A little about me...

While we wait for this month's referrals that were suppose to come out last week and now have been so delayed that it looks like we are not going to have any referrals in October, I came up with some things you may not know about me (Kelly). I say that like you may want to know, but you're here and there are no new referral pictures to look at, so what the heck!

1. I'm the nurse manager/surgery center administrator for a group of 4 plastic surgeons - that one always gets people talking.


2. I was in Alpha Chi Omega at the University of North Florida.


3. We are big football fans. Mike is a University of Florida Gator fan and I'm a Florida State Seminole fan - big rivals. (And they play on my birthday this year!) But we agree in pro football - this is our seventh year of being season ticket holders to the Jacksonville Jaguars.


4. We're big NASCAR fans. I love Jimmie Johnson #48. Mike likes Ryan Newman #12. Mike and I even got to drive a NASCAR car at Talladega with the Dale Jarrett Driving Experience - very cool.


5. I just started playing golf for the first time this summer. Mike is a golf course superintendent and I figure after almost 10 years of marriage, I'd give it a try!


6. I did Ironman Florida twice (in 1999 & 2000). That's a triathlon where you do a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2mile/marathon run. My best time was 13 hours and 22 minutes. I definatley not in that kind of shape now.


7. I'm a beach person - I love to surf (even though I'm not very good at it), we live 3 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, we are both Florida natives, and my favorite place to vacation is the Florida Keys - a family vaction spot since I was a kid.


8. I told my mom when I was in middle school that I would not be able to have children but it was okay because I was going to adopt from China - weird huh.


9. I'm a Christian and attend a Methodist Church


10. I love all kinds of music, but my favorites are The Beatle, U2 and Jimmy Buffett.

So that's a little bit about me...bring on the referrals!!

Salsa Girls!

My favorite blog, Salsa in China by Mary Mia & Rod, got their twins yesterday! It's crazy - when I started following her blog earlier this year they had already been waiting a long time and were frustrated about their long wait. Then when referrals came out in July, they missed their log in date by one day. She was devastated, so upset to have to wait again. Then a month later we watched as their referral finally came and they found out they had twins! Now we watch their trip to China to get them! It's amazing to follow their story and their story is our story, just fast forward (probably not the twins but it's possible!). Congratulations to the beautiful Salsa family and thank you for letting us follow your journey!

It's fall and it's busy

I can't believe it's been over a week since I have written. So much is going on! Besides being busy at work (what' new) I've been so busy with so many other things. It always seems like the fall is such a busy time. The cookbook sales are going great and we are about to place a second order with the publisher for another 400 books! I can't believe we have sold almost 400 in 4 weeks! Mom is working a booth at a church fall festival tomorrow to sell books while I am helping a friend at another church fall festival where we are raising money to help a little girl in China come to Jacksonville for heart surgery. It's a really neat project that I have gotten involved in with a lady I met in our local Familes with Children from China chapter. On top of that I have found a speaker for our next Waiting Families meeting - a pediatrician that has done mission trips all over the world and puts together medical travel packets for families traveling to adopt internationally. Plus I received (and mailed) my first cyber baby shower gift! I can't wait for shower day - October 30. I have gotten involved with a couple Yahoo groups that are made up of people at the same stage of adoption from China as we are. To make the wait a little more fun we are each going to be assigned a person every other month to send a present to like a baby shower and each shower will have a theme - the first theme is LADYBUGS! It will be a lot of fun. I'll post pictures when I get to open my present. And on top of all of that, Mike and I are finally getting around to finishing our game room. When we built our house a few years ago we left one room unfinished, basically a basement (yes a basement in Florida!) that we could not afford to finish out. And when I say unfinished, I mean concrete floors and walls and nothing else. It was the one room Mike was most looking forward to - a place for him to go play! Well, we are finally working on it with the wonderful help of my brother. It will be awesome and should be done by Thanksgiving - just in time for the Florida (Mike's team) vs Florida State (my team - even though they're awful this year) game. Wow - that's a lot going on! No wonder I'm tired!

1 Month Anniversary!

So during "the wait" you don't have many milestones like during the paper-chase so I'm going to celebrate monthly anniversaries and today is one month since our LID! Only ??? many more months! All of the "experts" and "recreational experts" all have different opinions on how long the wait from log in to referral will be. Some say, including mom who reads everything she can find on the internet, says that CCAA will speed up (the current wait is 14 months), then others say it's only going to get worse, as bad as 24 months. Whatever it takes, we will wait - because that's how long it will take to bring Mia home to us! So for now, one month down now matter how long! And it was pretty painless so far - Yeah us!

Thank you!

I've been so busy this past week that I haven't had a chance to post any messages, read other blogs and I've barely checked my email. The good news is that our cookbooks are a big hit - I'm so excited. Thank you to everyone who has helped us by giving a recipes, telling a friend, buying a book. It's been great fun, financially helpful for our goal to get daughter home and a great thing to keep and show Mia when she is older. It's really been a lot of fun. We have plenty left so don't forget about us when it comes time to get Christmas presents!