The Big Show is near.....

****Update****The dress rehearsal went well...only a couple of nervous flub ups for me...hopefully they are all out of my system and the show will be perfect. Of course the girls did fabulous....and I think they were a little surprised by their mom ;0)

Today we have our dress rehearsal and tomorrow is the big show.....eeeeeeeeeek!!! I am so dang nervous, I can't believe I am actually doing this in front of hundreds of people....what was I thinking???????? The girls of course have their routines down and look totally adorable but I think I am going to throw up:)

Photo Shoot

I did a photo shoot with my oldest daughter tonight and we had fun being all artsy with them...so cool! Enjoy!

Does anyone else feel like the answers are blowing in the wind?

Our agency posted a statement about the meeting with CCAA officials and the RQ is reporting what many of the agencies are saying about the meetings but I feel still more confused on the time line. I know that wait may extend out to 3 years (since even CCAA has stated that now) but what does that mean for us? I wish there was some real answers out there...those getting their referrals next month will have already been waiting 20 months but that sounds heavenly compared to the numbers I just calculated for our wait if it stays at the same rate of referral numbers. Here is a run down of what I did:

(my numbers could be way off but please inform me if you have come up with a better case scenario....I would love to hear some good news here!!!)

July07-LID up to Nov.13
August-up to Nov.19-----our 1 year LID anniversary
September-up to Nov.25
October-up to Dec. 1
November-up to Dec. 7
December-up to Dec.13
Jan08-up to Dec.19
Feb-up to Dec.25
March-up to Dec.31
April-up to Jan.6
May-up to Jan. 12
June-up to Jan. 18
July-up to Jan.26
August-up to Feb.1----our 2 year LID anniversary
September-up to Feb.7
October-up to Feb.13
November-up to Feb.19
December-up to Feb.25
Jan09-up to March 3
Feb-up to March 9
March-up to March 15
April-up to March 21
May-up to March 27
June-up to April 2
July-up to April 8
August-up to April??????------this our 3 year LID anniversary and still not even close!!!!! Scary!!!!!

Now another CCAA statement was they think they should be back up to referring 15 days worth after 2008....these numbers are better but still waaaaaaay longer than we thought when starting out on this journey.

July07-LID up to Nov.13
August-up to Nov.19---1 year LID
September-up to Nov.25
October-up to Dec. 1
November-up to Dec. 7
December-up to Dec.13
Jan08-up to Dec. 28
Feb-up to Jan.12
March-up to Jan.27
April-up to Feb.11
May-up to Feb.26
June-up to March.13
July-up to March 28
August- up to April 12---2 year LID
September-up to April 27
October-up to May 12
November-up to May 27
December-up to June 11
Jan09-up to June 26
Feb-up to July 11
March-up to July26
April-up to August 10 -----we would receive our referral after 32 months waiting.

Way longer than the pregnancy of an elephant (22 months)....so if I get crankier as these months pass.....you know why:)

Tick...tick....tick....

I survived the 24 hour party...

Friday we finally had Hailey's birthday party. I am pooped out! She decided that her friends needed to be here for 24 hours....11am until 11am. I will never do that again. Don't get me wrong, the girls were very well behaved but I can't keep up with their energy for that many hours when I am the hostess. They of course didn't sleep much either and Mike was out of town for crew races, so that meant I didn't sleep because I was hyper aware of what was going on in the house, even when the sun was coming up....which I saw. They spent the afternoon playing water games at the park down the street, we had lots of food (teen girls can eat!), and wrapped the night up with the usual slumber activities (not including sneaking out for toilet papering the neighbors, thank goodness!)

This afternoon the girls and I cleaned the house, I am doing laundry and waiting for my sweetie to arrive home from his weekend away. Summer is here but the sun still has not come out in full force. That is life in the NW for you. Every spring we get a sneak peek of summer weather to tease us and then it is back to drizzle until sometime in July. So the beach days will have to wait but I am in the mood for crafting and it has been almost a year since Mike constructed my wonderful craft room, we call it the "girl garage" and I still have not done very much scrapbooking in it. I think this summer it will be my time to get caught up on all those photos that stay stored in memory on my computer and get them into scrapbook albums where they belong. I used to be so good at keeping up with my scrapping but the past couple of years has really been very sad. I don't want to get too behind or I will really just be so overwhelmed I may never scrap again. Plus, I have all these great books from when the girls were little and I need to do the same for Grace.

We had a studio rehearsal yesterday for our dance recital. I really didn't do well at all but I have a week left to practice and isn't there some saying about a bad practice a great show. A girl can hope;)

Have a great week!!!!

Summer is here!!!!

I am finally feeling better!!!! Yeah....what a way to kick of summer.....being sick! Thank you to everyone who wished me well! I am well just in time too, Hailey will be home in an hour (today is her last day of class) and then we are off to buy supplies for her party (remember the 14th birthday that lasts for a month:).

Kyla finished up her school work earlier in the week. I can't believe our year of home schooling has come to an end. It actually went pretty well and now I think she will be all set for the crazy middle school scene. I swear that is just the hardest time of life. I would never want to go back to junior high.

OK...a little mom brag time;)

Kyla's drama class had a performance on Tuesday and she was really nervous but did excellent in all her parts. She was in 4 different short plays and I was so proud of her! I was able to make it even though I was sick and hopefully all my hacking didn't disturb the play to much;)

Kyla also took a photography class this year and last night I was looking over all her work. Wow, I think she has a future in that! She loves it too.

Hailey ended her year very successfully too...all A's again even with advance math and honor's block. She didn't get all those smarts from me (dad's genes). I need some advice though....she is starting high school (where grades really count) and she is going to be in an advanced science class, advanced math class and honor's English. I am worried that she is taking on too much. She is also very social and wants to hang with friends and do other activities outside of school work. Most of her friends are not taking on all the advanced classes so they are not overloaded. She knows I am concerned but she still wants the challenge...should we just see how it goes? I just don't want her to become discouraged if she can't keep up with everything. I know she is in high school now and I need to let her make her own decisions and mistakes but it so hard.

Next weekend is the big recital....I am getting so nervous!!! We got our costumes last week and they look very elegant and thank goodness not too revealing. I can't wait to see the girls routines too. They are in different classes this time. Kyla is in jazz and Hailey is in hip-hop and I have not seen either of their performances yet. We have studio rehearsal this Saturday and I can't wait to see them since I won't be in the audience at the actual performance.

Have a great rest of the week all!!!!

****One more thing...I just downloaded the new Mandy Moore Album "Wild Hope" great listening for lazy summer afternoons sippin' on lemonade...here is her video of the first single,

ENJOY****

Happy Father's Day.....

I am a bit under the weather today so our father's day celebrations had to be postponed a bit but I didn't want the day to go by without wishing my favorite fathers a very wonderful day.

We love you!!!

Papa (my dad) and grandpa (Mike's dad)

....and of course our very special guy!!!! You are the best daddy I could have ever imagined for my children!!!!

Last Night God spoke to me loud and clear....

I am writing this with very little sleep so I hope it is not to rambling and it makes sense...just needed to get it down.

I have been having trouble sleeping this past week...I keep thinking it is because I am nervous about my tap recital coming up in a couple of weeks (remember my little secret)
I find myself at 3am downstairs in the dark going through my moves (without the tapping so I don't wake up the whole house) and again last night after listening to my Zune (an I-Pod device for people who's husbands work at Microsoft) trying to relax and find that comfortable sleep zone with no avail, I came downstairs and thought I would run through the dance a couple more times so I can go to sleep confident that I really do know what I am doing. I went through it a few times but something was drawing to my laptop sitting there alone on the couch. Now, I had just finished up checking on the latest posts before heading to bed hours earlier and since I live on the west coast I don't know why I thought anyone would be posting in the middle of the night....but something was calling me. I ended up on a blog I just discovered recently, Jewels of my Heart, it didn't have a new post but I thought I would look at previous posts and that is when I noticed the sidebar and there was a special video of their journey to China to bring their beautiful Hannah home last year. I love watching these videos and looking forward to the day one I get to do the same for our Grace so clicked right on it. Watching the video, I saw the similar scenes of sight seeing, the day they received their special girl, red couch photos, coming home and etc....but it was the end of the video that caught me of guard. There was message there for me (and all waiting mommies).....I found myself flooded with tears. You see.....I couldn't sleep because deep in my heart I have been feeling despair....I am denial of course, but this waiting and not knowing has really started to get to me....I even had thoughts of maybe this isn't what we should be doing. I hate to admit it but I am letting myself doubt what God has already placed on my heart. Why do I do this? Oh right......because I am a human. God is soooooo awesome though! Even when I am so unaware of my own needs He speaks to me. He knew I needed to hear Him and be reminded that His timing is so pure and perfect. I know I will doubt again but I also know my precious Father will show up when I need to reminded that He is always there.

I already emailed Hannah's mommy and thanked her for her special gift that she gave me last night and she sent me the most sweet email back with amazing encouragement. This adoption community has been such an awesome surprise during this process....I can't imagine going through this journey without these wonderful cyber-friends! Thanks to all of you!!!!

I leave with this......how God spoke to me last night through, Deleea (Nicholas and Hannah's mommy),

"For the mother's who are waiting to hold their babies in their arms...this is the Lord's promise to you...

Don't be afraid for I will bring your daughter's from the east and gather you from the west Isaiah 43:5

He is FAITHFUL....God's Speed..."

Making Memories in Girl Scouts.....

Kyla's Girl Scout troop had their end of the year ceremony on Friday night while I was chaperoning Hailey's dance (I missed it :( ). I knew they had been a busy troop this year but when Kyla showed me the # of patches she received......whoa....they were busy!!! She has been with this troop since she was in Kindergarten (they started as Daisy's), some girls have dropped out and others joined in but it is so much fun to see these girls grow up together, watch how they have changed and matured.

Here are the patches she earned:

Interest Projects

-Home is Where the Heart Is -Polar Bear Swim

-Cookies and Dough -Holiday Fun

-Camping -Sleepless at the Mall

-From Stress to Success -Thinking Day

-Paddle, Pole and Roll -Canoe our Waters

Event Patches -Levels 1 and 2YA

-I Belong '06-'07 -Level 3 Rescue

-Hiking -Camp Survivor
-Outdoor Cook -Mother Daughter Party
-Road Trip -Water Park

Here is a cute picture from her Daisy troop way back in the beginning....they are so little!!!! Kyla is the one on the far left...

In other exciting Kyla news, many of you know that I have been home schooling Kyla for the first time this year. Our plan from the beginning was to home school her for her first year of middle school and then have her go back to middle school after the year. I have been so nervous this year that she has been getting what she needs academically from me. Actually, she has been such a great student this year...working so hard and she is very self motivated.....so I don't really know how much I helped her but she just tested to get into the honors program next year at the middle school and she got in.....yeah!!!!! This was such a relief for me to know that she didn't lose any of smarty pantsness by being home with me. I am so proud of her and she can start of middle school next year with confidence.

Surfin' into High School

Hailey and her friends had their first high school dance last night. There are three middle schools in our district with 8th graders that enter the high school this fall so they had a dance at the high school to bring them all together as the class of 2011!!!

My daughter is going to HIGH SCHOOL!!!! Why does life have to go by so fast???

They were so cute though...it brought back memories of me and my friends primping before our high school dances...too funny!!!

8th grade dance

Referrals are here!!!!!

Congrats to all those families who are getting referrals for their beautiful children...especially for my bloggy pals, Elisa, from Fortune Cookie Monsters and, Julie, from Made in China they both received their referrals and their babies are so young!!! 5 months and 7 months! I have never seen a 5 month old referred before! I thought all babies had to be atleast 6 months old...I guess I was wrong about that one. Wonder what else I am misinformed about. Oh well....what a good thing to be wrong about.

Congratulations to both of you!!!!

Also.....Kim, from My Little Chinese Dream received LOA for their beautiful daughter Channing. Now they just need a speedy TA!!!!!

This is going to be an exciting summer!!!!

Come on CCAA....

I am dying to see some referral pictures....I am having withdrawals and praying that we see a big batch!!!!

We made it to double digits!!!!

Wooohoooo!!!!

Thanks to everyone who wished Hailey a Happy Birthday...she was tickled to see all the people in bloggerville remember her special day!!! I took her shopping after school (her favorite thing to do) then we had a fun dinner at PF Changs with the "Great Wall of Chocolate" as a birthday treat....yummy! She isn't having her party until the last day of school, but who doesn't love a birthday that lasts almost a whole month:)