Has Spring Finally Sprung?

Finally, a beautiful spring day! It hit 67 degrees and this weekend should be in the 70s! i'm so ready for nice weather and our gas bill could use a reprieve. Although that means with a lower gas bill, it won't be long until the electric bill inches upwards.

Other than yesterday, I have not posted much. Back on April 7th, Kevin was rear-ended and pushed into another vehicle while he was stopped for a red light. How you do not see a yellow car is behind me, but maybe it was that the guy was bending over picking something off the floor or at least that is according to what the driver in front of Kevin saw. The guy pleaded with Kevin not to call the police, but Kevin did and it turns out this guy had been in another accident just 5 days before for the same thing. Kevin was a little stiff and sore for the first few days, but seems to be fine now. We are just waiting for the other driver's insurance company to okay the cost of the repairs and then he'll get a rental car and the car fixed. the repairs were estimated at about $1500, but the majority of it is labor; he does need both the front and back bumpers replaced, though.

Last Saturday, Kevin took a friend's daughter to her school's Daddy-Daughter dance; her mom is single mom, who adopted from China back in the late 90s. He had only met them once before last summer, so we ended up going over to their house the week before for pizza. Since cances are good, we will adopt a boy, this may be the only time that Kevin goes to a Daddy-Daughter event. They both had a good time and I am looking forward to seeing the picture the mother took of them before the dance.

On the adoption front, we are still waiting for the 171-H from Immigration that approves us to adopt a foreign orphan. It has been 4 weeks, since the homestudy was sent in and about 5 1/2 weeks since our 1-600A application was received. I haven't heard awhat the current wait time is for people receiving their approval, but we were told to expect 6-8 weeks total and possibly as many as 12 weeks. They have sped up in the past half a year, so hopefully 6-8 weeks is realistic, but is it 6-8 weeks from when they received the initial application or from when they received the homestudy is anybody's guess. I'm expecting (hoping, praying for) mid-May, but if it takes longer, I wouldn't be surprised, but if it is earlier than mid-May, I will be surprised.

Our agency sent us all an update, they just received a referral for a 3-month old boy and are expecting more referrals in the next few weeks. 7 more families will be leaving at the beginning of May for their children. Currently, there are 33 families waiting for to travel, 133 families are on the dossier waiting list, and 203 families who have applied and are working on their homestudy or waiting for their 171-H. We are one of those 203. The waiting list is not separated out for those who only want girls, are open to either sex or want a boy, or want a toddler or older child compared to an infant. Fast forward 12-15 months after getting on the waiting list, imagine that we are #14 on the list, of the other 13 families waiting for a referral if 10 of those families are only open to a girl (Remember, over 95% of adoptive families want a girl), and 3 want a toddler or older child. If they get in a referral for an infant boy, then since we are open to a child of either sex, we would get that referral. So even though, we may not be #1 on the list, we may get a refferal for a child before the actual family, who is #1 gets their referral.

Tomorrow, our agency is having a waiting families forum. They are having several adoptive parents, who recently adopted speak. It should be interesting and I am hoping to see one of the couples, we met at our education class and again at the adoption seminar last month, since I lost their e-mail address and would like to better keep in touch. Well, since this is a rather long post I'll go post it and talk to you all again soon.