Sweet Dreams

I keep having this dream night after night. In my dream I can see the outline of Koli. She is about a year old with dark hair that is in pig tails. I can see that she has a round face and is wearing an impish grin but the rest of her features are fuzzy. She reaches out to me and calls me Mama. I am so happy and content as I reach down and pick her up, snuggling with her on my shoulder. I inhale deeply and smell baby lotion. So that is my new obsession-baby lotion. I purchased a large bottle of it recently, not to wear but just to open and smell. Every time I smell it I am reminded of my dream and I just close my eyes and relive the scene.

Today was referral day-not for me but for some fellow bloggers that I am getting to know. One family in particular has touched me from the very beginning. I won't link to their blog without their permission but they have the most amazing video of her referral phone call. I sat watching that video with tears literally streaming down my cheeks. Congratulations K & S-I am sure you will be amazing parents! Watching that video made everything that much more real for me. Seeing K's hands visibly shaking as she fumbles for something to write with, hearing the unsteady tone of her voice which was filled with such excitement and anticipation, I can so relate to that. I placed a pen and pad of paper in my glove box after watching her because I am prone to moments like that. In my case our referral call will probably come just before I hit a dead spot on my way home from work with my cell phone. I can see it now-congratulation L & S you have been referred a .......
Maybe I will have to tote around my bottle of baby lotion when our turn comes around, so that if the cell phone isn't in range I can just open it and smell.

Oh Happy Days!

Last week was such a terrific week. Not only were we notified of our Log In Date, but the infamous Brown Envelope appeared in my mailbox on Saturday! That's right ladies and gentleman, the H family actually received the brown envelope! It really is a relief to know that not only does the Chinese government know about us but the American Consulate does as well. All is right in my world at the moment.

My Mom dropped by on Saturday and gave me a gift. She had purchased a beautifully illustrated childrens book on adoption. The author was present at the festival that she was at so she was able to get this book signed. It brought tears to my eyes when I read the book. My Mom and I just stood there for a few minutes, both misty eyed after I was done. The book was great and I love my Mom so much for taking the care to purchase this. I have to send a big shout out to one of my best friends in the whole wide world-T-. T ran into my Mom at the festival and pointed the book out. It just gives me such a warm and fuzzy feeling to know that not only is my family excited about Koli but that my friends are too.

We Are Expecting!!

What a great day! I opened my email up this afternoon to find a message from our adoption agency. They had been notified of our Log In Date and it is June 20th! So let the official count down begin!! If everything stays the same we can expect to receive our referral in December. Oh happy day!! The best part is that we already have one month under our belt. Thank you Heavenly Father!!

Lucky Bamboo

Things seem to be so connected some days that it is really kind of scary. I received a piece of "Lucky Bamboo" from my staff last year as a gift. All year it has steadily grown and then all of a sudden it has just begun to take off. I kept the little tag attached to it and reread it this morning. This is what it says "We sincerely hope this gift of lucky bamboo will bring happiness and good fortune to you." Hmmm, our dossier is in China, meaning our precious Koli is one step closer to us and all of a sudden my bamboo is starting to look like the beanstalk from J*ack and the Beanstalk. I know, I know, cheesy but come on people-I'm looking for anything to make me feel like we are still forging ahead.

As I mentioned before we are planning on getting to know the other 5-6 couples in our area that are using the same adoption agency and were DTC the same date as us. I have talked with a couple of them and they have received their brown envelope. Of course we have not received ours because that is the way things go in the H household. The brown envelope is filled with important documents that are sent to you by the US Consulate in China. It contains things like Visa applications, etc. Receiving the brown envelope is like Christmas for some people (me being one of them). I would race to the mailbox every day waiting for it then I found out the other people in our travel group have already received theirs, which made me feel like I was the kid on Christmas morning that received the lump of coal in her stocking. I have been assured by our adoption agency that not everyone receives the envelope and they have all of the necessary documents that are contained in the brown envelope at their office so not to worry. It's still a little disturbing to me but I am trying to focus on the positive. We still have not been notified of our LID (log in date) yet. This is the date that the Chinese government officially logs your dossier in to their system for processing. I don't expect to hear for another few weeks and keep telling myself that the longer it takes for me to hear, the less waiting time I will actually have left when I find out the date. It typically takes up to 14 days to be logged in so if that is the case we are looking at June 24th or somewhere close to that date as our LID. Which means that we will realistically not get our referral until January. I'm hoping for our referral in December but don't want to get myself into the lump of coal category again by setting myself up if it doesn't come by Christmas.
L made another trip to Cabela*s last week and came home with two very adorable outfits for Koli. Of course they are camo colored but they do have ruffles and bows so I'm happy, we are making progress.

Redneck Yachtclub Part Two

Oh what a weekend we had! I do not have the pic's ready to post yet but they are hilarious! When we pulled up to the island, everyone's mouth dropped open (in awe I'm sure). We headed out to the middle of the river to watch fire works, ended up tying up to three other boats and could not get rid of the river police. They kept circling our entourage dying of laughter. They wanted to know if they could use my port a potty (are they nuts?) and were completely dumbfounded by Koli's Favorite Aunt's lighting system. Her boat had PVC pipe that ended with an elbow attachment. On the elbow attachment they had placed a DISCO BALL!! It was attached to a battery so while the fire works were flying the Redneck Yachtclub was helping with the lighting from the DISCO BALL (very festive) and the Tiki Torches. Both of our boats had signs on them that said Redneck Yacht Klub established 2005. What a great time. After the fire works we pulled back into the cove at the island, set the tent up on the floating play pen, blew up our air mattress and settled in for some good sleep. The only problem with the good sleep theory was that we were right next to where the campfire was on shore. Fourth of July, an island, adult beverages, nice weather does not equal good sleep when you have a dozen people who can stay up all night celebrating! So we did the best we could trying to get sleep and spent the next day on the floating play pen just relaxing. We actually had two separate boats pull up next to us and ask how much the membership fee was to get into the "Klub". Stay tuned for pic's.