Still here but not Online Often

I haven't updated the blog since the holidays and I thought it was time to post a quick note.  I received a couple of emails from other blogger friends asking about my absence and was everything OK.  Honestly, I haven't had much enthusiasm to update. I've kinda withdrawn and been a bit out of sorts about our adoption.  I'm usually a pretty upbeat person but the lack of adoption news, and movement as gotten me very down.  I haven't checked in much, but I have left a few comments here and there.  I really do enjoy reading about the fun happenings with the families I have "met" in blog world.  And I  LOVE to see the pictures!! I apologize if I have neglected someone in my absence.  It wasn't intentional to be mean.

Our adoption has been the opposite of an adventure. An adventure would mean that something was happening.  In our case, nothing has happened.  We have updated our fingerprints in the fall, (not that they have changed, but rules are rules) extended our USICS paperwork, we were approved and recently updated/renewed our home study.  We look great on paper and I have some good pictures too.  We have hit the official two year waiting (for a referral) milestone in April, so as I type this we are going into 26 months waiting for the referral of a precious boy.  I never in my wildest night mare thought we would be at this point.  It has been so frustrating and worrisome. Will it EVER happen for us???  Some days I am good, focus on the kids, their projects & activities, my great husband Chris, the laundry (that never stops) and my Mom.  And other days, I think Ooo, that's a great picture for the blog, or here's a funny happening from our weekend, but then I wonder if I'll ever get to post - It's a referral! Some days I feel like we are the only family still waiting for a referral.  :-(  So I wind up not posting anything.

This blog was to be about our Taiwan adoption and I feel like I have nothing to contribute.  Nothing has happened.  Please understand that I don't intend to be sad or absent, the wait is HARD!!  I know some other moms have been there and gotten through, so I try to be strong and keep hoping that it will be our turn some day, SOON!

Until that day happens I will try to update the blog with more pictures of the kids.  Lately alot has been going on with them and as school winds down (thankfully so does the homework) I can share what they have been doing.  My dining room table, our normal staging area for projects and such, has been very busy, as usual, and it's latest project, I am VERY proud of.  Our adoption file is still there waiting to be mailed, copied, and put to use, but the kids have kept it full too.

Until then, if you have stopped by, please understand my absence and frustration.
Still trying to be patient.....and hopeful

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays !!!!

I haven't forgotten my friends and families! I would like to apologize for not leaving a note more often. I have peeked in on alot of my favorite families over the past few months, and I give ALOT of credit to those moms who can squeeze in the time to post a note, and add a comment. Especially those who add the pictures - I always love the pictures! I've seen so many cute pictures in their scariest to the best dressed, or even just the big smiles.

As the holiday season comes to a close and the New Year begins.....I am finally making the time to update our blog. To recap the past few months, our Halloween was frightful, with many ghouls and goblins and way tooo much candy! Fortunately I work with a bunch of great people that don't mind the leftovers. Here's a peek at the girls "group".....the boys weren't waiting for anything. Sorry, no picture.Our Thanksgiving holiday starting off with hosting my niece's baby shower... there were little baby ducks and the color blue everywhere......

Everyone had a great time, Meg received some wonderful gifts and I got some great baby ideas, (now I just need the baby to put them to use, sigh). This will be her first child and we are expecting baby Colin after the first of the year. There weren't as many leftovers from this party, and I was able to clear off the dining room table to get started on Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving we had the entire family over again. Fed about 20 people. I think I cooked 10-12 lbs of potatoes, this group loves 'em mashed! Our turkey was every bit of 20 lbs, and Chris had enough for his annual week of turkey sandwiches. Two pumpkin pies, gone. My mom was able to be here and that made my day. She doesn't get out and about alot these days, so it was really nice to have her here.

After cleaning off the dining room table again, on to Christmas. It then became the staging area for the gifts to be wrapped, mailed, and cards to be sent. While we were out and about preparing for the special day we received another blessing. One that last for several days. We were blessed to have a White Christmas here in our neck of the woods for the first time, in many, many, years. SNOW, and a lot of it. This was Saturday evening.......

This is our back deck, just before turning in for the night. Chris cleaned it off twice before this picture, and you would never know it!!!

These are taken first thing in the morning.......

The snow was as deep as the swings, almost covered and our pool looked like a giant marshmallow!

Here is an example of the rewards by feeding your leftovers to your co-workers.......

I try to think of it as a perk for working for a construction company! He was a wonderful sight coming up the street, Adam was very happy! He could retire his shovel!! :-)

A week later we STILL had all 27" of snow, making our Christmas the whitest one this area has seen in a long while!

Santa finally arrives filling the space under the tree bringing his bounty of gifts for the house to enjoy for the children have been very good.

I didn't take many pictures of the unwrapping, but no one was disappointed. (except me for not having the camera ready) Adam was blessed with a new sound system as this was a gift that will keep on giving......me a headache! :-) (Mom received a full bottle of Tylenol) The volume wars have already begun! He received a few new video games and many clothes to keep him at this fashion best. Santa was very fashion minded this year as Emily finally was able to wear the coat she spotted several weeks earlier. Santa's elves are the cleverest helpers picking things up when the Big Guy was unavailable. (Thanks to my very special elf named C !)

I tried to capture a few pictures of their gifts in motion, since I missed them that morning...Emily is always ready to smile, and she put on all of her fav's to model....the beret, the scarf, the coat and of course the matching boots.......

Adam was not so willing so, please don't mind the clutter of our basement, it's a "catch all" of things......do I hear a note for spring cleaning?

Christmas Day we had the family over again but the crowd was a bit lighter, Mom wasn't feeling her best and the weather had gotten very cold, so my requests for mashed potatoes was a little lighter. It was a fun day with the little ones running around. My youngest niece discovered that a few of Auntie Terry's stuffed animals sing! She just kept playing with them and didn't have any desire to open any gifts -

she is so cute!!

Our New Year's Eve was a very quiet day and evening. We both had to work part of the day, so we just enjoyed dinner out with my brother and sister in law and their children. As of tomorrow morning, it's back to the normal routine.....school, work, dance, bowling, homework and the busyiness that our house thrives on.

On our adoption story, we are still in wait mode. Ugg. Our I-600A renewal will be sent out tomorrow to the new address in Texas. In another couple of months, I will be updating all of our documents. In April it will be the two year mark waiting for a referral of a precious baby for our family. I am wishing and praying that we do not hit that anniversary date and we hear some wonderful news sooner!!! I have all these new baby ideas I'd like to try! Please keep us in your thoughts and maybe the new year will bring us some good news! I will be doing all of the spring cleaning earlier this year to help pass the time.

I'd like to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year! Wishing and praying that good things come to everyone, from our house to yours!!!

Catching up.....Again

WHO gets the award for the least amount of posts....? Umm, that would be ME! I have a million things I would love to update here, but time is my biggest enemy. Or I should say, the lack of time is my biggest enemy. Our days are very busy as I am sure most parents, would agree. It seems when I would like some extra time, it eludes me, but when I would like the time to pass faster, it just drags on, and on, and on, and on. So let's start there, time dragging on. Yes, we are still waiting and hoping for a referral of our sweet baby boy. It's been eighteen months now and we recently had to renew our fingerprints for USCIS. Made me wonder......my fingerprints haven't changed, and if I was going to change something, it certainly wouldn't be my fingerprints! Maybe a tummy tuck, cheek lift, something to improve, kinda thing, but hey, rules are rules so we made the trek to their office, and we have been updated. After the holidays I will submit for the I600A renewal. I never thought we would have to renew that paperwork, so I will add it to the list to update with our homestudy, dossier, and pictures. The hubby will just love that idea....(insert sarcasm) ....he doesn't like his picture taken. I'll think of some bribery tool to get it done.

Let's move on to pictures.....I love taking them, they are not always the best, but it's fun! I have a boatload of them from our trip this summer to Lake George NY and to Lake DuBay in Wisconsin. This one is at Lake George, Adam was our photographer for this shot. Beautiful place, met up with some old friends. Awesome fireworks that echoed through the mountains, really neat. Our next summer adventure took us to Wisconsin. And we drove, all the way, one and half days. Our kids are great travelers and sleepers, what a blessing. Here we spent a few days at the Wisconsin Dells, what a fun place with something for everyone. The weather wasn't the best, but we still had fun. We then headed north to Lake DuBay for our annual China Families Reunion. We have been meeting with them each year since the girls were adopted. We all met in Hong Kong as new parents to our little girls. To this day we still talk, catch up and see how much all the girls have grown. For 12 yrs now each family takes a turn hosting in or near their hometown.....we have been all over! Columbus Ohio, Wisconsin x2, Myrtle Beach SC, Memphis and Gatlinburg TN, New York City, Cape May NJ, Kansas City Missouri, Niagara Falls Canada, just to name a few. Not each family can make it each year, but we all try. There were 12 baby girls that trip to Nanchang China, and it is so much fun to see the similarities. Of the 12 girls, 9 of them are left handed, 7 participate in sports, dance or gymnastics, 5 play a musical instrument, most like to read, and 8 of the families have adopted again. Pretty Awesome, very

LARGE Group! Can you say reservations for 40 please? Heaven help the Chinese restaurant we go to at a reunion with everyone and their entire families in attendance. Some even bring the grandparents too. Here are the few that attended this year, five of the original girls, and their two little sisters. Even if some families can't make it, we still talk through the year, birthdays, holidays, or just catching up. This year all the kids got to try some fun lake sports..... Emily, her turn water skiing.

I love this smile! Not sure what he said or was saying, but he loves the water! Adam skied like a pro, until he got a little too over confident and he tried to jump the boat wake, practically split his bathing suit right up the middle and almost landed in the lake. He complained of a slight thigh/groin strain, so I told him to stay in the lake, float around for a bit, and the cool water will keep any swelling down. He was good after some rest. Ahh, boys! Gotta love 'em! We had so many great times... this is how we started our evenings.......the sun setting while we started the campfire for stories, games and roasting marshmallows.

As summer ended, we closed the season with a 70th birthday party for my mom, including my brother and his family from down south. About 35 friends and family came to celebrate Mom on her speical day. Every once in a while I still find a piece of the curling ribbon that held the balloons on the deck, needing to be cut. Chris finished the pool deck and he did a fantastic job! I called it Chris's Ark as he doubled checked each screw and measured and RE-measured each board, I don't think Noah took as much time as Chris did, LOL! :-) Adam says his dad can fix anything and I think Adam is right! We had a few parties to celebrate summer and I think I have enough plastic silverware to last two summers. Note to self ~ Buying bulk isn't always the best idea. Then it was time to head back to school. So we did all the shopping for just the right binder, shoes, so many shoes, and cool pencils. My kids think it's un-Cool to let Mom take your picture on the first day, so sorry no pictures. But I did get to watch them walk to the bus stop, only permitted if I stay on the front porch. The only one that everyone agreed on is this one.....oh my, they are growing up fast!

Next up, lots of projects for school (already finished four), plenty of driving practice, dance, concert band, and Halloween !! Oooh, spooky fun! Fall is alot of fun and there is always something going on! Finally the weather cleared up here after three days of rain, just in time to go back to work. Go figure, right? Well this weekend, we will try to find some pumpkins to decorate the front porch. Enjoy the Fall !

Busyness Keeps (us) Going ......

Our June had a lot of running around, mostly the winding down of activities, and we even squeezed in a birthday with Father's Day. Emily finished up dance classes for the summer but not without a stumble this year. When you send your daughter to dance you imagine that she is learning grace, poise, and balance. This year Emily tested all those things, being over eager going to class one day, only a couple of weeks before the recital, this is what I was greeted with when I picked her up two hours later......not smiling though.

She was running up the concrete steps, tripped and scrapped both shins! Big Ouch! (Did I mention grace and balance?) She was trying not to limp when she walked, being very brave. It was worse than it looks and but Sp*ngeBob helps! She needed about 5 of those little strips to cover each scrape! Thankfully her tights covered them nicely as part of her costume. Here is one of her costumes for the show,
Pardon the background.....It was the best place to show off the costume. She is trying to be serious here; in this dance routine, the girls were to be serious, and not smile, but I kept making her giggle. She wore another outfit, totally black, very sequined and looked great on her, those pictures didn't turn out so well. I have helped out as a backstage mom for several years. So loaded with my bag of tricks, hairspray, every color of bobbie pins known to mankind, double sided tape, more bandaids, snacks and juice, I help the girls change costumes, hair pieces, and help keep them in the right order for the show. It is absolutely amazing! These girls dance in several numbers, having to change multiple times, and remember all the steps for each one. The best part is watching the younger girls look up to and learn from the older ones, and watch each one grow with confidence in them selves. I love being back there!! So much and energy and FUN !!












Dress rehearsal before the show. The theme was All Creatures Big and Small, so alot of animal prints. Reviewing places with our teacher. And this was her other teacher for jazz class - they could be sisters! Teacher M was also adopted from Korea as a little girl - another great connection! Needless to say the show was wonderful and all the girls, even the littlest ones who are sooo cute in their little tu-tu's had a great time. We start that all over again in September!


I can't forget my bestest guys..........Adam finished up his last year of baseball and tennis (for school). Adam is my hardest person to take a picture of, he doesn't like it. But while he was on the field I got him!



He looks very grown up and professional here. Oh my. It's hard to admit, but I have to look UP to see him eye to eye! He will always be my little boy playing with hotwheels on the kitchen floor, panicked when they roll under the refrigerator! Ahhh, memories. Here's my drama, lately he's looking at another type of car, this time ALOT bigger. I can't believe this part......driver's permit !! I want the hotwheels back !! (heavy sigh)

I had to face facts when his birthday came and he proudly reminded me of his new right of passage. Adam can get his driver's permit this summer. I'm still in denial!!! Probably will be until he comes home from the motor vehicle agency with the permit in hand. I know those hotwheels are in the attic somewhere, I might need them! Therapy. We had family and friends over for his favorite, ice cream cake. Mmmm, it was good too!


June brings Father's Day so I had Emily grab Chris, hoping for a group shot but Adam darted away again. Boys. I just love this picture.........
Our June ended in a very special way, compliments of the owner of the company I work for. He owns a very large boat, 70 feet of largeness. Each summer he has a few 'employee trips' and we get to bring spouses or friends along for the ride. Our evening takes place in New York Harbor. The whole night you are waited on by the crew and the staff, serving awesome food and drinks. I haven't been on this trip for many, many years and it is awesome each time! The weather was perfect, so was the company and no complaints were heard.













New York Harbor, just before the sun was setting. The captain actually took us right up to Ellis Island and the Statute of Liberty. It was sad not seeing the Twin Towers, but said a prayer for the lives lost that sad day.



Yep, going UNDER the Brooklyn Bridge as we head up the East River.













Looking down from the tower, taking a picture of Chris.......it was so cool to be up that high, the view was great!!

This was probably my favorite picture of the evening...........

Terry and Chris caught having a great time!!

In July we took a few road trips for vacation - More fun !!

Busyness Overload!

I promised myself that I would do my chores before I went online tonight, and well, I just couldn't wait......I can mop the kitchen floor and clean bathrooms tomorrow, right ? Who's looking anyway? Right now everyone is in bed! I have been a good parent, good cleaning lady, cook and chauffeur but a very bad blogger. I checked a couple of blogs and found so much good news ~ I can't stay away too long ever again!

First, lets update our adoption.........ummm, sorry , no news. We are still waiting. Some days are easier than others, the kids keep me busy, but there are a few days that hit kinda hard. My only way to look at it is that I am holding the winning lottery ticket with just the right numbers on it, but no one calls my numbers yet. I am still holding my ticket, check my numbers (email) everyday and wait. It's just not our turn yet. But when they do call that magic set of numbers (preferably my cell phone) I'm sure any one west of the Delaware River will know!!

On to our busyness.......I can honestly say that I am very glad that summer is here! The end of the school year just about kicked my butt and I'm not in school anymore. The kids got a couple of big projects (each) and I felt like I was at the craft store every couple of days. But I can say proudly (yep, I'm gonna brag abit) that both kids finished with all A's in all their classes. Emily is in enrichment classes and they follow the same course line, but more in depth. Adam took three honors classes and really worked hard the past two marking periods for finals. This is a picture of Emily's 3-D plant cell, ariel view. Lots of clay (no playdough permitted), Styrofoam and each part labeled, yes, her grade was an A. This is seventh grade science class. I can tell you that as a parent, projects are a lot more fun!

OK, it's still late May, for the purpose of this post anyway and we also had three band concerts (all in two weeks), and anniversary, and a few birthdays. Emily had one concert, at school, and she plays the clarinet in the school band. I couldn't get the camera to cooperate that night, but it was good. Catchy tunes, current songs, and a cool slide show of the graduating 8th graders.

Our anniversary fell on a Thursday this year, so my wonderful husband wanted to take me out to dinner and a show. He is soo thoughtful, and an awesome Dad. who could turn him down, right ?

Well here is dinner .........

And here was our show........ Although he had the best intentions, the family and kids took priority. We did go out later that weekend for an awesome meal, grownup talk and indulged in too much dessert, so we walked it off in a kid free (no 'I'm bored' stories) trip to L*wes, talking about more outside plans. Not very romantic, but it works for us.

Our next concert was for Adam at the high school and that was .....interesting. I'm not a music buff, but the music they played was involved, and seemed hard. But it was good, really good!!
Adam plays the French Horn and the Alto Sax. Doesn't he look handsome ?? I'm a little partial, I know, Mom's privilege! :-)

Our next concert was at the Camden Riversharks game - the middle school band had the honor to play the National Anthem at opening ceremonies. Parents weren't permitted on this trip, (I would have loved to watch too ) and the school will not publicly release the pictures. I tried to add the link for the Riversharks, but it is not working for me tonight. Our band director said the kids did a fantastic job and maybe invited to play again at another game.

To wrap up our running, my neice and nephew (twins) celebrated their 4th birthday with a chilly pool party and cake! On Memorial Day ! Cool birthday huh ?

All of this fun combined with the regular Mom jobs. And June was jumping even more than May.......... :-)

I've been Surf Controlled

One day last week , I get to work, normal day... go through the morning routine, getting ready to enjoy my morning cup of hot chocolate.......cautionary note: no coffee -caffeine and Terry are not a good combination; as those who know me can testify, caffeine puts me into overdrive and you would never be able to get me to stop talking...... back to the warm coco, it's quiet at work, which in itself is a true blessing. I work for a busy construction company and people are always in and out. Anywaaaay, (no, I haven't had any caffeine LOL) as I am settled in my office, I attempt to check in to Taiwan Adoption Blog world, my favorite thing to do in the morning.....I really enjoy the stories and see how other families are doing, new happenings, funny things kids do, any new adoption information or new updates with pictures ~ I really like those posts! Open the Internet, go to my Fav's and there it is.........ACCESS DENIED!!! OK, Wait, don't panic, let's try again, right ? Maybe something is just not connecting.........ACCESS DENIED AGAIN!!!! Several attempts and nothing. Same blah, tan screen. I really didn't like that screen.

It seems that while we were all snug, sleeping the night away, the IT Dept in the main office was very busy installing new surf control software!! Darn those geek guys. Although our IT guys are not really 'geeks', they are very helpful and genuinely nice guys. That day, they were getting the Stink Eye from one very disappointed adoptive mom!!! It's a good thing that their office is two and half hours away in north Jersey.

It seems that Taiwan Adoption Blogs are "Social Networking" and (in their eyes) rank right next too Facebo*k and MySp*ce. I think Taiwan Adoption Sites are better but now they are not permited on the work network.

I lost my therapy! I have been DENIED! I know what some of you might be thinking - I was at work, I am not supposed to be catching up on my personal web surfing at work. And you are right. I was taking some time to catch up. I admit it. I know that this is not a very good excuse, but with our adoption going at a snail's pace, reading other stories is therapeutic. It gives me hope and something to look forward to. I can read about hotel stays, the places to see, and as always ~ PICTURES! Thank you to the other families for allowing me to share & enjoy your stories. I wish the IT guys and the bosses felt the same way.

Another intuitive and wonderful mom, Riza, (and very supportive too) recently posted about how Moms' needs often take a back seat to the needs of their children. I am no different. Kids come first. The kids get to the computer first so I don't get a lot of computer time at home. I have "Mom things" to take care of and the evening just slips away so fast. I am guilty of sneaking a quick peek from work. And now I have been Surf Controlled!! Ugg !!

I would like to apologize in advance if I miss a new update, happy surprise, referrals or travels dates (yes, recently almost missed that post, sorry Sara). I will get to them, I promise. I have adjusted some settings on my blog, hopefully I have got them set right, and I can check them quickly. Any tips for blogs updates would be great~please share.

I am trying to look a this positively, that I will be a better employee, maybe read more news, and even try to be a better mom by asking to share the computer.

PS ~ I couldn't find a construction sign for Surf Control LOL I'll look tomorrow

55 mph or weeks ??

When people see this sign they think about how fast or slow they can go, setting a pace to follow, keeping within the guide lines set...... in our case it symbolizes how many weeks we have been waiting for a referral. 55 weeks. It's certainly not speeding along. I was keeping track of the number of weeks on my desk calendar and I remember hitting 40 weeks thinking that we should be at our "due date" for being pregnant on paper. That number went by with no referral news. Now anyone involved with an international adoption will tell you to expect a few of these along the way, and we have had a couple......social worker changes, paperwork chases, etc. Hoping we would not see #50, but watched it go by, I was dreading the 52 week mark as it meant a FULL YEAR has gone by. As of this post, we are at 55 weeks of waiting for a referral. The last update I had from our agency, we were told it could take longer, (hope you are sitting) maybe as much as another 12 months, Yes, twelve, months!! Go ahead pick your jaw up, I still can't believe it. I am trying to stay up beat and positive, but some days are really hard. REALLY hard. I keep trying to tell myself I have done this before and our labor pains blessed us with two of the most wonderful children any parent could ask for. This wait is longer than theirs was. I keep telling myself "OK, I can get through this". But it's hard. I have done very, very little retail therapy because I am not sure what to buy. We haven't set up the crib yet, Christopher said it would be too hard to see it empty for now. I have to agree with him.

To explain that I am really trying to be positive, here is a chuckle for you........

The other day, Emily asked me why I looked so down, noticing the frown on my face and the fact I was so quiet. (Those that know me, quiet is not my strong suit, I'm a talker LOL) I explained about the extended time, and she asked me if I wanted any popcorn - my ultimate favorite snack!! Ahh, Comfort food. I told her no thanks, (I'm cooking dinner) and she gave me a hug. Awww, isn't she sweet? Now they say timing is everything.........Christopher and Adam walked in the door, tennis practice finished, and looking for dinner. Emily was setting the table and they asked her what was going on. With out ANY hesitation, she simply replied, "Mom needs Cymbal ta, she's down". The two of them looked at me, total shock on my face.....and then bust out laughing. They already knew about the wait time but she hadn't yet. Emily pulled a classic 'out of the mouths of babes' and Christopher, my dear husband couldn't hold it in. Adam followed. They weren't being insensitive, it was all about the timing and the interpretation of a kid. I told her she wasn't allowed to watch television anymore! Even though I am down about the time frame, I can reassure you that things like this make the day so much better, and easier so that Yes, I can get through this. With out Cymbal ta!!!!!!

On a happy note......Tomorrow I am sending our updated & now current dossier paperwork, including our approved home study (Yea!) to our agency. You never know and Just in case, maybe our newest blessing could be ready for us soon. I want to be (paperwork) ready. And unless our agency gives us a sign like this..........

I will continue to be hopeful that I will see a sign like this really, really soon ............

Thanks for listening to my venting and pity party.......sometimes those that have 'been there and did that' are the ones that can truly understand!!!!