Our get-away

We took a mini-vacation over Memorial Day weekend. We went to St Augustine. We have visited the town for short day trips but have never stayed overnight. We stayed in a great bed and breakfast for 2 nights. We had a wonderful time shopping and touring the town. We visited historic churches and the first luxury hotel built in 1888. There are lots of little shops, restaurants and historic sites all intertwined along the main street. We went to our favorite restaurants called Columbia's and Athena's. A Cuban restaurant and Greek restaurant that have fantastic food. Here are a few pictures. The first is the view we had from our private balcony and the second is the room we stayed in.

Our Anniversary

Jeepers, i didn't realize that it's been that long since i last posted.

We celebrated our 15 year anniversary this month. That's a big one. One of those dates you kind of measure where you will be when you first get married. We dreamed we would have a home, have traveled the world and have kids by now. Since we are still working on the kids and we will travel to China some day, we decided to treat ourselves to a huge home improvement. Something that we can spend lots of time relaxing and entertaining in.

We are building a large screened in patio in our back yard. We have a very small back yard that we never utilize, so we wanted something to use as an extension of our home, maybe a second living room. It will be 26'x14' with a screened enclosure. We also have plans on buying a hot tub.
I will upload pictures when it is completed.

Chapman Family

Steven Curtis Chapman is best know as a Christian singer but he is also well known in the adoption community. He has adopted 3 children from China and has an organization that helps families finance their adoptions if needed. My heart breaks for their family as they deal with such great loss this week.

NASHVILLE, TN...5/21/08. .. At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Thursday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family's six children and one of their three adopted daughters.
More than five years ago, Chapman and his wife MaryBeth founded The Shaohannah's Hope Ministry after bringing their first adopted daughter, Shaohannah, home from China. The ministry's goal is to help families reduce the financial barrier of adoption, and has provided grants to over 1700 families wishing to adopt orphans from around the world.

http://www.stevencurtischapman.com

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357046,00.html

24 months

Next week will be our 2 year anniversary for our LID in China. Yes, we have been waiting 2 long years with no end in sight. This month the CCAA did 4 days of referrals. They are currently at Jan 12. They have done 29 days of referrals in the last 5 months. I guess i write all this to say: at the rate they are moving we will be lucky to see our referral in about 2 more years. We will continue to wait patiently because we know our daughter is going to be waiting for us in China.

Awesome Find

One night while DH and I were walking around our neighborhood and we saw this table out on the curb ready for the trash. I don't know if you can see it but it is a table in beautiful condition, with dancing asian women on a black surface. It must have been interesting watching us try to carry this table home... :)

There is a movement now of people who only decorate their homes or eat food that is found. They are called free-gans. Ok, we are totally not that desparate but we do love that occasional good find!

Secret Buddy

I joined a baby gift swap group last year, and for 8 months my secret buddy sent me themed gifts. This is one of them. It says,

"Be a butterfly, spread your wings and whatever life brings, be true to you--be you-nique. Let the Lord guide you to the beauty inside you, and you'll find the joy that you seek."

I also received a baby ladybug braclet, halloween items, beach items and a cool floating themometer for the bath. Thanks secret buddy!

We Filed Again

In order to make the April 1st deadline we had to file our i-600 form again.This time unfortunately we only had about 1 day notice. We scrambled to get our copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate and homestudy together. DH was out of town until Tuesday night, so we got our cashier's check and FedEx'd the package Wed morning.

So we should be set for another 18 months! Again!

TTFN

Hague Accreditation

Our agency is waiting to be accredited for the Hague. China is a Hague country so all adoption agencies must pay to be part of this group. Our agency had some problems in the past and now this may delay or agencies accreditation or even have them denied. Where do we stand? If our agency does not get accredited then we can not continue our adoption through this agency. Our dossier will be transfer to another agency. If we let our I171h expire and our agency is not accredited then we will loose our adoption. We will be on our third renewal of these forms at the end of this year. This next time we renew, it will have to be a new form--the I800 and it is a much longer tedious form to fill out. April will be our 23 month of waiting! We should travel in the fall of 2009. Only 18 more months. :0(

Info about China

Think about this: There are almost as many honor students in China as there are students in the U.S.
In 2005, there were 74.9 million children under age 18 in the United States
In 2005 there were 352.7 million children under age 18 in China (source)
If you figure the top 20% of the population are the honor students, then China has 70.6 million honor students. I’ll say it again: There are almost as many honor students in China as there are students in the U.S.
To further think about this, then realize that China has around 14 million college students and in the U.S. there were 15.9 million people in college in 2004 (source). They have almost five times as many kids as we do, and yet almost the same number attend college. I’ve been told that it’s harder for a Chinese student to make it into a relatively unknown college in China than it is for an American student to make it into Harvard in the U.S.