I have the best friends

I am so lucky to have wonderful friends..2 years ago I met my friend Julie Morris on an adoption website( adoption.com). We had just signed with our adoption agency and Julie saw me post on the group with our agency name. Julie quickly invited me to join ZHOUSKIDS (our adoption agency yahoo group). Julie and I waited together and then I followed he journey to her daughter Kennedy. Julie's group was one of the first groups I saw become families in China. Julie has been a life line for me and many days cheered me up when I was feeling blue. Julie has offered me parenting advice, adoption advice, and Traveling advice. Her friendship is priceless to me and I know that we will be part of each others lives for years to come because of this connection and because of our girls. Several months ago Julie mentioned to me that she had something special for me and for my friend Cheri (also a member of ZHOUSKIDS). She wanted to wait until we received our referrals before she sent it to us. Cheri received her referral Nov. 5 and Julie decided to send the gift... I am so glad she did... Let me just say Cheri and Julie have been torturing me all day with how wonderful the gift is and maybe I should have to wait to open it until I get Sophia's referral. Cheri even put a poll up on her blog asking people what they thought should I have to wait to open it or open it today. Well I did not listen and opened it as soon as I got home this afternoon...


Julie sent me the most beautiful Barbie Doll. It is a special addition Chinese New Year Barbie, It is so beautiful and oh so special to me. I love Barbie and I love dolls and I am really hoping that Sophia will love them as much as I do. I have already started a collection for her and this was one doll I wanted to add to her collection. Julie not only sent the doll but the sweetest letter that I will save for Sophia's scrapbook. I can't wait to share with Sophia the doll, the letter and the story of my friendship with Julie.

Thank you Julie you are the best....

Nothing, Nada, Zip, Zilch.... No matter how you say it there is just nothing out there about referrals. We are almost to the end of the month and there is nothing out there about how far the CCAA might have matched. We are really hoping that they get well into the middle of Dec., but we will have to wait and see. I guess that referrals will start arriving some time next week, at least I hope so. We are very interested to see how far they get because that will give us some idea how much longer we have to wait. This is for sure, after this group of referrals is released we will be less then 30 days from our referral... Now 30 days away could mean a referral any time between Jan and April we are really hoping for Feb. Whatever it is we feel like we are on the down side of the wait and that one day soon we will be a family... Riz Sophia and Me as a family... That is so fantastic to think about... :)

one other thing we know for sure is that Sophia has been born and is alive somewhere in China right now. We will be thinking of her this Holiday season and dreaming about the time when we will celebrate Holidays with her. We are looking forward to creating Holiday traditions with her.....

I'm Lovin it

Well my good friend Sharon told me recently that it was like "Cool Creamy Crack" and guess what she was right "Cool Creamy Crack" Yummy.... That's all I can say...

Run now and get one, don't wait, do not pass go....If you like coffee get one now!
They come in Regular, Vanilla, and my favorite Hazelnut






















"Cool Creamy Crack"

Thanksgiving

We are so thankful for so much. We have been blessed with so much in our lives, that giving thanks is easy to do. It is at this time of year that We are most grateful for all that we have. We look forward to the day when what we have to be grateful for includes our daughters laugh...

These are 10 things we are grateful for this year

1. We are grateful to China for allowing us to adopt one of their girls and To Sophia's Birth mother who choose life for her. It is because of these things that we will soon be mommy and daddy to our Sophia.

2. I am grateful for the love of my life. I have been with him more then half my life and I could not be more happy. and he tells me he is grateful for the same thing, well for me not for himself LOL.....

3. For our family (goes without saying)

4. For all of our friends near and far - old and new you all have helped us so much and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

5. For a beautiful warm historic home in a beautiful little Florida town.

6. For our health and the health of our family and friend.

7. For the means to adopt and to provide for our daughter.

8. For the Internet (what is getting us through this wait for Sophia)

9. For being Catholic- we both love the tradition, the ceremony, the message (this is what is really getting us through the wait).

10. Our jobs because without those nothing else would be possible.

oh we almost forgot..........

11. For Lola our cat ( all of you who know her stop laughing) (Lola a forced to be reckoned with LOL)

Mother Bridge of Love

I bought this book while we were at the East Meets West Conference... The book has Beautiful illustrations and a very sweet poem.... It celebrates adoption and the love of two mothers for one child....

You can go here and here the poem read by Amy Tan....

My Favorite time of year

You Are Fall!

Thoughtful Expressive Creative Poetic Smart

What Season Woman Are You?

Happy Birthday to Cheri and Shane

We want to wish Cheri and Shane a very happy birthday the first of many as Mommy and Daddy... Cheri's Birthday is today and Shane's is on the 19th of Nov. It is a very good month in the Hyland household..... We can't wait to celebrate our first birthday's as Mommy and Daddy but for now we will enjoy watching Cheri and Shane enjoy their first.....

We love you guys.....

and the winner is !!!!

We just had the best weekend... As you read in my last post we went to the East meets West Adoption Conference in Tampa. It was wonderful and I would highly recommend attending it if you ever have the opportunity to. Riz and I met alot of very nice people who are in all stages of the adoption process. There were speakers that covered all areas of adoption, but the highlight by far was at the end when they had a foster family from China speak.

It was so moving and beautiful that words can't adequately describe the emotion that anyone that was in the room felt. The husband and wife took their seats at the front of the room along with a translator. The wife spoke from the heart when she talked about how they became involved in the foster care program in China. She talked about how they were led to help the orphans and about how each child that they have cared for will forever be in their hearts and in their minds. She said that they will never forget any of the children that they had cared for and how the children bring more joy to them then they can express. She talked about how much they respected the agencies that help families adopt the children of China. She expressed their respect and gratitude to all the adoptive parents for opening their hearts and homes to the orphans of China.... Everyone in the room was moved to tears (or at least I was). We all wanted them to know how grateful we are to them and the other foster families for opening their hearts and their homes to the children we wanted them to know that we would forever be grateful to them for the love and care that they provided for our children.....

Me and the foster mother














Very moving......We learned so much......


In addition to all of the wonderful classes that we attended and the foster parents the conference provided Breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. There were vendor's with all sorts of neat things to buy. The organizers also arranged for door prizes. Several of the vendors donated things to be given away.














Books, CD's, Baby Clothes, and much more.. The foster parents brought with them several dolls that were all dressed in the native attire for the Guizhou Province. They were the most desired door prize and everyone was hoping that their number would be picked to win. I was very lucky and won one of the dolls.Our Friend Sharon also won a doll for her daughter Mary Alice.





I feel so lucky to have that to share with Sophia one day.




There was no real grand prize at the event ,but the one thing everyone kept eyeing all day was a beautiful handmade quilt made by an adoptive mother. The very last thing that was given away was the quilt. The suspense in the room was palpable and when they called the number the women who made the quilt number was picked it was so funny , of course she told them to draw another number and guess what? That's right my number was picked WOW! I was so lucky.... Riz had said at the beginning of the day we are going to win something with his ticket because the number on it was his employee number. I wish the pictures did the quilt justice but they just don't if you want to see it in person and get the full WOW factor you will have to come to my bedroom because that is were we are going to hang it on the wall... all in all it was a great weekend.


The Quilt










Me and Peggy (the mom who made the quilt) holding up the quilt









The detail is amazing

And we are off again

East Meets West Conference



To the East meets West Conference in Tampa Bay Florida this weekend. We have been really looking forward to this event. There will be a dinner on Friday night with a foster family from China and then Saturday there are several session to chose from. We will be able to interact with other families who are involved in International adoption as well as numerous adoption professionals. Some of the seminars that will be available will be

1.Institutionalization and the effects on attachment
2.Why are my eyes different? How and when to tell you child she's adopted
fostering open communication about adoption
3.The Dad's session the Unique role of the father
4.Support in the community- Dealing with questions from strangers
5.Finding the Missing pieces-Helping adopted children cope with grief and loss
6.Referrals: The waiting game,
7.Meet the adoptive parents and children
8.Gotcha Day ! what to expect
9.Understanding the adoption tax Credit
10.Cross cultural: Parenting A "How to" on making your child's culture a Part of your life.
11.The Journey of Chinese Adoption
12.Lifebooks: Creating and Documenting your child's Journey to your family
13.Post adoption Resources
14. Q&A with Chinese Foster Family/ Chinese Consulate Officials

They will be providing many speakers, Breakfast Lunch on Sat. and the Dinner on Friday....

We hope to learn a lot and meet some great people... and maybe feel closer to Sophia if even for a moment...

~~~~CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cheri and Shane

Well it has happened our good friends Cheri and Shane got their referral yesterday.... Hope is Beautiful and somehow the CCAA found a baby that looks just like Shane, only more cute LOL no offence Shane you know we love you.... Go now and look at sweet baby Hope ... We love her already :)

http://ourluckyladybug.blogspot.com/

Well it is official

December 8th is in...

Congratulations to all of the families that are about to see their children's faces for the first time, We could not be happier for you.

We want to say a very special congratulations to our friends Cheri and Shane. We are looking forward to hearing all about Hope....

CONGRATULATIONS................ you are Mommy and Daddy now....

Day Dreaming

After all the months and years of dreaming of a baby... Their Baby .... Our Great friends Cheri and Shane are just hours from finally seeing their daughter Hope. They will no longer wonder If or when will they know who she is. They will never again wonder what she looks like, They will no longer wonder where she is.... Today Cheri and Shane found out that they are in this round of referral and will be notified in the next few days of all the details about their daughter Hope. Riz and I could not be happier for them right now. We are so excited for them that I jokingly said on our agency group today that you would think Hope was our Baby LOL... Cheri being her sweet self e-mailed me and said "she is your baby niece"... Thank you Cheri for sharing today and this moment with us.... We are over joyed for you and to be able to finally say WE ARE NEXT!!!!!!even if it is only Next with our agency LOL....

Stay tuned for more details about Hope and all the other December 2005 referrals