Homeschooling and scoping blogs!

We have entered the crazy, but fun world of home school this year. We felt that it was a good time to try it with our girls. Our girls have always had great teachers, but with recent changes in curriculum and all the testing we decided we should see if it would be a good fit for our family. We have had a great time and I have learned so much, like how to make butter!

We don't have much to report on the adoption side of things, just that we wait. We have been scoping out all the great blogs out there, and they give us hope. Enjoy the photos as we approach 28 months. Who would have thought.

2 years! Wow I can't believe it!

Really, I can't believe we have been waiting 24 months for our little girl. In that time my girls have gotten older, J & I have gotten older!!! We've gotten a dog, a cat, a drivers licence. Wow if we had only know then what we know now. I guess thats how most things work though huh?

23 Months and updated photos!

Just thought I would jot a few notes on 23 months. We just continue to wait and pray, we wait for news and pray for our daughter. I have had more people ask lately when we are going to give up! I just smile and say when my daughter is home, we just can't give up on her.

To help with the wait J finally relented and let us get a Yorkshire Terrier two months ago. We named her Sophie and are enjoying her so much. She loves the kids and enjoys going everywhere with us. Our cat has been good with her and they now have daily wrestling matches.

Twenty Two Months

Here we are again! No new news, just thought I should keep this poor neglected blog updated. I hope someday to have some good news to update and finally share this blog with family and friends.

18 Months!

18 months since we had our paperwork logged in, next month it will be 2 years since we applied with our agency to adopt. Would I do again? In a heart beat, I just would have done it sooner had I known;) Really, the past 18 months have moved along pretty quickly, mostly we just really want to hold our daughter and share our life and what we do with her. Sigh!!! Here's to hoping we are at least at the halfway mark!

17 Months, WOW!

WOw, that pretty much sums it up. We have been waiting for our referral for 17 months, 1 week. I never in my wildest imagination thought it would take this long. The families in the latest batch of referrals have waited 22 months, I think we will wait considerably longer than that.

We had a great Halloween this year, A dressed as Lily from Hannah Montana, LL was a 50's girl and M was a dalmation. The weather was great and the kids got lots of great candy, I of course had to sample a few pieces just to make sure!!

Ten months & a whole lotta snow!

Well the end of March ushered in our 10 month LID anniversary as well as 24" of snow! We had 3 days of wet sloppy snow, followed by 2 days of sunshine and now more snow. I think someone needs to tell the weather that it is officially spring in Montana. Oh well, we need the moisture. I hope you enjoy the photos of the girls in the snow, they had fun playing queen of the mountain.

Well as usual no news on the adoption front, just that we hope we are at least half way to our sweet little one. I guess time will tell.

Yes, we are still waiting!

I have not been as good about this journal as I should. I am also keeping a written journal with my more private thoughts, not doing so well with that one either. We are approaching 9 months of waiting. If we had chosen the more traditional method of adding to our family we would be expecting our child any day. I read the other day that an elephant has the gestation period of 22 months, I think we will be able to relate to that in this process. We are nearly 14 months from our date of application and approval. Time really has gone fast, we are so blessed to have our girls and enjoy them so much.

M seems to be having the most difficutly with the wait. She has been very patient, but at 4 1/2 it is diffucult to understand why she isn't here. She prayes each night at dinner that we will get on the plane to get her baby from China tonight!!

We are estimating that we are about 1/2 way through the wait. If so there is a good chance our daughter is born or is about to be born. Time will tell.
Blessings,
L

Referral News & 7 Months

Referrals are out today, China referred the LID's of September 9th to September 27th. I have a little spread sheet that I plug in referral statistics just to keep me sane. My rough calculations put us at 14 more months, I really hope not. But, that is where the numbers are at right now. That would give us a 21 Month wait, a very sobering number. Add in the nearly 6 months of paperchasing before our LID and that gives you 27 months. I know in my heart of hearts that it will all be worth it. We just have to keep the faith that it will speed up. I was thinkging the other day that we are now working on 8 months, if we were 1/2 way through that would be a 16 month wait. What the current wait is. Hmm. I guess time will tell.

On a happier note we do have 7 months in and enjoyed seeing all the beautiful babies that are going to be loved beyond belief. I hope they are united with their forever families very soon.

Working on 7 months!

Well, I missed the 6 month post, we have been busy here getting ready for Christmas. We are hoping it will be the last one with out our new baby girl. We are however, settleing in and getting used to the fact that it may be Fall 07 or even Spring 08. I try to not dwell too often or long on that last date. Our agency is preparing us for that at this point. Oh well, not a thing we can do, so we are going to just enjoy our time as a family of 5, get a few things done around the house, and of course save more money for our trip.
I am posting our newest family photo, I set them up in my studio and then my mom took them for us. Have a Merry Christmas.

Music Video:

WHEN LOVE TAKES YOU IN (by Steven Curtis Chapman)

Music Video Code provided by Video Code Zone

">http://

Music Video:WHEN LOVE TAKES YOU IN (by Steven Curtis Chapman)

One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt

Join in our One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt - Bai Jia Bei

We have been participating in a block exchange with our May2006DTC group. This is the group of people that have their dossiers submitted into China the same month we do. We will most likely travel with some of these people. We have found the group to be very warm and caring, people like us aching for our special little ones. We also participate in the OHGWQ yahoo group, again this is a great loving group of people.

The Tradition of the 100 Good Wishes Quilt is 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 family and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. This quilt is a special way of showing our daughter how much she was wanted before she came into our family. The wishes are printed on a card a sample of the fabric is then attached to the wish. For wishes we have recieved everything from prayers, poems, scripture to good thoughts.

We invite you to share in this special keepsake for our daughter. Please send one pre-washed 7x7 100% cotton square along with one wish(any size) with a small piece of the quilt square. Please email me at lynds@bhwi.net if you need an address. For those fellow parents adopting, we would love to contribute to your quilt as well. How special to have these "threads" through all these special little children's lives.

The photo shows a few of the many squares we have recieved. The girls are excited to check the mail each day to see what squares we have recieved. Thanks to everyone who has sent their square, hope you like ours as well.

Our blog

Thought we would add a blog to our activities. Not like we don't have enough things on our plate!! Ha! No, really we just needed a little more flexiblity than just our baby site. We will keep both, because I really like youbelong.net and it will be easier to have in China!

Our tour of CCAI

We had the opportunity to visit our awesome adoption agency on Octber 20th in Denver. We were in town to visit my cousin Jess, Kurt and their sweet little girl Claire. We wanted to have an opportunity to get photos and meet some of the great people we have worked with so far.
When we arrived and asked for a tour, the receptionist called to have someone come out. As we were waiting Joshua Zhong walked in and asked if he could help. We told him we were waiting for a tour, he replied that HE LOVED TO GIVE TOURS. So we got a very special VIP tour. I have to say they are all wonderfull at CCAI. We were so impressed with every aspect of their facility and staff.
Joshua introduced us to his wife Lily and all the staff in the office. We also were able to say hello and thank Jen for all her help with our dossier. Joshua was so cute, he loved to pose for us and told us in his Chinese accent "You call us every day until you get your baby" We of course just laughed and said we were willing to wait for our little one. If you get the chance to visit them it is well worth your time. It is very touching to see the nearly 8,000 photos on the walls of all the little ones they have brought home to thier forever families.
I would be happy to share some of these photos for those of you that can not get to CCAI in person!