Wait - May day - soccer

We are still very slowly creeping towards referral. LIDs through 11/1/05 were receiving referrals yesterday. Everyone is glad that China actually got into November - after the last batch of referrals that was a total of two days (through 10/26), there was a lot of concern that this batch would be the same. So basically, this was a 6 day batch which included a weekend. Not great but better than the last one. November seems to be a huge month - there are rumors that it may take 5 months of batches to get through and since I am 11/30 - I would be at the end. This wait has been excruciating this time around - at the end of this month I will have waited 18 months!!! so it really will be close to 2 years by the time I travel. That is horrible!! I wouldn't change a thing as my heart is in China but geez..............

My agency has an online photo folder where new parents post the pics of their referrals and the referral babies this time around are so young! I think the oldest is 8 months and the youngest was 6 months. This has me a bit nervous as I requested a 12-24 month old. Either way is ok with me just want to be prepared (which is a laugh in itself when it comes to International Adoption! Prepared? Right!). If I am referred a baby outside my requested age range - I am required to do another homestudy update which doesn't really make sense but oh well.....

Chloe had her first true May Day experience this year. I was telling her all about my childhood and how we used to make May Baskets for our friends in the neighborhood and do the drop, ring, run thing at each doorstep. They did this at school and made may baskets out of the cardboard toilet paper rolls (quite ingenious if you ask me - the things that these teachers come up with are amazing - and they are recycling at the same time - how cool is that?). So when she came home, she started digging through all the trash cans and came up with 3 toilet paper rolls and started making her baskets using the old Valentine and Halloween candy she still has in her bag in the pantry. We dropped one at each of our neigbors on each side of our house and ran back in our yard. It was pretty funny actually. I have no idea what candy she put in those things but our neighbors will be making trips to the dentist no doubt for broken teeth!!!

Mom moved into her apartment last weekend and absolutely loves it. She is still immersed in unpacking and putting things away but this is something she was adamant about doing herself. Can't say I blame her as I would have preferred the same. Her apartment is right down the street a few miles so that is very convenient as well. Not to mention the heated pool - I suspect Chloe will be spending quite a bit of her summer over there. If anyone wants moms new contact information - email me privately.

Chloe finally made a goal in her soccer game last Saturday. She was so excited that she was hugging all of her team members. She had tried really, really hard during the previous game and just couldn't make it (all the parents were hollering for her too because she was just trying so hard). I am so glad that she was able to do it as this gives her the motivation to continue playing. I think she really likes it (I know I'm partial but she is super fast!) and I think it is helping her with her social skills. The downside is that she HATES to lose and beats herself up pretty badly when she doesn't do well (hmmm, wonder where she gets this from?:-(). So these are things we need to work on. I've signed her up for a soccer camp that starts in July so hopefully that will help as well.