next set of referrals. That's what I'm saying today, anyway. :)

2 rumors in 1 day!

Ok, this was not an official RQ rumor, just someone reporting what they heard, but someone in the United Kingdom said they heard July referrals were going to include through March 26th! WOW! Don't know whether to believe that one or not, but that would be huge, and very, very exciting! :) We would then know for 100% sure that we were next for August. My head is spinning right now - I better go have some chocolate or something! :)

Stay tuned for the official word - probably on Monday next week.

Finally - one little rumor!

Rumor Queen is reporting a rumor this morning that one agency has told their March 22, 2006 people that they are included in this next batch. From what is being said, this agency does not have people with LID's very close after 3/22/06, so we can tell that this batch will include 2 LID's for sure, but don't know if it will be any more than that. March 21 and 22, 2006 were VERY BIG log in dates, meaning that very many families had files logged in on those two dates, so getting through 2 dates this month has been pretty much expected. If you are interested in seeing a poll that shows how many people are logged in on each date, you can look here. This is not scientific or complete information, just Rumor Queen readers responding to a poll. It does kind of give an interesting picture, though, of how big March 2006 has been, and how it drops off in the following months.

Some people were worried about the CCAA only matching 1 LID this month, so 2 would be kind of acceptable. Like we have a choice! :)

Pretty dry in the rumor well

Nothing to report so far this month, which surprises me a little bit. If we are about a week away from referrals, based on when they arrived last month, we should at least be hearing a little something by now. But - maybe no news is good news! Maybe the CCAA is working on matching SO many LID's that nobody has time to share any information. Or maybe they haven't even started matching yet - that would be bad. Stay tuned - hopefully we'll know something by later in the week.

No rumors and tired of waiting

This week has been one of the hardest for me thus far. I am enjoying summer with Erica and Ian very much, but the days are crawling by in the adoption world. There is absolutely no information out there about a possible cutoff date for July referrals. A miraculous 7 LID's would be great - we'd be in! 3-6 LID's would mean probably an August referral, and 1-2 LID's would probably put us in September. I'm generally ok with any of those 3 scenarios, but just want to know! I'm tired of waiting, tired of not knowing anything, tired of getting information about quarantines, paperwork holdups at the U.S. Consulate in China, new TB test requirements in China, etc. I'm just kind of tired of thinking about it all, and am ready to be moving forward and at least being able to do some more preparations for bringing our new bundle home. Sorry to be a downer today, but that's pretty much what I'm feeling. :(

Practice Carseat Installation, Round 1

As I have cruised the aisles at Target just a few times in the last 14 years, I have noticed that baby equipment has changed a bit over time. Change is good - I can handle that. But our baby's new carseat may be the biggest change that we encounter. My, oh, my. I took it out to the van this afternoon to do a practice installation, because I did not want to clean bathrooms, or do the dozen other things on my to-do list. Armed with my handy-dandy 43-page instruction booklet, I set to work. After familiarizing myself with the LATCH strap location, and extracting those straps from their storage compartment, I thought I was all set. They clicked into the little hooks on the van seat so nicely! Didn't have those in 1995! :) I was feeling pretty good until I inspected a little further, and found the signage that said, "Rear-facing LATCH straps here." The colossal seat was rear-facing and latched, but my LATCH straps were definitely not latched in the proper location. Hmmmm. I unlatched, consulted pictures A, B, and C over and over again, and corrected the situation. I pulled and pulled on those straps, got it to wiggle less than one inch from side to side and forward to back. The next step on the instructions was all about the Versa-Tether. That was more than I wanted to think about this afternoon, so I think I'll save that for Practice Round 2!