Waiting on Emma

Where we have been!

They Have Emma!!!

Gothca Day is only 2 hours away!

WHAT A FIRST DAY!!

They have arrived!

We should have arrived!

Still in the air and 5:38am in China

They are now on the 14 hour flight from Chicago to China!!!

And They Are Off!!!

It's Almost Time!

Our Itinerary!

Moving along

Our other site!

Another step closer!

Another big surprise!

Emma's care package

Look what we got!

Lots to do!

The Wait Begins!

Still on Cloud Nine!

Still in Shock!

Introducing Emma...

We have delivered!

Why is it so quiet?

Busy as usual

9 days it is!

Is it in the cards?

What keeps me going!

It's all starting to feel real

A special friend

How many months?

I can't get enough!

Still living in 2006

Calendar for March 2006 (United States)

Another step closer!

A special Charlee moment!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Prom again!

Chase again!

A little behind!

I was a winner!

Another big moment

Chase's Day!

Courtney's Day!

21!

What a weekend

Happy Birthday!

A free moment

Got Cold Chills!

The Stork has landed!

Opps!

You Know I am scared of the coaster!

Not sure what to say

Not going to do it!

So it's been awhile, a long while!

My Head is Spinning!

January 9th (YIKES!)

We have a house!

Week 2

Game 1

A better week!

What a week!

I'm losing it!

Bragging again!

Another Month Down!

Where are the rumors (and a little of this and that)

An Aunt's gotta brag!

Gotta love Friday!

Ike!

How much longer?

Next! (well, not really)

A small sign

Fingerprinted (AGAIN)

Still around

One Day Late!

A day off!

Special 3 Word Sunday!

3 Word Sunday!

It keeps snowing!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I'm really here!

I'M BACK!

STORK ALERT!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Back to the grind!

July 4th!

Does it matter?

Wonderful and Amazing People!

Passed me right by!

Boy are we spoiled rotten!

Where does the time go?

I'M BACK!

Yummy!!

A little celebration

1 YEAR LID!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Happy Birthday!!

WOW!

2009-10-05T14:02:00.005-04:00

I have had a lot of emails wondering why we never posted from China and I am so sorry for those who missed my note that we would be posting at Waitingonemma.com (it is our Baby Jellybeans site). We posted there as the site was not blocked in China. If you would like to read about our journey you can go to Waitingonemma.com and click on China trip and there are posts from each day. We have been home a week now and things are going good. We had a bad case of jet lag and had a rough 1st week with sleep but it is getting better. Emma is doing good and we are still working on the bonding issues.
Mike had to go back to work today and Emma had a little meltdown this morning without her BaBa. I think BaBa had a meltdown too!
This past week we tried to just hang out and spend time with Emma. We did do a few little day trips to the aquarium and the zoo. We also had some wonderful visits from family and friends.
I will try to give a better update later but just thought I should address my emails and let everyone know what was going on!

2009-09-13T10:31:00.003-04:00

First let me say..... Life is Good! Kimmie and Michael have finally been united with Emma! SHE IS JUST BEAUTIFUL! My sister and brother in law look so happy! Emma just smiled as she sat in between her Mommy's legs, and reached for her daddy! THIS IS WHAT MAKES ALL THE WAIT WORTH IT!!! This beautiful little girl was meant to be a Kramer! Please check out Kimmie's other site at waitingonemma.com she has posted under the China Trip bullet! This is my last update as Kim will be posting on her other site for you to follow!

EMMA..... We are all here waiting and can not wait to meet you! We love you so much already

2009-09-13T00:42:00.002-04:00

This is it, the day they have been waiting for! Its Gotcha Day! In just two hours the Kramer family will become WHOLE! The missing link will be placed in their arms, The Kramers will finally unite as a family!The Count down is on!

2009-09-12T09:22:00.002-04:00

Kim and Mike had a great first day in China. They said the cities are beautiful! They visited the Great Wall, The Forbidden City, and much more! They are traveling with a couple that had previously adopted from China. They have their little girl on the trip with them and apparently Kimmie and Michael have really made up with this child. Emma will have her daddy wrapped around her finger in no time at all. It is now 9:25 in China and they have paperwork to finish before the big day! Gotcha day will begin very early, Wake up call is set for 5:00am! WOW.... in 7 and a half hours Kimmie and Mike will be getting ready to meet their DAUGHTER for the very first time! They will officially have her in their arms around 3:00pm (3:00am for us)
Thank you for the prayers and thoughts I know Kim and Mike really appreciate them! Im Sorry Im not very good with this updating stuff but Kim will have reigns again very soon!

2009-09-11T07:37:00.003-04:00

The Kramers are now officially in Beijing China! Thanks for all of the prayers, We will keep you posted on their journey as they meet their daughter for the first time!

2009-09-11T04:48:00.001-04:00

It is now 4:49pm in China, Kim and Michael should have arrived about an hour ago! I am waiting for confirmation!! Emmas mommy and daddy are now just a day away from GOTCHA!!!!

2009-09-10T17:38:00.002-04:00

Isn't it funny how hard it is on the people in the waiting room..... It is now 5:40am in China, this has been one long delivery!!!!

2009-09-10T13:32:00.002-04:00

They are on there way!! Flying high , Please keep Kim and Mike in your thoughts today ..... Wishing for a safe flight! Ill keep you posted!

2009-09-10T11:15:00.003-04:00

Kimmie and Michael are officially on there way! Stay tuned for more updates!

2009-09-08T21:08:00.002-04:00

We are now at crunch time, 35 hours and counting! How could that be? I still have so much to do! I still have a 12 hour shift of work to fit into that 35 hours! I had so much I wanted to share and now I am running out of time! I will try to post one more time tomorrow night! I wanted to tell you all about the wonderful shower our families gave us. It was amazing! I took my camera and then never got it out so I will have to get photos from my sister. I did take some photos of all of the wonderful gifts we received so I will try to upload a few of those photos! How have I had all of this time to prepare and here I sit so unprepared?! I want to thank all of my wonderful family and friends for being part of our amazing journey to bring our daughter home. I promise to post one more time before we go!

2009-08-28T15:36:00.002-04:00

China Itinerary

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009 - Depart Louisville at 8am

Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 - Arrive in Beijing, China at 3:15pm

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009 - Tour Great Wall, Olympic Park, Forbidden City,...

Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 - Fly to Nanchang -- GOTCHA DAY

Monday, Sept. 14, 2009 - Civil Affair Office
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 - Visit Tengwang Pavillion
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009 - Visit Anyi Village
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 - Visit local park
Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 - Fly to Guangzhou
Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009 - Medical Exam
Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009 - Church
Monday, Sept. 21, 2009 - Shopping
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 - Free Day
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009 - US Consulate to take Oath
Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 - Fly Home - Arrive in Louisville 6:05pm

2009-08-27T09:33:00.002-04:00

I had the week off from work but decided that since we would be traveling soon I didn't really need to take all that time off. I ended up working Monday and Tuesday and then took Wednesday off. It was nice to have yesterday off as I have a lot I need to do.
We were having some problems with some paperwork. I think I may have mentioned it before but we had to do an addendum to our home study as Emma will be 2o months when we get her. Our paperwork reflects that we requested a child 6-18 months (which she was at the time of referral) but China will want to see that we will take a child up to 24 months. I started on this the week we got our referral but have hit a couple of bumps in the road. Finally yesterday we found out the paperwork was being processed and we would have it by the beginning of next week! (Takes a little stress away!)
I also came home yesterday and our Visa's and travel paperwork had arrived! Things are starting to fall into place. I still have some things to get in order around the house and of course I need to start getting our stuff together for the trip. I did at least make 2 trips to Target, it's a start! The big challange starts in making sure we stay under the weight limit! We are allowed 2 suitcases under 44lbs., 1 carryon and 1 personal item each! I need to weigh the suitcases and see how much they weigh empty.
I had emailed a couple of bloggy friends about what they took on their trip and have gotten some great responses (thank you to everyone!) but if anyone wants to share any tips I would love to hear it. I would love to know if there is anything you couldn't live without, things you wish you would have taken or things you wish you would have left at home! You can leave me a message here or email me at Kramer651@cs.com

2009-08-26T11:38:00.003-04:00

Baby Jellybeans

We have another website that I started before this one.

We are hoping to use it while in China.

Waitingonemma.com

2009-08-24T19:09:00.004-04:00

Airline Tickets have been booked!

We got a call from Mike at AHH today. He wanted to let us know that our Consulate date has been confirmed for Sept. 22, 2009! That means that we are leaving on September 10, 2009. I don't have our schedule yet but it looks like we will fly out on Thursday, arrive Friday, tour Beijing on Saturday, fly to Emma's region on Sunday and either get Emma on Sunday or Monday!

Mike and I both got the nervous stomach as we booked the tickets. It made everything seem official. I can't believe we will be in China in 2 1/2 weeks! Hang on Emma, Mommy and Daddy are coming.

I will post the official schedule when we receive it!

2009-08-21T08:46:00.004-04:00

OUR TA HAS ARRIVED!

Once again we were caught off guard! Yesterday afternoon right before I left the house I checked the rumors to see if anything was going on. Of course another quiet day! I was so hoping referrals were going to arrive so we could find out all about sweet Hannah. Since there was nothing happening I went to eat lunch with Mike. While eating we of course talked about Emma, our TA, the rumors of referrals and how it looked like it was only getting to 3/24/09. I was so sad for all

of the families waiting as we too would still be waiting! Anyway, Mike said it looks like since nothing is going on that there is no hope of traveling before November. Now, we were told that would be when we would travel but we always hoped and prayed that it would come earlier. Now with it being August 20th, it looks like there is not a chance of going before. We finished lunch and I left for home. DeeAnna had called to talk to me about the shower they were planning for us on Sept. 26. While on the phone a call came in. When I looked to see who it was I saw the Lexington number! DeeAnna of course said "Go, take the call!" On the other line was Mike, our travel coordinator. He laughed at me at how I answered the phone and said he could tell I was on the road (think it may have been the radio was a little loud. Oh, I know, I shouldn't be riding around talking on the cell!) He asked me if I wanted the good news or the great news! I told him which ever he would like to tell me. With that, he told me that our TA (travel approval) had arrived. I couldn't believe it as there hadn't been any talk of it on RQ. I was so excited! Now, he said, would you like the great news! I told him that I thought he had already told me the great news! (Laughing again, he told me), It seems that China has changed their holiday schedule so we are anticipating that you will leave for China on September 10, 2009 and arrive home on September 24, 2009.

How could this happen twice? I was caught off guard again! After all this time of waiting I am so unprepared! Now, I have been getting a few things done but no need to move so fast, I had (HAD being the key word) 3 months to get ready. My 3 months just turned into 3 weeks! (guess I shouldn't complain as Pug Mama only had about 48 hours to get ready!)

Now the countdown is on! We will know by next Wednesday the official dates of travel. If all goes as planned we leave to get in Emma in exactly 20 days!

2009-08-14T16:13:00.002-04:00

As I told you in my last post we sent Emma a care package this week.

We used Ann at Red Thread China.

I had already posted the picture she sent us but I really like seeing at the top of the blog so I wanted to put it there again!

This is a picture of what was included in the care package we sent.

It included: a photo book with 8 pictures, a musical bear, a book, candy

and tea for the caregivers, a disposable camera (we hope the caregivers will

take pictures of Emma and the orphanage for us), and a letter that we wrote along with

questions that we hope will get answered. Thank you Ann, we can't wait

for Emma to get it!

2009-08-11T21:07:00.004-04:00

Before I left for work this morning I checked my email just to see if there was anything I needed to see in there and boy was I surprised. I yelled for Mike to come and see! The email was from Ann at Red Thread . We had ordered a care package for Emma from her this weekend and she send us this!!!

This picture was taken yesterday! It looks like they got our precious little one all dressed up for the photo! It looks like she has had another hair cut, I can't wait for it to grow long enough for some bows. She looks so much smaller without all of those clothes on. Emma is now 22lbs., 30in. tall, and her feet are 12 cm. We are so blessed to have this photo sent to us by Ann! I highly recommend her services as she is an absolute angel!
Still no word on travel, I will keep you posted.

2009-08-07T10:33:00.002-04:00

Things have been really busy around here this week. We had a crazy week with the weather and had a lot of flooding in the area. My work just happened to get hit really hard and they had to close down the OR's from Tuesday afternoon until Saturday. I am sure with all the cancelled surgeries we will be overwhelmed next week.
I have spent yesterday and today getting paperwork in order. We are going later today to get our passport photos for our Visa's and get them in the mail today. There were a ton of other forms to print (I think I used a whole forest worth of trees). We also got our letter written to send to Emma's orphanage and the pictures we wanted to send. We are using Ann to send the carepackage. We had heard wonderful things about it was all so true, she is amazing!
I've gotten lots of emails about the delay in our travel. Nothing is set in stone yet but our agency seems pretty firm on our travel dates. I am still hoping that our TA's will come in very soon and they will go ahead and send us in September. Believe me, I am getting our stuff together just in case but if I have learned one thing from this whole process it is to not get my hopes up but to always expect the unexpected!
I hope to have some news soon and I still want to upload photos from referral day. I'll see what I can do!

2009-07-31T07:30:00.003-04:00

97 Days!

On the ride back from Lexington last week I sat with this FedEx package in my lap (as you can see it was unopened!). Mike and I had the discussion that once we opened the package our life would forever change. A combination of feelings went through my mind as I thought about the contents of the package. I was so excited but also scared. I wondered how we would feel seeing Emma for the first time. At that point I knew we had a daughter, her Chinese name Yu Xiang, and her birthdate, January 2, 2008 but that was it. We had received the call at 2:25pm and it was 7:55pm that night when we finally saw Emma's face for the first time. It was hard to wait on opening the envelope (what was a few hours after almost 4 years of waiting!) but we were so glad to share this moment with our family. We were right, when we finally opened the envelope and saw Emma's picture for the first time our lives changed! Not only did we fall even more in love with our daughter, the one that had been growing in our heart all of this time, we immediately got that feeling that every day we had to wait to go get her was going to be harder than the next. For years I have been reading the posts of those who got their referrals and them saying that this part of the wait was the worst and in one split moment I knew exactly how they felt. I couldn't imagine her being in the orphanage one minute longer. We have already missed 18 months of her life and we don't want to miss a minute more!
With that being said, the wait begins (the long wait!). On referral day (our unexpected early day) Phillip told us that our travel would be delayed due to Chinese holidays and trade fair but I thought that maybe he was overestimating our wait. Well, yesterday our wait was confirmed. I had drove to Lexington for our 3 hour travel meeting and we went over most everything for our trip, the most important to me being our estimated travel dates. That was when it was confirmed that we will not be traveling until Nov. 5th (97 days away). It seems that not only is there a holiday Oct 1-8 and then the trade fair from 15-31 but there is a holiday week in Sept also. How did China get so many holidays? How are we going to be able to wait 97 days to go get Emma?
Now I know we have waited this long and I know we have plenty of things to keep us busy between now and Nov. 5th but now we know that each day we wait Emma is sitting in an orphanage, getting older and we are missing all of these milestones in her life. This by far is going to be the hardest part of the wait. I will continue to pray everyday for our daughter to be well cared for and loved until we get there.
I feel like our early call came for a reason, Emma was ready! Since we thought our LID was 3/29 we thought that it would be Sept or Oct when we got our referral with travel in Nov or Dec. So even though we got our referral early it looks like travel will be the same. The thing I do know is if our LID was 3/29 than Yu Xiang would not be our daughter. We were approved for a daughter 6-18 months old and at the time we got Emma's referral she was 18 months old. With this being said if we had to wait a few months longer than Yu Xiang would not have been referred to us. I believe God had this in his plan long ago and knew that everything would work out to unite us with Emma in perfect timing. So while we are so sad to wait for Emma to be placed in our arms we know that it will all happen in God's time!

2009-07-25T17:37:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it has been 4 days since we saw Emma's face for the first time. It all still seems like a dream. All the excitement of the week has taken a toll on me and I am in bed with strep throat. I guess I need to get all this out of my system before we bring Emma home. My sister took lots of photos of the day and I want to make a little video, hopefully soon.

This is a picture of Mike and I just after we pulled up at our house after driving to Lexington to get Emma's file. If you notice, the package is unopen! (Of course Mike looks good in his work clothes, hey, I did just get done operating!)

This picture is the first one taken after we saw Emma's face for the first time (love at first sight!)

This is our very first family photo! Now we just can't wait to have Emma in our arms for a real family photo. I'm sure you can tell we had both been crying in this photo.

A little about our girl:

Yu Xiang

Born: January 2, 2008 (My Mom's Birthday!)

YuDu SWI, Jiangxi

As of April 30, 2009

Weight: 19.8 lbs

Height: 29 in tall

She is walking (so sad we have missed this)

She loves the TV and Music

Her favorite toy is a ball

She is saying a few words like Baba and Mama

She is a moderate sleeper

Not afraid of strangers

Loves her caregivers to kiss on her (I can't wait to do that!)

We are so sad that we have missed so much of her life already but feel that Emma was definately meant to be part of our family and we can't travel soon enough to get her. This week is going to be very busy getting paperwork done and we have a travel meeting on Thursday. Right now we are hearing that we won't travel until November due to the Trade Fair in October. We are just going to do a lot of praying that our TA will not take long and maybe just maybe we will be able to travel before that.

We want to thank all of our family for being with us during this special time and for all the love and support from our family, friends, and our bloggy friends. All of your calls, visits, and comments on our site have meant so much!

Most of all we want to thank The Peoples Republic of China for sharing one of their daughters with us!

2009-07-23T07:55:00.002-04:00

What a week it has been! We have lots of photos from referral day but my computer is still being uncooperative so I hope to post them soon. I did want to write about our day while it is very fresh in my head (not that I will ever forget one moment of it!)

I am sure if you saw my post a few back I was very anxious to see rumors. Now I knew that we would not be getting our referral but I have bloggy friends that are ahead of me and of course I wanted to be a few days closer to Emma. So what happened next took us by total surprise.
On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Mike and I were at work just like any other day. It was nearing lunch time and I was in the operating room when our secretary called in the room to let me know I had a phone call. Now since I am in surgery no one EVER calls me unless it is an emergency so I quickly relayed to them to find out who it was. The response I got was Phillip Aldridge (Who? the name wasn't familiar to me). I told them to take a message and when I finished our case I would return his call. I was just happy to know there were no emergency at home. I finish the case and go to the front desk to retrieve my message and written on a piece of paper was: Phillip Aldridge, his phone number and the words: with help (I asked our secretary, with help for what? Thinking it was not important, Terri and I went to eat. While we were eating I kept looking at the number and finally remembered (859) area code is Lexington and the only person I could think of from Lexington was our agency A Helping Hand (a light bulb went off in my head and of course I laughed thinking how she just came up with, with help!) I decided I should see what they needed, I was sure it was something updated or our contact info since we are starting to get close to the 29th. I grabbed my cell and went outside only to have a message on my phone from Phillip also saying that I needed to call him today. So I made the call only to find out he was on another line and would call me back in 5 minutes at the front desk. I then called Mike to chat and told him that I thought it was weird that Phillip had called (BTW, Phillip is not our family advocate, ours was out of town so he was covering for her and we had never met him). At that moment Michael said someone was calling him with a 859 number so I told him to take the call and I would call him later to see what they needed. I hung up the phone and within 30 seconds the phone was ringing at the desk and I could see the same number. I was very confused as to why 2 different people would be calling both of us at the same time. JJ, our secretary, said it was my agency so I picked up the phone to hear...
Phillip: "Kim, this is Phillip and I have Mike on the line."
Kim: "Hi Phillip, how are you?"(thinking why are we both on the phone)
Phillip: "Well, I am great. Referrals came today."
Kim: "Yes, I know that is great"
Phillip: "I just wanted to let you know that your referral is here."
Kim & Mike: "What?"
Kim: "It can't be, it's not our time."
Phillip: "There was a mistake with your date. We thought it was logged in on the 29th but they had it earlier"
Kim: "What, Oh my gosh! I can't believe this!" (with this I start scrambling for anything to write on)
Phillip: "Her name is Yu Xeing and she was born on January 2, 2008. (I started trying to figure out how old she was and missed half of what he was saying)
"I have 3 pictures of her that I have attached to an email and are sending now for you to open" (With that I yelled to Mike, "don't you dare open that!" Mike said "I won't!
Phillip giggled and I told him we wanted to be together to see her for the first time.
He gave me very limited other info about who would be contacting us and sending the file by FedEx and the call was over.
I was in total shock so I ran down the hall to call Mike in private. Neither one of us knew what to say as we had planned for this day and we were totally not ready for this! We called our Moms (what a funny call that was) and then decided that we should drive to Lexington to get her file (73 miles away!) My best friends at work Terri and Betty were so excited and helped me get out the door as quickly as possible. Mike picked me up and we were off to Lex!
Now, a long time ago we had decided that on referral day we would take the day off, be home for the call (tape that) and then would go to get her file and bring it back so the family could be here to see her for the first time with us. Heck, I have been there for all my nieces and nephews births and I wanted them here for Emma's delivery.
On the way, Mike told me about going into work this morning and a ladybug walking up the window (he laughed and said, yes referrals should be coming today). The odd part of this is that Mike works on the 33rd floor and you never see any bugs up that high. It gave me cold chills.
We got to AHH's office and as soon as we got inside Mike told the receptionist that we got our referral today. She laughed and said you must be the Kramer's and took us down the hall to Phillips office. When we got to the door Phillip smiled and started to pull Emma's file out of the FedEx envelope and I quickly told him not to show us and explained how we wanted to be with our family for that moment. I even asked him to seal the package so we wouldn't be tempted to look. We had a wonderful conversation with him and he let us know we would have our translated info on Thursday or Friday. I gave him a big hug and we headed back to Louisville.
Now, we had talked to all our family and they were coming to our house. Tommi and her family had even left their mini vacation it St Louis when I called her to be back to see Emma (they were hours away). We drove home in shock as Emma sat on my lap. We knew that as soon as we opened that envelope that our lives would change forever. We got back to the house and it was decorated with signs, balloons, flowers, champainge and cake. We couldn't believe DeeAnna and the gang had done this so quickly. We decided to order pizza and wait for everyone to get here. The only thing missing was I knew that my Dad couldn't make it back in town to be with us, but I did get to talk to him. Two and a half hours later, after everyone got here and had eaten we sat down to open our file and share Emma with everyone. We told them that we were going to get to look at her first and then we would show her to everyone. (I was so nervous about seeing her face for the first time hoping that the connection would be there). Mike opened the envelope, pulled out the pictures and our hearts melted as we saw our beautiful daughter for the first time. We are so in love with her!
Our daughter, the one we have waited almost 4 years for, was worth every minute we waited. She was so meant for us. I can't wait to share all the information about her with you as soon as we have it. Oh, and did I tell you that Emma was born on my Mom's birthday January 2nd and we received her referral on my Grandma's birthday July 21!

Sorry that was so long but I wanted to share our story with all of you. We laugh as we sit here thinking about how long we have waited and planned for this day but never in a million years did we think it would happen this way. We would like to thank all of you for being here for us during this long wait and can't wait to share Miss Emma Yu with all of you!

We love you!
Michael and Kim

2009-07-21T21:42:00.002-04:00

THIS IS WHAT YOU ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR...
INTRODUCING OUR DAUGHTER
EMMA YU

Yu Xiang
Birthdate: January 2, 2008 (my Mom's b-day!)

I can't wait to fill you in on all the details but Mike and I are exhausted. All I can say is WOW what a delivery! When I woke up this morning I had no clue what was in store for us today. All this time we thought we had a 3/29 LID and it ended up being 3/21! We are over the moon. As Lisa would say, Oh my heck! I can't wait to give you all the details. But until then, enjoy these pictures of our beautiful daughter (how wonderful does that sound!)

2009-07-21T18:57:00.003-04:00

WE ARE IN SHOCK!
WE GOT THE CALL TODAY, YES THE CALL!
IT SEEMS OUR LID IS REALLY 3/21/06!
STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS...
WE GOT THE CALL, DROVE TO LEXINGTON AND ARE NOW HOME WAITING FOR THE FAMILY TO GET HERE SO THAT WE CAN FINALLY SEE EMMA'S FACE!
BE BACK SOON.....

2009-07-17T07:57:00.004-04:00

WHERE ARE THE RUMORS?!

Today is July 17th and as of yet I haven't seen any rumors! Last month the batch came out June 19th so you would think we are in the time frame to at least start hearing some rumors. Nothing, Nada! Please don't send us into the weekend without at least some kind of rumors. I know I don't always believe the rumors and in some cases I don't want to listen to them but I at least like to see them! So this morning I will be checking the rumor board over and over to hopefully get some kind of news. I so appreciate RQ for all the time she puts into this board and I like reading about book, toy and baby gear reviews but where are the rumors?

UPDATE: THE FIRST RUMORS ARE IN.... IT COMES FROM AN AGENCY SAYING THAT THEIR MARCH 21 AND 22 CLIENTS ARE IN. NOW THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT THIS IS THE CUT-OFF BUT IT IS A GOOD CHANCE IT IS. I AM SO HOPING FOR THE 23RD TO BE IN BUT 2 IS BETTER THAN ONE AND THAT WOULD PUT US AT 7 DAYS (2 WEEKEND DAYS). IF THAT IS THE CUT-OFF I AM FOR SURE NOT IN FOR NEXT MONTH BUT MAYBE SEPT, WE'LL SEE.....

2009-07-16T07:54:00.002-04:00

Once again I am slacking on the blog. I am just finding way to much to do these days and haven't been finding the time or energy to post. The last few weeks have been crazy. We took a trip to Florida with my entire side of the family the week before the 4th of July. We had an incredible time just being together. I am just praying this is the last family trip without Emma. I keep thinking each year she will be here for the next but here we are still waiting. The trip was so needed! Work had been crazy and the time away really did me good. Of course it is always bitter sweet when we come home and our house is so quiet. We love all the activity of having 7 nieces and nephews running around.
I came back to some changes at work as one of our major insurance companies and our hospital couldn't come to an agreement on their contract so for now those patients with that insurance are unable to come to our hospital. It made our case load much lighter meaning a lot of budget time for the staff. With the China trip almost in sight this is not what I wanted to hear but thankfully the doctors I work with have stayed busy so it hasn't hurt me yet. I guess with the economy the way it is I should remember to be thankful for my job!
I have promised for some time to post pictures of our remodel on the house but I was trying to wait for it to be completed. We are getting close but have been waiting for some time now to get projects done. Hopefully I will have some to show you soon.
As for the adoption (I know this is the only thing you are interested in). We are still waiting for the July referrals. In June they came out on the 19th so hopefully we will start hearing some rumors this week. Last month got to March 20th, but then right before we left for Florida a Canadian agency received a batch for March 21-23!? No one is sure why they got them but that means a few more people in front of me got their forever daughters (and sons). The exciting part about that is that I really felt like this month would only get March 21 and 22 as the days are good size but with the news of that extra batch I am hoping that means that when referrals do come that the 23rd will be included. (I always want them to do more but I try to stay realistic) If this happens it puts us 6 days away from our LID with 2 of those days being the weekend, so 4 referral days. If this happens I really think we will have our referral in September (best case August, worse case November). So for me the next week will consist of visiting the Rumor Queen many times a day. I will keep you posted!
Oh, one last thing! I got an email from my friend Cyndee last night and she received wonderful news! (Let me back up!) I met Cyndee when we decided to go to Ukraine. We went to the initial meeting together, our paperwork went off to Ukraine at the same time and when we got word of our appt date we had the same date! The only thing was Cyndee and Dan decided that Ukraine was not the right route for them and decided to pull their file and pursue a China adoption. They then started all the paperwork over and in 2005 they brought home their beautiful daughter from China. Cyndee is the one who continued to encourage us to look into China adoption and was so supportive to us with everything we went through. (ok, I am rambling) Anyway, earlier this year she sent me an email to let me know that they had decided to adopt again, from Ethiopia and that they were looking at a sibling group of 4! Once again on the paperwork trail and waiting for news. Yesterday I received an email from her and everything has been approved (Thank God!) and Cyndee and Dan are now adding 3 girls and one boy to her family. Congratulations Cyndee and Dan!

2009-06-25T07:55:00.003-04:00

Well it is official that the referrals went from March 15, 2006 - March 20, 2006! While I know it was 6 days it had a weekend in there and wasn't huge days, but still 6 days closer! What does this mean for us? Well, we have 9 days between now and our referral for Emma. Of those 9 days, 2 of the days are weekend days. So technically it is 7 days worth of referrals. If I look at a best case worst case, this is what I can predict. If we continue to get referrals every month the absolutely latest we should get a referral is January (that is if we get 1 day every month, excluding the weekend). If they do 2 days a month, a November referral. If they do 3 or 4 days a month, a Sept. referral. A 5 day a month batch or more could get us an August referral. My guess is a October referral which would mean we would travel (depending on when the referrals come out during the month) in late Nov. or Dec. Please pray we have our sweet little Emma home for Christmas this year.

Now here are the projections posted on rumor queen this week. For those of you not familiar with her projections she has based these on past months. It started with bad, mid and good case but as things slowed to snail pace she added horrid and extra small which is the first column. Now these are just projections based on past history. As you can see if we continue a small batch she also has October as our month. We would have to have the best case to get a referral in July (not even a chance). It is nice to see that with even the extra small batches she projects that we will have our Emma in October!
Below is another look at a March 2006 calender. As you can see the 20th was a Monday. For next month we hope to at least get a 2 day batch and make it to the 22nd, anything beyond that would be incredible!

2009-06-18T08:49:00.002-04:00

COULD IT BE TRUE?

Rumors are finally starting to surface. It's about time. With the referrals coming mid-month the last 2 batches it is confusing to figure out when they are coming. So every day I get on the computer to check in with the RQ to see if there is any news but lately there has been NADA! Well this week at work has been chaos, 43 hours of work in just 3 days. This left no computer time for me. So last night I get a call from my sister to fill me in on the latest rumors (my family and friends stalk these sites more than I do!). Anyway, the rumors are saying that matching is complete and that the cut-off is March 20th. Now I was hoping to at least get through the 21st as it is a big day but it doesn't look promising. I am excited though to know that we are possibly 6 days closer. This means we are now in the SINGLE DIGITS! Nine days standing between us and our referral. Seven actual LID days and 2 days for the weekend. So this is what I am thinking. If I am being realistic it would mean that in July there will be a 2 day batch (21-22), in August a 4 day batch (23-26), Sept a 2 day batch (27-28), which would mean that October would be the month! If I continue to dream then July would have a 6 day batch also (21-26) and then we would get our referral in August just in time for my birthday! Anyway you look at it we should be seeing Emma's face in the next 5 months!

2009-06-11T08:01:00.002-04:00

Sometimes Emma seems so out of reach and then I see these beautiful girls and get excited knowing that our time is getting closer and that one day very soon our blog will be filled with pictures of Emma. For now I hope you enjoy the pictures of these beautiful girls! I am so excited for my friends as they bring home their beautiful daughters!

2009-06-05T08:04:00.004-04:00

It is finally starting to feel like the whole adoption thing is going to happen. I know I have been part of this adoption world for 4 years now but the time has come that I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Now the light is still dim but in the distance I can see it. Just as you are reading my blog right now, I have been reading the blogs of those going before me since the beginning of this journey. I would get excited every time someone got a referral and I could see that precious face and follow the journey to China and back. It helped to pass the time and has helped give hope to a long lived dream. But now over the past few months there are so many of the people that are closer to me traveling and it is just now that I am starting to see that light getting brighter. Over the past few weeks two wonderful families were united with their wonderful daughters. Of course anyone who has followed my blog knows all about Lisa and Tate and another wonderful family T&J. They both got their beautiful daughters. Now yesterday pugmama, L, and Leeanne all left for China. Seeing these wonderful friends get their daughters is finally giving me the feeling that it is going to happen.
I laugh as I think about how long we have waited and how unprepared we are. Yes, UNPREPARED! I think we were more prepared 3 years ago! Things change so much over a 3+ year time span and sometimes we forget to look at the whole picture. I say this because as the time gets closer I have started to see what all still needs to be done. Most of you know we moved at the beginning of the year. The house we bought needed a total overhaul so it is a work in very slow progress. We are hoping to have it done by the time we travel. I promise I will post some before and after pictures soon. We still have some major purchases to buy such as the car seat and high chair (guess I should be researching). We still have family credits to do and Mike has to get his CPR cert., and of course we have a whole list of items to buy for our China trip. How after 3+ years can we be this unprepared?
So as of yesterday I have pledged to get moving. I watched the Medical Risks video (have had it for 6+ months) and started reading Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew (Sherrie Eldridge) for our family credits. Today I am getting my paperwork out and finding the list of items to purchase so we can start shopping. Hey, it's a start! Maybe, just maybe by the time our referral comes we will have it all done.
BTW, referrals have been weird lately with the flu so we are still waiting to see if a batch will come out in June or if it will be the beginning of July. At this point we are still hoping for September but only time will tell. I'll keep you posted!
I better get moving as it's going to be one busy weekend. I have to paint, get that paperwork out, close on our refinance today, work tomorrow and then celebrate Chase's big Graduation!

2009-05-29T08:09:00.003-04:00

During this long journey I have found comfort in my friend. My friend that has given me hope, courage and the information to get me through this long process. This friend has been her every time I need her, even at 3am! This friend I am talking about is Rumor Queen. Now I know the RQ gets a lot of criticism but the truth is, what we we do without all the time spent and information she gives us. Something the I look forward to every month is her projection table. She gives her best guesstimate of what the future months of referrals look like. Now this info is based purely on statistics of pasts months and polls. So while it is not always right it at least gives us a little info about what the months ahead look like and for some of us hope. It was just recently that our LID is finally on the chart (about time!) Now with us having a LID of 3/29/06 you can look at the chart below and see what our chances are...
I am hoping that we will at least stay with the Small group and get our referral in Sept. We are hoping this is worst case senerio but it could always be Oct or Nov. In looking at the chart it gives me hope to see that Emma time is close. Thanks RQ!

2009-05-29T07:59:00.003-04:00

38 Month LID Anniversary

I woke up earl this morning and hung out with Mike while he got ready for work. We decided to go to St@rbucks for a coffee since it was such a nice morning. As we sat there talking Mike realized that today was May 29th. Wow, another month of waiting. Every month I think how many more of these am I going to have to post? For the first time I am finally thinking that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, anyway it's happy 38th to us!

2009-05-28T09:03:00.004-04:00

I just can't get enough of Tate. She is absolutely beautiful!
Congratulations to Lisa as she finally had Tate put in her arms forever this week!

2009-05-28T08:40:00.002-04:00

I keep meaning to take a picture of my locker at work. Why you ask? Everyone in the OR has a locker and just like when we were back in high school we decorate them with personal stuff. When you walk around you see pictures of families, kids, grandkids and friends. On my locker I have 2 photos, one of Jack (my pup) and one of my Kozmo (my kitty) that passed away last year (just can't seem to take it down). The only other thing on my locker is a calendar. Not just any calendar, but a 2006 calendar. I laugh as I think about all the times someone makes a comment about my 2006 calendar. I hear, "hey it is 2007, 2008 and now 2009", "are you ever going to get an updated calendar?" or "are you ever going to take that down?" They have no ideal what that calendar means to me. My response to them is " You may be living in 2009, but I'm still here waiting in 2006!" To this I get lots of smiles and weird looks, but for me this is my daily reminder of how close (and at one point, how far away) we are to getting Emma's referral. Every day I look at the month of March 2006 and my eyes are always drawn to March 29th. I have memorized March, I know how many days are in front of 29th, how many of those are referral days and what day of the week each day falls on. For me this is a sign of hope that one day soon we too will get our referral and see Emma's face for the first time. Until then, that old calendar will stay on my locker to remind me that our time is coming.

| All of year | April>

2009-05-24T23:36:00.002-04:00

We have been so busy with family activities (dances, graduation, birthday's, sporting events...) that I haven't given any updates on the adoption. This past week the latest batch of referrals came out. The referrals went from March 9 - March 14, 2006! 6 days closer! We are now 15 days away! Tomorrow is a big day for my special secret pal Lisa as she will finally have Tate in her arms. So stop by and see her beautiful daughter!

2009-05-24T23:31:00.002-04:00

We wanted to send out a very special congratulations to Charlee for a very special award she received...
DANCE MAJOR OF THE YEAR

Way to go Charlee!
We love you and are so proud of you!

2009-05-24T23:23:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday Tommi!
We had a wonderful time today celebrating "Tommi Month"!
(For now it is still YOUR month!)
We love you!

2009-05-22T08:10:00.002-04:00

Courtney and Trevor Prom 09

2009-05-22T08:04:00.003-04:00

We wanted to wish Chase good luck at the State Track Meet tomorrow. His relay team qualified last week at Bardstown regionals. Go Cougars!

2009-05-22T07:53:00.003-04:00

I am slacking on my posts so I will try to catch up over the next few days. I wanted to share a few photos of Chase's important day. How could our sweet little boy be all grown up and finished with high school? We are so proud of him and can't wait to see all of the great things that are in store for him. Congratulations Chase, we love you and are so proud of you!

2009-05-07T10:50:00.003-04:00

The big winner!

On Derby Day I was one of the lucky people to have the winning ticket for the Kentucky Derby! It paid $103.00 to win (what a long shot!) Now believe me there was no scientific thought to my bet, the truth is I bet the #8 horse Mine that Bird because #8 is lucky in China (why else!). I cashed 3 tickets at the races, all sporting the #8! Sometimes just having luck is better than knowing what you are doing!

2009-05-07T08:30:00.002-04:00

STEVIE'S SPECIAL DAY!
FIRST COMMUNION

2009-05-01T08:08:00.003-04:00

Chase's big day!

2009-04-30T14:27:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to share a few pictures of Courtney on her big day!

2009-04-27T20:59:00.004-04:00

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY
CORBYN!
YOU ARE FINALLY LEGAL!

Just wanted to send out a very special birthday wish for your big 21st birthday! It's so hard to believe that you are that old. It seems like just yesterday that I got out of school early to sit and wait, and wait some more for you to finally get here. Now here you are all grown up! We hope you have a wonderful birthday and we love you!

2009-04-26T22:09:00.002-04:00

It was a really busy weekend here and I have a lot of pictures and a lot I want to tell you about but for now I just put up 3 quick photos. The first is of Courtney and Trevor on Friday night before her Junior prom, the 2nd picture was of Stevie from her First Communion today, and the last is a picture of Chase from Saturday from his Senior prom. I had the pleasure of taking photos all weekend! I had so much fun and all the kids were good sports. They let me take pictures until my heart was content (anyone that knows Chase knows this is a big deal!) Anyway, it may take me all week to fill you all in on the weekend but I promise to get pictures up of everything: Ring ceremony, Ring dance, Picnic for Galya, Senior Prom, First Communion, Balloon Race, and last but not least a special birthday wish for Corbyn (the big 21!) Stay tuned...

2009-04-14T11:53:00.003-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLEE
WE HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!
WE LOVE YOU!

(This picture is from Florida. Charlee is on the right and her friend Kathleen on the left)

2009-04-14T09:13:00.002-04:00

I know 2 post in one week! I guess you can tell when I have some time off work. Yes, I have a vacation week again. At the beginning of the year they make us feel out our vacations for the whole year. Now, who knows on Jan. 10th what they want to do for the whole year? It sure isn't me. The hardest part is that for the last 3 years I have been trying to adjust my vacations around going to get Emma. So at the beginning of every year I sit down and think when could I possibly be traveling to China? The best answer is who knows! For 3 years I have thought about it very carefully and even tried not to take so many days off in hopes of the extra time off when we come home. Well, this year I decided that I would just pick some weeks because who knows what the future holds. Now, I still believe that this will be our year (it better be) but I guess when the time comes nothing will keep me from adjusting my schedule to go get our sweet Em! I guess it's a plus to work for a company for a long as I accumulate lots of time off and the best part is that it transfers over to the next year.
Anyway, I am trying to finish a few projects at the house but I am not getting anywhere! I promise when we get things looking halfway like a house I will post pictures!
(I started this post 3 hours ago and got interupted)
The plumber came this morning to hook up the dishwasher and the sink. An hour into his work he discovers a missing piece on the sink so it was off to HD for me to get a new faucet. After 2 HD's and a Lowes I arrive back home with a different faucet only to find the plumber was done with the rest of his work and left. The original faucet that we bought showed you could use it with a 2 hole or a 4 hole hookup but the adapter for the 2 hole was missing. I checked 7 faucets at 2 HD's that had ALL been opened to discover the piece is not in any of them! I called the manufacture and the said that they could send me one, it doesn't come in the set even though it shows it does!! After I give her all the info to expedite one to me she discovers they are on backorder. So off to Lowes for a completely different one and the nice guy there even checked to make sure I had all the parts! So now I have a nice faucet but have to wait again to get it installed.

2009-04-13T11:01:00.003-04:00

As I continue to wait for Emma's referral, this month brought new life to our wait. During this long wait I have met wonderful people and followed so many journeys to see their beautiful daughters. While I have loved seeing the babies every month I am beginning to see the babies of those with dates near ours. These are the people who I have followed more closely. Since this month included March 7th and 8th it brought several precious little ones that I was over the moon excited to see. Among these little ones was an extremely special one to me. For those of you who know me, know that when we started the adoption process we joined a secret pal swap. I was so excited to be part of this and found that I had the best secret pal ever in 2 ways! All along I followed this special person's blog and got so excited every time I got to send a gift and see the joy it brought her and her sweet daughter #1! During this same time I was also receiving the most amazing gifts for my sweet Emma. It turned out that my secret pal and I had each other! The whole time we were sending gifts to each other (CLUELESS). It made it all that much more special as I had been following her hopes and dreams for some time and she had been following mine! OK! Long story to bring you up to date! The reason I am telling you all about this is that my wonderful secret pal finally got to see her sweet little one this month!

Introducing TATE!

I hope she knows how excited Mike and I (and my entire family) are for her. She is so deserving and I could not be more excited for Lisa, Mesa, and Tate. Now what makes it even more exciting is that she expected an older child and Tate is 8 months old! She is going to be such a wonderful MOM! Congrats Lisa, Oh my heck, you are finally going to bring Tate home!

2009-04-03T13:03:00.002-04:00

The Stork is Landing!!!I was bummed when I got on the computer this morning and the RQ wasn't showing any news. Then my sister called and said that it looked like people were getting calls. Of course I got back on the computer (dial up at Mom's) to check all the sites and yes they are here. It looks like the 7th and the 8th are in for sure! Congrats to all the new Moms and Dad's out there. I can't wait to see all the pictures, most of all Tate
who we won't see until Monday! Hang in there Lisa!
I really just want to sit back and enjoy their day and check out the babies but of course in the back of my mind I have to think of all the options this gives us. So here goes!

We now have 21 very long days until our referral.
If we do 2 referral days a month it will take 11 months.
If we do 3 referral days a month it will take 7 months.
If we do 4 referral days a month it will take 6 months.
If we do 5 referral days a month it will take 5 months.
If we do 6 referral days a month it will take 4 months.
If we do 7 referral days a month it will take 3 months.

Now we also know:

The 7th was the biggest day in front of us.
There are still several large days.
6 of the 21 days are weekends and should not have anyone logged in on those days.
If you take the 6 weekend days away that really only leaves 16 days.

So in knowing this I would think that we would get a referral between July and November (I hope!) Lets just hope that next month we get to at least the 13th.

2009-04-02T16:15:00.002-04:00

Opps! The last post really was meant to tell my wonderful husband Happy Birthday and to note our 3 year LID Anniversary but it just didn't work out! On Sunday we went to my sisters for the UL game and while I was there I started to do a post and then just stopped. I thought I would post it that night but when we got back to my parents my computer wouldn't work and hasn't until today (hate when that happens!) So anyway, thanks for the birthday wishes for Mike!

Sunday we did also get together at P.F. Chang's for Mike's b-day and the 3 year LID to celebrate. My whole family was there except for Chase (good excuse, he's on his senior spring break at the beach). We had a really good time and of course talked about the fact that Miss Emma better be here for the next one of these!!!!

This week has been a crazy one as usual. (Time for bullets)

Work was crazy busy which called for some OT
The house is still moving along at snail pace, not sure if it will be done for Emma (just kidding!)
They cut the power off so the electric could be updated and now no one can tell me when it will be inspected. That means another weekend without power and freezing temps (not happy)
Haven't been feeling well so I had a full physical today. So far everything looks good, chest x-ray, EKG, and exam, just waiting on all the blood work.
With the computer down I have been missing everyones posts. Thank heavens for sisters who stalk the sites like I do!
Rumors, well it looks like the first rumors are saying March 8th is the cut off. It's only 2 days but since the 7th was HUGE this is a very good thing! I just want to know it's true because there are 5 special people waiting to see their precious little ones!
Last but not least we got a new coach this week, not sure what I think about the new UK coach yet. I've never really cared for Calipari but I guess I will give him a chance. I know he's a good coach just always thought Memphis was a bunch of punks so we will see what we get.
Oh, one more thing, get those babies posted quickly! I can't wait!!!!

2009-03-29T16:45:00.002-04:00

2009-03-20T10:32:00.004-04:00

Why oh why do I look at the RQ over and over. Boy do I like to torture myself. I told you I wasn't going to listen and that I wasn't going to get on that roller coaster this month! While the coaster seems appealing I am just not ready to get on (if you look real close you may see her right up front!) I continue to sit on the observation deck and see how this ride ends up. As for those of you who don't know the first rumors are showing up and even though they are a R2, it is a start to the rumors. These rumors say that the next batch could go anywhere from March 9 to March 14! Remember this is just an R2 rumor and there is nothing to say that this will happen. I sure hope for all of my friends waiting with these days that it true and of course I want to be that much closer to Emma but right now I will just continue bitting my nails and watch you scream as you pass by!

2009-03-19T11:04:00.003-04:00

I had vacation time planned this week but I certainly didn't expect to spend it the way I have. Words can't begin to explain the sadness that I have felt this week. I have trouble sharing my feelings so here I am with a loss of words. Last May Mike's cousin Jeff was diagnosed with cancer. He had went to the doctor thinking he the flu and they found cancer. I hate that word, I deal with it everyday at work and I can't tell you how much it affects my life. At the time Jeff went through treatments, they said he would never make it, but he beat the odds and in August just after our family reunion found out he was in remission. A second chance to spend more time with his boys and his family but by November the cancer was back. On Sunday Jeff lost the battle against cancer at the young age of 40. I know he is now at peace and away from this horrible pain but my heart goes out to each one of his family members, his sweet boys and each friend that has been touched by Jeff.
Yesterday just after we had got home from the funeral my Mom got a call from my uncle Jimmy that my cousin Cathy had passed away. Last week she had been in the hospital with a blood clot but had since went home. She had recently adopted a sweet little boy and yesterday and loaded him in the stroller to take a walk. We don't know what happened but her neighbor found her out along her walk. Once again my heart is broken. She is a wonderful person who touches everyones heart she meets. My heart breaks for her parents, brothers, sister, her husband and her beautiful little one that will never fully know just how lucky he was to have such a wonderful mom.

2009-03-16T08:49:00.003-04:00

NOT DOING IT THIS MONTH!

I mentioned previously that I had a dream that referrals came early and they went from March 7 - March 27 (now like I said it was a dream!). I know that this is not a possibility at all but it was a pretty sweet dream. I know it still wouldn't make us get our referral but it would make sure that so many special people would get their precious daughters. Now for reality I really only expect ONE day, ONE huge day! That still would mean that Lisa and Tracy
would get to see their beautiful daughters. Now of course I had to check in with RQ
this weekend and see the latest batch of rumors. Now mind you, I try not to pay to much attention to the rumors as it always seems to just disappointment at the end of the month but it's almost like playing the lottery when you buy that ticket and have hopes and dreams about winning until they draw those numbers and you have to come back to reality. Well, we keep hearing about speed ups (after 3 years a speed up! Right). I know those speed ups will come when we get to April 1, 2006. So for the early rumors this month, if you don't want to see it please stop reading now! Okay, I warned you!
Multiple agency's are reporting that the next couple of months are going to be bigger than what we expect (now remember we only expect ONE BIG DAY). They seem to think that the Winter 2008 case is more in line, which would mean that at the end of the month they should get to March 13 and at the end of April they should get to March 20th. If that stays in line with the next few batches it would make us have a end of July referral.
If you have never seen this chart it is a projection table on the RQ site predicting LID referrals based on what has been going on.

Now, as much as I would love to see the referrals get to March 13, 2006, I am not going to bite. I am going to stay with my original thoughts that March 7, 2006 will be the cut off day. That way if they get even one more day worth of referrals it will be like winning the lottery!

2009-03-13T15:35:00.003-04:00

Since it has been so long, I will get straight to the bullets!

Right after the last time I posted (way back in January) we had the incredible ice storm. If you know anything about Kentucky, you know that we don't know how to handle the snow. My parents lost power for 9 days so we stayed at the new house (there is no furniture in there but we did have a matress to sleep on, heat and a hot shower)
Work on the house has been VERY slow so I am crossing my fingers we will be in by the end of March. We are making progress thought. The floors are done, cabinets are in (- the trim) and the countertops have been ordered. We have painted, and painted and painted and we are finally moving some furniture in to the places that are complete. Of all the rooms it looks like Miss Emma's room will be complete first. I promise to post some picture soon.
Work has been crazy. The economy sure hasn't hurt the fact that lots of people need surgery!
Last month the referrals went from March 3- March 6! Only 23 very long days away but come the end of the month I will see her! With the 7th being a huge day I am thinking we will only do one day this month but I am crossing my fingers that the 8th will also be in as there are many bloggy friends with these days!
On March 29th we get to celebrate another year of waiting, bring us up to our 3 year wait and also celebrating Mike being another year older!
I am getting tired of seeing all the girls at work having multiple babies while I still wait for one (no offense, I love all the little ones but it's not easy to see everyone finishing round 2 while I still wait for #2). I hear alot that maybe by the time we get Emma the new one will be their age since the last ones are now 2 or older!
It's so exciting to see all these little ones who's blogs I have been following starting to come home. I have loved following each of their journey's!
Oh, big one! Last night we finally got cable and wireless hooked up at the house so now I have no excuse not to blog! I am blogging from my new family room now!!
I love March Madness but since my wildcats are going to the big dance I am just not as interested but for Mike I will cheer on the Cards and hope they get a #1 seed!
I am on vacation this next week, well sorta. I'll probably work a little just when my docs are there.
I had a dream that the next batch of referrals arrived early and they went from March 7-27th! Hey, like I said it was a dream!
The next few months are going to continue to be busy: Courtney gets her junior ring and ring dance, Stevie makes her First Communion, Charlee, Katie, Corbyn, Mike, and Tommi have birthdays, Chase graduates from high school, lots of work still to be done on the house and I still have family credit hours to do for the adoption.
You would think that in having 3 years to save for this adoption we would have everything paid for. Somehow things always seem to come up. Last month Mike's truck blew up so a new vehicle for him, of course the house always cost more then you think and did I mention all the extra we have spent on updating and redoing paperwork during the wait. It looks like overtime is in my future.

I guess that's a little update on what I have been up too. Hopefully things will slow down a little once we get moved in . I will try to put some new pictures of the house on so you can see the progress. Hope to talk to you all soon.

2009-01-23T08:49:00.002-05:00

I always think that I will have time to post but then I get more interested in seeing what is going on with everyone else out in bloggy land that I can't find the time to update on what I am doing. So since it't been a few weeks I guess I will use the the bullets again!

Tommi, DeeAnna and I took Mom to Nashville to the Grand Ol* Opry and had such a good time. We left early on Saturday (the 10th) and headed south. We went to breakfast, did a little shopping, ate a wonderful meal at Demos and then went to the show which was at the Ryman (the old opry house). We had such a good time, all of the show was wonderful and we saw Blake Shelton and Lorretta Lynn. Dick Vitale was even there sitting in front of us. We enjoyed the country bars and had a nice sleep over before coming home on Sunday. Happy Birthday Mom, hope you enjoyed our weekend as much as us girls did!
The 11th was a special birthday! Happy Birthday Stevie!
The 15th was a stressful day! I went over to work on the house and peeled wallpaper off the wall in the foyer all day. How long does it take to take wallpaper off! To be exact it took 5 days to finish the foyer. It was the worst paper I have ever seen. I thought the other rooms were tough but this was amazing. It came off in dime size pieces first the top and then the back layer (believe me I tried everything anyone suggested to get it off). Anyway by 5:00 I had had it, my back hurt and I had only completed half a wall. I started cleaning up and noticed my Anniversary band was missing. I spent the next 3 hours looking with no luck. I should have known to take it off (since I have lost weight it very big on me). I gave up and decided to head home when the garage door quit working (another hour of trying to fix it with on luck). I went back to Mom and Dad's hoping the day would finally end when everything turned around! The mail was sitting on the table (I almost didn't look at it but then I saw IT! Homeland Sec*rity! My approval arrived. All at once, I forgot that the day had been bad. Everything that had happened was no big deal because now it made us one step closer to what really matters, Emma! BTW, I did find my ring the next day at the bottom of a garbage bag of insulation and wet wallpaper! Thanks St. Anthony!
The 17th brought another very special birthday. Courtney turned 17 today! Happy Birthday Court! I can't believe you are 17! How has this happened?
Yes, the 18th was another birthday! Happy birthday Steve!
As most of you know rumors started and boy did they sound good. R*mor Queen reported that she was hearing from multiple places of a major speed up that would include most of March. Now I have to be honest and say my heart did skip a few beats but I didn't want to get on the roller coaster this month. I thought okay if she is saying big and most of the month (it will never happen) I put great hope in getting to March 8th! Now this is great as I have bloggy friends on the 7th and 8th! I didn't want to get anymore excited than that. But then it happened, what happens every month, our hopes and dreams were stepped on once more. The rumors turned grim and the verdict became March 2, 2006. How could this happen? Before the rumors started I thought for sure the 3rd would be in and if we were lucky maybe the 6th but with the great news I thought the 8th! MARCH 2, 2006, how could they do this.
I do want to send congrats to all those logged in on the 1st and 2nd!
As for us this paints a grimmer picture than I had thought. I had thought if we did 3 day batches we would get a referral in 10 months and if we could do 4 days it would be 8 months and at 5 days it would be 6 months! Never did I count on 2 days or maybe even 1 (which could happen next time with the 3rd).
Come on CC*A, make those rumors true and send us a really big batch next time!
As for this weekend we will be really busy. Today I am going to paint our bedroom, the drywall in the kitchen is getting finished, we have to pick up our new couch, washer and dryer and pull up carpet at my parents. Tomorrow their new carpet is getting put down, more work at the house and on Sunday we have another birthday to celebrate. Happy early birthday Mike W.

2009-01-09T09:37:00.002-05:00

How could it possibly be January 9th? Where has the time gone? So much has happened since I last posted so I will try to do a quick recap, so for this I will use the faithful bullets...

December started with closing on our house Dec. 1. This was very important as we needed to complete our home study update that was to expire Jan. 7th and without a place to call home it wasn't going to happen!
The first week was full of demolition on the house. The house we bought is a nice ranch but the little man that lived there was 85 years young and had lived in house since it was built (very, did I say very, out dated!)
During this same week I finished up our home study papers only to find out our agency added that we needed a letter from the VET saying Jack was up to date on his shots and that he was a safe dog. So a few phone calls later and a trip to the Vet office I sent in my last paper.
December 10th brought a very special birthday. Chase turned 18 (how did that happen?). Now I have gotten grief from the the rest of the Martin gang that I had to much stuff about Chase on here so I hope they aren't reading this post!!! (sorry, it's still about Chase!)
Did I mention that I was doing a lot of shopping! I tried to boost the economy, believe me I did my share of shopping and spending.
On the 17th we did our home visit with our home study agency. It was a little different. Since we started the adoption process in 2004 when we decided to go to Ukraine we had always had Amber as our advocate but she left earlier in the year and so Rhonda was assigned our case. It was a little wierd since she came to the house and I had to set up a card table in the so called kitchen for her to sit at. It's hard to scrub and clean the house when it's just a shell. She was so nice about the mess and was in and out in less than an hour.
I think I forgot to tell you how busy work had been. WORK, WORK, WORK! Every December we earn our money as everyone wants to have surgery before the end of the year. This year was no exception as I spent many late nights operating with my favorite docs.
Christmas week came and once again I was shopping again. I also was pulling down a lot and I mean a lot of wallpaper! Note to self: NEVER PUT UP WALLPAPER!
Christmas was wonderful except for my Christmas morning fall. I slipped on a sheet of ice and cracked my head. 2 weeks later and my head is still hurting!
We spent Christmas morning at Mike's parents and had such a good time watching the kids open their gifts. Of course we had his Mom's famous breakfast! (I wonder how many calories it had in it)
The afternoon and night was spent with my family. I loved every moment of playing with the kids and watching their faces light up with excitement over their gifts. It has become a bit of a tradition to spend the night at my parents on Christmas night so the house was full (I believe their was 17 of us and 3 doggies!)
The ONLY thing that would have made the holidays better would have been to have Emma home with us. How many years have I said that? This year it's going to happen!
On Dec. 29th (my PaPa's birthday) we celebrated (well, acknowledged) our 33 month LID anniversary.
On Dec. 30th my Mom had surgery. She had some places removed from her head that they thought were cancerous but thanks to God they were benign! She did great as all my friends were working on her. Thanks guys!
No big New Years celebration as I worked 7-7 New Years Eve and then was on call that night and all day on New Years day (had to go in and work for part of it, oh well, job security)
Back a step to a special batch of referrals! A batch came out before the end of the year that went from Feb. 24- Feb. 28th. The reason for it being special to us is that Feb is finally done which means we are now to MARCH 2006! Now I know we are at the very end of the month but we are still at the month and a lot of my fellow bloggy friends are coming up very soon! I can't wait to see all their precious faces, so come on Tate, I can't wait to see the look on your Mommy's face when that stork arrives. The last two months have brought referrals to many of those I have been following. I really makes things seem real!
January 2nd, 2009 was my Mom's birthday! Happy belated b-day Mom! We are having a special girls weekend and celebrating this weekend. Tommi, DeeAnna, and I are taking Mom to Nashville to the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow. I am so looking forward to spending time with my Mom and sisters.
The beginning of January also brought panic to my life. On Dec. 30th I emailed my agency and home study agency to make sure our update went in since I hadn't heard anything. Of course that was the day of Mom's surgery and I worked late that night I didn't check my email until very late. Here becomes the problem. The home study agency said they faxed the home study to the agency for approval so they could send it in on the 29th. Our family advocate said she didn't get it but maybe the home study coordinator did. Okay, not a big deal except that both agencies were closed from Dec. 31 - Jan 5th! Did I tell you our paperwork expires Jan 7th! So I sent emails and made phone calls but of course there was no one to talk to as everyone was closed. So I spent the week panicing! I made a plan for Mike to take care of on Monday, Jan. 5th since I would be in surgery all day and wouldn't be able to make any phone calls. It turns out our file was sitting at the agency and no one had looked at it. The family advocate was off but sent Mike an email that she would get them to fax it to her and she would take care of it that night (hello, it's Jan 5th). Our home study agency said they would make sure it was in no matter what. It turns out she didn't look over it until that night and sent it to our h.s. agency at almost 11pm for some changes. As it stands I was told it was mailed overnight and I am just praying it was in the right office on the 7th! Please pray that all went well or we will be redoing a lot of stuff in order to switch to the I-800. I'll keep you posted.
This week Chase had his football banquet and received some wonderful awards. I will do a special post on it with pictures of the awards! Way to go Chase!
Now here I sit on Jan. 9th realizing that even though the rush of the holidays are over I have so much to do to get ready for Emma. It will still be about a month before the house is ready but I have a lot of painting and decorating and moving to do. I also have to do my family credits for the adoption. In KY we are required to complete certain classes (Abroad and Back, Medical Risks, CPR and 10 family credit hours). We had started on them but in 2006 they said that they might make it where they are only good for 1 year so we put it off but now I feel that we need to move on this.
So now that we have waited for over 3 years since we started this journey for Emma I sit back and laugh thinking while it seems like it has been forever, where actually has the time gone and why I am no more prepared for her than I was 3 years ago?

So now that I gave you the very long update on our world for the last month, what's been going on with you? I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday (sorry no Christmas cards were sent) and I am so excited to see all of your precious little ones faces in 2009! Please let everything go as planned and make this our year! Happy New Year everyone!

2008-12-01T09:39:00.003-05:00

Well, today is the day. We finally have a house. Our closing is this afternoon. While I am excited to get the house and get working on it, I am a sad to think that our time at my parents is coming to an end. Don't get me wrong, I love having a home but we have enjoyed spending this time with my parents. I know Jack won't know what to do when we move. I'm not sure if he will want to come with us as Mom and Dad spoil him rotten. I've never seen a dog have it so good! Now the house needs some work on the inside so the demo crew will be here on Wednesday to start working. Here is the first picture I took of our new place. I now have a house for our home study agency to come to so they can finish our update. Hope they don't mind that there is no furniture in it!

I wanted to post a picture of Stevie from her competition the other week. She just looked so cute out there and they did great. Way to go Stevie!

Last week Chase's team lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs so the football season is officially over. I'm not sure who took it harder the boys or the parents! Chase, we are so proud of you for going out every weekend and giving it your all!
Thanksgiving was wonderful. Thursday we spent the day at Mike's parents house and enjoyed the wonderful food and company.
Friday morning at 4am we headed out for the Black Friday with all the crazy people and got some wonderful deals. Mike went with me and my sisters and we had a fabulous time!
Saturday we had Thanksgiving at my parents house. It was such a relaxing day and we enjoyed everything! We did miss Corbyn as he went to Maine with Alicia for the holiday weekend.
Sunday we picked out our cabinets for the house.
This week I am on vacation so I may be around more to post

2008-11-21T14:18:00.002-05:00

Class A Playoffs Week #2

Tonight marks week #2 of the high school playoffs. Last week Holy Cross won over Fulton City. It was a hard fought game. Chase had 8 points (TD and 2 point conversion) Way to go Chase! Tonight will be an even tougher fight (in the freezing cold). Holy Cross vs Mayfield at 7:30pm at Holy Cross.

Good luck Cougars!

Last week the boys played hard and won. It has been a tough road for them as they have had so many injuries this year. Please just pray for them all to stay safe and healthy tonight. Sorry for a repeat picture, I haven't been good about downloading my pictures. On Saturday morning I went to watch Stevie at her cheer comp. She did so good and her team came in 2nd. She looked so cute and did a fabulous job. They also had another comp on Sunday in Lexington and did great there too! I will post pictures soon. Gage also finished up the last weekend of Peter Pan. Way to go Gage (our Broadway star!)

The week was typical as far as being busy. I hate the end of the year when everyone has met their deductible and wants surgery! I guess at least it means job security for now. It was a very depressing week for my cases. With all of the oncology that I do I always see horrible things but this was a week full of it. I just want to send out special prayers for all of my patients and their families and it is going to make for a very sad holiday season.

Yesterday Mike and I had the day off and went to Cincinnati with Shelley and Mike. We went up to this store that was going out of business that Mike and been invited to. It was so nice of them to take us as we were able to get all of the flooring and most of the appliances for our new house at amazing prices. I am so excited to close on the 1st and see what this place is going to look like.

Today I am just catching up an things, working on our home study update, and preparing for the big game. I can't believe how nervous the we all get. Cross your fingers that I will have good news to report in the morning! Hope everyone has a great weekend and stay warm!

2008-11-14T14:58:00.002-05:00

Tonight is Game 1 of the high school playoffs. Holy Cross will be taking on Fulton City. We want to wish Chase and the rest of the cougar gang good luck. We are so proud of you!

2008-11-13T09:31:00.003-05:00

This week has turned out to be very hectic but a lot less stressful than last week. I know I told you last week about the house situation and the home study problem. Well, we made an offer on a house last week and last night finally got the word that we came to an agreement and we have a home. We now have an address and can start the update on the home study. I really like the house but it has a lot of work to be done on it.
Friday night was Chase's last regular season game. While the team didn't play very well I have to say that Chase played with all his heart. He had an 83 yard kickoff return for a TD! Tomorrow night is the first game of the playoffs. Good luck Chase!
Sunday was a big day for Gage! First off, it was his birthday. Happy Birthday Gage! The whole family went over to the high school to see the big production of Peter Pan. The play was fabulous! Gage played the part of Curly, one of the lost boys. He had lots of lines and even sang. One day we may be seeing our little actor on Broadway. Below is a picture of Gage in costume. Way to go Gage, we are all so proud of you!

About six months into our adoption process I was wondering around Toys@us buying things for Emma (something I did quite often) when I was approached by one a store employee. She was a sweet older lady. She wanted to sign up my kids for the birthday club. I proceeded to tell her that we didn't have any kids but that we were in the process of adopting from China. She didn't really understand the process and wanted to know what Emma's birth date was. I decided to just throw a date out so she would be happy. I told her the date was November 11th. (did you notice the 11/11, my # that always pops up) Last week as I was going through the mail I came across this ...

It is a birthday coupon for Emma. When I saw it I laughed remembering the conversation with the clerk but also became a little sad thinking how long ago that had been. Here I sit 3 years later still wondering when Emma's birthday is. I often wonder if she has been born or not. Who knows, she may have a November birthday! With the tiny batch this month (Feb 16th and 17th) I have no guesses on how much longer we will wait to see Emma's face. I had so hoped to at least stay with the 5 day batches. That would have put us 8-9 months out, now who knows. With Feb 18th and 19th being a weekend I at least hope we come out with a 4 day batch. Please, please be more than that.

2008-11-06T15:26:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday Mike and I took a little day trip up to French Lick. We had such a good time walking around the grounds at West Ba@din. Here are just a few shots I took.

I was so glad that Saturday was such a nice day because the rest of the week has been stress, stress, stress! I have been dreading this for months and the time has come. I had talked to our home study agency a month or so ago and they said we would start our update the end of the year. It's always a hassle to do but all in all it's not that bad. I have been stressing over it because of our housing situation. Someone please tell me how hard it is to find a house! All I hear is you guys are in the best situation but then how is it that we haven't found anything? Well, this is it. We got the word that we should be doing our home study now so that nothing expires. With the changes with the I-800 we were told by no means to let anything expire. While I understand that it easier said than done. In order for us to do a home study we must have a home. We were told that it was okay for us to be at my parents but it also means that they must have police checks, fingerprints, physicals, letters of recommendation and the list goes on. I would never in a million years subject my parents to all of this. So this has become the week to find that house. We have found an option on the house but it needs work. Today we made an offer and now we are waiting for a response. I am not very confident that they will take the offer but we have to start some place. I just hope we are in the ballpark. If not, please let something else come up for sale this week.

Yesterday referrals started arriving and while I am so excited for those getting their pictures (Donna and Steph) I am sitting here once again saying 2 days, only 2 days. How can that be. A few are still saying that it went to the 20th but I don't see that anywhere, so it looks like Feb. 17th will be the cutoff. That brings us to 40 days. Not much progress. I was so hoping for at least 5 days so that we could still hope for 9 months but after today I just hope we make it under the year mark.

The last of the stress was the election. I don't like talking politics. I definately have my views as I know each of you do. No, I didn't vote for Obama and my views are very different from his. I do wish him luck and hope that his term is successful. Enough said.

2008-10-31T10:57:00.002-04:00

You know you have lost it when you sit at the computer at Pan@ra Bread for 3 hours just waiting for a glimpse of a rumor. I know some of you are asking why there? I am so missing my high speed so I love that the nice people at Pan@ra let you use your computers here. They just didn't know that I was moving in. This has become a regular routine for me but for some reason I am very antsy today! WHERE ARE THE RUMORS?! I just checked RQ for the 5,000 time and she finally posted... no new! Wow, sure glad I waited for that. It's going to be a long weekend. HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!

2008-10-31T09:38:00.002-04:00

You have to love being an aunt. With all these nieces and nephews I always have something going on. This week Gage was in the paper. He has a part in the high school play of PeterP@n. Mike and I will be going to see him in action. The play runs for 2 weekends. Last year he also was in the high school play. Way to go Gage, we can't wait to see you in action!

Gage is in the grey shirt to the left

Gage is on the right in the grey shirt

No other news to report here. I just keep checking the rumor board to see if anything new is reported on the cut off date but NOTHING! Where are the rumors?????

Tonight is senior night so be prepared for some more of my rambling on Chase and Friday Night Football!

2008-10-30T09:24:00.003-04:00

First off I want to acknowledge our LID Anniversary from yesterday. We are now at 32, enough said.

I wanted to show off this beautiful thank you boquet I got from Mike's Aunt Janet and Uncle Bill. I had helped set up Eric for his surgery and I got this suprise treat for helping out. They should have never done but we all really enjoyed it.

I'm not sure how good you can see this picture but my Mom and Dad had swarms of ladybugs all over the house. I was hoping this was going to mean that there was going to be a huge number of referrals this month and that they are on the way but per the first rumors it looks like a small 5 day batch. Please be wrong and send more!

2008-10-24T09:29:00.004-04:00

Here we are again on another Friday. It seems it is the only day I find the time to post. Since I still don't have high speed access I find that when I have computer time I would rather check in on all of my favorite blogs, see the latest rumors and look for houses than to post about what I am up to. I had a group of photos I wanted to include but Blogg#r isn't acting right this morning so only two attached. But since it is Friday I wanted to start by posting a picture of Chase for the local paper. This was from alumni night. Tonight we head across town in the rain to play KCD.

Last week Mike and I decided to take a little last minute trip to Florida. The picture below is one I took of one of the many beautiful sunsets we saw. We had hoped that we would have a house by now and that we would have this week to work on it but since we still haven't had any luck we spent the week relaxing on the beach (didn't hurt my feelings). It was just a wonderful week with the weather staying in the 80's.

The trip was wonderful but I came home to some horrible flu bug and was sick for the past week. It is never fun going back to work with chills and vomiting. Oh well, got over it and am feeling much better today.

While I was gone my niece Courtney got her licence so if you are traveling in Louisville be very careful (just warning you!) Just kidding Court, congrats! Charlee went to her first high school dance, I'll post a picture when I can. How can she be that old! Ethan got his first touchdown in flag football and Stevie got her roundoff back handspring! I was only gone a few days and missed all of this! It made me sad to think of how quickly time goes by and all the special things all of kids do. It made me even sader to think that Emma may be born now and that Mike and I are missing her first months and maybe even year of her life. I think about all the firsts we are missing but can't wait to have all of these special moments with her in the future.

Yesterday I was off work and my Mom stayed home from the office. It was a wonderful day to just hang out at her house and talk and enjoy a whole day together. I have enjoyed all the time we have got to spend together while we have been staying there and will be sad to leave when we finally find our new home. While we were sitting around talking Mom noticed swarms of ladybugs flying toward the house. I took a few pictures but it doesn't justify the number of ladybugs out there. I started thinking right away that maybe this mass number of ladybugs just might mean that there will be a huge number of referrals this month (hey, a girls gotta dream). I will just have to keep refreshing the Rum*r Queen site for any rumors. Even though we are still 42 days out we are getting closer and now there are a lot of my bloggy friends that are right around the corner. So come on CSA@, lets have a big month!

2008-10-03T09:29:00.003-04:00

If you read my post last week (I know, I only find time to blog about once a week) you know I was pumped up for Friday night football. I wanted to share to articles that have run this week after the cougars win over Beth Haven. I was trying to find the line scores but was having trouble locating the article in the paper last Saturday (don't worry, I bought an extra paper to put up). Chase scored all 5 touchdowns in the first half (mid-way into the 3rd quarter they took him out to let some of the younger guys play). He now has 7 TD's on the season, I hope he is able to add to that total this weekend. This weekend the cougars will be playing on Saturday night as they play DeSales. Now, this isn't a district game but it is very important game to the boys, bragging rights are very important. Thanks for listening to me ramble on but my nieces and nephews are the world to me and I hope they all know how much Mike and I love them and how proud we are of them. I will keep you filled in on all of it: the football, the dancing, the cheering and the high school play of Peter Pan!

Beth Haven falls 55-14 as Cougars extend their victory run to 4 and 0! Chase Martin on fire, scores 5 TD's !
The Cougars cranked it up early and never looked back, especially senior Chase Martin who scored 5 TD's! Chase scrambled for 4 scores on runs and also had a 65 yard punt return. With QB Devin Brown out of action Jimmy Nauert, did a great job stepping in at QB duties and Chase Martin stepped up to replace Nauert at running back and had the game of his life. The offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage and the Cougars scored on nearly every possession. The Cougar defense shut down the Bearcats all night. The two scores Beth Haven had were from a bad snap over Nauert's head in the first quarter when a defender scooped it up and scored, and a late score in the fourth quarter was against the Cougar Freshmen. The Freshmen did a good job offensively as Jake Kaelin scrambled for a 65 yard TD run. The scores were varied and many. Other scores were Cody Schoenburg on a 25 yard pass and Chad Hazelwood on a 65 yard Pass.

DESALES AT HOLY CROSS
When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.
Last year's meeting: DeSales won 37-13 at Manual Stadium.
Records: DeSales 2-2, Holy Cross 4-1.
Notes: The Colts routed Owen County 55-14 last week but should get a stiffer test tomorrow. DeSales likes to run and has six players with at least one TD run. Andrew Beeler leads the team in carries (30) and yards (150) but has yet to score. The Cougars have won four straight -- averaging 43.5 points -- behind quarterback Devin Brown (35 of 55 passing for 598 yards and seven TDs; 303 rushing yards, four TDs). Jimmy Nauert (381 rushing yards, six TDs), Chad Hazelwood (21 catches, 459 yards, five TDs) and Chase Martin (team-best seven total TDs) are the other threats. At halftime Holy Cross will honor the top 51 players in program history, including some from Bishop David.
Quotable: "It's just like any other rivalry game in that somebody can come out and get fired up and win," Holy Cross coach Dave Weston said. "Yeah, we want to beat them, but when it's over we'll shake their hands and move on. … But we'd like to have bragging rights, just like they would."
Jason's pick: Holy Cross 27-21.

Now, I should add that Mike and I celebrated our 31 month LID anniversary this week (I'm starting to lose count). We also had the next batch of referrals come out. The referrals appear to have gone from Feb. 10, 2006- Feb. 15, 2006 (6 days). Not the greatest but still six days! That puts us at 42 days until our LID, another baby step closer to Emma!

2008-09-26T08:17:00.005-04:00

Well, it's Friday again and you just have to love it. I know people love Friday for lots of things but my #1 reason is for high school football. For the last 7 years we have looked forward to watching the boys play at Holy Cross. It's a very special place for my family. This is the very school that both my sisters, my brother-in-laws, and Mike and I all graduated from. This is the same field that Mike, Glenn and Steve all played football on. It has been so special watching Corbyn and Chase put on those cougar uniforms and play. This year marks the last year we will be heading out to to Holy Cross. I can't believe that Chase is a senior and playing his last season of high school football. So tonight we will put on our cougar attire and root on Chase and the rest of his team at alumni field. Good luck Chase, our lucky #8!

2008-09-19T10:20:00.003-04:00

I was checking some of my favorite blogs and I saw Lisa's post about Hurricane Ike and I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky we are to be here safe and sound. On Sunday we got a small taste of Ike here in Kentucky. It was amazing to see this wind storm that we got. I saw reports of winds 75mph and I think where we were at must have been close to that. Now, I saw the damage that these winds did and I can't imagine being down in Texas experiencing over 100mph winds. At the time when the wind storm began Mike and I were heading into Louisville to watch our nephew Ethan play flag football. Now don't think we were stupid for being out as no one expected us to get this kind of wind. We had left early to do some home shopping (still no luck) when trees and debris started coming from everywhere. Every street we would drive down had trees falling. Now at this time they said the game was still on (can you imagine little 1st graders being blown away on the football field). In the next 15 minutes the winds hit their strongest level and for the 1st time I saw Mike getting really nervous that we were out. Huge trees were snapping and power lines were exploding. We were still the crazy ones out in this until I made Mike go to Target so we could get someone safe. The winds went on for quite soom time. When it was all over everything was completely calm, no wind, no rain, nothing. Now as of today it has been 5 days since the storm and over 100,000 people are still without power. As I have drove around the last few days I have experienced something that we don't see very often. I seeing people helping everyone all over the place. Neighbors taking in neighbors without power, helping clean their yards, cooking for one another. I am not hearing lots of stories of people yelling at the electric company but commending them for working so hard to get the power on. It amazing to see how a community rallies together when a crisis occurs. I see what our community is going through and I can't imagine how the great people of Texas are coping and staying strong.

We were very lucky to have no damage. My sister Tommi and her family live across the bridge in Indiana and they have some damage to their house and as of today they still are without power but their spirits are still strong. They know how much worse it could have been.

Yesterday I drove through the neighborhood that I grew up in and it was hit really hard. I posted 2 pictures below of 2 of our neighbors houses. I don't think the pictures are that good but you can just what the wind has done up here after slowing down over 40mph from Texas.

2008-09-18T09:05:00.002-04:00

Just in case you were wondering how long we have until we get to our LID

Duration calculation results
From and including: Friday, February 10, 2006To and including: Wednesday, March 29, 2006
It is 48 days from the start date to the end date, end date included
Or 1 month, 20 days including the end date
Alternative time units48 days can be converted to one of these units:
4,147,200 seconds
69,120 minutes
1152 hours
6 weeks (rounded down)

When you look at it that way it sure doesn't look very long but when you break it down into how many days it takes the CC*A to get through that it could still be a very long time. Oh well, we are still excited.

I do wonder sometimes why we got a LID of 3/29/08. During that time log ins were getting done very quickly so we were very disappointed for it to take so long from DTC (date to China) to LID (log in date). We had all of our papers in to our agency mid December but because of our holidays and then the Chinese holidays it took that long to get it sent to get all the seals and then back to our agency. Then our file was held in China to have a big group all go in at once so it ended up taking 5 weeks to be LID. Sure at the time we were disappointed with the date but then realized it was LID on Mike's birthday so we felt it was a sign. At that time we thought, oh well, not a huge deal, what was a few weeks going to hurt?! What were we thinking? That few weeks could make a HUGE difference. A few weeks could mean 6 or more months longer until we see sweet Emma's face. Who would have ever thought that? We just keep telling each other that God has a bigger plan and Emma will only be ready in his time. I just have to remind myself of that a couple of dozen times a day!

2008-09-12T09:30:00.005-04:00

I was looking at some photos I had taken this year and I found these. We were out in Vegas and I remember being so excited when I saw these cute ladybugs. The next day referrals came out!

2008-09-04T10:44:00.002-04:00

I got on the computer this morning and read the posts on my site and for the first time I had that feeling that Emma is really coming. This is the post I read

Hey Kim,Glad to see that you guys are still out there. I keep a running list of my families that I loved and guess what?? You are next to get your baby. I just marked off my Feb. 9th family and you're next. I know it may not seem like much but I have marked off many before you and now you are finally at the top! On another note, 32 pounds, WOW!!! Clearly, you need to be my personal trainer! That is incredible. Good luck on the house hunt!Amber Able :)

Amber has been taking care of us for a very long time! When we decided to go to Ukraine we were assigned Amber by our home study agency. We were so nervous to meet her as she held part of the key to us adding a child to our family. When we met her she welcomed us in and made us feel so at ease with the whole process. We immediately felt so comfortable with her and enjoyed all of our visits with her. When things didn't work out with Ukraine and we decided to go to China we decided to stay with our same home study agency. We were so lucky to still have Amber with us along our journey. So, when I saw this post it meant a lot to us. Now I know we still have a long way to go until we get to March 29th but it was an incredible feeling to know that in someones book, WE ARE NEXT! Thanks Amber for that uplifting post! By the way, we know it is almost time to update our home study and we do plan on having a house by then , hopefully closer to you!

2008-09-02T08:35:00.002-04:00

First off, I missed posting about our 29th month LID! The big 29 was on the 29th. It's been awhile since I posted our anniversary (they happen so often). Anyway, on our 29th month anniversary we took a little road trip to Pikeville to watch Chase play football in the Pike Bowl. They lost their game but not to brag, Chase played great! Anyway, when we got to Pikeville we had a few "signs". First when we got to the hotel and checked in we got in the elevator and saw this...

A beautiful Chinese girl and I love the caption "can you hear me now?" DeeAnna and I immediately decided we had to have a picture of this! Next we got our room keys and the 2 keys we got were for room 8 and 11. Now everyone knows 8 is lucky in China and 11 has been that number that keeps coming up all through the adoption (could it be a sign?). Last but not least we went to eat and there sat a mom with her 2 Chinese daughters. What made that odd is that this is a town with NO diversity in the hills of Kentucky. It's just the little thing I needed to hold on to hope.

Now for the adoption. There are rumors going this weekend that the next batch of referrals are going from Feb. 1- Feb. 9, 2006. Now we do have to remember that the Chinese New Year went through the 5th so that is only 4 actual LID's but it still puts us 9 days closer to Emma. That puts us at 48 days until our LID, 14 of which are weekend days. That means 34 actual referral days. It still means we are a good distance away but still a step closer.

2008-08-27T15:03:00.002-04:00

Well, we've done it again. Another year, another set of fingerprints done. Yesterday I went to the courthouse to make sure I was doing my prints right (you would think after 4 times I would get it right). In Kentucky Wednesdays are the day that adoptive parents can come in to do fingerprints, so yesterday I went downtown to make sure I had everything I needed for today. Good thing I did. When I got to the office the man instructed me to go get the letter we needed from the 3rd floor to get our prints done. I remembered doing this last year so I headed up to the 3rd floor. When I got up there I found out that the office is closed on Wednesdays so it was a good thing I was there to get it on Tuesday. The lady working the desk was the same one from last year so I was nervous to even talk to her as last year she was extremely mean. Surprise, surprise, she went out of her way to help me this year. She pulled our file and right away told me to put away my checkbook as this set of prints would be free. I had completely forgot that, saving us a big $160.00! She got me through the line and even gave me Mike's papers without a hassle. On the way out she even wished me good luck and told me she just knew we would have our sweet daughter soon! So today I met Mike at lunch downtown and went to get our fingerprints. I always laugh when I go in there as we are always the only American people in the place. The man remembered me from yesterday and said he would take care of us and get us done right away. Less than 5 minutes later we were having our prints done and out the door in 15 minutes! It must have been our lucky day! By the way, the lady doing the prints said she felt that things are going to speed up since the Olympics are over (like we haven't heard that over and over) but I sure hope she is right. Since today is August 27th it's getting closer and closer to seeing what is in store for next month. Everyone cross your fingers!

2008-08-26T08:59:00.003-04:00

Believe it or not, we are still alive and well! I know it has been forever since I posted so I will try to use the bullets and give a quick update on the last (um...) 5 months!

I know that in March I told you that we were getting the house ready to sell. Well, we put the house up and had sold it in 2 weeks, closed 2 weeks later and became homeless 5 days later! We are staying at my parents until we find a new house. They have been so wonderful to take Mike, Jack and me in.
I found out that house hunting is no fun. Where do some of these people come up with these prices! Right now we just hope we have a home to bring Emma home to!
In July we took a family vacation. Everyone was able to go, except Courtney (sorry Court). It was such a relaxing trip and it was wonderful to spend time with the family.
I mentioned Courtney didn't get to go on vacation. Well, she was picked to go to Gov. Scholars, which is an amazing opportunity. We are all so proud of her.
Mike and I have been trying to get in shape. In the spring we watched the Biggest Lo*er and became motivated. This time we have done it the right way: walking, working out and eating better. Mike has hit his goal and I still have 7 pounds left to hit my goal. So far I am down 32 lbs. If we ever take some pictures I will post one of our progress.
The adoption is still moving at snail pace but we are making progress! The last batch of referrals finished up January 2006! We are now down to 57 days! Close but still so far away.
School has started back up so we are excited to go watch all the nieces and nephews do all their activities! It's going to be a busy fall!
While we are staying at my parents we don't have high speed access so believe me I am still checking in on everyone and all the rumors. I will try to post more.

I hope everyone is doing well. I know this was a very quick update but I just thought I would let everyone know that we are still here and still waiting!!!

2008-03-30T20:27:00.001-04:00

3 Word Sunday

This 3 word Sunday is very special but it is a day late (oops!). Yesterday, 3/29/08, was a special day for 2 reasons: the first is that it was my wonderful husband Michael's 40th Birthday. Michael, I hope you had a wonderful bithday. You mean the world to me. I love You!

The second special thing about yesterday was that it was our 2 Year LID Anniversay! Waiting has been the hardest thing we have ever done but we both know that when Emma is finally placed in our arms that it will be worth every single minute we have waited! By the way, Jack wants to know where his little sister is!

2008-03-19T08:48:00.000-04:00

And these are the Days of our Lives... At work we have to turn in our vacation requests at the beginning of the year for the entire year. Who knows what they want to do for the entire year? I haven't got a clue what the year holds for us. In 2006 I thought that we may get a referral toward the end of the year so I planned accordingly. In 2007 I thought maybe we will travel in the summer or fall so I choose my days around our adoption. I took Halloween off because how could I miss Emma's first Halloween and I took Christmas week off so I could enjoy the holidays with her. What was I thinking? Now here it is 2008! In January I sat down to fill out the vacation paper but this year I decided not to plan around Emma. We were heartbroken for 2 years to see all of these days slip by and nothing. So this year I took a variety of day with nothing special planned. Today is one of those days. Now I have nothing planned (since there is a 100% chance of rain and flooding) so this morning I am curled up on the couch catching up on my Tivo'd episodes of Days of our Lives. Sometimes it is nice to climb into their world for awhile and forget about all of the stress going on in my own life. Hope everyone else is having a wonderful Wednesday.

2008-03-16T22:39:00.000-04:00

I wanted to make sure I sent out a very special birthday wish to my wonderful secret pal! I know this will be the very last one without your sweet Tate! Hope you have a wonderful birthday!

2008-03-09T20:25:00.002-04:00

I'm a little late on the 3 word Sunday, but I thought I would join in! Next week I will be a little more creative!

2008-03-08T08:00:00.003-05:00

It is now 7:30 am and here are a few updated pictures of the snow. I'll try to get some better ones once I get dressed and venture out.

2008-03-08T07:52:00.004-05:00

We finally got a big snow (well, for Kentucky)! I tried to post these pictures of the snow last night but I couldn't get blogger to work. These were taken Friday night after the first storm came in. I can't wait to dust of the sled and go to Mom and Dad's to tackle the hill. But for last night I was very happy to eat some pizza (cheese of course since it is lent) and curl up on the couch with Michael and a good book. More pictures to follow.

2008-03-02T20:38:00.002-05:00

Yes, I really am still alive and well! I am sure you noticed I have a new look here on the blog. I decided that if I was going to FINALLY going to start blogging again, I needed a change. Things have been really busy here in the Kramer house. Staying busy is the only thing that is keeping us sane during this LONG wait. I want to apologize to all my friends who stop by now and then and see that I am no where to be found. Now, that is only half true. The fact of the matter is that while I have am guilty of not posting I have been reading everyone else's blog (I know, that's not very nice!) I guess I forget that you actually want to know what we are up to here. It's really a combination of not really knowing what to blog about and being so busy that I would rather spend my computer time seeing what everyone else is doing! I appreciate all the emails checking in on me and I promise I will try to post more regularly.
Since I last posted we have celebrated our 20, 21, 22, and 23 month LID Anniversary. At this point we still don't have a clue how many more we will have to endure. I keep thinking that each month we are getting one baby step closer to Emma. For those of you who aren't in the adoption world the new referrals should be out this week. It looks like we have finally made it to 2006!! It looks like January 4, 2006 will be the cut off. That is 8 days of referrals (small days but at least there are 8 of them!). That brings us to 84 days away from our LID.
While the wait has grown and grown I felt like we had put our life on hold. We didn't take some much needed vacations, we scheduled our work around the hopes of traveling, we saved and saved, and we kept everything the same. Well, a few months back we decided we needed to start living again (we should have been all along). Don't get me wrong, we still wait, hope and pray for Emma everyday but we know that time keeps moving and we have to move with it. In doing that we have been planning trips and preparing our home to sell. We have been talking about moving back into Louisville for some time but we kept putting it off because of our China trip. Well, the time has come so we have been working hard to get the house in order to put it up for sale this month. I just hope that we can get the house sold and find a place in town before our referral comes (I sure hope it doesn't take that long to sell!) We have already switched Emma's room twice so she will be on to her third before she ever sees it!
Well, I am just rambling now so I will do some more updates later. Just know it's good to be back!

2007-10-31T09:13:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone has a very Happy Halloween!

2007-08-02T21:12:00.000-04:00

STORK ALERT!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THOSE WHO WERE LOGGED IN FROM

NOVEMBER 15 - 21, 2007

2007-08-02T20:27:00.000-04:00

I know I have said it several times this summer but man, I am such a slacker! I was sitting here thinking back to last fall and thinking about how much time I spent on the computer and about all the times I posted. These days I don't even have the time to check my favorite blogs. The funny thing is that when I check in on all of my favorite blogs and see that they too must be so busy that they don't have time to blog, I get bummed. I miss seeing all the posts! So tonight as I was checking out the new babies (more about that in a minute!) I thought to myself, I should be mad at myself. I haven't posted in weeks. Of course I already know what's up in my life so I assume (you know what that does for me) that you know what's up with me too (sorry). So here is my update...

1. Baby update - Referrals are coming in today! I love this time of the month and I hate this time of the month! This month the referrals go until November 21, 2006. Congratulations to all of those who are getting their precious little ones this month. While I know it is still 4 months and 8 days away from our date it is one tiny step toward Emma. I just keep hoping and praying that once November is done that things will speed up. Anyone have any thoughts on this one?

2. I want to thank my secret pal again for the wonderful gifts she sent us last month. I promise to get picture posted soon. I just haven't got to get the pictures on the computer. You won't believe these wonderful gifts.

3. Last weekend I took a girls trip up to South Bend, IN to visit a wonderful friend that I have known since I was little. Holly, Beth, and Amy went with me. We had such a wonderful time just hanging out, eating waaaay to much and playing with Jenny's adorable kids. Oh, and while we were there I got a glimpse at Jenny's neighbors daughter (yes, you got it! She is from China!!!) Once again I will have to post some pictures.

4. Yesterday, my good friend Leslie and her husband Larry left for China to get Lily. Click on her link if you would like to follow her journey. I can't wait until Lily is home safe and sound! Congratulations Leslie and Larry!

5. On our way to South Bend I got some sad news. Katrina, my family advocate at AHH, called to let me know she is leaving AHH. While I am so excited for her new adventures she is heading off for Mike and I are so sad to see her go. Katrina has been wonderful for us and has been here for us from the start. Who would have thought that she wouldn't have been here to see Emma come home. When we first talked with her in Oct. of 2005 we thought we would have Emma home by the fall of 2006 and here we are still waiting! Katrina, I just want you to know how much your help and support has meant to us. Thank you for everything!

6. On July 29th we celebrated our 16 month LID Anniversary. How many more are we going to have. The wait right now is at 21 months and rising quickly!

7. On August 9th Mike and I will be celebrating our 10th Anniversary. I kept thinking that our trip to China would be the most amazing gift we could give each other but now it looks like it will be our 11 year anniversary gift, which by the way is right around the Olympics. I sure hope we go before then.

8. We got our paperwork back from INS so we are good for another 18 months. I hope we will not be redoing that one!

So for those of you who haven't been posting, what have you been up to? Until next time...

2007-07-17T12:43:00.000-04:00

Well, vacation has come and gone. Boy am I sad to be back at work. I had a whole 12 days off and I enjoyed every moment of it. I even stayed away from the blogs for the most part which I am sure was needed. I do have to say that we snuck off one morning after our walk on the beach to check out all of the beautiful babies that were referred. Of course they were as cute as ever! We had a wonderful time at the beach and after being around my sister and all of the kids for a week our house sure is quiet. It made me even that much more anxious for Emma to be running around the house making some noise (I am sure I will eat those words one day!) I was also excited to hear that my friend Leslie got her date to go get her sweet little Lily. She leaves the first week of August. I can't wait to follow her journey. I know I have a lot to update I just need to find a little time. Hope everyone is doing good.

Oh! For those of you not in the adoption world referrals came out while we were on vacation and the dates were from Nov. 8th- Nov. 14th. Not great but it could have been worse. We just keep hoping for some kind of speed up. At this point I feel like the earliest we will get Emma's picture will be in March but most likely next summer.

2007-07-04T07:18:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th of July to everyone!

I will post soon about what's going on around here but this morning we are off to the beach for a little July 4th trip. Of course I have the laptop so I will try to post while we are gone. I haven't gotten the pictures on here yet but I wanted to say a big thank you to our wonderful secret pal as she has out done herself again! You won't believe all of the wonderful gifts that were packed in this box. We really loved the blanket and hat that your Mom made (can't wait to post the pictures)! So thank you, thank you, thank you! Anyway, we are headed to Florida so I will post soon. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!

2007-06-29T09:39:00.000-04:00

ENOUGH SAID

(one baby step closer to Emma)

2007-06-17T21:21:00.000-04:00

Once again I am way over due on posting but tonight I wanted to share a very special gift with you. This gift comes from a very special couple that I have never even met. Dana and Mike are friends of my sister Tommi. They live in her neighborhood. They had started the process to adopt from China but life took a different turn and they have since stopped the process. I feel for them as I can only imagine how hard of a decision that was to make. Dana had bought some wonderful things for her little girl and since life has changed she has sent these wonderful things to Mike and I for Emma. We were overwhelmed with Dana and Mike's thoughtfulness. We couldn't believe that they would give these wonderful gifts to us. Check out what they sent us!

This is a picture of everything they sent us. It was hard to get it all in one picture!! Can you believe they sent us all of this?! I took a few close-ups of the pictures ...
This beutiful doll has so much detail. I wish you could see it all in the picture. This one is going on Emma's shelf. Sorry Emma, you won't be playing with this one!

Dana's Mom had bought this for her. I can only imagine how special this was to Dana and I hope she knows how much I will treasure this. I can't wait to have Emma home and get her picture taken in this!
Okay Emma, you can play with these! The Corolle doll is so cute! Dana and Mike sent both of these for Emma. One to play with while she is little and then a larger one for when Emma gets a little bigger. I have to confess, I have already been playing with these!
I only had room to post one more picture so I chose the Precious Moment adoption figurine. I love Precious Moments and have the perfect place for this! If you check out the first picture again you will see an adoption book that I just loved. Mike and I sat down the first night we got it and read it. We also got such a cute asian lamp. We wanted to send out a big thank you to Dana and Mike for sharing these incredible gifts with us. I hope you know how much they have meant to us!

I also wanted to send a very special Happy Father's Day out to my Dad, my father-in-law, and of course my wonderful husband. Thank you all for being so special and always being here for me. I love you very much!

2007-05-30T09:37:00.000-04:00

We missed our 14 month LID Anniversary! Anyway, another month has come and gone and we are still waiting! To all of those who share our date, happy anniversary to you!

2007-05-30T09:09:00.000-04:00

When I got back home from out of town I had three packages waiting on the table to be opened. I couldn't believe that Mike didn't open them. You know me, I had to get them open ASAP. First off from my book swap I got 2 wonderful books Shoey and Dot and a My first Counting Book. I just love books and can't wait for Emma to be sitting in my lap reading along with me.

Then I got 3 bath books from the book swap. 2 of them can even be used in the tub! I love them!
Once again my March Secret Pal has gone way overboard! Look at all of this great stuff. Mike and I were so overwhelmed with all of the goodies (I almost couldn't get them all in one shot)! Kozmo was very interested in seeing what Emma got and believe me Jack wasn't far behind! Here is what was included: 2 stuffed babies one of which plays music, a plush growth chart that you can put pictures in, window shade, 3 ever so cute books and CD kids sing along set, skid proof bowl, 2 cute picture frames one of which is for friendship (maybe one day I will be able to put a picture of my secret pal and me in it! hint, hint, if I only knew who you are!!!), ladybug shirt, pooh sleeper, Dora sweatsuit, and a beautiful quilt. Hey secret pal, did you make this beautiful quilt? I love it! I can't believe all the thought and time you put into this wonderful gift. WOW!! I really can't wait until the day we know just who to thank. You are incredible!

2007-05-28T20:30:00.000-04:00

Where has the time gone? It seems like for months I sat in front of this computer just watching days go by waiting for Emma. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still anxiously waiting for our Emma, but things around here have really been busy. I haven't had much time to even check out my favorite blogs and I haven't read RQ in a month! It really has been good for me. While I miss each of you I feel refreshed and exhausted at the same time.

The week before last Mike and I took a few days off and headed to Gatlinburg. We had such a great time relaxing in our cabin, checking out the moutains and doing a lot of hiking. It was a much needed rest. The picture below is a view from our chalet. It was so peaceful up there and I sure enjoyed the time with Mike.

I took this picture while Mike and I were on a hike. The weather was beautiful so we decided to stop and play in the Little Pigeon River.
We got home on Monday night and then on Wednesday morning I flew up to Conn. for work. Terri and I had to do a special training course at US Surgical. We got in early Wed. so we took the train up to New York to do some shopping. This was my first time in New York so I really enjoyed the sites. The picture below is from Time Square. We had a great time in the city and then it was off to training for Thursday and Friday. It was a interesting trip and I really enjoyed meeting such wonderful people from all over. We were suppose to fly in Friday night but our flight out of Conn was delayed which caused us to miss our connecting flight in Pittsburg so we had to spend the night there and fly out early Sat morning to Atlanta and then finally home to Louisville. By the time we got home I was exhausted and of course the airline lost our luggage. They found it in North Carolina?! The delivery man decided to bring it to us at 1:30AM!

So here it is Monday night and it is back to work tomorrow (yuck!). I am yet to have gotten to check up on everyone. When I got home on Saturday I had 3 packages waiting from my book pals and my secret pal. Tomorrow night I will show you all the wonderful things that I got. For tonight I am off to snuggle up with my wonderful husband! Talk to you tomorrow!!

2007-05-08T20:13:00.000-04:00

Yikes! It has really been a tough month here and when I finally sat down to post tonight I realized that I hadn't posted since April 14th. So many things have been going on in my life right now that not only could I not find the time to post but I also couldn't find the words. So many of the people I love have lost such special and wonderful people in their lives over the last few weeks. I can't quite find the words to write about it yet but if you could keep some very special people in your prayers I would greatly appreciate it.

As I sit here I can think of so many things I would like to talk about and share with you, my bloggy family and friends. The past month has been filled with sorrow and stress but there has been a little joy along the way. We did celebrate 3 special birthdays: Charlee (April 14th), Corbyn (April 27th) and the birth of our newest nephew, Logan Michael, on May 2nd (congrats to Shelley and Mike). We survived another LID Anniversary, the big 13! Things were so crazy that the day came and went (I did remember it but it didn't make me sad this time).

I wanted to share this picture of Mike and I with 7 of our nieces and nephews (taken on Easter). It made me smile thinking about how each one has touched our lives in so many ways.

Now, I owe a huge apology to my incredible secret pal. In the mist of everything going on at our house Mike and I came home late one night to a HUGE box on the porch. It couldn't have come at a better time as we both needed a lift and boy did we get one. Check out ALL of these gifts that were packed in the box! We got a wonderful collection of books (which I can't wait to read when we finally get to sit down), a photo book, plush panda book, the cutest teddy, Asian note pad (so cute!), such cute clothes (a bath wrap, sweater, and sleeper), the sweetest sand dollar with Emma's name on (made me cry!), and the cutest travel playset. All I can say is WOW! Secret Pal, you went way overboard! I have to say Mike and I sat in the middle of the floor and just cried thinking about what wonderful and special people would think so much about us to send Emma these amazing gifts that we will all treasure for many years to come. I am just so sorry that it took me so long to post about these wonderful gifts. They all meant the world to us!
I tried to take a closer picture of the gifts, can you believe all of this is for Emma?!!
Here is the sand dollar our pal sent for Emma. I already bought a little stand and put it in Emma's room. I just cried when I saw Emma's name on it! Thank you so much for all of your thoughtfulness! I can't wait until the day I find out who you are so I can really thank you!
Hopefully things will start to get back to normal. I have missed blogging and have really missed out on what is going on in all of your lives. I could use a whole week to catch up! I also wanted to send out a congrats to everyone who got their referrals this month. Oh, for those of you who aren't from the adoption world, referrals went from Oct 25-Nov 1! (A baby step closer to Emma!)

2007-04-14T12:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry I have been MIA but last weeks news really had me down. When I started hearing the rumors that they were only referring 2 days I thought NO WAY, something must be wrong. Well, as we know, it happened. I felt really numb. For the first time I thought that this adoption really wasn't going to happen. I decided that I needed to take a few days to regroup. I stayed away from the posts, RQ, and I even shut the door to Emma's room so I didn't have to look at it. You know what, it really did help. I needed the break to get my life back in order. I had become way to consumed with the wait. I have to say that I have a new attitude! There are so many things that I should be doing and places I should be going. We have put our life's on hold for way to long. Yes, we are still anxiously awaiting the time when we get to see Emma's face for the first time, the first time we hold her and our life with her but we have to remember it will happen just not as fast as we would like. You would think that by now I would have more patience after all these years of waiting. So, I have had time to take a break and now I am ready to enjoy the rest of our time while we wait on Emma. I know she will be worth every minute!

2007-04-04T20:42:00.000-04:00

When I got home from work today Mike had a box sitting on the table for me, well, for Emma. As I got closer I realized that it came from my wonderful and amazing friend Lisa. Now, over the past year Lisa has been spoiling the entire Kramer family rotten. She has become very special to us. Today she (and Mesa) sent us a chocolate egg. Not just any ordinary egg! This egg is from a local candy shop in Salt Lake and it has Emma's name on it. Lisa told us that this year Mike and I can enjoy Emma's egg. I can't wait! Thank you so much Lisa for always thinking of us. We are so lucky to have made such a wonderful friend. I can't wait until next year when Emma and Tate can pig out on their own special chocolate eggs!

2007-04-01T20:54:00.000-04:00

Last night we went out with the family for a little celebration. We were celebrating 2 special things, Mike's birthday and our 1 year LID. Yes, they both feel on the same day. If I can go back for a minute, last year our dossier left for China on 2/24/06 (DTC) and I was really hoping that we would be logged in by mid March. Well, it didn't happen. It was in April when Katrina called to inform me that we were our LID was March 29th. At first I was a little disappointed, but then I realized that we were logged in on Mike's birthday. What day could be more special to me than that?! So anyway, we went to P.F. Chang's to celebrate the occassion. We had such a good time and even got the kids to try some of the food.

Here is a picture of the family (only missing 3)! Thanks to the whole family for coming out to celebrate with us. Hopefully we can do it again when little Miss Emma gets home. The waitress even brought us a pair of kids chopsticks to take home for Emma. If that wasn't enough, look what I found sitting on the table...

Yes, you got it! A ladybug sighting!! I loved it (thanks sis!) and yes it came just in time for the stork alert! Hopefully tomorrow we will be finding out how far the referrals got. Congrats to all you waiting parents who will be seeing their babies.

2007-03-29T21:37:00.000-04:00

Happy 12 Month (1 Year) LID Anniversary!

In honor of Mike's favorite team we had to use the Browns Jersey.

2007-03-29T21:18:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Michael!

Thank you for being the most wonderful husband in the world!

Today and everyday I celebrate having you in my life.

I Love You, Always, Forever!!!

2007-03-29T21:12:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Donette!

Just wanted to let you know I am thinking about you today!

Phases of the moon: 6: 14: 22: 29:

2007-03-23T07:57:00.000-04:00

WOW! WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY?!!

I have tried to post this all day but Blogger kept going down. I worked on it for 2 hours this morning (typed it 4 times!) Yesterday my day started off blah but ended up getting better and better. I had a terrible week at work and was so glad for it to be over. So yesterday morning I woke up in a funk. It got a little better as the day went on and then just after lunch the big news came out about Tubby leaving UK. How could that not change your mood! Then when I got home from the office it was so nice out that Mike and I took Jack to Bernheim for a walk. This is where the WOW factor came in! We pulled back in the drive and I noticed a box on the porch. I hadn't ordered anything so it must be from our March Secret Pal. Of course I grabbed the box (boy was it heavy) and Mike got the box cutter so that we could see what was inside. We couldn't believe what all we found inside. I guess you would like to see...!

Check out all of these goodies for Emma!

(No one should be this spoiled. Well, maybe Emma!!)

We loved all of the ladybug stuff. I can just see Emma in this cute little shirt, holing her ladybug while I read her this cute ladybug story! Check out the frame (just need Emma's picture to put in it!) The fuzzy thing on top of the frame is the cutest fuzzy ladybug pen (love it!)
To spoil little Miss Emma even more, our pal sent this bunny that plays music when you pull the small bunny down, these adorable barrettes, bedtime book (did I tell you how much I love board books?!) and a fun phonelike play toy! I just hope we can keep Jack away from these soft animals as he always thinks they are for him!

Our pal thought of us too! I love the bag and I know it will come in so handy. I love the bath gel and will be using it tonight! Boy are we spoiled?!!!
When you thought there couldn't be anymore in that box, Emma gets spoiled even more! The sweatshirt says it all "Baby Princess" and I am afraid the onesie is going to be true "Don't be fooled by the diapers, I'm in charge"! I can't wait for Emma to get to wear these!

We want to send a very big thank you to our amazingly thoughtful pal. You went way overboard! We love each and every item that you picked out and sent to us. It truely turned my day around. I sat in Emma's room last night playing with all of her goodies. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful people around us during our wait. Your gift came at just the perfect time. I can't wait until I know exactly who to thank! You are amazing secret pal!!