56 months - WOW

Well as with many other months I really don't have too much to say - I guess the only good thing is that we are another month closer!! I do really feel (hope) as long as things stay approx. the same that we should get a referral by this time next year!! I REALLY hope so - I think I have waited long enough. I didn't mind a couple of extra months but 48 and counting is just getting a little ridiculous!!

Also I/we have been thinking a lot lately that most likely somewhere in China someone has either given birth to our daughter or someone is pregnant with her - it is so unbelievable to think about it but SOOOOO exciting!! I just so badly want her here with us - we are so excited about her and about finally becoming a family of 3!! She will suffer loss prior to joining our family and we will never forget the sacrifice her birth mom made for her but we will be eternally grateful and can't wait for her to be here with us - her forever family.

Another exciting thing about today is the Royal Wedding - yahoo!!

Royal Wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton - tomorrow!!!

I am so excited to see the Royal Wedding tomorrow - I have to work but I am setting my alarm for 5:00am and I plan on watching it - in fact I think I have set the PVR for approx 10 hours of wedding overage!! The actual ceremony will begin at 6:00am (our time) and there is constant coverage leading up to it. I have not been able to stop thinking about ti today - I just can't imagine how she is feeling - I mean every bride is excited on their wedding day but OMG she is marrying a Prince!! There is so much hype around what her dress will be like and her hair etc... As I am sitting here typing (11:12pm) all I can think is she must be up now and getting ready, probably having her hair and make-up done - AHHHH she must be freaking out...soooo exciting!!!

I can remember watching Prince Charles and Princess Diana get married Feb 24th, 1981. I was only 8 years old but I was so excited to watch that wedding - I was just so excited to see her arrive in the carriage and see her dress and the gorgeous ceremony. I think it was borderline obsessed with the fact that she was a real princess - it was a fairytale wedding!! My mom and I watched it together and I will never forget it!!

Easter 2011

For Easter this year we had my side of the family over for dinner on Good Friday - I made a carrot cake and had little easter baskets (take out box's) for everyone. I made tags for the boxs and had a matching placecard for their place at the table. I really liked the way the table turned out this year. The two cream bunnies on the table with the raffia bows were gifts - one for my parents and one for my brother & Tiffany. We had ham and scalloped potatoes (from Dennigers, mmmm). My mom and Dad made me/us up a little plate of treats, rice krispie eggs, some hard boiled decorated eggs and a chocolate pig (i love pigs) - it was so cute and a really cute ceramic plate to keep. It was a great Easter - I love getting together with everyone, it was especially nice to see my brother and Tiffany since we don't get to see them as often!






On the Sunday Mikes Mom and Dad had us all over - it was somewhat nice out so we hung out in the back yard for a bit and the kids ran around and played with some of their easter goodies! Not everyone could stay for dinner but it was great to see everyone. The kids are all getting so big.

I made some carrot cupcakes the night before and had some leftover batter so I made a little cake for Shayla since we never had cake for her birthday this year!

Random Act of Kindness Day

Miss Megs and her "connection" to baby Mhyia

Our niece Meghan is 2 1/2 and starting around the beginning of this year we started telling her about baby Mhyia and how she lives in China. I think the first time I heard her talk about her was at our CNY dinner this year when she brought her a little present. She was going to head upstairs and when we asked her where she was going she said "upstairs to see baby Mhyia" we explained that she lives in China and won't be here for a little while.

Whenever we ask her who lives in China she will quickly tell us "baby Mhyia" and "Kylan" lol

Amy (her mom) has told her that when baby Mhyia comes home they will come to the airport and maybe they can bring balloons - well believe me she has not forgotten that - she has mentioned to me on several occasions about bringing balloons to baby Mhyia and that they yellow one is for Meghan!!

About a month ago Amy told me that Meghan had woken up in the middle of the night (very unlike her) and when they went in to see what was wrong she started telling them that Oakin (her nickname for Mike) and Aunty Tammy were going to China to get Mhyia!! Apparently they had quite the conversation about it in those wee hours of the night.

On April 16th Meghan was over, she had spent the night and we had put her down for her afternoon nap. When I peeked in on her about 2.5hrs later she was laying there awake and when she saw me she quickly sat up in bed and said "Aunty Tammy I am awake"!! Our conversation went something like this...

Me: "Oh good - did you have a good nap?"
Megs: "Yaaa"
Me: "Oh thats good"
Megs: "It is baby Mhyia's birthday today"
Me: " What?"
Megs: "It's baby Mhyias birthday today"
Me: "Really?"
Megs: "Yaa, we should have a party for her today!"
Me: "Well it might be her birthday today we will have to wait and see"

Too be honest I was so taken back by her random comment that I didn't really know what to say - but I did document it just in case!! We will have to wait and see! It is amazing how her little mind works!!

YES - I am reading a book!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not much of a book reader AT ALL. I will read articles on things I am interested in or even portions of a book I am interested in but I am not one to just pick up a novel and read for enjoyment.

I was at work one day in March and came across an article in the Toronto Star about Xue Xinran a woman from China who has written a couple of books and in particular they were talking about her latest book to be released called " Message from an unknown Chinese Mother"

"Xinran has gained entrance to the most pained, secret chambers in the hearts of Chinese mothers—students, successful businesswomen, midwives, peasants—who have given up their daughters. Whether as a consequence of the single-child policy, destructive age-old traditions, or hideous economic necessity, these women had to give up their daughters for adoption; others even had to watch as their baby daughters were taken away at birth and drowned. Her searing stories of mothers who have been driven to abandon their daughters or give them up for adoption is a masterful and significant work of literary reportage and oral history".

I was instantly intrigued by her article and decided that this was definitely a book I was going to read. I have since purchased the book and at first couldn't put it down but she tells some very sad stories and to be honest I have not read a lot of it lately. I am most definitely going to finish this book but it may take me a little longer than I originally thought. I think it is an important book for me to read and possibly one day for Mhyia to read as well but that will be a LONG time from now - I am not sure if I would ever want her to read it??

Has anyone out there read it? What are your thoughts - is this something you would want your daughters to read??

April 1st referrals

Well the CCAA now called the CCCWA sent out referrals on April 1st for people logged in up to and including June 15th, 2006. It could have been better but I was actually very happy with this batch, I was kind of thinking it might have been June 13th or 14th so the 15th was great!!

I got to mark 6 more days of my calendar and that felt great! That means we have 75 more lid's until ours and at an average of 6 days per month we would be looking at 12 more months (next April). I am REALLY hoping that as we get in to July and Aug they do more than 6 days because there is so few people logged in - only time will tell!!

The one thing I was not so happy about was that they totally skipped the month of March. The skipped January and then sent two in February so I was okay with that but then the skipped March and sent this batch out on the first day of April. I would love to see more the end of April but that is not likely.

Publish Post

March 29th - marks 55 months

Well this month I actually totally forgot about the 29th - honestly there really isn't anything to say except we are one month closer LOL

I am hoping that we are in the home stretch but only time will tell - hopefully not too much more time.