The Holidays are Here!

Well, Thanksgiving is over and done, and now it is time to get ready for Christmas! Our hope is that next year at this time, we'll have an idea of when we'll be heading off to China. Our agency is still telling us the wait is 23 months so that would put us at November 2008. Hopefully, it will happen sooner!!

Not much new has happened since my last post. I'm still in my 160-180 class at school ~~ but I'm really hoping to finish all my tests by the end of the semester (January 23). I'm still not happy at my job but what can you do.....the bills need paying! Bob has finally finished working round the clock at Purolator and hopefully that will not start again any time soon! And Shania keeps losing weight. She's now down to 81 lbs. Maybe another 10 lbs. and we can see about the surgery for her hip.

We're hoping that 2008 will be a fantastic year in the Pitino house! Some of the things we hope to accomplish are for me to graduate from school (and leave CFCD ... yay) and start working as a freelance reporter, Shania to have her surgery and be back to a happy puppy and to finally have the joy of bringing our daughter home to complete our family! We are also hoping to take some trips next year -- one to Vegas for the annual Club Z conference and possibly one out to Anaheim for the NCRA conference. There's also a possibility of taking a trip to San Francisco for an IIA event for Bob. But the greatest trip next year will hopefully be to China ~~ even if it means spending Christmas there!

This weekend, we had Kevin and Haley come for a visit. On Saturday, Bob, Kevin and Uncle Dan went over to the indoor go-kart place. From what I hear, Kevin won 2 of the 3 races! Way to go, Kevin!

While the boys were riding go-karts, the girls (Haley, me, Aunt Audra, Kyla, Keira and Grandma) went over to Build-A-Bear. Haley and Kyla got Clarissa Reindeers while Keira go Rudolph. A great time was had by all.

After go-karts and bears, Bob and I took the kids to see "The Bee Movie". And since it was going to snow today, we decided to take the kids home last night because Miss Haley had a birthday party to go to and we weren't sure how the roads were going to be this morning.


We, indeed, had our first snowfall today. It wasn't much but it's a nice way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Faith

Another Year Has Passed

Well, another birthday has come and gone. As usual, my husband made my day extra special for me. Since my birthday fell on a Friday this year, Bob and I decided that we'd go to dinner and see a movie on Saturday. However, in true "Bob form", he went the extra step and ordered Chinese food for dinner on Friday night so I wouldn't have to cook!

Also in true Bob form, he picked out some wonderful clothes for my birthday. He really does have great taste when it comes to buying clothes for me. I'm very lucky to have him in my corner.

Back to ordinary life, there's really nothing new on the adoption front. We did find out that a new law that went into effect in New York requires us to get fingerprints done for our local agency that did our homestudy. So, I guess we'll get those prints done soon and then when our CIS expires next year in May, we'll have to get them done AGAIN.

Shania is doing great on her diet. We took her to the vet last Saturday and she was down to 82 lbs. Since we started her diet, she's down almost 10 lbs. I don't know how much more we have to go before we can get her hip surgery done but we're working on it.

As for me, I'm still at CFCD. I've accepted the fact that I'm the official "copy girl" there so it makes my days a little easier to handle, I guess. When there's no copying to be done, though, it makes for very LONG days. I just have to hang in there until the end of this school semester (which is the end of January, I think) and then we'll see what I'm doing.

School is another sore topic these days. I was handed a probation notice last week. Essentially, that means that I'm in my 160-180 speed class for the second time (or semester). I find myself in a rut that I can't seem to get out of. I'm practicing more than ever but I can't seem to pass a test to save my life. I'd really like to complete all my tests before the semester is over so I can move into the 200 class next semester. We'll see what happens.

Well, I guess that's about all for now. Don't forget to turn your clocks back tonight!

Halloween 2007 - Family Pictures

The kids all had great costumes this year for Halloween. I honestly can't say who had the best -- see what you think:

Haley & Kevin:

And Keira and Kyla:

Update on the Wait ...

I received the monthly newsletter from CHSFS. Here's the latest information they show on the wait:

Update on the Wait

This month the CCAA was finally able to complete matching families with login dates in November 2005, by matching families with LIDs up through 11/30/05. It took the CCAA 5-6 months to finish November, and after this last round of referrals the wait is now at 22-23 months.

We currently anticipate the wait to extend beyond two years this winter, however neither our agency nor the CCAA is able to predict with any certainty just how long or how fast the wait will continue to lengthen. We hope this year's annual CCAA meeting in December will offer some insight into the lengthening wait times. Thus far, the CCAA's prediction at last year's conference that the wait will likely increase over the next 1-2 years is holding true, as we have seen the wait increase 7.5 months since this time last year.

This being said, we remain optimistic that as we move through December 2005 and on into 2006 the CCAA will be able to refer more than eight days each month (which is the current average amount of login dates matched per month for the year of 2007).

So, as you can see, we've still got some time to wait ahead of us. What I need to find out is what that 22-23 month wait means. Is that the wait from our log-in date of January 11, 2007 or is that an extended wait on top of the 9 months we've already been waiting? Once I know the answer to this question, I'll post an update.