China Adoption Forecast

I checked out a pretty cool site called China Adoption Forecast - http://chinaadoptionforecast.com/.

When I put in my LID - this is when they predicted I would get my referral...

"Our prediction for LID 2005-11-03: our best guess - a weighted average of recent CCAA velocities, guessing that CCAA will perform about as well in the future as they are performing now, but might return to previous trends: 2007-02-26. "

Now this estimate will only stay true if the CCAA does not speed up or slow down from the current amount of matches they make each month. I am still hoping for a speed up though!

Solid Food Swap

Look at all my goodies! My Nov LID group had a solid food swap this month. My swap partner was Traci in TX. She sent me cups, spoons and a hot water feeding dish. I haven't really collected any solid food items yet, so boy do I need all of these things! Thanks Traci!

China Shoes

These are the cutest shoes ever!

My sister's friend Naomi went to China this past spring for four months as a student teacher. Naomi bought these shoes and gave them to my sister to give to me. My sister gave them to me on Saturday night. Naomi was so sweet to think of me and Doug! I can't wait for Briana to wear them!

Another Consignment Shopping Spree

I hit a couple of consignment sales Saturday morning with my "partners in crime"(ha, ha!) Kathy and Mick. These are just a few of the items I found! Some of these items have never even been worn! For around $40, I bought a ton of clothes and two small toys. Unbelievable!

I can totally see how consignment shopping can become addictive!

August 9th

Good news! The CCAA matched 18 days of referrals. It definitely better than the 9 days last month! They matched through August 9th. With a November 3rd LID, there are just under three months of dossiers in front of us. I am so hoping I will be in China in the spring!

More Painting

Ok - this is more tedious than I thought. I painted 18 planks (two coats) yesterday and I have a ton still to do. This will be pretty when it is done, but boy it is a ton of work!

Deer Family

Last night I looked out the window and saw a deer family in the nature area next to our home. There were two females and two fawns. Doug grabbed the camera and took pictures through the window so they are kind of dark, but I am happy we got something!

Chair Rail and Baseboard

I spent the afternoon in the basement painting the chair rail and new baseboard for Briana's room. Doug had to remove the current baseboard because we need a baseboard that the wainscot panels will fit in to. Now I need to work on painting the panels. That is going to take a while!

December Out Of Review

Congratulations December LIDers! Welcome to the "Out of Review" club!

Now let's get a move on in the matching room!

Painting Day

We did it! We finally started painting the nursery on Saturday! After removing what little we did have in the room, we got to work. We painted the walls about three-fourths of the way because we are going to apply wainscoting to the bottom half of the wall.

I was so happy when I saw how the paint was drying. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Doug and I picked the swatch, and the store tells you it will dry darker, but you don't really know how it will turn out until it is on the wall.

The next step is painting the wainscoting, touching up the crown moulding with white paint and then putting up the wainscoting. Doug said it shouldn't be too difficult. I hope he is right!

Asia (our spoiled kitty who is currently an only child) watched as we coated the walls carefully with soft green paint. I think she knows something is coming to change our lives. And I don't think she is too happy about it!