Thanks Secret Pal!

Okay I know most of you fellow adopters know about the Secret Pal thing, but for the benefit of my friends and family who aren't familiar, let me explain. I belong to an internet group called June06 DTC. We have affectionately nicknamed ourselves the "June Bugs". It's made up of people all over the world who've sent their adoption paperwork to China in June 2006. It's a great source of support and a cool way to get to know some of the people I will be traveling to China with. We do fun little things to help pass the time during this long wait including exchanging quilt squares (thank goodness for the June Bugs otherwise Mia might not have a good wishes quilt since most of my friends and family are slackers... sorry I digress) and the secret pal swap. We're all assigned a Secret Pal who we send a gift to once a month.

This month my SP sent along a sweet little taggie blankie (this will probably go to China with us), some cool iron-on letters of my girl's name (these will probably end up on a tee shirt) and wall transfers of ladybugs and dragonflies (I think these will go on either a little step stool or a kid's size table and chair set that I'll paint).

Since I only mentioned last month's gift on the actual Secret Pal blog, here it is again. For August, Mia got 2 sweet little ladybug outfits and Momma got some ladybug magnets. Thanks Secret Pal! I love both sets of gifts. You make this long, long wait a lot more bearable.

And in other news, it's referral time again. The CCAA has now matched everyone who had their paperwork logged in China up through August 9, 2005. This means that the wait is now at 14 months. Let's hope they stabilize soon. Speeding up would be wishful thinking at this point, I think. I just pray that I have Mia home before next Christmas. Yes... I mean 2007. I'm so thankful that I found that open single's spot when I did and moved forward. None of us realized the wait would be so long when we started this process. If I had stuck to the original plan, I would be paperchasing now hoping to have my paperwork logged in by the end of the year. At least, I'm already 3+ months into this wait. Thank you God for giving me that nudge that I needed. Congratulations to all the families who are now seeing pictures of their sweet babies!!