For you AI fans...

Click here for a discussion of last night.

P.S. No one who has not had to wait for their first child for 16+ months should be commenting on AI being a waste of time.

The crib assembly.

Tim started opening the crib box at least...


John does not look too confident in Tim...




Could Bruce and John F. be laughing at Tim?


Victory at last...good thing the guys made Tim undo that one screw he screwed in.


Now we need the baby...


Expectant Parents.

16 very long months, a crib and a pirate.

I am writing to you from my lovely local Subaru dealership, as my sun roof has decided it no longer wants to completely close. This means ice and snow get to melt in my Forester's hatch. Yahoo!

Yesterday was our 16 month LID anniversary. I wish I could say it's flown by, but it hasn't. I am hoping hoping hoping we don't reach a 19 month LID anniversary before getting our referral.

We did have a very exciting weekend at our place with our crib assembly party. Yes, folks, there is an actual crib assembled in Bella's nursery right now, thanks to Carla, Cheryl and Bruce, LaSalette and John, Sumeet and John, and Willie and Catherine. I love the crib, and it's both strange and wonderful seeing it in that room.

Somehow, Willie seemed surprised that Tim did not have the crib completely out of the box when they arrived. I am not sure why, given that Tim had already instructed both Willie and Bruce to bring their tools. Being much more aware of where our kitchen utensils are than where our tools are, Tim did make some yummy gourmet pizzas, which we all enjoyed.

The "men" put the crib together, but we suspect 4 year old Oscar was the true mastermind. He barred all girls from entering the nursery. The ladies laughed at the men, took pictures, and played with Mya (1), Emma (2), and Aman (1). Cheryl also bought along some rice cereal, size 2 diapers, and a lovely giraffe "crib warming" toy for Bella. LaSalette bought her Hip Hammock for us to use in China, along with a Mandarin-English phrase book. Have I mentioned how we have these incredibly generous, kind friends? Tim and I are absolutely convinced that their participation in assembling the crib has saved us from a divorce. I am not sure how we managed to be blessed with such friends, but we sure know we are.

On Sunday morning Tim and I went with Willie and Catherine, who were both born in Ireland, and their son Oscar, to an Irish pub in Brookline for brunch. There was traditional Irish music and food. And I found out what black and white pudding is. Hmmmm. I am holding off on any adventurous food choices until China. Willie asked Mr. "I like to pretend I'm really Irish" Tim where his family was from. Tim didn't know. On the other hand, I actually knew where my Irish folk hail from (County Mayo) and when Willie and Catherine found out that the family name was "O'Malley", they told me of the only women pirate in recorded history, Eileen O'Malley , from County Mayo. I like the idea of being related to a female pirate somehow. And with that, I'll sign off. Argghhhh!

Who's counting???

The talented, funky, graphic designer types like Kikalee make beautiful referral countdown bracelets. The untalented, nerdy, economists make Post-It referral countdowns in their home office.

19 days worth of LIDs before it's us!!!

Baby Love.

This has been an incredible week in our little circle of adoptive families. First, after having to put a visit with Luca's daughter Lea on hold due to me being sick, we finally met her on Saturday. She could not be any more adorable. At first, she regarded us very seriously, giving us little sideways glances. Two hours into the visit, she had decided we were OK and started to play little games with us. She has an adorable laugh. It's just wonderful to see such a lovely couple become a beautiful family. Sigh. They shared pictures of their trip with us, and showed us some of the treasures they bought home from China. Luca generously gave us a list of questions to ask as we start to interview pediatricians and some supplies. People, I NOW HAVE BOTTLES IN MY HOUSE! BOTTLES!!! I had registered for the Playtex Drop In Bottles for the trip and they are now off the registry due to the kindness of Luca and her family. Did I mention I have bottles in my house now? This makes me really happy.

And we've got the other two remaining members of my Mothers in Waiting/Real Life Mom posse in China right now (that would be Sparky and Kikalee), and have been following their trips on the net. It's amazing. I love the Internet, I really do.

I thought it might be really hard when our inner adoptive families circle (LaSalette and John, Cheryl and Bruce, Luca and M., Sparky and Bob, Kikalee and R.) came home with their children, because we are the LAST ONES. But I gotta say, after seeing Emma, Mya, and Lea come home, any feelings of yearning to hold our girl as they hold theirs, are overcome by sheer happiness for them and a sense of privilege at being allowed to see these beautiful babies grow...into their families, into themselves. Yes, we are ready for our turn. But we're also really blessed to see these families form before our eyes, and enjoy these girls so much.

Plus we get to score from their knowledge and their stuff. Hee hee.

Referral Rumors.

Rumors have it that referrals were sent from Beijing today, and include families with dossiers with LIDs up to 10/21/2005. If that is true, then CCAA processed 6 days worth of LIDs this month. Yikes. If they continue to do only around 6 days per month (which might be possible since October 2005 and November 2005 are supposed to have incredible numbers of dossiers logged in), we would not get a referral until late June/early July, since the cut-off date for May 2007 referrals would be a LID of 11/16/2005 and we're LID 11/18/2005. Of course, I am hoping the low number of days processed this month is an anomaly due to Chinese New Year.

Must stop computing grim scenarios. I think end of May/early June is our time. Yep.

My delusional husband.

Last night, quite of out the blue, SchnauzerKing tells me that since he has married me, he has become worried that he is losing his "street cred". Hello? Street cred? My husband is 36 years old, from the Midwest, with a master's degree in economics and a career as a cost analyst. Yeah, marrying me caused him to lose street cred. O-kay.

Ironically, SchnauzerKing pats himself on the back and says "Props to the Tim", whenever someone gives me a compliment. According to him, he deserves credit for having married me.

Today we both were working from home, which is unusual. Tim sits at the dining room table, with the nice laptop, and a heating pad on his back, being the bad ass he is. Must have strained his back from all the bling bling he wears. I am two floors up in my attic office. I come down to discover that Tim is playing Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" on his phone, through some new groovy little speakers from Sony that came at no additional charge with the purchase of the new phone (the Sony Ericsson Walkman phone). I then inspect his playlists and discover that he basically has the entire Celine Dion discography downloaded to his phone. Along with two Britney Spears songs, and "I am proud to be an American" by Lee Greenwood.

Street cred. Uh-huh.