I Love You Like Crazy Cakes

A couple at church surprised us on Sunday with this great book. It will be an awesome way to help explain to our little one how he/she came to be part of our family and how he/she grew in our hearts before we even met him/her.

Here's what the publisher says about the book:

"Based on the author's own experience, this heartfelt story follows a woman on her journey to China to adopt a baby girl from China. From paperwork to plane flight, the narrative chronicles the baby's trip from a crib in a big room shared with many other babies to her own crib in her own room in her new home."

What a thoughtful gift! Thank you Steve and Agnes!

Monthly Countdown Ritual

Well, I know after a while these pictures will get kind of boring but it's just something we gotta do. The CCAA updated their website and so now it's official that referrals were sent out for LID's up to and including July 22, 2005. That's only nine days this time around but it's nine days closer to our LID so every little bit is good. It's better than nothing. So once again here are the kids crossing off dates on our countdown chart.

More referrals sent by CCAA

Well it's not exactly official until the CCAA updates their website but the word out there is that referrals this month are only including LID's up to July 22. That's only nine days covered this month. It's quite disappointing that it's taking forever to get through July but again, there's nothing we can do about it.

Every Friday we receive a weekly update from our agency. Often there's really not a lot of news in it, especially lately with all the delays in referral times. However, this week I really appreciated one of the paragraphs. Here's what it said:

"To be certain, extended timelines and changes to adoption program requirements can be very stressful for families. We all sometimes need to be reminded that international adoption is about providing families for children, not finding children for families. When children are unable to remain in their birth families or to be adopted domestically, international adoption provides a final option for children to be placed with a family. As an agency, our goal is to “make families happen for children”. "

I thought this was a great reminder for everyone - especially myself - to keep focused on the real reason international adoption even exists. It's all about the children. We are blessed to be able to provide a loving home for these children and whatever the time frame is, so be it.

More X's on the Countdown Chart

15 is better than nothing right? Victoria and Austin crossed off the 15 days worth of LID's that the CCAA sent referrals for. The numbers keep increasing. April was 7 days, May was 9 days, June was 13 days and July was 15 days. So at least the number of days is going up and not down. Can't wait to see how many are included in next month's referrals.

The CCAA only has to match 56 more LID's to get to ours - September 7!!! They can do that in August can't they? They can go from matching 15 days to 56 right? Ok, I know I'm dreaming but I'll be brought back to reality soon enough - so let me dream!