I'm a leavin on a jet plane!!!
Mood:  happy
Ok...I know Ive been neglectful on the blog but here is all the latest. We got word that our appointment with the US Embassy is on January 11th which means we have to be in China by Jan 2nd. We know we will need to be a slightly rested by the time we receive Maddie so we'll be leaving on Dec. 29th and arrive in Guangzhou on the 30th. The even better news is that we get to travel to the orphanage on January 3rd to receive Maddie. We've heard from families who are in China now who have seen Maddie and they say Maddie is smiling and laughing and can't wait for us to get there to pick her up. We'll be letting everyone know through
http://www.thestoryofyou.com/journeytoMadelineRose.html about our daily adventures!!!!

Nothin' New
I left work early yesterday for this phone conference with our adoption agency. We really hoped that this would have ended with a confirmed date for travel. What it turned out to be was an hour and a half reading of the travel manual that I'm sure Sheira has read 3 times, underlined what was important, and highlighted a few more things. So my frustration continues. The unknown is what's causing me to lose sleep at night. I think Tylenol PM (tm) is going to be my friend for a while. Joy joy. I know we're almost there and the end is in sight. It's starting to feel like I am running on a treadmill at a 45 degree angle and the finish line isn't getting any closer. *eye on the prize, eye on the prize*

*DEEP SIGH*
Ok...we're sitting here tonight stuffing and addressing a whole bunch of envelopes. It does help pass the time. We (more Sheira) seem to pick something each night for something to do. The other night was repacking what we had already packed 2-3 times. All we have left is our carry-on stuff - we think.

Tomorrow is a pretty big day, at least I think so. We are making a phone call conference with our agency to discuss when we travel to China. We could be leaving as early as Dec. 30th or maybe a few days later. It all depends on when we get our appointment with the American Embassy. The next blog entry will be tomorrow night *hopefully* with a confirmed date. I hope that it will give us a time frame because this waking up every few hours and waking up early because I can't think of nothing but this. I do look forward to some semblance of sleep.

The lows and highs
Mood:  happy
As you could see by the last posting I wasn't exactly in the best of moods. That mood carried into most of today. Helene C. from Cradle of Hope called today to set up our travel meeting by phone. We'll be talking next Tuesday at 2pm to discuss when we're definitively traveling. She seems to think it could be as early as the first week of January. No promises but the news certainly put me in a MUCH better mood. Thank you Helene!!!!!

Pulling what's left of my hair out
I know this blog has been more about my input. As Sheira reminds me - this is more my forum to share information and more about my feelings about it. I think I have come down from the "high" of receiving the referral. It's been 20 days since that amazing day. I thought that at this point I would still be riding that tidal wave of positive energy. The past couple days I've been in this fog and can't seem to shake it. As excited as I am about traveling to China to meet Maddie - it's been really hard for me seeing the pictures and knowing where she is. It has been even harder not knowing when we're traveling. I think I would feel better knowing that info. Until then it looks like I'll have to be content pulling my hair our until that travel invitation arrives. *sigh*

And with a click of a mouse - we are parents!
Mood:  silly
Ok...it wasn't so easy as a click of a mouse but with that one click we were able to put the adorable face to the daughter we have been calling Maddie for months. Sheira received the phone call from Kate (our wonderfully patient contact at Cradle of Hope) around 11:30 in the morning (Wed.) She called me at work and said she was coming right over. Since we couldn't check our Yahoo! mail from work we were given the ok to go home, print out the photos (SHE IS ADORABLE!!!! Yeah I'm biased), and then return to work. We've been flying high since. As of 3 months Maddie was 22 inches long and a little over 11 pounds. We'll get an update on her in a few weeks and should know then when we'll be traveling to China. Pretty good possibility will be January. Can't imagine going any later. More news to come when we find out. Until then....WE'RE PARENTS!!!!!

433 emails? Something's up
Mood:  vegas lucky
OK.....I don't even know who is still reading this thing but I had to add this one. And if you are still reading this can you post a comment and let me know how it looks? Sheira and I have resigned ourselves to the possibility that we would get our referral sometime around Thanksgiving. We went away to Chicago this weekend in part for our anniversary and partly due to a camp fair Sheira had to work. When I checked the email yesterday from the hotel business center Sheira had 11 new email. Nothing too exciting. A few from her yahoo! group to ask each other about baby stuff. Fine. We get bumped from our flight Sunday night, get put up in a nice hotel, and fly home first class today. We're all excited about those bonuses. Lucky us we both had the day off. Sheira makes me help unpack everything before I am allowed on the computer. Silly Sheira. When I logged into Sheira's account today there were 433 emails! With this yahoo! group, on a GOOD day there might be 100 emails about any one topic. So this raised my eyebrow quite a bit. Low and behold the reason for the abundance of emails is that EVERYONE else got their referrals today through their agencies. Before I could even reach for the phone Sheira is yelling at me to call Kate (our wonderfully helpful and patient contact at Cradle of Hope). Now Kate has been very conservative with giving us any kind of timeline with when we may get our referral. As our agency is pretty small one of the drawbacks is that they take a little longer to get their information. the upside is that they do give us a lot of attention as there are only a few families a month who go to China. But I digress... I told Kate about everyone else was getting their referral, does she have anything new for us? All she would say is, "Things are going to happen pretty soon. How would you like me to contact you?" For now...hang in there and check your caller ID's in the next week or two from us.

Fun with Grace and Ken
Mood:  happy
I will say that it's been a lot of fun meeting some people along the way who have either gone through the process or are going through it as we are. One of the best things that has come out of the little group Sheira and I went to at JFS was meeting Grace and Ken. When the 4 of us get together it's like taking all our personalities and mixing up the bag. We seem to have a little of each other in each of us (did that make sense?). They are two of the most fun people have have had the pleasure to meet. The goosebump-moment of the night (for me anyway) was Ken telling us that when they get their child(ren) (their dtc is later than ours) that it'll be fun setting up play dates. We joked about the possibility of the 4 of us getting together with our kids and then taking a nap while they play. Highly unlikely but just the thought of getting together with our kids was amazing. So thank you Grace and Ken for making this experience that much better!!!

Rumors Abound
I can honestly say that if Sheira and I were to believe all the rumors that have been going around we'll be getting our referral delivered by Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and then have to meet with the Tooth Fairy for confirmation. The Yahoo! group we belong to has posted so much on when the referrals may be coming and what dates they may include. We must be the only two people who are not pulling our hair out and taking anti-anxiety medication waiting for this to happen. Don't get me wrong, we would love to know what's happening with some certainty but we're not losing sleep over this. Some people we have read about are really frantic over this. When it's meant to happen is when it's meant to happen and we'll be happy when that day happens. We've already had the discussion with Continental Airlines about upgrading to first class when we're ready to travel. That's one less thing to focus on. Other than that...we're in a holding pattern and still happy as can be.

It's just another day
I was refelcting on the last entry we made and felt that there should be some kind of addendum to it. Sheira and I were watching the news and seeing all the devastation going on in Florida and the Gulf Coast and it really put things in perspective. I wouldn't plan on hearing us complain about a warm and stuffy room with no a/c again.

There's no real update to be had about Maddie yet. Her room is really taking shape. I hope that whenever we do move that we can take that room with us. It's just that darn comfortable.