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| Journal - The Wait March - April 2002 |
| 3/4/02 - I can't believe another month has already passed by since I last updated my journal! I have now officially made it through 4 months of "the wait". Unfortunately, the time between DTC and referrals seems to extend every month with the current wait time at 14-15 months. So if current wait times hold up - I won't hear anything until sometime in December. But at the moment - I'm not really worrying about the month of the referral. |
| I've decided that it is just too far away to worry about right now. So, what am I doing? Well, I'm trying to strip wallpaper off of the room. It's not an easy project and I've already experienced the shock of part of the wall coming off (the smooth plaster part - not the whole wall!) But that means that I'll need to hire a plasterer before I can paint. Glad I started this now. I went to a waiting families meeting/luncheon sponsored by my local FCC. This was the best one I've been to so far. I met two families that live near me (one is August DTC and the other is October DTC) and another single mother-to-be that doesn't live too far away. We exchanged e-mails and will try to keep in touch. I'm also taking a Chinese language class. All I can say is - VERY DIFFICULT. So, am I busy? As they say in China - Wo hen mang! (I'm really busy!) Bye for now... |
| 4/4/02 - Another month down.... Referrals started trickling in today for those who submitted their dossiers between 2/10/01 - 3/5/01. If there is no further slowdown or speedup, that would mean I would receive my referral in early December. But, there is no such thing as the wait time being status quo so I'm not marking my calendar anytime soon. The nursery has been ignored by me for the last 2 (soon to be 3) weekends. My dad came to visit me 3/23 and we spent the weekend together having a good time. We picked up the valance for the nursery as well as some paint samples for him to share with my mom. We also made Chinese pork dumplings together and I for one had a great time making all 74 dumplings. Last weekend which was Easter, I flew to Richmond and celebrated with my parents and grandmother. I'm also trying to get in shape so I've joined Weight Watchers and have so far lost 10lbs. I would like to walk outside but the weather is not cooperating - hopefully will warm up in the next week or two. I'm waiting on an estimate on repairing the fence in my back yard - hopefully that will be done by May. This weekend I am going to Northern Virginia to meet up with some other waiting mothers-to-be and we are all going shopping at Potomac Mills mall. If I remember my camera - I'll try to take some pictures and post them up. My poor daughter still doesn't have a name. I'm sponsoring a baby girl in a Chinese orphanage through a wonderful organization, Half the Sky. Her name is Wu Hui and she currently lives in Chongqing, China. Her picture is on my refrigerator. Well, I promise to write more later! |
| 4/8/02- I'm back from D.C. and had such a wonderful time! Connie hosted the event at her home, which is minutes away from Potomac Mills. Megan, Julie, Dawn and I arrived Friday evening and stayed up talking until 1am! It is so nice to be able to talk with other women who completely understand everything. The best thing was that we all had so much in common even beyond adopting from China. On Saturday we met up with Di and her family as well as Jen and her sister and sister-in-law. We arrived at the mall at 10am and didn't leave until 4:30pm. The northern Virginia economy certainly got a boost! Dawn and I stayed over Saturday night and watched Mulan with Connie. My daughter is going to be one well-dressed little girl and I hope that once we all have come back from China we can meet again! Below is a picture of all of us before we headed out. This Sunday I'm attending a TRFCC education event on the health of children from China. Guest speakers will be a pediatrician, who is the director of Pittsburgh's International Adoption Clinic, and a local pediatric dentist. I might meet up with Tracee and David beforehand. |
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| Back Row L-R: Megan, Jen, Di, Julie, and me; Front Row L-R: Sara (Di's daughter), Dawn, and Connie |
| Travel |