Ladybug Car

On this, the one year anniversary of our log in date, I present to you:


The Ladybug Car

My friend Sue took this picture at the Old Home Week parade in Charlottetown. We do need a new vehicle....??????

Happy 4th Anniversary, Sue and Marty

My best friend and former roommate of 9 years, Sue, and her hubby, Marty are celebrating their 4th anniversary today! This is a picture of them from their recent trip to New York! Can't wait to see you guys tomorrow night!

Are you ready to go home, dad?

Dad is such a good sport with me and my camera :) I asked him, "Are you ready to go home, dad?" To which he replies, "Ya, I'm ready to get out of here, let 'er go!" Short and sweet!


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Free At Last!

Dad, all set to go home!

The food: this is what he won't miss!

They're on their way home...

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

Well, tomorrow is the scheduled day for dad to go home from the hospital! My mother has turned into a full time nurse. I'm thrilled to death for dad. It's a full month in the hospital...could you stand it? Dad took it all in stride, in his kind friendly way with the nurses and has turned into a bit of a nurse himself. I'll be back tomorrow with pics (I told dad to be prepared...I'm bringing my camera to the hospital) and maybe even a video clip! See you then.

CCAA website

For those not in the adoption process, this is what the updated page on the CCAA website looks like. As you can see in the bottom section it states that all files up to July 22, 2005 have been matched. Can't wait to see that date change to include August 31, 2005!
(copied from Chinaadopttalk.com...aka Rumor Queen)

A short visit home

Yesterday was the first time dad had a breath of outside air since going into the hospital on Tuesday, August 1! He was given permission to go home for the afternoon so I picked him up and took him to the country (where he lives). He's doing really well and is only in the hospital, at this point, due to the medication that he needs. They are trying to train us so that we can run the pump and mix the meds at home, but it takes time and some people are on holidays so we must be patient. We had lobster, walked around outside and just overall enjoyed the day. The time flew by so fast. Before we knew it, we were walking back down the long hospital corridor. HOPEFULLY this week he will be home to stay.
Below is a picture of dad and his mother(my grandmother) Veronica. She came over to see dad on Saturday. She's 94 and still going strong. I always tell dad just how lucky he is to still have his mother with him. My mom's mother died when mom was only 9 years old so dad is very lucky to have his mother in his life for so long.

Nine days/ Forty days and Forty nights/ Six days/One week/Possibly five more months? The party is over!

I'm going to try to make this short and sweet...Today is a bummer day. CCAA only completed NINE DAYS worth of referrals. That takes us to July 22, 2005. Our date is August 31, 2005. So....we have 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS between July 22 and August 31. If they continue to go at this pace it will take us POSSIBLY FIVE MORE MONTHS for a referral. UGH! In SIX DAYS it will be our one year anniversary of our file being logged in with CCAA. In ONE WEEK I officially go back to work, although unofficially I'll be there all next week getting ready. And finally, all Marvin's family that was visiting from away has gone back home. I guess THE PARTY IS OVER! I'm going out to lunch with my friend Leah...hope that cheers me up!

The waiting, the wondering, the uncertain timelines

As summer vacation nears it's end, I feel happy. Happy that my mind will soon be consumed with 20 new little 6-7 year olds. Happy that I will have so much work to do at school in the next month, time will fly by. Happy that I will be back with all my work buddies again, laughing and joking and most of all getting the support that I always get from them. There's no staff like my staff...I am sooooo lucky to work with all the people I do. And so many of my co-workers have young children, I'm so glad I'm soon going to be in that club!

But the waiting, wondering and uncertain timelines is killing me. August has been a crazy month for my brain. If only we knew a date, I would know what to focus on, what to prepare for. You see, I'm gold (a planner, organizer, anal-about-everything type). This does not help me what-so-ever. Will we travel before Christmas? After Christmas? I promised Marvin he'd be a daddy before he turns 40 (January 8), which he will be, because we'll have our referral by then, but how much does he want Kennedy in his arms by then?

Thank you to all those people who have said a kind word, e-mailed me over and over, called on the phone, left comments on the blog, taken me to lunch, listened to me discuss timelines when they didn't understand a word I was saying. You know who you are. I don't want to start naming names, but there are a few people who are helping me maintain my sanity and I will never forget that.

Everyone who has been to China and back say that once Kennedy is in our arms, we will forget the pain of the wait. I can't wait for that feeling. But some days it still feels so far away, even though it's getting so much closer.

Sending this post out especially to my friends Natalie and Shea, who are also so close to getting their babies. We're getting there, we're getting there...

More Family Photos

Dale (Marvin's brother) and Holly


Pam (Marvin's sister) and Paul


Daniel, Chip(Marvin's nephews) and Chuck(married to Marvin's sister Marlene)


Lori, Jeff and Velma (Marvin's mom)


Lisa (Marvin's sister) and Doug


Nancy (Marvin's sister) and Garth


Bev (Marvin's sister) and Randolph...I don't know what was happening here, but this was the only picture I had of you two!


Moi, with my pepsi...anyone surprised?

Approaching Milestones

Wow! Where does the time go? When we're in the thick of the wait, each day seems to drag by, however, looking back I wonder where the time has gone? This has been the wait of our lives. We've waited for no other "event" like we've waited for this: our baby to finally come home with us. Some significant milestones are now upon us.

August 23, 2005: This is the date that our dossier left Canada headed for China. We were sooooo excited about this. Excited, excited, excited! We celebrated. We went out to dinner and talked about what our life would be like with Kennedy, about the trip, about what we needed to do to get ready. I still remember that excited feeling.

August 31, 2005: This is the date that our file was logged in at the China Centre of Adoption Affairs. This is a very important date because it puts you in chronological order for a referral. Now, we didn't find out our log in date until early in December, so ofcourse, we celebrated again! At this point we thought that we'd be travelling in the spring/summer. Boy were we in for a surprise...

Now here it is: August 22, 2006. It has been 17 months since we started this entire process and one year since our request for a baby arrived in China. The question now is how much longer?

More pics...........

Kim (Marvin's sister), Mark, Breanna and Chloe


Kevin(Marvin's brother) and Karen


Donald (Marvin's brother) and Arlene


Marlene and Nancy (Marvin's sisters), Chip and Daniel (Marvin's nephews)


Wendy (Marvin's sister) and Ellis


Marvin and me!

Lori and Jeff: August 19, 2006

Richard and Daphne (Marvin's sister), parents of the bride!


Marvin(top left corner) with his 8 sisters, 3 brothers and his mom.


Landon, our nephew and godson.


Chloe and Breanna, our neices.


More pics and news to come!

Project Hornet Nest

A couple of days ago, while sitting on the deck, I noticed a hornet's nest attached to the back of our house. Marvin went to get some "Raid" last night and said we needed to wait until after dark when they were "sleeping". Well, needless to say, they were still buzzing around at 9 p.m. but Marv was up for the challenge. Now, he was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, all ready to go up the ladder and spray the nest. I insisted that he come in and get some "heavier" clothes on just incase he missed and they all came after him. He thought I was being ridiculous, but ofcourse I thought I was being smart :) I insisted that he pose for a picture. Ofcourse, he said what everyone says now when I come at them with the camera, "You're not gonna put this on the blog, are you?" To which I reply, "Just say cheese!"

Moncton City Hospital

Dad and I the day before surgery getting settled into his room.


Dad and I surfing the net. He was looking at hockey stats from the 1950's! Go figure.


This is the "after" photo. This was when he was brought up to the room after surgery. He was in quite a bit of pain but by the next day was feeling much better.

Sunday afternoon

Well, it's Sunday afternoon and I am enjoying some time by myself so I thought I'd write about a few things...
Dad is doing well. His surgery went as planned. I spent Tuesday-Thursday with him, then went back over yesterday. Kim and Amy (my sisters) are with him today and I think I'll head back over tomorrow. There is a possibility that he will be able to come to the hospital here in Summerside early this week so that would be AWESOME! Much closer and he would have many more people to visit him (he and I are running out of things to talk about)! So now he needs 6 weeks of antibiotics followed by at least 6 more weeks of no antibiotics to be sure the infection doesn't return (he had a knee replacement that became infected). THEN, he will return to Moncton for another full knee replacement.

Since I was in Moncton, I dialed up my friend Angela and we went out for lunch. Angela and her husband, Bryan, are waiting for Ella so needless to say we had tons to talk about.

Three more weeks before I return to work! I just can't believe it. It's all good though because we are anxious to get into the fall months and closer to our baby girl. I always enjoy the beginning of the school year anyhow. It's crazy busy but lots of fun getting to know the new kiddies.

This week Marvin's family will begin arriving home for Lori and Jeff's wedding. All of Marvin's siblings will be here (there are 12 children including him). Let me just throw out a few key words: celebration, parties, drinks, food, lack of sleep, fun, fun and more fun. It's going to be great to have everyone together because it doesn't happen very often (weddings and funerals). Oh, how I wish Kennedy was here to meet everyone.....

Beautiful babies

If you are interested in seeing some of the referrals that are being received check out this site. Just click on the blue blog titles and you will see the babies!

A little bit of this...A little bit of that...

I've been meaning to get at this for awhile. A few things to catch up on...
Today I am at the Moncton City Hospital. My dad is having the first of a couple of surgeries on his knee. Not routine stuff due to his bleeding disorder but we are in very good hands here. He has excellent doctors here and an incredible nurse who take very good care of him. I just hate that I can't be here all the time. Mom and I will head back home tonight after we are sure he is doing okay. Who knows, maybe I'll jump back into the car and come over again tomorrow.

Well, the CCAA has updated their site, finally. Referrals have been sent out for those families with LID's up to July 13, 2005. Remember, our date is August 31, 2005. Can you feel it getting closer? S-l-o-w-l-y we are getting there.
S-l-o-w-l-y.

And as of Monday, July 31st, we have officially been waiting for 11 months since our LID. It's been 15 months since we started the entire process. Wow...in one way it seems like just yesterday, but in other ways it seems like we've been waiting for Kennedy forever.

Thanks to all those who have been e-mailing me, calling or leaving messages on the blog. I love to hear from everyone. Your support means a lot! xoxo