Poll #2

The original poll to guess when we would receive our referral didn't work out too well so I thought that since we are headed into a new year, I would take a new poll. I hoping that Valentine's Day is the correct guess but with the way that things are going, next Christmas may be a better bet!
Our Christmas was great. Lots of good food and we visited friends and family. We are headed out with friends tonight for a games night. We're staying home with Sid on New Year's Eve and watching the hockey game. Not much else is new other than there have been several referrals lately so I'm hoping that our turn comes soon. That's all for now.

Christmas fun

Last weekend I had wreath making with my friends at work. It was a beautiful snowy day and we had hot chocolate and cookies. Here is the end product of all my hard work. I also have bangs now. The last time that I had bangs, I was in grade 6 so after getting my hair cut I feel so young!! They're starting to grow on me now though. Last night I had the running girls and their husbands over for a Newfie Christmas night. We cooked all Newfoundland dishes and my favorite was pea soup. I had two bowls! Brian made some bacon wrapped moose and I made banana caramel bread pudding. It was my first time ever making it but I wanted to try as it was delicious when I had it at a restaurant earlier in the week. It turned out great and unfortunately there were no leftovers. I'll be making that recipe again for sure.

19 months and counting

Today is 19 months since ICAB approval. I was really hoping that we would have heard something by this point but no such luck. I guess that 2009 won't be the year that we receive our referral but hopefully it will come early in 2010. There haven't been many referrals lately but there was one a month ago to a couple who were approved in June 2008, we were approved in May, so hopefully our turn will soon come.
Things have been quite busy with it being Christmas and all. We've had several Christmas parties between work and friends and we still have a few left. Today was our Christmas dinner at work. I had a lovely meal but my favorite was the dessert, banana caramel bread pudding. It was too die for! Only 10 days left. It is hard to believe that Christmas is so close. I've decided to only work half days between Christmas and New Year's so that will be a treat. Then it's into 2010 we go!!

Decorations

I am finally all finished decorating and today is our cookie exchange. I'm just getting ready to make the gingerbread cookies. We are supposed to have alot of snow today and tonight but there is nothing happening yet. I just love snowstorms! This is a busy week with lots of Christmas parties and events. I'm only home 1 night this week but I love all the Christmas stuff so I'm not complaining. I thought that I'd post a few pictures of my decorations.

There is still no news on the adoption front. Our hopes of getting a referral before Christmas are getting slimmer and slimmer. We'll just have to wait and see.

Starting early

Today I started my Christmas decorating. I wanted to get things done early as I am having my running friends over to the house next week for wreath making and a cookie exchange. We go up in the woods behind my house and cut boughs and bring them back down to the house to make wreaths. When we get back from the woods, I put on the Christmas carols and I have gingerbread baking in the oven. The smell is divine. Once the wreaths are finished, we have gingerbread and hot chocolate. Yummy! This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions and we've been doing it for years. I can't wait for the day when there is a child in the mix to make everything a little more exciting! This year I decided to make oreo truffles for our cookie exchange. Today was my first time making them but I think they turned out okay. After our cookie exchange I sample every cookie and I have them all (4 dozen cookies) eaten in a week. They don't even make it to Christmas. Needless to say, I have a big sweet tooth!

We are in the process of renovating our basement now. We're putting in an extra bedroom and bathroom as well as a big storage room. We figured that once the child comes home we will use one bedroom for the child and the other for a playroom. At least when someone comes to visit us they get to stay in the basement and have a little privacy. Brian is doing all the work himself so he's quite busy. Hopefully it will all be clued up by January or February.

I've also been quite busy scrapbooking. I made a scrapbook for Mom of all the little vacations that we have taken together over the years. Next I'm doing one of the cruise we did in September. It's very time consuming but I love it. I've already bought the scrapbooking paper to use when I make a scrapbook of our trip to the Philippines. Now we just need to get a referral!

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!

Home safe and sound!

We just arrived home a few hours ago from our trip. The plane landed just after 3:00 am and we got home just before 4. I am now wide awake so I unpacked all of our bags and have started the laundry. I just quickly read my 450 emails and it was good to hear of a few new referrals. Several families have gotten referrals at the 17 month mark and I'm hoping that that will be the lucky number for us a well.
We had a wonderful trip with lots of good weather. I plan on posting a few pictures later on. We have to go pick up Sid at my parents house later on today and it's my birthday so hopefully there will be cake at some point. It's back to work tomorrow and I'm sure that after the first hour back, it will feel like I didn't even leave!

16 months

Our 16 month anniversary since ICAB approval is actually not until tomorrow but I won't get a chance to post tomorrow so I'm doing it today. I can't believe that we have 16 months punched. I am very hopeful that we'll hear something before Christmas. Several families have heard around the 17 month mark so I'm hoping that this will be us as well. There haven't been many new referrals lately on the Yahoo group but hopefully things will soon pick up. We are going to be away for 2.5 weeks so I won't be posting for awhile. Good luck to everyone waiting for a referral or waiting to travel.

Italian Night

Over the past several months my running group and their husbands have had country themed nights. A few months ago we had Mexican night which was a huge hit, so this time we had Italian night since we are all soon headed to Italy. The food was great! I made pizza which is one of my favorites. I love lots of pineapple and cheese. Yummm! We've decided to try a Chinese night next and then we're going to have a Newfie night for Christmas. In our group the celebrations always are centered around food. As soon as we were finished eating last night, we were talking about what we will all make for Chinese night. We also plan on having a Filipino night sometime in the future.

Today Sid and I went blueberry picking. I love blueberries and there are tons of them right up behind our house. When I came home, I made a fresh blueberry smoothie. It was delicious except for all the little blueberry seeds stuck in my teeth. I didn't even realize that blueberries had seeds! I think tomorrow I may make some blueberry muffins or maybe a blueberry crisp.

It is so nice to have a long weekend. Tomorrow I plan on doing some scrapbooking since everything will be closed. A friend also loaned me the movie Bella which she said is about adoption, so I hope to get a chance to watch that as well. A long weekend is such a treat!

Two weeks

In just two weeks from today, Brian and I are headed on vacation! We've both worked all summer and are now looking forward to some time away. We booked this vacation a year ago and it's hard to believe that it's almost time to go. We are heading to Rome for 5 days and we're then going on a 12 night Mediterranean cruise. The most exciting part is that we are on an inaugural cruise! Hopefully it doesn't end up the same as the Titanic! I'm can't wait to visit Dubrovnik, Croatia because I've heard it's beautiful.

We leave on September 16th, one day after the 16th month mark in our wait. I was kind of nervous that we might get matched while we are away. We are gone for almost 3 weeks and I wouldn't want a referral to come while we were away because I'm not sure how that would all work. Anyways, I e-mailed the adoption coordinator our e-mail address just in case. We most likely won't hear anything for another bit, but I just wanted to play it safe. Like everyone says, when you least expect it, you'll get the call!!

Woody Island

This weekend I visited Woody Island resort with all of the running girls. There were 8 of us in total. Woody Island is a resettled community which is a 2 hour drive and then a 40 minute boat ride from St. John's. It was resettled in 1968 and all the houses were floated across the bay which would have been a pretty neat thing to seem I'm sure. Now there are only summer homes there along with the Woody Island resort. We got there early Saturday morning and left after lunch on today.

The food was great. We had peasoup and toutons for lunch yesterday and last night for supper we had pan fried cod and vegetables. For lunch today we had a boil up on the beach with homemade soup and sandwiches. I'll be full for the next week for sure.

We hiked across the island and visited the foundations of where the church and school used to be. We also visited the two old graveyards which is another thing I enjoy doing. Last night was a Newfoundland kitchen party with guitars and accordians and the mummers visited as well. It was a wonderful evening and we all had a great time. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.