DRAFT DAY!!!!!

With the 5th pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers select....


********Outside Linebacker AJ Hawk from Ohio State********

Woo hoo! It's so exciting! I'm bummed that I'm not watching it on TV but I'm listening to the radio and watching "NFL DraftCast" on the internet. I love this stuff!

I LOVE football. Too bad it isn't football season, it could take my mind off "the wait". Of course, last year, "the wait" took my mind off the awful year the Packers had! LOL

My agency, AWAA, got 24 referrals on Thursday, LIDs of 6/3 and 6/6. There were 18 groups ahead of us; now there are 15. Getting closer inch by inch.

With that, I'm going to be taking an approximate 2 week break from "all things adoption" on the internet. I'm going nomail on my DTC groups, will not check the RumorQueen site, etc. Of course I'll still be thinking about it *all the time* but I need to take a break from obsessing about it via the computer. If I post to my blog it won't be adoption related, unless there's breaking news about the wait. I don't know how this is going to go, we'll see!

I've been tagged....

....by Cindy to list 6 weird things about me so here you go. (Someone - Jacquie? - tagged me a long time ago with a much longer list of things about me, and I started it but never finished and then so much time went by that I just scrapped it - I didn't purposely ignore your tag I just couldn't seem to get it finished!)

Anyway, here's why I'm weird:

1. I've eaten Quaker Quakes, cheddar cheese flavor, for *breakfast* almost every day for oh, probably about 4 years. I LOVE them! I just never get sick of them! It could be the one and only thing I ever snacked on if I could afford it! :-) I wrote Quaker once and asked for a coupon since I spend so much money on them - they said there are plenty of coupons in Sunday papers, etc. and wouldn't give me one. Well I've never seen one anywhere, ever. Grrrr.

2. I don't like anyone to walk on the carpet right after I vacuum, I want to keep the “just vacuumed” look as long as possible. I used to be much more fanatical about this than I am now but I still do this.

3. I LOVE to watch the NFL draft (along with this I love to listen to sports talk radio, only when they're talking football though). My sister and I used to make a day of it - we made special snacks and put on our sweats and sat in front of the TV *all day* making notes, guessing who would be picked next, etc. I can't do this anymore as a certain little 2 year old wouldn't stand for it, not to mention we had to cut ESPN along with everything but basic cable to save money for the adoption so I don't get it anyway. SOMEDAY I am going to do this again, when the girls are older. This year's draft is this weekend! I am so bummed that I'm going to miss it. The Packers have the 5th pick after their horrendous season last year. (Related news flash: Brett Favre is coming back to the Packers for one more year.)

4. I love putting on a brand new pair of socks. If I had a ton of money I'd have a new pair for every day of the year.

5. When I start a new book (I love to read, mostly fiction but non-fiction too) I check to see how many pages it is, then I watch as I'm reading to see when I'm half done. Sometimes I even put a post-it note in the back of the book with the total number of pages, what page I need to be on to be halfway done, 1/3 of the way done, etc. Is this nuts?

6. I only like a certain kind of clothes hanger - those colored plastic kind. I put my jeans and other pants on the blue and purple ones and other clothes on any other color.

Hope you're not laughing too hard!

(I'm not going to tag anyone, I think probably most bloggers have already been tagged; but if you haven't and want to list 6 weird things about yourself, go ahead, I'd love to read it!)

Another inch closer

Everyone in the adoption world already knows this, but this morning the CCAA's website was updated to say that they have finished reviewing September LIDs and have matched up to June 6. So they did one week's worth of LIDs this month. Woopee! I'm happy for the families included in this batch (which should get here any day now?) - for them this is HUGE news! For me, I feel like I took one tiny baby step forward in line. Better than no step I guess! But I'd like to take a giant LEAP one of these days!

I guess the good news is that even though we were already pretty sure of this, now it's confirmed that October is officially in the Review Room. Our LID is 10/12/05. I don't know of any reason why we wouldn't make it through, but one never knows these days! So I'll be happy when the CCAA website says they've finished reviewing October.

Gotta go - the No More Diapers video is done and it's naptime!

I love my new nightgown so much........

I'm jumping for joy!

Weekly Encouragement

The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. Psalm 138:8

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She cracks me up!

Lindsey is so funny. Yesterday I was quickly cleaning up the kitchen after lunch so I could get her down for her nap (naptime = peace and quiet!). I finished up and went to get her, here is what I found....

.....she was sitting on the floor on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, with her legs out in front of her and her stuffed doggie between them, holding a wire whisk, singing Row Row Row Your Boat while pushing herself forward with her feet! "We're riding in a boat mommy! Follow us!" I wish I could have gotten it on video or at least a picture but I know by the time I got that out she would be on to something else.

This morning I was getting her out of the van at church before Bible study and she was saying something about was my favorite job taking her coat off (I had told her she could take it off and leave it in the van, it was warmer out than I thought it would be) and I asked her if it was her favorite job. Her answer: "No, my favorite job is taking care of Daddy and taking care of you and taking care of Ben."

Then when I was picking her up from the nursery afterward one of the helpers told me that Lindsey told her that her mommy and daddy are both astronauts and she wants to be one when she grows up! WHAT? LOL Then tonight she told me when she grows up she wants to be an astronaut and a snack helper.

I told you, she cracks me up!!!!

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your kind comments about Lindsey! She truly is a beautiful little girl. Even when she's throwing fits! (I think, LOL)

I was really getting caught up in the rumors and talk about the increased wait, and then I came across this at the bottom of an email, on an email group totally unrelated to adoption. I really needed it this morning!

"Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. Commend all to God, and then lie still and be at rest in God's bosom... Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God; trusting to God's eternal love for you." St. Francis de Sales

Have a great day!

Weekly Encouragement

Psalm 145: 15-16

The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And You give them their food in due season.
You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

************

Happy Easter!

6 months

My ladybug is back! We've been logged in for 6 months today. Halfway there? I hope so!

Here's another referral pic of Lindsey:

Two years ago today...........



...........we received the referral of our beautiful daughter, Lindsey HuaWu. The call didn't come until almost 6 pm after a long day of wondering if we would get our referral that day (lots of confusion, long story). Our LID was 7/25/03 and the previous month referrals came for all of June and July....up to 7/20. So we had to wait an extra month but it was so worth it! When I got off the phone with my family coordinator I just sobbed. I couldn't believe my dream of another child had finally come true. Exactly seven weeks later we left the US for China to be united with our daughter.

Here is the referral announcement I sent to my email groups:

*********

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our
salvation!" Psalm 68:19

Got the call at 6 pm central time!

We are so blessed and thankful to share our referral news with you:

Chinese Name: Chun Hua Wu
Soon to be Lindsey Hua Wu!!!
Date of Birth: June 1, 2003 (10 mo. 1 week old!)
Height: 64 cm
Weight: 6.5 kg
Province: Guangdong
SWI: Yangchun SWI

DTC: 7/25/03
DOR: 4/8/04
ACR: 6-12 mos., AYAP
AWAA - the BEST who stayed late tonight to get us our referrals

We're not sure when those measurements were done but we think way back in
October. It was too late for our agency to email us a pic, BUT they did get the
FedEx package out and we will have pictures tomorrow morning!

Eileen, Jay, and Ben Kunstman

"The goodness of God endures continually." Psalm 52:1

*********

The above picture was my favorite of the 4 we received. I will post the other 3 in the coming days.

It was also one year ago today that we decided to adopt again! After a hard adjustment (ours, not Lindsey's, she did great from the start) we didn't know if we could handle doing it all again. But it just took some time and then we knew we wanted one more child and wanted Lindsey to have a sister.

The sun is shining and it's a blue sky - it's a great day today!

Bib Swap

Look at this cute bib that I got last month for my OctoberDTC group's bib swap. Thanks Danielle!



Tomorow is a very special anniversary day for me.......stay tuned!

Weekly Encouragement

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3

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What is up with my ticker? Is my ladybug gone forever? I thought when it got up to the 5 months shown it would automatically move over to 6 months and beyond. I tried to do a new ticker and it did the same thing. Anyone know how to extend it?