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Please keep my mother in law in your prayers. She had open heart surgery about a week and a half ago and was doing really well. They moved her to a step down unit and she started going down hill, developing complications, within a couple days. They moved her back to ICU last night and has a few things going on, pneumonia is one thing, but also some other heart related things. If everyone could pray for her, I know it would help.

Thank you

Well, another small month of referrals have been confirmed. Apparently the CCAA internal website has changed to show the official cut off as 1/9/06. This is a disappointing 5 day batch. I think with the Olympics right around the corner, however, the next several referral cycles are going very nerve racking. We all hope that we will see very large batches but I just have a gut feeling we may be disappointed until after the Olympics are done. I hope I am wrong.

I still have strong hopes that we will see our referral and be home by the end of the year. At this rate I think it will happen but I can’t say for sure. If the CCAA can maintain 6 or 7 days per month we should be ok.

We have tried eating with chopsticks several times over the years and I have always gotten too frustrated after a few minutes and went to the fork, swearing that one day I should go on the chopstick diet. This would be a great diet for me because I know I would starve the weight off.

Well we went out for Japanese last night and I decided to try eating with chopsticks, yet again and to see how long it would take before that fork would start mocking me and trick me into using it to eat with. Well, I ripped open the paper wrapper, split them in half, and began eating with them. And to my surprise it just clicked, I ate my whole meal with the fork glaring at me in jealousy. Starla saw me eating with them and decided to try it herself and she too ate her whole meal with chopsticks. I am now ready to eat in China Oh, and then for lunch today we had leftovers on a paper plate and wooden chopsticks- no dishes, not even a fork- I like where this is headed!

I love this video and the story that surrounds it. Steven wrote this for his daughter that was adopted from China- actually Steven has a couple daughters adopted from China, but I am pretty sure this was written for his first one. It is heart warming.

Today marks a big day in our wait for our daughter, our paperwork has been logged in to China for 2 years! 2 whole years! That is 24 months, the wait was only suppose to be 8-10 months, so it has already been about 3 times longer. When will we get our referral you ask? GREAT question, I wish I could answer that. If I had to guess right now, I would say another 7-9 months, but it could be longer. In guessing, I am figuring 7 days average per referral period and since it is 9 weeks between where referrals are now and our LID, I figure 9 months. Now in that time there is also a week period the CCAA was closed last year for Chinese New Year, and there is always the fact they could do a little more then 7 days per month- that is where I come up with 7 months. Guess time will tell.

Wish I could say we were going to celebrate tonight, but for some reason this doesn’t seem like a celebratory event.

Today begins a new year, the Year of the Rat, specifically the Earth Rat. You can read more about this zodiac sign here. It sure sounds like if our daughter is not born yet, and is born in the year of the rat, that she will be quite the handful. The key traits are intelligent, honest, hard-working, controlling, obstinate, and manipulative. But the Rat is also loving, so the challenge will pay plenty of rewards.

There are celebrations all over China to celebrate this time of year. It is the biggest time of the year to travel to see family and the whole country just about shuts down. Let’s not forget the adversity that is still facing millions of Chinese citizens and thousands of babies in orphanages as storms continue to wreak havoc in the country. Last I heard there has been a break in the weather although everything is still pretty icy and more weather is expected soon. Please continue to pray that basic needs can be met.

Parts of China are experiencing it’s worse winter weather in over 50 years. There are major power outages due to power plants running out of coal, water pumping stations are not running, buildings have collapsed. Due to the transportation system being shutdown there are major food shortages and the weather has killed off the winter crops. Here is a CNN article about the storm.

This has had a very hard impact on many of the orphanages in China. Nannies are having a very difficult time getting to work, there are diaper and food shortages. In some areas the hospitals are closed and children are sick. With food costs skyrocketing they are having a hard time purchasing staple foods for the children. Half The Sky foundation (a very dedicated charity that does lots of orphanage work all year round) is working very hard to try to get the orphanages what they need. Needless to say there are logistical challenges as well as financial challenges. Please take a moment to check out what they are doing to help here. Please take a moment to consider helping this organization.

Also on my mind today, I can’t help but wonder how this weather is affecting our little daughter as she waits to come home. Is she in an affected area of the country? Is she sick and cold or fortunate to be safe and warm? I can only hope that God is looking over her and keeping her safe as I pray for every day. I wish she could be home safe home with us right now. I wonder how much this will impact referrals in the upcoming months. Obviously the orphanages are in survival mode right now and will not be working on getting paperwork to the CCAA. This is such a tragedy on so many different levels.

My poor dog, little does he know the public humiliation he is subjected to, I hope dogs never learn to surf the Internet. I was playing with him and Starla took some pictures of my practicing my french braiding on him

Practicing

And done!

Oh well, something to pass the time.

Merry Christmas to everyone! What a time to celebrate and reflect on the meaning of Christmas and how humbling it is.

May this Christmas find you all well and happy. May this Christmas find Mikayla warm and safe and comfortable.

This coming Friday night, December 21 @ 8PM Eastern/Pacific, there is an Adoption inspired concert on CBS called 9th Annual Home for the Holidays Concert. It will star Sheryl Crow, James Blunt, Reba McEntire, George Lopez, others, and they will have adoption stories. I am excited to see this, and excited to see an event like this in the mainstream media, encouraging adoption. Apparently there have been 8 others of these and my head has been in the sand.

The wait has officially hit a 2 year wait for those adopting from China. The CCAA has sent referrals to those parents whose dossiers were logged in through December 14, 2005. This means that those with a LID of 12/15/05 have now waited 2 years and there is  no sign of a speed up anytime soon, so the wait is going to continue to grow.

We have been waiting about 22 months now and are looking at a referral around the middle of 2008, which means our wait will be around 29 months. We are getting closer but it is still a long wait.

Here in the USA, today is our national day to give thanks and think about the things we are grateful for.  I am thankful for so many things, many of those things I do not even think of everyday but I should. I am grateful for such a wonderful wife, who is willing to sacrifice so much for family. I am thankful for family, our health, and having a good job. Most of all I am thankful for Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made so that we may have eternal life… a gift I sure don’t deserve but am humbled to be the recipient of.

This time last year, I thought our daughter would be home with us now. I am afraid to think the same of next year but it is highly likely she will.  Mikayla, We think about you each and every day. I pray for you so many times every day, that you are healthy and have peace knowing we are coming to get you. Hang in there, we will be there as soon as we can.

To everyone- HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

New York brought her A game, she was ready for us and wore us out. It was so good though, so fun, and we saw so much. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Times Square, all the “tourist” sights. We walked around Chinatown and Little Italy and had pizza a couple times- New York style pizza, it was good. We saw the David Letterman show (which was great, Letterman laid into Richard Simmons, it was hilarious), then we went and saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway- that was AWESOME! The next day we also saw the Human Body Exhibition which was great. On our last day we took the double decker tour bus around and saw the rest of the sights.

It was one of the best vacations ever.

Hope the big city is ready for us, hope it can survive the wild duo that we are! It took us 2 days of driving to get here but we also stopped at Hershey, PA- you know the place, Chocolate World. And then took a little side trip through Amish country in Lancaster County. That was neat but not what I expected. Lots of cars and modern homes out there, though I suppose if you get deeper into the countryside things are probably different. I wonder how they feel about society pushing in on their borders. We did see some true Amish people though in their horse and buggies.

Next stop was New York, we got here just as it got dark. Traffic here is pretty rough, its been awhile since I have been in big city traffic, but my LA skills kicked back in pretty quick. The city (from across the river) is breathtaking and we went to Liberty State Park and saw the Statue of Liberty at night. I couldn’t believe I was actually looking at her! I kept looking past her, past Ellis Island, and into the heart of Lower Manhattan. I never saw the World Trade Center towers before they were attacked, but I can’t get over the fact that there were two building, that dwarfed the rest of these huge skyscrapers, and they both collapsed. I try to imagine the skyline with those two giants and it is so hard to picture.

Today we are going to Lower Manhattan, Staten Island, China Town, WTC site, and I don’t know what else. We might try to get on the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island.

Here are some pictures. I found out last night that my camera does not take good night distance shots so sorry about the quality.