Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I can't believe it has been one month since I last posted!!! I guess I needed time away.

First, I will mention the sad news....they only matched to December 19th this past month (5-days). What the heck?? Will they ever finish matching 2005??!!! I cannot wait until they are into 2006! I have no idea when that will be and I am very tired of guessing, estimating, predicting etc etc etc....

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before October 31, 2006. The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before December 19, 2005.

A wonderful friend of mine came up with a fun way for us to count down the rest of our wait. She suggested using a glass bowl or vase and placing one stone for each day that we have remaining between now and our referral. Then each month as referrals come in we take out that number of stones. It is brilliant!! I have done it and it is helpful to visually see just how close we are! Check out the vase...not that many stones in there! 38 to be exact! :)


It is hard to believe that Christmas and New Years has come and gone. I am happy it is over. Our third Christmas since we started the adoption process and without Mary Anne. We did have a wonderful cross Canada trip visiting family and friends. It was a lot of fun to be around all our nieces and nephews over the holiday season. I am afraid to even say it...but....we should have our little girl by Christmas 2008!

Mary Anne got some very cute things this Christmas. Thank you to all our family and friends for thinking of Mary Anne!!...for supporting us during this long wait and for keeping me going during my times of frustration and sadness!! Michelle, thank you so much for sending the parcel in the mail and I am so sorry our paths did not cross in Edmonton!


Today I got another lovely surprise in the mail. We are blessed with so much. We received a parcel from our secret pal! :) The secret pal gift exchanged ended in mid 2007...so this was very much unexpected. I mentioned in a previous post that my secret pal had received her referral. She sent a Christmas card with Ava's referral photo and a beautiful porcelain Christmas pot. This pot is special as it was only made in 2005...the year we started our journey to Mary Anne!...it is the 2005 Annual Collection. Amy, thank you so much for thinking of us!!! I love it. You are right we will never forget 2005.


Before I end this post I want to say congratulations to all the families who recently received their referral!!! What a wonderful way to start 2008!...and I look forward to following along on your blogs!