Days...Invites...Comments

So I was thrilled at the response of people who want to follow our journey. I finally got around to the invites and hope I didn't miss anyone.

I laughed at my lack of blogging skill - I turned on comment moderation and had a bunch of comments. Apparently, it doesn't email me anymore until I approve it. Well that's kind of dumb. But it could be user error. So I just approved a bunch of comments and they are all so sweet!

I have spent 16 months reading and commenting on every one's blogs about how excited I am for them and meant every word of it. I have lived vicariously through you guys knowing our days would come. I have learned so much from you guys and enjoyed all your stories.

Days just days until June! Aaah - relief that June is here... nervous that it still won't be our turn... yep all of that...

I just got an email stating the referral group will probably be late in June since May and June are big travel months for Holt Sahathai. So I guess I should relax, work out, go to the pool and work on lesson 5 of Pimsleurs Thai. Now that I can say lesson 4's, "I am not Thai." LOL like that's not obvious...I can work on Where is Sukumwit Road? Is it here? Is it over there?... That could be more important but not as important as I am Mommy. I love you! I stink at Thai but I would like to attempt it.

Also in the email, Holt said I-600 applicants may travel sooner which is good news for us. We are I-600 so I'm hoping that holds true. For those of you not familiar with the paperwork, the I-600 changed to the I-800 last April. So the change has lengthened travel time somewhat. I would love more than anything to have Mia home in 2009 but only time will tell.

What a Month!

This has been a very busy month! We have 2 days of school left although we've been counting down for weeks if not months!!!

We will be making the blog private this weekend so if I somehow forget to invite someone just send me another request. I get about 50-75 emails a day (mostly junk) so I could miss a non-junk one.

This past weekend we traveled to California for my nephew's graduation. He is so sweet! We have so many nieces and nephews and they are all the greatest kids (or young adults). I'll have to add pictures later. We have 2 more nephews graduating this year.

While we were there we met another family who is adopting from Thailand. It was so great to finally meet Jessica and Matt after emailing for almost a year. Chris was relieved that Matt reads the blogs about as much as he does :) But to think both of our babies are on the other side of the world just hanging out waiting for us all and we're over here having frozen yogurt while we talk about the babies, attachment, grieving, strollers, car seats, plane rides etc. It will be great to get the babies together when we come to California again and watch them eat frozen yogurt.

As far as what we are thinking right now - just days before our referral - we are just ready. I'm not staring at the phone yet. I am not dwelling on it. We know we are close so we're just sitting back. Waiting - for The Call. Today I spoke with the social worker who did the home study, regarding our 12 month Thailand update and was able to tell her Holt advised us to wait until we got a referral. The home study doesn't "expire" as I feared. She gets back from vacation on June 8th so we will probably have a referral by then. I'm refusing to believe it won't happen the first week of June but realize it could be July. It's ok. We'll make it. All I can say about the wait is that it's different when we think we'll get a referral. The wait is a little bit easier some how. Of course, it could still not happen in June but we can't think about that. We absolutely cannot think about that!

3 Weeks!

June 1st is 3 weeks from today!

Today I had a voicemail from Holt confirming we are #3 and THEY are expecting us to get a referral in the next batch but of course, cannot guarantee it.

Did you hear me???

THEY are expecting us to get a referral in June!!!

How sweet it is to hear them say those words.

Of course, June referrals could come anytime between now and July.

We are so ready!

Going Private!

We've reached the point in our journey where we believe we should take our blog private. Nothing has happened to cause this. We just want to know who has access when we get our referral and when we go to Thailand.

If you would like to continue following our Journey to Little M, please send me your email address through the comment section here or email me at (La2La at insightbb dot com) and I'll "invite" you to view the blog.

How to Live 4 Weeks!

We are planning to meet Little M's picture on June 1st! Of course, all the while praying that it happens in June and refusing to believe it won't.

How we will spend the last 4 weeks as Bell Party of Four:

16 Days of School
6 Days in California
7 Baseball Practices
7 Baseball Games
4 Soccer Practices
4 Soccer Games
1 Bryan Adams Concert
1 Day at the Races with the girls
1 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Family Night
1 Bell Family Pizza Night
3 Nephew's Graduations
1 Field Day
1 Awards Day
Mother's Day
Terri's Birthday
Chris and Terri's 17 Year Dating Anniversary (wow - we're not that old are we?)

Who knows? As if that's not enough, there are a few things we'd like to do not listed. We'll see.

4 Weeks!

I just thought I'd let you all know that June 1st is 4 weeks from today!!! You know - in case, all my trackers weren't enough of a reminder that we're wanting that referral on June 1st!!!

Comments on Little M's (aka that baby, that little baby) whereabouts -

• When are you getting that baby???
• How old is that little baby going to be?
• Mark - Mom I am here to tell you that little baby is not coming home this year. (I guess he feels like we've been waiting forever and we'll always be waiting forever) He's very excited just not optimistic.
• Mom - Are you calling because you got a baby? Oh I thought you were calling to tell me we had a baby!
• WHEN WHEN WHEN???
• She is going to be so spoiled! DUH!!!
• Have you heard? Have you heard? Have you heard?
• Can we shop yet?
• When can we shop?
• Can we shop and then return the stuff if she's older than you think she is?
• SHOP SHOP SHOP???

ME - WHEN ARE WE GETTING THAT PHONE CALL???
28 Days!!!
28 Days!!!
28 Days!!!

Real Mom

The other day we had an entire discussion of the Mom terminology. Matt told me I wasn't Little M's real mom. It's just a reminder of how many Moms Little M will have, the new terminology in our lives, and also how many people, even those close to us, won't know what to call each of these moms. I'll have to remind myself they don't mean to hurt or offend us, but I'll still have to correct them. Maybe with time, I'll give up on that.

Our conversation went something like this.
Matt: You aren't Mia's real mom
Chris: She (meaning me) is her real mom
Matt: No, she's not her real mom.
Me: I'm absolutely M's real mom. I'll never be her birth mom and that's ok. But I'll always be her real mom. She'll be your real sister. You'll be her real brother. Dad is her real father.
Matt: Yeah, that's what I meant - birth mom. She won't have your genes. She won't have your blue eyes.
The blue eyes comment resulted in us laughing and saying You are right, If she has blue eyes, it will be quite a shock!

I guess we just have to remain easy going and hard to offend and we'll be ok. For those strangers' comments, I'll go back to Chris' famous comment, "People Are Stupid. You can't fix stupid people."

Our completed paperwork has been in Thailand for 11 months today. We've been waiting about 15 months since application and we are now down to counting days (30 days) until we should get a referral. Very exciting! This little girl is so loved by the four of us already. She has us completely wrapped around her finger and we don't even know what her little finger looks like.

We look forward to the day when we get to see her picture (and know her age so we can shop)!!!