18 months today!

We are now a year and a half into our wait. It's hard to believe that 18 months has passed since we received ICAB approval. In a one way the time has flown by, in another way it seems like we've been waiting forever. I was hoping to hear something by Christmas but since hearing that the number of applicants in 2008 greatly increased, I'm expecting that we could wait another 6 months. Still, I'm trying to think positive and am hoping to hear by Christmas and to have our child home before next summer.

It is very exciting that one of my blog friends is bringing home her son very soon. Her and her husband leave on Tuesday for the Philippines. Hopefully it won't be long before we are headed there. Until then I'm going to enjoy preparing for Christmas and hanging out with my husband, dog and friends.

The last of the pictures

These are the last of the pictures. I'm sure that I have you all totally bored by now but I love looking at pictures so I hope that the rest of you are the same. The Colosseum at night.

Assisi. An almost 2 hour train ride from Rome.

St. Francis of Assisi church.

Taken from the top of St. Peter's Basicilia in Rome

St. Peter's Square early Sunday morning. I carried the camera duing our run so I could get some early morning shots before too many people got around.

Trevi Fountain during our run. Trevi fountain is always packed full of people unless it's 6:00 in the morning like it is in this picture.

The Spanish Steps. Again it's usually packed with people but there wasn't another soul in sight that morning.

This was taken in the town of Amalfi when we took a tour of the Amalfi Coast. It was beautiful with all the towns on the sides of the cliff and the roads were so narrow and winding.

This was taken our board our ship. It had 2 big waterslides which we all tried. Lots of fun, especially since there we very few children on board. We had the slides all to ourselves!

Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was beautiful there with all the red rooftops. The city is surrounded by a big wall which you can walk on top of.

Sunset in Dubrovnik. It was amazing.

Home Alone

On Saturday morning I took the dog for a walk and did the grocery shopping and I felt fine. At 1:00 that afternoon I started to get a sore throat, body aches, fever and chills along with a headache. It all came on so suddenly I thought it was the swine flu. I spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday in bed. By last night, the symptoms were all gone except for my cough and a headache. I went to work this morning and they sent me home because they said you have to be symptom free for at least 24 hours before returning to work. I know that makes sense since we work with small children many of which have comprised immune systems but today I don't feel too bad. So here I am at home with not too much to do so I thought I'd post a few more pictures.

Today's pictures are from Venice and Sicily.

Venice. Taken on Murano Island where they make the glass.

Rialto Bridge and of course I'm eating gelato.

St. Marks Square. We didn't spend too much time there as it was pretty crowded.

Sailing out of Venice.

Taormina, Sicily.

The Greek Theatre in Taormina. They still hold performances there today. I'd imagine it would be an amazing place to go to a concert.

Finally, some pictures

I have finally figured out why I was unable to upload pictures and have fixed the problem. I have added just a few from Barcelona, Nice, Monte Carlo, and from the Cinque Terre in Italy. I'll be sure to add some more later.

La Sagrada Familia. This is a church in Barcelona which is being built on donations alone. The construction started in 1882 and it won't be completed until 2020 or later. The church was amazing because of all of the details.

We also visited Parc Guell in Barcelona. It was designed by Antonio Gaudi and it reminds me of a mix of Whoville in the Grinch Stole Christmas and Bedrock in the Flintstones.

Nice was very nice! We just walked along the beach, which was quite rocky, and did a little hike up to a look out.

Monte Carlo. There were tons of yatchs and we just took a quick look around and visited the Casino (stayed outside) and the Palace where Grace Kelly lived.

This picture was taken somewhere in Tuscany as we took the bus to the beginning of the Cinque Terre walk. We didn't get to do the hike in between the villages. Instead we took a boat between villages as we didn't have enough time to hike the entire distance.

These pictures are from the various villages along the Cinque Terre.

Monte Carlo casino.

Our anniversary

Monday was our 7 year wedding anniversary. Wow, where has the time gone! We didn't do much to celebrate because we've both been so busy. We plan on celebrating next weekend because I was away for a few days and now Brian is away for the weekend and then I'm away again until Wednesday. It's been quite hectic.

Yesterday was also a special day. It was on October 22, three years ago, that we decided to adopt. At that time I didn't quite realize what a time consuming process it would be but I hope and pray that we are nearing the end, or that we are at least going to be matched with a child this year. Then the hardest wait of all begins.

It has been raining here everyday since we returned from vacation. It is awful to not be able to enjoy the Fall colours. This is usually my favorite time of year but I haven't been outside much at all this year. Hopefully there is better weather in the future.

I'm still unable to post pictures so I don't know what's going on. Has anyone else had this problem or know how to fix it?

17 months!

We have now been ICAB approved for 17 months! It is hard to believe that we are another month closer to meeting our child. I am still hoping to hear something by Christmas but it is quite possible that we'll be waiting longer than that. There is nothing we can do to speed up the process so we're just sitting back and enjoying our child free days. There haven't been many new referrals lately in the Yahoo group so hopefully soon there will be a big bunch.

I am still having trouble with adding pictures into the blog. I'll keep working on it.

Trouble!

I'm having trouble adding some pictures from our trip to the blog. I've never had this difficulty before so I'm not sure what's going on. Hopefully sooner or later I'll figure it out.

It has rained pretty much every day since we've returned home. It's just awful! I'm sure once the rain stops, the snow will begin. We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of turkey. It was so nice to have a long weekend. I just love having a four day work week. If only every week was like that!