February 2007

Well it has been some time since we last updated our website, so this will be a long one!!

In October we had a huge oyster and shrimp roast and invited 80 of our closest friends! During the course of the evening, I somehow managed to leave our digital camera outside all night long…..during a rain storm!! Needless to say, we had to purchase a new camera (we needed a new one anyway for the trip to China ). This is part of the reason why I haven't updated in so long! Halloween was so much fun this year. Our granddaughter Jessie was dressed as a witch and we drove her around in the golf cart, house to house along the other neighbors!

November rolled around and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Every holiday we make the comment “Just think, next year the baby will be here with us!” I went to Pittsburgh right after Thanksgiving to attend my 20th high school reunion (Penn Hills Class of 86’ YEAH!!). It was great! I went with one of my very best girlfriends from high school and we had an awesome time – reminiscing and reconnecting with a lot of classmates we haven't seen in a long time.

December was a really busy month for us getting ready for the holiday and having to update our homestudy for the adoption. We had a pretty low-key Christmas with Steve’s family in Goldsboro , NC . Again we commented "Just think, next year the baby will be here with us!” Also during this time, we decided to change the spelling of Baby Girl’s name. (This is what her Daddy to-be lovingly calls her!) We have decided on Jae Lyn. Her middle name is still not decided. I had to make the decision on the spelling since I purchased letters for her wall, above her crib. The pressure was on, but I finally decided on Jae Lyn before I had Steve hammer nails into the wall 15 different times!! :)

Steve had a car accident and totaled his car right before New Years weekend (thankfully he didn’t get hurt). We decided to purchase a Volvo for me to drive – it’s officially my Mommy-Mobile!! Lets see……I now have a high chair in my dining room, a glider rocker in the nursery and my list of travel items is slowly nearing completion! I have gone a little crazy over the past few months with the shopping so I have slowed down a little until we know her age, weight, etc.

Also in early January we had to go to Charlotte , NC to INS to have our fingerprints redone. We had a great time – stayed at the Omni Suites and enjoyed an awesome dinner at the Cajun Queen. At this time, the CCAA updated their website. All families whose paperwork arrived in China by 10-13-05 (DTC Date) all received their referrals! Our DTC date is 10-24-05. We are hoping for referral the end of February, first of March. We will finally know where she is, her age, weight and other information including a medical report.

With this being said February flew by!

We received our updated approval from Homeland Security at the beginning of February, so this was a huge load off our minds! Other than a few on-line adoption courses, we are ready to go get our baby!!

The journey has been long (it all started in October 2004), but I think we are getting very close!! Hopefully we will be updating the website soon with the picture of our baby girl plastered on the front page!! We have lived with this baby girl as a part of our life for a very long time now. We say her name, talk about her and refer to her as if she's in the next room. We sit in her nursery and play her lullaby CD’s and just think of what it will be like when she really is here.

God bless this child that we have yearned for, for such a long time. Please pray that she is safe and healthy. Please pray that her caregiver is helping her stay warm and calm and helping her grieve the loss of her birth mother. Also pray that her birth mother is well and can rest at ease knowing that she made the right decision and that Jae Lyn will be loved and cared for beyond measure.

With Love,
Steve and Patti