Hips - We have a problem...

Wow - tonight was a total let down... We purchased candy for about 100 kids. I LOVE handing out the candy and seeing all the costumes on the kids - especially the really little ones. The ones who are not really sure what they are doing out there in the first place are the cutest!!

As I said, we purchased candy (chocolate bars) for about 100 kids. Well I decided to count this year - really count with paper and pen and everything - as every year I kinda 'guesstimate'. Well this year we had 36 kids!!! Now remember, we bought candy for 100 kids!

Hips - we have a problem!!!!

Sunday and Monday...

Well Sunday dinner was great at Di & Dom's. Linda joined us too (a different Linda from the other post). We had a traditional Sunday dinner - roast, mashed potatoes and veggies - YUMMY!! I forgot my camera so I don't have any photos of the night. However, I do have one thing to say - 2 pocket doors!!!

Tonight was all about Stephanie.



Stephanie is our niece & goddaughter. She is in first year at Wilfred Laurier University. She is living in residence. Since her midterms were done last week, today was the day that we picked to get out there and take her for dinner.

Steph picked Swiss Chalet for dinner. We had a great meal and a great evening. We are so proud of her! She has really blossomed at university. She has definitely grown into a beautiful young lady!!

After dinner we took a drive around Waterloo and then Steph took us for a tour around her campus. VERY cool campus.

Again we are lucky to have had two great days with friends and family.

Busy Weekend

Well Mark and I have been busy - as usual...well sort of busy. Not really as busy as we usually are - sort of...

Anyway - Friday was a BAD day!!!! I found out from our agency's weekly newsletter that yet ANOTHER group of files had been sent to China and ours was NOT in it. I am crossing EVERYTHING in hopes that it will go next week. The wait is KILLING me!

So needless to say I was a wreck yesterday. In this journey, one week or one day can make such a HUGE difference, even when we are talking about a 15 month wait.

I am thinking that Dolores might be feeling the same way as we are 2 days apart in our waiting and we are thinking we are going to be in the same group.

Friday night was a write off.

But what better way to make things better then spending time with fantastic friends. Mark and I are VERY LUCKY to have such a large group of very supportive friends.

Tonight we were in Port Hope and had a great night with great friends.



We were celebrating Linda and Beth's birthdays - they are the two in the front centre. In every picture that we took, the other Linda (front right) had her eyes closed - sorry Linda!!

I really must say that the funniest part of the evening was looking at Beth & Joan's Costco cards. I wish I had a copy to share with you. All of us were laughing SO MUCH. I am sure that anyone else out there who has a membership thinks that they have a hideous picture, but let me tell you - you put the two of these together and anyone else would be hard pressed to say theirs were worse - I am still laughing about it now when I think about it...

But anyway - tomorrow we are again busy. We are going to Di & Dom's for dinner. Again I say how lucky we are!! I will try and remember my camera so I can post a picture.

Since I have been blogging, I have been carrying my camera everywhere - it is great! I never used to bother with it, but I am so glad that I am getting into the swing of it. Posts are so much better when there are pictures!!

Tonight we get to change the clocks - I am looking forward to the extra hour sleep in. I am HOPING that it makes it easier to get up on Monday morning...

It IS going to happen...

Sometimes in this journey, you are convinced that it is NEVER going to happen...you are never going to get your baby...well that is where I am right now. It has been almost 11 months since we started on this and we are not even DTC (Dossier to China)!!!! China doesn’t even know that we exist yet – how discouraging. When we first started in January 2006, we were told if we started RIGHT now, that we would have "pumpkin" in 1 ½ years...

I do know that most people have been going through this MUCH longer then I have and that I am going to have to develop MORE patience, but I guess I am prepared for the wait once the file is there (or so I say now), but I was not prepared for the wait in order to get the file there.

I guess the frustrating part (one of them) about adopting is that no one else is going to take the same time/care/energy/effort etc. in our 'case' then we would. To everyone else involved in the whole process (SW, CB, CCAA etc) it is a job, to us it is our LIFE! I know that most of you know this already.

We were hoping to be DTC this week, but that doesn’t look like it is going to happen either – but I digress...

Today was about seeing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that it WILL happen.

There was a posting on the Children's Bridge chatline that said there were 5 families coming in from China today with their babies. Mark and I both left work early and decided that we NEEDED to go to the airport to re-assure ourselves that there WAS light at the end of the tunnel. We saw all 5 babies and they were priceless!!

We were introduced to Ava-Rose (now I have to try and find if they have a blog or not) and she was ADORABLE - we didn't get her parents names, but I guess that is what happens when you become parents, your child always comes first!!

It was a FANTASTIC experience. The parents looked SO happy to be home and show off the newest editions to their families - it was touching and tearing...

In short (or long - as this is becoming), I would recommend this to anyone who lives near an airport and would have the opportunity to do this - it can give you a boost - just when you need it!!!

Girlfriends are Great!

This is Lorri. Well I had dinner tonight with Lorri. Lorri and I have been friends for almost 20 years - HOLY CRAP!!! 20 years!!! We met in first year university and were roommates from second year on.

We try to get together every month for dinner - or at least every other month. The older you get, the busier you get, the further you live apart from each other, the harder it is to find the time that both of you are free. Today was the day and we only had to rebook once I think!!! Currently Lorri and I live about 75km apart, so we try and meet somewhere in the middle(ish). Today we met at Jack Astor's (not one of my favourite places) but tonight it was actaully pretty good.

Lorri and I have been through a LOT together and sometimes I am surprised that our friendship weathered all that and we are still friends - but I guess that is what friends are - through the good times and the bad times.

We had a great night and I told Lorri that I was going to make her "famous" by putting her on my blog - LOL!!

HELP!!!

I was surfing the "blog scene" a couple of days ago and came across a blog of a family who were adopting from China. The lady "host" of the blog had an entry where she showed pictures of the many sweaters she had knit in anticipation of her coming child.

I CAN'T FIND THIS BLOG AGAIN...can anyone out there help me???

Thanks!

Wal-Mart needs a new name...

Yes, it is true - Wal-Mart needs a new name.

Here is what I have come up with - "THE HUNDRED DOLLAR STORE!!"

On Saturday Mark and I were popping by Wal-Mart to buy a bottle of shampoo. JUST a bottle of shampoo.

A $114 later - we walked out of the store.

I don't think it is possible to go in there and spend less then $100. I don't know that I have ever been able to.

You think to yourself, I am not going to spend this time and then you think, I am just going to walk over here and look at this or that. It happens slowly - you see somthing that catches your eye and it is only $6.94. While you are looking at the $6.94 "deal", something else catches your eye and it is at the bargain price of $15.87. Then of course, something else catches your eye - and well - you get the picture!!!

So needless to say, $114 later, we walk out of the store. I must say, that is one EXPENSIVE bottle of shampoo!!!

I am a lucky girl...

Well Wednesday was my father-in-law Jürgen’s 65 birthday!!! Happy Belated Birthday Jürgen!!!

Tonight, we had Mercy and Jürgen (Mark’s parents) and Jenn & Paul & Kids (Jenn is Mark’s sister) over for dinner.

We had "THAT" salad and FAJITAS at Jürgen’s request and of course CAKE!! You can’t have a birthday party without cake! We decided on a Mexican theme...

Mark went out and purchased the “party favours”. There were streamers, signs, hats and leis (so they are not Mexican - but they are fun).

Our dining room table would comfortably fit 4 people – if you REALLY had to squish in 6 you could do it (as long as there was not too much food or there would be no room for the plates, cutlery and glasses). In anticipation of having 8 for dinner tonight, Mark and I decided it was time to do something about the table.

Our dining room table is quite small – which is good because our dining room is quite small. However, when having a dinner party you need more space. We had heard of something from a friend – Rob – who suggested that we can keep our current table and construct a “leaf” for the table.

What this meant was a piece of plywood cut to the size we wanted (7’ x 3 ½’) and then cut in half. What we did then was put a hinge in the middle of the two pieces and then placed it ON TOP of the current table. Throw a table cloth on top of it and BOOM you have a very comfortable table for 8!!!



For those of you who know Mark and I, you know that constructing ANYTHING is quite a feat!!! I am very proud of Mark and our “new” table. The beauty of it is that it folds in half and stores neatly in the basement!!

ANYWAY – when I started this blog entry I called it “I am a lucky girl…” well I am - for MANY reasons. The particular reason I stated it here was because I have GREAT “in-laws”. I know there are MANY people out there who are not a lucky as I am. My in-laws are WONDERFUL people and I enjoy spending time with all of them. They are all very warm, kind, caring and loving! They are all very excited about becoming grandparents and aunts and uncles again. I am not sure that Logan understands that he is going to have more cousins, but by the time that they arrive, he will be old enough to understand and Saige, well, she will be about 3 when the ‘pumpkin/s’ arrive and she will enjoy playing with them.

We had a great night tonight at dinner, lots of laughs and we all ate too much!!

Still Waiting...

Well as of today - it has been 21 days since we received approval from the Ministry. We are still waiting for Children's Bridge to translate our dossier and forward it to China. We are told it generally takes 4 -5 weeks for this to happen.

At this point in time, China doesn't even know we exist...

I have dreams that they are going to shut down international adoptions and only the files that they currently have are going to be processed...that has led to a few sleepless nights!

Even when we are told that we are DTC (Dossier to China), it might be another 6 -8 weeks before we hear what our LID (Log In Date) is...What a nice Christmas present that would be!

Well those are my thoughts for the day...

More pictures

O.k. I will try this again...

Here is Mark deciding that he DIDN'T miss his calling as a bobsledder...



And this is the view from our unit...

Lake Placid is Beautiful!

Well if anyone was wondering why I didn’t post for a week (if you care…), Mark and I were in Lake Placid. I must say that it is a beautiful village.

Mark and I had a FANTASTIC time. Our unit was great – 2 bedrooms, loft, fireplace, fully equipped kitchen, hot tub, sauna, 2 bathrooms, a two story window overlooking the lake – all in our unit.







This is a picture in our unit that Mark particularly liked - we named it "DANCING BEARS"



We took a gondola ride up to the top of Whiteface Mountain – that is where the 1932 and 1980 Olympic downhill skiing events were held. It was cool. We got our own gondola. It is a 15 minute trip up the mountain and, obviously, a 15 minute trip down the mountain. The views were gorgeous while we where up there.

Here are some views from the mountain, including LAKE PLACID:




For the most part the weather was great.

We did some shopping and just wondering down the main street in the Village was great. There were so many cute little shops.

Mark decided that he DIDN'T miss his calling of being a bobsledder...



Of course the leaves were BEAUTIFUL – it was the perfect time to be in the mountains looking at them. They were SO pretty. Here are some pics from our unit - this was our daily view...

Apparently the pictures are not all working - I will post them later...

We didn’t want to come home...

But - home we are and now we will continue ‘BLOGGING’. Of course, I have to think of something interesting to “blog” about when there is no news from the agency as to when the documents are going to be on their way to China (DTC).

The New Name...

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 15, 2006 - 10:09AM

I recevied many suggestions for names for the new blog - THANKS!!! I have come up with a new name - Waiting for Pumpkin!! Why Pumpkin you ask? Well when I was a kid - and into adulthood - my father always called me Pumpkin. Based on that, and I think it is a cute nickname and that I will probably call my daughter/daughters the same name, so I thought that an appropriate name for the site.

The link will be: http://waiting-for-pumpkin.blogspot.com/
I am still in the process of bringing things over, but when I do, this blog will no longer be available.

Many people adopting from China have their new daughters name in the title of their blog. Well Mark and I have decided to keep the name of our daughter/daughters to ourselves for now. When we get closer to the time of getting her/them, then we will let everyone know her/their names.

We are thinking of a name change...

ORIGINALLY POSTED OCTOBER 4, 2006 - 8:24AM

Just a warning - I can't get the spell check to work on this blog...so be warned....

I am starting to get the hang of this blog thing...I just get to type away and people read it...kinda weird actually.

The name (address) of our blog contains our name - of course you already know that cause you are reading this!!!

In looking at other blogs and seeing the great names (addresses) that others have named theirs...

Many of them have the name of their new baby in title or a family name, but we are looking for something...different.

Anyone have any ideas of what we can call the new blog...

Stay turned for the new name (address)...and link.

We have the paper!

ORIGINALLY POSTED OCTOBER 2, 2006 - 8:28PM

Well it arrived in the mail today - our official approval from the Ministry of Ontario!!! We were just giddy when we got home from work today.

Hopefully we get a DTC (documents to China) quickly. We are guessing/thinking it will be about 4-5 weeks. The next step after that is to wait for our LID (log-in date). From your LID, you are looking at about 12 months or so for a referral.

We can all keep our fingers crossed that China hires a whole bunch more people and they push everyone through - It has apparently happened before...

This is all becoming sooo real. We have joined some chatlines to talk with other families who are in the same position as us. Haven't been on one yet - all in good time - and we are certainly going to have LOTS of time between now and baby/babies arriving...

Well it is nice to have something to report here...

We survived!!!

ORIGINALLY POSTED OCTOBER 1, 2006 - 6:59PM

Now that we have started this blog, I have to remember to get in the habit of adding to it on a fairly regular schedule.

Well we survived our "trial parenting" last night. We had our nieces and nephew for the night.

We had a GREAT night!!! We took the kids to McDonalds playland - Wow, I am amazed at how many times they can climb up and down!! We all ate our food BEFORE we headed to playland and had a great time.

After that we headed to our house watched a bit of Magic School Bus (those are REALLY good videos) and then they WANTED to go to bed - can you believe it!!!

We brushed teeth, went pee (I remembered this time - unlike last time...), read a story and then lights out. It was the first time that K and L had slept with someone else. We were prepared for the worst...They were both asleep within 5 minutes - and stayed asleep ALL night!!! S - the cutie pie, went out right away too!!

7:00 this morning was get up time - not too bad. We had orange juice popsicles. They are so cute and think they are getting one over on you, having a popsicle in the morning. Then we had cereal. We bought those little boxes that we used to love when we were kids. I made sure that there was at least 2 of each kind so there was no fighting. Turns out that they wanted different kinds anyway. S wasn't too interested in eating this morning - until the toast. She quite enjoyed that and bananas and goldfish are always a hit!

Then we watched MONSTERS INC. What a fabulous movie that is...then - BOOM - mummies and daddies arrived.

Husband and I had a little nap this afternoon - I do believe that we are recovered. Now we are getting settled and looking forward to watching the Amazing Race!!

I am going to have to dig out the camera and start adding pictures to this site.

Until I remember to write again....

WE GOT APPROVAL!!!

ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 - 9:16PM

Today we received a call from our adoption agency informing us that our HOMESTUDY was approved by the Ministry!!!

The translation has now begun. It will take approximately 4 - 5 weeks for this to be completed and forwarded to China.

So now the long wait begins!!!!

The Process...

ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 - 8:52PM

For those of you who are not familiar with the process, we will let you know the basic "jist" of it...

The paperchase: The process started in January of 2006 when Husband and I discussed adoption. We attended an information session to introduce us to international adoption. We spoke non-stop about it for quite a while before deciding to embark on such an adventure. We chose China as the process and timelines are the most reliable and predictable.

Step one was to contact an adoption practitioner who was approved by the Ministry of Ontario. We made contact with her in February. She was unable to assist us until April. That is when the fun started!!!

While having many visits with our Adoption Practitioner (approximately 15 hours in total), we were also in the process of gathering the NUMEROUS documents that were required. These included complete physicals, letters from family, friends and co-workers, fingerprints, police checks from RCMP and our local police and the list goes on and on.

Our "homestudy" along with all the accompanying documents are put together to create our "DOSSIER". This was then forwarded to our adoption consultants who then forwarded it to the Ministry of Children & Youth Services for approval.

Once approved, our dossier will be translated and sent to China for matching with a child. This is where the wait really begins.

Once you have a Log In Date (LID), it will take anywhere from 12-14 months until we meet our daughter or daughters!!

So there it is in a nutshell - and now we are waiting for approval from the Ministry...

ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 25, 2006 - 4:24PM

Well here we are - our first BLOG.

Jenn suggested creating a blog so that family and friends can follow along with our Journey of a Lifetime!!!

Not quite sure yet what to write in a blog - I am sure that as time goes on and there is more to report, it will get easier to write things.
Right now I am just seeing how this all works...

We would love to hear from anyone who reads this so that we know it is getting read!!

Until next time...

The New Name...

Well here it is - the new name for the website...