Return from Florida

Hi everyone! I'm back from Florida and back to posting after having to work a three day stretch immediately following my return home.

Florida was great this year. The weather was perfect the whole week I was away, unlike last year when it rained almost everyday that I was there and I got the flu on top of it. It was really good to see my Mom and get away from thinking about when my adoption referall might come. The stress and tension were getting to me. I found myself watching the internet news almost every spare minute I had, instead of living my life day to day. Anyone else been there?

While in Florida, I got to see Melbourne Beach where Mom usually stays for a month or two every winter. It's a very nice Beach town, reminded me a lot of Laguana in California. I checked out the area as much as possible for the two days that Mom and I were there before heading to Orlando, as I have plans somewhere down the road to move back to a warmer climate. I'm still not crazy about Michigan winters.

Orlando was really fun. I had gotten 4 day Magic My Way tickets to Disney, so Mom and I went to all four parks in four days. She was a real trooper. I have to give her credit. She made it through most of the time without complaining too much and sticking right with me. There was only one day when she left the park early not feeling well, and came back later to get me. I'm used to 12 hour days on my feet, but Mom isn't, so she was exhausted by the 5th day...

The timeshare that Mom has in Orlando was beautiful, just wish I could have stayed a little longer to enjoy the ammenities. Will have to plan for more time next year. Hopefully "T" will be with us too by then.

Back to waiting for a referall.....today was one of my worst days of waiting. I was feeling at an all time low, not hearing anything from CHI and receiving e-mail messages and a letter from my homestudy agency while I was away, stating that my homestudy is expiring soon and several documents need to be completed again. I called CHI this morning and was able to talk with my representative who was wonderful at helping to raise my spirits. She assured me that my adoption "was going to happen". She also said that Russia has requested a few more documents to be updated, which she said is a good thing because that means that things will most likely be happening soon for me, especially since they didn't request all her families to update docs, only a few. I am still 5th on the list in line for Krasnoyarsk, but 2nd in line for a baby girl. All baby homes are again open to my agency in the region now that we are reaccredited. I believe there are 5 baby homes in Krasnoyarsk. While my agency was waiting for reaccreditation we were only able to work with 1 baby home. This is all good news, even though my CHI representative couldn't confirm that I would be traveling by the end of March.

I was really hoping to have my referall by my birthday, but since that was Saturday Feb 9th, I am now going to pray for a referall by March 28th, 2008 (that's the last business day of the month). Since my Mom and others in her prayer group say that it is best to state a particular date in your prayers rather than just praying for soon, I'm going to ask that all of you who are out there praying for me, please concentrate on March 28th for "the Call and a referall".

In closing, I hope all of you out there in blogland are doing well today. Congratulations to those families who have recently received their court dates. It must be an amazing feeling knowing that you will be bringing your children home very soon now. Congratulations to everyone who has recieved their referalls and will be traveling for the first trip. For those who are like me "waiting", hang in there. God has the perfect child picked out just for us. We just have to wait for Mr. and Mrs. Russia to find our children for us and "Call". May God bless you all!!!!