Thank You to My Wonderful Secret Pal!

My Secret Pal is simply the sweetest, most thoughtful secret pal in the world! :) I came home tonight to find these wonderful gifts in the mail. I received the gifts pictured above and also a pink, extremly soft, blanket with "I Love Mommy" embroidered on it. I also received a pink, ceramic bowl with bunnies on it and a pair of little chopsticks with bunnies! She also sent the most beautiful handmade card!

I only wish I could include pictures of these as well. I was taking pictures of all my wonderful gifts and I dropped my camera... and it broke. :(
I am so bummed right now. These may be the last pictures I take with my first digital camera! Dan is going to take it to Best Buy and see if it can be fixed.

By the way, sorry it's been awhile since my last post. I've been working long days and life is staying pretty busy! We do the Phoenix Summit Hike this weekend! I was hoping to post pictures...bad timing for the camera to break!

Thank you so much Secret Pal. I really appreciate all your gifts. They mean so much.

It's Anniversary # 8!!

Wow, this last month has flown by! I actually had to be reminded by Stephanie that it's our 8 month LID Anniversary today! Yeah!

Starbuck's In China!

I was just browsing blogs of families who are in China now and came across this picture. Yes! They have Starbucks in China! I feel so much better about the trip now. :)

A Little Hiking With Friends

Phoenix Summit Challenge


Oh my gosh...my husband is trying to kill me. Of course, not literally, but he has signed us up for this Phoenix Summit Challenge. He introduced it to me a month ago as, "Do you want to go hiking with some friends as part of this REI trip? You climb 7 mountains over 2 days." I thought, sure, I love to hike.

Last weekend he mentioned how our friends (his co-workers) had been training for this Summit Challenge. I say..training? What do you mean training? He says oh, nothing, they've just been meeting and doing some small hikes to get ready. I then started to question this little hiking weekend. I asked him to bring home the information they gave him. I hadn't seen that information yet, so I went online and researched myself. .....It's a TIMED 7 Summit Challenge with meetings in the mornings and "debriefing's" at night! Holy Cow!! We get passports that we have to have stamped at each summit. The first mountain is 7 miles followed by 2 others that include straight up 1 mile jaunts. Then we start out again the next morning at 7 a.m. for 4 more! I have to work Monday morning. :0 aggghhh!

So, last night we went for a hike at one of the mountains. Now, here is where the killing thing comes into place. We are already training for a Marathon. My legs are very tired to say the least. So, I start to go up this mountain fast because I want to see if I'm going to be able to stay up with my group who has been training. I was almost to the summit and seriously..almost passed out. I had to sit and put my feet up! I was seeing black spots! This has never happened before. I am now nervous as heck for this Challenge that is only 2 weeks away!

So, tomorrow, we are setting out again to do another one of the mountains. Please pray for me!! :)

Oh, and next Friday, we are going on a two-hour horse-back ride with another group from his work. He informed me of this last night. I am just laughing now. I really can't wait until he is a stay-at-home daddy. :)

P.S. please don't read this out of context. I love my husband dearly, he is my best friend. He just cracks me up sometimes. :)

Unswervingly

The wait can be deafening at times. Some days I am totally fine and other days doubt creeps in. I was reading a China-research article the other night about the Hunan baby trafficking that occurred and after reading it, I felt really confused about what we were doing. I was questioning whether we were on the right path, etc. etc. I then went to bed and as my head hit the pillow and I stared at the ceiling I asked God, "What am I doing? Am I doing your will?"

I then picked up a devotional book on the nightstand. I opened it and the page automatically fell to a page I had marked earlier: "4/4/06--regarding adoption, finances, the future. I claim this verse." The verse is as follows:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23.

I had underlined unswervingly twice. :) I just smiled and knew my answer. Yes, we are on the right path and we must stay unswervingly to that path!

New From Our Agency

The following is more information regarding the recent referrals sent out. Two sets of twins! Wow! Here is what Marianne, our AZ. agent said:

Children’s Hope International (CHI) is proud to announce that we received 28 China referrals on Thursday 11/2/06 for 26 CHI families with 8/11/05, 8/18/05 and 8/25/05 log in dates. One of the referrals is for a Chinese expedited family with a 1/6/06 log in date. All the referrals are little girls including TWO SETS of twins!! The referrals range in age from 7 to 12 months, one 14 month old, one 15 month old and one 3 year old. The children are from the Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces. Four of the referrals were for AZ. families. We expect the families to travel in about 8 weeks.



This batch of China referrals were from August 10, 2005 through August 25, 2005 log in dates. For these families, the wait from log in date to referral was 15 months.



Congratulations again to these blessed CHI families and everyone who moved up in line for referrals!

So, our wait is officially up to 15 months now. We are 7 months into that wait.

The Silence is Over

Congratulations to all of you who will be receiving your referrals very soon! Yeah!!

My Celebrity Look-Alikes

http://www.myheritage.com

How fun is this! I tried a picture with Dan and I wearing hats and it came out that both of us looked like Billy Bob Thorton! :)

Go Tigers!!

I am so excited to see the Tigers going to the World Series tomorrow! I grew up in the Detroit area and have been a fan of the Tigers forever. The past decade or so, they haven't been too exciting to watch, but boy are they hot now! My grandpa was the biggest Tiger (or baseball for that matter) fan I have ever met. He watched the Tigers religiously most of his life. He could tell you story after story about them. A few years ago, he pointed at the game we were watching together and said, "Inge.. he's gonna be good." Well, sure enough, grandpa was right, Inge is VERY good! :)
Oh, how I wish Grandpa could see the Tigers this year. He would be glued to the T.V. tomorrow. Unfortunetly, grandpa passed away suddenly last year. To know him was to love him. So, I say, Grandpa this ones for you! Go Tigers!!!

Yeah! Gifts From My Awesome Secret Pal!

How fun is this! My secret pal sent me a cookie pops pan. You make cookies on a stick! Lauren and I will have so much fun with these! Attached was a personalized "Moon Cookie" recipe card. (She has always added special touches in her gifts).

The book by Amy Tan, "The Moon Lady" was also included! The book is illustrated so vibrantly, I can't wait to cuddle up with Lauren and read it to her. My secret pal even inscribed inside the cover, "To Lauren Love, Mommy's Secret Pal". I will always look at that and think of these rare, special "waiting" months and how fun this secret pal exchange has been.

Well, I'm off to bed to read my new book, Goodnight!
Mardi

Becoming Parents....it's a wild, well worth it, ride.

I'm a huge fan of roller coasters and I love the feeling you get in your stomach when you drive on hilly roads... but lately I have been getting that feeling in my stomach just sitting still...and I feel like I am on the never ending roller coaster. :)

It's an amazing thing... becoming parents. There are definite up's and down's. I feel the up's whenever I am with my nephew Gavin. His smile is infectious and when he hugs you, there is no feeling like it. I can only imagine the day Lauren says "mommy" for the first time, or when she reaches out to me for a hug. I am not normally a person who tears up easily , but when I read of Gotcha days on other blogs or think of Lauren in my arms for the first time, tears flow.

I see the hard times of parenting when I see the lack of sleep on my co-workers faces who have been up all night with there little ones, hear a screaming child in a store, or a teenager rolling her eyes at her parents.

There are days when Dan and I talk excitedly about our future and vacations, trick or treating, daily life with our little Lauren. Then at times I am reminded that we will be going from double-income-go-anywhere-anytime....to single-income-watch-Barney-one-more-time.

Yet, my friends who had a baby with colic and didn't sleep for a year are expecting for the second time now. And we are saying, yes, let us on this roller coaster journey with unlimited unknowns. Becoming parents, it's truly a wild, well worth it, ride.


As all is quiet in Adoption, bloggy land, I thought I would share my thoughts lately.

Horray We're Half Way!!

Today marks 7 months since our L.I.D. !! We are being told the wait is 14 months from L.I.D....so that means we're half way to Lauren!!

On a side note: Check out Steph's awesome new online adoption store at www.cafepress.com/jiinkinkids

A Wonderful Birthday Weekend

What a wonderful husband I have. It was my 33rd birthday yesterday and Danny surprised me with a weekend away in Flagstaff. We started our trip with a 7 mile run on the beautiful Arizona Trail. As we ran, we saw a group of Antelope ahead and since our trail was winding, we kept running into the same group several times. I'm sure they thought,"hey, we're trying to nap here!" This is us on the trail. The Tree's were beautiful in full fall bloom.





We then checked into our hotel in Flagstaff and a tray of wine, cheese, and grapes was brought to our room just before dinner. So nice!



This is our chef at dinner. We had sushi and Tepanaki. We also had the craziest Tapanaki chef I have ever seen! :) He not only set a huge flame at our table, but he outlined our table and the one next to us with fire! We were surrounded by a fire ring! It was amazing!


My Japanese birthday cake. :)





To cap off a wonderful weekend, we went hoseback riding this morning. It was beautiful. I always say, if I could live life again, I would be a rancher. Horses are such beautiful animals. It's so therapeutic any time I spend time with them. We hope to own a few someday. We always joke that since we had "Lauren" and "Steven" picked out as our children's names. We will adopt Lauren and name our first horse Steven. :)

Learning Chinese!

"Lauren"



"Dan"

I had such a great opportunity this week! A new patient of mine is Chinese! She is from Guangzhou. I sat and practiced my Chinese with her. She nodded her head and said I was pronouncing some things like, Ni Hao, correctly and other things she looked at me confused and just said "no" :) When she was about to leave she said, Xie Xie!, and I jumped so excited and said, I know what that means! Xie Xie!! :) I asked her if she would help me with my Chinese and she agreed to. So, each time she comes in, we can have a mini-language lesson!

We also discussed things like how beautiful the White Swan Hotel is and the cultural favoritism for boys. She said the boys are very "spoiled". She talked about how she was treated much differently than her brother. Interesting.

Her daughters name is Jennifer. I thought of you Kayce! :)

CCAA Update!

Our adoption agency just sent us the following email:

The CCAA just updated their web site with the following information
about the next batch of referrals.

"The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families
whose adoption application documents were registered with our office
before August 9, 2005."

This means the CCAA has mailed out referrals for the July 23, 2005
through August 9, 2005 log in dates.

CHI has 13 July 27, 2005 LID families who will be anxiously waiting
for the referral package to arrive in our office hopefully on Monday.
Congratulations to these 13 families!

A huge hug to the 9 August 11, 2005 LID CHI families who missed by 2
days and the 10 August 18, 2005 LID CHI families who missed by 9 days.
CHI also has 7 August 25, 2005 LID families and 7 August 30, 2005 LID
families who have moved closer to their referrals.

The China team rejoices that the CCAA continues to mail out referrals
every 4 weeks and we celebrate with each CHI families as we introduce
them to their new family member!
Ann Tollefson
China Program Director

This means the wait continues to be at 13-14 months from L.I.D. to referral being sent. When this update says referrals have been sent to include March 7th, 2006...that's us!

The CCAA is reviewing January 2006 Dossier's now. This means our paperwork is marching along! After we clear the review room, Dan & I are running to the store to buy our beautiful crib we have picked out!

Pretty soon, this is all going to feel very real.

My Secret Pal is Unbelievable!

My secret pal outdid herself this month. Unbelievable! Dan and I just stood looking at the gifts with our jaws dropped!!! Included in our gift box was "pumpkin pie" bubble bath, mmmm. White Tea & Ginger hand sanitizer, travel diaper changing kit, Chinese playing cards, a personalized passport/ID holder for Lauren with real yuan inserted in the pouch! The money looks too pretty to actually use! :) Also, included was a beautiful journal that she personalized with "Journey To Lauren" made in beads. Then!...she also inlcuded a map of Guangzhou airport and and information sheet typed out of all the services, facilities, numbers for lost luggage, etc. etc. etc. There are no words to describe!! Thank You Secret Pal!!

Addicted To The High Country!

Here are my two favorite hiking partners, Dan and Bailey! We are on the Arizona Trail here. We have seen Elk up close and Antelope have run right past us while hiking this trail in the past. Of course, I had my camera this time, so we didn't see any wildlife. :)



The last couple of weekends Dan and I have been escaping the heat and heading to the high country of Flagstaff! We've hiked the beautiful trails and sat around the campfire. I love to hear the breeze through the Pines and hear the caw of the crows. The stress just melts off. We've also enjoyed a few long runs while up north. My favorite trail is the West Fork trail in Oak Creek Canyon. It takes you through some unbelievable canyons and the trail follows the creek for miles. Ahhh. This is how Phoenician's know it's actually fall!

Having Fun in the Sun!

We had lots of fun at the game last night. ASU VS NEVADA-- We won!! This is my Mother and Father-in-law with us. As you can see Don has placed his pitch fork sign conveniently behind my head! :)



Thanks Honey for all the great times! Can't wait for Lauren to be sitting with us next year! Sparky is waiting for her!

Arizona Mama's Strike Again!

I had such a nice time with my fellow "Arizona Adoptive Mama" yesterday! We had our pedicures and talked the whole time. While we were talking a lady next to us overheard us mention a blog and she asked, "why would you want a blog? What would you do with it?" I thought about that question later and thought, wow, what would I do without all my blogger friends out there! :)

It is such a great support system we have! I wanted to take this time and just say Thank You to all who write comments back and who are sharing this "waiting time" with me! It helps the time go so much nicer and I learn so much from your blogs and your insight, emotions, lessons learned, etc. You are awesome.

6 Months Down!!

Today marks 6 months since our L.I.D.!! However, the wait for Lauren has been much, much longer than that! The average wait times are changing everyday. We are patiently, yet anxiously waiting.

I often wonder if she is born yet. Is she waiting in a park to be found today? It is such a miracle that we will someday soon be united. I can only imagine the emotions of that day. It is surreal that as I sit here and type that our Lauren is somewhere in China. Her room is painted, her stuffed animals are waiting, her clothes are hung. We have dreams of us camping and playing, and trips to Disneyland someday.

In God's perfect timing.

Go Sun Devils!!!!!

This Thursday the Arizona State Football season begins!! I am an Alumni of ASU and Dan has been a fan of ASU all of his life. We are season ticket holders, so needless to say, we are really excited to see a new year begin!

Above is Lauren's cheerleading outfit her Grandma Connie bought for her last Christmas! Thank You Grandma Connie!! :) We all thought Lauren would be accompanying us to the games this year, but is seems we will have to wait yet another year. Grandma Connie and Grandpa Don also have season passes, so we will have lots of fun in the future!

Since becoming ticket holders, Dan has taught me lots about football. Our typical "football class" is held at our favorite breakfast place, Mimi's Cafe. Dan takes the napkins, tears them into little pieces, rolls each piece into a tiny ball and then places them on the table in "formation". He points to a "player" and I recite what position he plays. :) The waitresses think we are crazy, I'm sure! :)
It's lots of fun, though.

I will say, even though I know a lot more about football now, I still am apt to be people watching and searching for the Team Mascot "Sparky" during the game. :)

Go Sun Devils!!

Thank You Leif and J.D.!

Last night we had our friends, Leif and J.D., over for dinner. We had such a nice time! Pictured above is the beautiful gift they brought for Lauren! They have a friend who lives in China and they were able to get this through her. The scripture words of John 3:16 are written in the form of a cross! We will treasure this forever. Thank You Leif and J.D.!!

Leif and J.D. are just starting the paperwork towards their adoption of a baby girl from Guatemala!

News From CHI !!

Our Case Worker, Marianne Adams recently sent the following message:
Friday, August 25, 2006 Subject: China Referrals


37 CHI July 15 and July 21, 2005 log in date families received their
referrals on 8/25/06. All the referrals are for little girls. Most of
the referrals are between 10 to12 months old. Three families received
toddler referrals with two of them being 2 year and 4 months old. The other
one was one 2 years old. Two of these above families requested 0 to 18
months and the other family requested a 2 to 3 year old. One family, who
requested a 3 to 5 year
old, received a referral for a 4 year 3 month old. The girls are from the
Guangdong, Hubei and Anhui provinces. We expect these families will travel
in about 8 weeks. This batch of referrals were from 7/14 through 7/22,
2005 log in dates. The wait time from log in date to referral is now 13-14
months. There were no Chinese expedited referrals in this batch.

p.s. These are the referrals that we should have received Sept 1st and they
came early.
So these are considered Sept. referral group. BUT, the LID is July 15th-July
21st.

So...the wait continues to grow slightly. If the 14 month wait could hold steady, it would not be so bad for Dan and I. It would put us at getting Lauren's referral in May and traveling in the summer. Since Dan has the summers off, this would be ideal! It is all in God's timing!

August Secret Pal Gift! Thank You!

The gifts were so pretty! I almost didn't want to open them!



Lauren will look so cute all wrapped up in the hooded towels with ladybugs on them! The rubber ducky tells whether the water is the too warm or just right. The travel bath items will be very helpful on our trip to China! The sweet card says:

"Home is a place we all have to find, child.
It's not just a place where you eat or sleep.
Home is knowing.
Knowing your mind, knowing your heart, knowing your courage.
Ift we know ourselves
we're always home
anywhere."
The Wiz (1978)

So true. I will keep this card for Lauren's scrapbook.

Thank You again! Secret Pal!

Check It Out!

I've added Scott Robert's blog as a link. Go to his blog to see amazing pictures of China and his tips for traveling in China. When you go to his site, go to July 26,2006 on his "posting calendar" and you can see his trip from the beginning. He and his family are in China now and are adopting their second daughter from China.

Our Nursery is Coming Along!

I was trying to show the detail of the Toile border, but the picture is not as clear as I was hoping.



As you can see Lauren already has her own collection of stuffed animals! She's spoiled already! :)



Here is the quilt rack my awesome mom bought us. It's cherry wood and will match our crib set we have picked out beautifully! The sweet quilt was made by my grandma. It was only her second time making a quilt. She did a great job!

News from our agency!

The following news was sent from our adoption agency, CHI, today:
Congratulations to the 13 CHI June 29, 2005 log in date families who received their referrals today. The referrals are all little girls between 7 ½ and 21 months old from the Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. We expect these families will travel in about 8 weeks. Congratulations to these CHI families!!This batch of referrals began with the June 29, 2005 log in date. TheCCAA has not posted the cut off date for this batch of referrals ontheir web site yet, but we believe that the cut off date is July 13 based on other agencies reports. I will continue to monitor the CCAA web site and post the official cut off date. The wait time from login date to referral is now 13 months. There were no Chinese expedited referrals in this batch.Ann TollefsonChina Program Director

Well, we are another referral pack closer! It looks like we will have plenty of time to save money and get the nursery ready. Each month gets a little harder emotionally though. I received some clothes for Lauren from a friend at work. I washed them today and was putting them in her closet and thought of the day I will get to hold her in these clothes! I can't wait. Dan and I went looking at cribs today. We picked out the set we like. It's a Stanley cherry wood "crib to grow". It's beautiful!

Thank You Palo Verde Friends!

I was at work yesterday when I suddenly noticed a large group of my co-workers standing behind me. I looked up to their smiling faces and they handed me the note pictured here. Enclosed was $540.00. Needless to say, I was speechless. I did not, and still do not, know how to thank all of you for your generosity and more than that your awesome friendship. It means more to Dan and I than you will ever know. When I tell Lauren of our adventure to get her someday... you will definitely be a part of that story.

We are going to the bank on Monday to deposit the funds into our special "adoption" savings account.

May God bless you in return.

All Our Love,

Dan & Mardi

Gifts From My Secret Pal!

Our Children's Hope International adoption agency has set up a yahoo chat group with those of us with a March '06 Log In Date (L.I.D.) We have been talking back and forth for some time now and have just recently set up a secret pal exchange. It is my first ever and I'm having lots of fun with it! I have an awesome secret pal! She is crafty too!

The pictures are of the two books she sent and the beautiful ribbon with Lauren's name. The book "Shaoey and Dot" is a book written by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife. They have adopted 3 little girls from China and have now written this book. The story is of a ladybug named dot and how she finds a baby in a basket, Shaoey, and they become friends and journey together to find Shaoey's family!

As far as our progress with the adoption, it is about the same. The average wait is still 12-13 months. We have been spending our summer camping, seeing a show in Las Vegas called "KA" by Cirque De Soleil. The show was absolutely amazing! Other than that we are working on the house, and trying to save as much as we can for our trip to China! :)

We just got a digital camera. I know, welcome to the 21st Century, right?! :) Anyway, these pictures didn't come out as well as I would have liked. I will keep learning more about the camera and hopefully post some pic's of the nursery so far.

Our 1st Ultrasound!

Well, the wait is averaging 12-13 months from LID. We are are 4 months into that wait. So...I figure that makes us officially Pregnant! Here is our 1st ultrasound! :)

Dan and I went ice skating today and as we watched all the little ones buzzing by, we talked of our future with our little Lauren. During this wait time it almost seems surreal that we will actually have Lauren in our arms some day. She will change our lives forever.

Lauren, we love you and are praying for you everyday!

News From Our Agency

On 6/26/06 Children's Hope International received China referrals fromthe CCAA for June 16 through June 28 log in dates. CHI received 19 referrals for our June 20 and June 22 log in date families. The referrals, all girls, range in age from 7 months to 17 months. The girls are from the Guangxi and Hunan provinces. We expect these families to travel to China in 6 to 8 weeks. Congratulations to these families!

The current wait from log in date to referral is 12 months.

Ann TollefsonChina Program Director 314-812-1722 (office) 636-928-2970 (home)

Dossiers On The Move!

News from China: A new set of storks have taken flight. Those with Dossiers up to June 28th will be receiving their long awaited referral pictures! This means the wait average remains at 12 months. The dossiers of October 31, 2005 have now passed review and are moving to the matching room. Even though there are still many ahead of them, the next stage for these parents is to be matched with their babies! What this means for our dossier is that we are getting closer to entering the review room and may even be entering the review room. This review room is where they look over our dossier...again... and make sure they do not disapprove of anything. Then we will be moved to the matching room. Lauren's picture will then come via the infamous UPS stork :) If the wait continues as it has been, we should be getting Lauren's picture March '07. Of course, this wait time can change anytime. Congratulations to all of you with referrals on the way!! You will be in China before you know it!! :)

Celebrating Our 7th Anniversary

June 12th--Dan and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary at The Boulder's Resort in Carefree, AZ. Only minutes from home, but we felt miles away. Our favorite amenity was the famous Golden Door Spa. Upon entering the spa we were welcomed with robes and slippers. We enjoyed waterfall-like showers, eucalyptus steam baths, japanese baths, and an array of fresh vegetables and fruit laid out in various places. Drinks and lunch were brought to us while lounging by the pool. I enjoyed a 50 min. massage while Dan checked out the workout facilities. We took walks and saw bunnies and quail everywhere. The golf course was beautiful to walk along. We spent our time relaxing and reminiscing. It is so amazing to be married to my best friend. Our marriage is the best gift I have ever been given. We laugh together and love together. When I prayed for a husband, I had never dreamt there was a man like Danny to share my life with.

Arizona Adoption Mama's

I met two awesome friends from the CHI chat group who live here in the Phoenix area. We got together for pedicures yesterday. It's Mary on the left, Terri in the middle, and me on the right. It was good to talk with others who are going through the process of adopting from China too! We shared excitement as well as frustrations we have had over the the past year with paperwork, adoption rumors, etc. I can just imagine the day we get together for pedicures- with our daughters! How fun will that be! I wish all you who we have gotten to know through CHI could have shared in the fun. Maybe someday!