Troy's Birthday in Review!

Troy celebrated his 33rd birthday on the 26th and we decided to have a little fun with him! Abby (Troy's cousin who is living with us) and I came up with some clues to a scavenger hunt since I was too lazy to wrap one of Troy's gifts. Here we go:

Clue #1 was attached to his golf shirt and it read: I get hot when you turn me on. After checking the stove, shower and water faucets, Troy found clue #2 at... By the way, look at Jack sitting and listening so patiently. He is so dang cute!

...the gas grill! Clue #2 read: Jack's favorite outdoor food.

Troy immediately knew the answer to this one! Jack loves to eat birdseed which is kept in our barn like shed. Clue #3 said: Are you in the zone?

Since Abby brought her T.V., we now have a "Man Zone" in the basement! This was an easy clue, but the next one really stumped him. Clue #4: A mouse poops from this.

... yes, the trunk of my Matrix. (We call the Matrix "Mousey" since it looks like a little white mouse that ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOMS.) Troy got his 3 in 1 leaf blower that he has been wanting to add to his collection of tools "every man needs to have".

Please, Can I Have Some Ice Cream!

I am looking very cute sitting on Abby's lap! Can I please have some ice cream?

Why are you teasing me?I am watching...

Oh, I got a sample!
Wow! What a lady letting me lick her bowl!

Review Room is Speeding Up!

The CCAA has reviewed Dossiers through Aug. 31, 2006! The last time I posted regarding review room updates was 9/11 and they got through all of July 2005, so you can do the math! We still hope to be out by January 2008, but if they continue to go at this pace, we might be out by early December! I know that is being EXTREMELY optimistic, but it CAN happen! It is our prayer the match department works as hard as the dossier review department!

Troy...Recent Local Celebrity

Breaking news...Troy has been pictured and quoted in the local paper and on the news, twice in one week! Since working at the YMCA, he has helped form a multi-sport club for the city of Decatur. They have gotten a lot of press lately! Go Tri-Gators! Below are the links. The news video is not up yet, but I will try and find it once it has been released!

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/09/19/news/local/1026570.txt

http://www.decaturymca.org/sports/trigator.html

Tears and Enchiladas

While eating our traditional Friday night Mexican food at one of our favorite spots (praise God for good Mexican food in Central Illinois!), Troy said, "I am going to bawl when we become parents!" This of course brought instant tears dripping into my enchilada verdes! I of course asked him "Why?" His response, "It is such an honor for God to select US to parent HIS children!" This brought more tears.

There has been discussion in our LID Yahoo group as to what peoples plans are due to the increasing wait times in China. A few have pulled out, some are sticking with it and others are looking into concurrent adoptions. Troy and I have discussed this and he says, "We will be patient and wait on China." We cannot afford a concurrent adoption and we ARE NOT pulling out, so we continue to wait for a miracle(s) to happen....China speed up, one of my clients chooses us to parent their child, I miraculously become pregnant or all the above!

We Should Be Delivering Soon...

... if we were pregnant with a biological child, but we have the gestation of an elephant (22 months) give or take a few, adopting from China! Today is our 9 month LID anniversary and it has gone fast! Hopefully the rest of our waiting time will go quickly! Troy and I have our moments of frustration, but all we can do is pray! Please continue to pray for China and all the waiting families! We try to remain optimistic, but it is a roller coaster ride that we pray we will be off of soon!

Review Room Update

July 2006 dossiers are out of the Review Room! With a LID of 12-11-06, it is our prayer to be out by January 2008! You can see from the chart, it took the CCAA a little longer to review these dossiers then the previous two months, but it still beats 106 days!

Referral History and Prayer Request

This chart is from Rumor Queens website and is a good reference to see how the wait has gotten longer over the years and the number of Log-In-Days (LID) matched has slowed down. I am not a huge fan of Rumor Queen considering her information is so disheartening at times, but she is a good resource to see when referrals might be coming available. Many families choose to post a link to her blog during referral time so you can see the children that have been given forever families.

Please keep the rest of us waiting families in your prayers. When Troy and I started the paperwork in March 2006, we were told the wait would be between 10-12 months after we got our LID. This whole journey has been a test of patience and learning to give up control. We were done with all of our paperwork in May 2006, but had to wait on our social worker to finish our homestudy (July) and the USCIS (immigration) to give us our fingerprinting appointment and process our 171-H. Most people are able to complete their dossier in 3-6 months, but it took us 8 due to waiting on other people! In the meantime, we have had a couple of moms consider us to adopt their babies only to decide to parent them instead. We know God's timing is perfect(even though we don't like it at times), but we are ready to parent and wonder how and when He is going to build our family!

Adoption Update

Refferals are being sent out and the CCAA only matched 4 days! I am happy for those who are getting to see their child for the first time, but this is also depressing news for the rest of us waiting! It has to speed up!

Introducing...

... Jack Beckham! Jack is sporting a new haircut and soccer ball! Yes, it is pink and purple, but that is all the store had and we HAD to purchase one right away after his black and white soccer ball saw better days! Jack has a little more energy to play now that he is no longer a ball of fur!

We Are Blessed!

It has been a while since I have posted the gifts we have received from our Winter Blossoms Secret Pal group! My computer has our pictures on it and it is running supper SLOW making it is a pain to post, but I decided to fire her up and play catch up today since I am stuck inside dealing with allergies.

The theme for June was "Welcome to America" and the Symonies were our secret pals! Kerrie and Ken truly outdid themselves! The package also arrived on my birthday and it was an added bonus! You can see from the picture that even Jack got the cutest dog treats! Troy and I are huge U2 fans and they included a lullaby CD that is all U2 songs without the words to dulcimer like sounds! I didn't even know this CD existed! In addition, they included 2 bibs in case we receive twins! Thanks again Symonies!

The August theme was "Dinnertime", but the Daughs made it even more meaningful! We received an Asian Cabbage Patch Kid along with Asian stickers for our little one(s) Lifebook! Cabbage Patch Kids hold a special place in my heart! I still remembering getting my first one with my grandparents. I wanted a bald, black boy in overalls, but my grandfather wouldn't buy him for me (my grandfather was part of the generation when many people were racist and segregation existed). I got a little bald, white boy instead! I still have that CPK today wearing the clothes my other grandmother made for him!