Sunday, December 17, 2006

Jenn made the Chicago Tribune...

For those of you who don't know, we've been following Kelly Haramis' column on her - and her husband's - journey to adoption. Her latest story published last Sunday in the Trib and it focused on her referral. She finally knows what her daughter looks like!

Anyway, Jennifer emailed her a letter of congratulations and it published in today's Chicago Trib.

VERY COOL!

Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe it's a week before Christmas! Where has the year gone?

We started 2006 in the process of filling out our paperwork and getting fingerprinted for our adpotion process. At that time, we were thinking we would have our child(ren) by now. My how things change.

We realized over the weekend how we haven't done any new updates in regards to adoption -- the original purpose of this blog. We got sidetracked with remodeling our kitchen. So, we wanted to take this opportunity to get back to the heart of our blog.

We're waiting! We're waiting! We're waiting!

We don't really know what else to say.

It's also hard for people who are not going or have not gone through this process to understand the issue with the waiting process.

So we want to try to explain...

It all boils down to one thing: there isn't enough supply to meet the demand. We've been told by our social worker that there are two families for every paperwork-ready child.

We were originally told that our wait would be six-to-seven months from our LID. Now, it's nearing the 15-month mark. We've also read on various blogs that it will approach 18-months from LIDs by Spring/Summer 2007.

In fact, we still haven't been approved by CCAA as they have only gotten through DTCs through January 2006 (we're April).

Our LID is April 24, 2006. At best, we'll get our referral toward the end of June/early July of 2007. At worst, it will be toward the end of October/early November of 2007. Obviously, we're hoping for the summer! We would really like to have our child(ren) home for the holidays. The 2007 holidays, that is.

It's now starting to get hard. The two couples that we met through our waiting families group have both received their daughters this year; and, we're the last of our inner-sanctum. While it's great to see up-close-and-personal how their daughter's have affected their lives positively, we're still pining away for our child(ren).

We're trying to keep a positive outlook. We will get the child(ren) that is(are) meant for us. As a matter of fact, that's one of the greatest [and weirdest] thing we see... how the children are matched perfectly with their parents. It seems as though they have the exact same personality traits as their adoptive parents. The kids haven't even been home or with their adoptive parents for six weeks and they are just the perfect match. It's so cool.

On Christmas Eve, we will have officially waited eight months, which is over the half-way point. And, if you get deeper into the thought process, our child(ren) have probably been born.

Here's hoping she's safe, warm and being well cared for...

Saturday, December 09, 2006

It's done! It's done! We can't believe it's done!

Yes, it's been more than two years in the making and three months of Hell! But, our kitchen is finally completed.

Check out the photos below...











Here is a look at our family room. The only things left to do in here are to convert the fireplace so you can see the arch, replace the ugly blue carpet with the wood laminate that's in the kitchen and hang drapes.