Ryleigh's Nursery, NOT

That was just a teaser...this is actually a picture of Ryleigh's crib. A friend of ours is letting us have it (I'm not sure if they want it back or not). Other adoptive families that I have met on the internet always post adorable pictures of their mural painted walls, and plush pink princessy carpet.

Well, I can't really do that. We don't have "paintable" walls, they are Philippine Mahogany that our whole house is paneledin. My mother would DIE if I even suggested painting them....also, we can't do anything with Ryleigh's room until after referral. Austin will be moving to an upstairs bedroom, and I don't want that to happen until about a month before we travel.

So, this is just a teaser....

Editors Note - Ryleigh will not be sleeping in our front patio. She will have a roof over head in an adorable bedroom.

Adoption Newswire: This just in.....

Referrals are being posted on the big adoption Yahoo boards. So far I have seen an LID (Log in Date) of 1/27.

What does that mean to us? That means that WE SHOULD GET OUR REFERRAL in OCTOBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why does this excite me? That is one month less we have to wait to get our little Ryleigh!

It also means that we have a really GREAT chance of travelling with our new internet friends the Thayer's from San Jose. This would be awesome because Rhonda and I have been chatting since way before we had our paperwork in and they live so close.

I'm waiting to hear from my friends, Melanie and Peter, they should also receive their referral this month, and the Bainbridge family, and Karen and Scott over at the Gwenblog received their referral for little Gwen and she is six months old!

Congratulations friends!

Ladybug Sighting

Today should be the day (or tomorrow) that referrals start rolling in...in honor of the people receiving referrals I am posting the picture that I entered in the fair last year.

Last summer there was a huge migration of ladybugs and they were all in a central location so Mark and I hiked up to see them (it was in the newspaper). At the time we didn't know the significance of ladybugs, or were even really thinking about China adoption. If it were this summer, I would probably be laying in the middle of the clearing sobbing.....

Yoda in the House!

Austin and his Yoda shirt, lightsaber and ears!

It's amazing what you can do with a leftover wrapping paper tube, construction paper, and package wrapping paper.

Make sure you have toilet paper roll for repairs to the wrapping paper tube when the Jedi Master gets a little over exuberant with his Jedi moves.

I couldnt' help myself...

I just bought these shoes for Ryleigh. I really couldn't help myself...a little retail therapy never hurt anyone, did it?

The Chinese character means Love...

Due to popular demand here is the link for the shoes: Me in Mind Footwear

My Fair Entries are Ready!

Finally, I was able to get my Monterey County Fair entries mounted on some mats. Did you know that it costs $3.00 to enter a photo in the County Fair, but some places want to charge you $40 to mount your photo's!!???!! Well, I finally just did it myself.

I have to drop off the photo's named: Verdi (the snake) and Slimy Buddies (Austin and snail) next Saturday. We'll see how I do this year. Last year I entered a ladybug picture (interesting, huh, we weren't adopting from China then.) and won an honorable mention ribbon (along with about 30 other people). Oh, did I mention that the First Prize Photo was of some dog looking up at the camera? Hmmm.....mine was a really cool and upclose...I'll see if I can find the old digital of it....

Fresh OJ Anyone?

Austin wanted to make some fresh orange juice this morning to go with Mary Mia and Rod's breakfast of fresh brownies.

Drink Up!

Secret Pals are Great

On the March/April Yahoo Board for CCAI families that sent their Dossiers to China in those months, I have a secret pal. She's very secretive, but very sweet.

Today I received a package from her and in it was a book for Austin called "Just Add One Chinese Sister", a CD of childrens songs in Chinese called Ni Hao (Hello) and a beautiful Chinese Silk purple blanket and two burp rags that match. I love them!!!

My secret pal is in Colorado Springs....I love sending her things each month, it gives me something to focus on other then the waiting.....

Scrapbooking Update

Well, I've been keeping with my promise and scrapbooking something every day (even if it is just cropping a few pictures).

Last night I had three of my scissor and adhesive wielding friends over for some paper snipping fun. They were here until 1 am and it was so much fun.....until I had to get up at 7:00 with Austin...

What are those? Ads at the top????

Yes, those are ads on the top of my blog, yes, I hope that you click on each of them. Google will help us fund our adoption if you click on them....wouldn't that be nice? Just a few clicks, and backs and clicks and backs and you can help us out!!!

Sorry for the plea, but I hope it works........

Oh, and thank you to Mary over at Adoption Resource who recommended the Google Ads....if you are in the mood, head over there and click her ads....

Do you Sudoku?

Try the newest puzzle game out there, Sudoku (it's Japanese, not Chinese).

Making Cookies with Grandma

There is nothing like making cookies with your grandma on a foggy day. This morning Austin and Grandma made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies.

Flour Flew, Utensils were licked, Austin scooped (for the first time), and the end product was priceless!

No Vomit Zone....

This morning Austin climbed into bed on my side, like usual, and he said "I'm sad, Mommy". This was quickly followed by retching sounds that Mark confused for the dog becoming sick..Unfortunately it was Austin. In my SuperHero Mom Speed I was able to grab the garbage can, thus saving myself from washing the sheets before I absolutely had too.....from that time on Austin was sick. He is seen pictured on the couch in his no-vomit-zone.....

Austin has never, ever been sick. This boy spit-up so much as a baby, I thought he would never get the flu...but today was the day.

Saturday night we went to a really fun party, and Austin was playing with a little boy named Joey. Well, around 9:30, Joey puked like I have never seen! I had no idea that stomachs on little kids held so much (well, maybe they don't).

Anyways...today was a strange day, because even though I've been parenting for 4 years, this was something new, I had to call the doctor and find out about the B.R.A.T. diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast).

The best thing was that I finally got to start a tradition that we had when we were kids. Austin got a special toy today because he was sick. A Buzz Lightyear action figure that he is clutching in the picture. My mom says that when we were little, we got toys, but my brother was always throwing up so he got a lot more then me.....hmmmm.....doesn't quite seem fair, does it? But really it was.....

Post Edited at request of Mark

Today we listed some things on Ebay, included was this poncho that Mark is modeling....bid away: UserID: Wavesprite

Mark (or is that Darth Vader) is not for sale.

Scrapbooking....

Have I mentioned that I scrapbook? Well, it's not something that I ever thought that I would possibly be interested in....but when I was pregnant with Austin, my good friend Amy took me to a crop (when a bunch of people sit around together and scrapbook) and I was hooked....

I have a small group of friends that try to get together once a week on Tuesdays for Girls Night....this used to consist mainly of scrapbooking at my friend Natasha's house....well, then I started paperchasing, and my friend Katia was remodeling her house, and it just got crazy around last January and we've only gotten together two or three times since then.

I am now almost ONE year behind in scrapbooking my family pictures. Does anyone see what looms ahead if I don't get caught up? That's right, 2 weeks of China pictures, a new baby, lots more picture piling up.

I am committed (and I'm putting it in writing) to scrapbook every night until I am at least caught up to 3 months behind. Just writing this makes me queesy because I'm not sure I can do it, but I am going to try..... I have to....

(Disclaimer: From reading this blog you just might think that I am one of those super crafty people because I scrapbook and am working on the 100 Wishes Quilt for Ryleigh, but I'm really not, I really want to be, but I'm not...)

Happy 4th of July!!

Today is the 4th of July...Mark has to work tonight so we're going to have a small bar-b-que in a bit. Artichoke/Garlic sausage and Artichokes, yum. I bought some Apricot Barley salad, but YUCK, don't buy it, it tastes like oatmeal with salad dressing...

Well, Happy Independence Day to you....enjoy the family picture, we don't have too many of all three of us together. We needed a family picture for the front page of our "Journey to Ryleigh" site.

The Harsh Reality...

We've been asked some why we are adopting from China....well, the harsh reality of it is that only 2% of the children abandoned in China are ever adopted....by anyone...



The picture was taken this week by a family who is in another bloggers travel group in China. Any one of those babies in the picture could be our little Ryleigh.

Do you notice anything about the picture that doesn't quite seem right? Yes, that's right....the babies are sleeping on wood! Babies are not supposed to sleep on wood....they are supposed to sleep bundled in their mother's arms.

This picture breaks my heart....and I hope it makes everyone else think about international adoption and know that it is so do-able!

If you are lurking and are interested in China Adoption please email me, or check out C.C.A.I's (our agency's) website....please.