Choking Down Melon

I was at a bookstore this week, picked up a diet book and was a bit shocked by the content. It was promoting a vegan lifestyle (I couldn't do it) but it made some really interesting points about the stuff I eat everyday. Anyway, my take away from the three minutes spent skimming this slim volume is eat more fruit and veggies, reduce meat and dairy. Duh, right? Well, I started this morning with some fruit at Perkin's. I have tried to like cantelope and honeydew melon but I just don't. The taste almost makes me gag. Ditto for cucumbers, olives and asparagus. I've given these fruits and veggies a chance. I WANT to like them but if I eat them, I'm really having to choke them down. So, I choked down some melon this morning. It wasn't good but it wasn't as wretched as I thought it would be. I'll keep trying...

No adoption news. We hit the 90 day mark January 11. If we don't have any news by then, I'll call our case manager for an update. We'll be back home Monday. More blogging and maybe some photos then.

Merry Christmas!

We send you our love and wishes for a very Merry Christmas! We had a lovely trip to Tennessee and we're having fun seeing family here. Have a blessed Christmas wherever you are!

Attend the Tale

It's opening day for the film version of Sweeney Todd, starring the delicious Johnny Depp and the creepy Helena Bonham Carter. It's a screen adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical/operetta by director Tim Burton. Chalk it up to a random PBS special, but my sister and I were "fans" of Sweeney Todd when we were little. I think we just caught a song ("The Demon Barber of Fleet Street") on one of those PBS concert specials and became intrigued and amused by the name "Sweeney." We had no idea what the plot of the musical was (yikes!). I finally saw Sweeney Todd on stage this year and it was...well, long. So, I was glad to hear that they had cut a few numbers to trim the run-time of the film. Brad and I want to see the movie while we're on vacation but we suspect no one in our families will be up for it since it's kinda weird and artsy. I have however promised my brother that we will take him to see the new National Treasure movie. I hope my Dad will come with us for that one. (Maybe Mom will too!!)

We leave this afternoon and we're very excited to be heading out! No Zeke news. We will keep you posted! I will do my best to blog while we're away. Have a great weekend and a Merry Christmas!

Light into darkness

There's a lady who does monthly features for my radio station. She lives in a small, rural community in the hills. Some might say she has an accent but her voice sounds like home to me. She's one of the best storytellers I've ever met. She wrote a piece for Christmas that had me laughing and crying. The point was that this time of year is about bringing light into darkness. What a blessed thought. I hope your week has been filled with light, despite the sometimes dreary weather, the crowds at the mall and all that cooking you've still got to get done. Take a minute right now to breathe and let the light in...

Distractions

Christmas and the time away from work will be a welcome distraction from the wait. The time will pass quickly, as it always does when we're with family. We'll hit the 90 day mark on Jan. 11. Once we're back home after our vacation, we'll be a mere 10 days away. So, I really do feel like the match, referral, CFC (child for consideration) is really just around the corner...

Just around the corner,
There's a rainbow in the sky,
So let's have another cup of coffee,
And let's have another piece of pie!

(Bonus points to anyone who knows the song and better yet, a famous black and white movie that featured this tune.)

Cup O' Cheer

We're having our holiday party today at work. There will be loads to eat and drink...lots of fun! I've got to get some more Christmas cards in the mail! I'm always slow...

I hope your pre-Christmas week is a good one. We are just enjoying all the festivities with friends and counting the hours to when we leave for Kingsport! We're really looking forward to seeing everyone. Cheers!

Bust!

The snow storm was a bust but we did get a dusting...enough to look pretty blowing around Saturday afternoon. We had a lovely time with Greg and Laura Friday night. We missed having Misty and Joel along for our Macaroni Grill adventure. Tickets were scarce for I Am Legend so we settled on No Country for Old Men, the latest from the Cohen Brothers (the geniuses behind Fargo and O Brother Where Art Thou). Their latest offering is perhaps their best yet. It's the story about the love of money and the violent, mean things we do for money. There was plenty to be discussed at our post-movie Starbucks visit. In addition to covering a worthwhile topic and raising really important issues, the film is beautifully directed and acted. It also features one of the creepiest bad guys I think I've ever seen on film. The icing on the cake? The amazing ear that the Cohen Brothers have for regional dialects. Here, they perfectly capture west Texas. It's so similar to northeast Tennessee!!

With Christmas a week away (!), we don't really expect to get "the call" this week about Zeke. We think it will be sometime in January. While it's disappointing to not have a photo of his sweet face to pass around to family and friends at Christmastime, we are nonetheless sure that he's alive in Vietnam somewhere. We pray for him everyday. We wonder who is caring for him. We pray that God will comfort him when he cries. Please join with us over the holidays in thinking about and praying for our little guy. That's the best Christmas present you could give us.

Stop at Food City for a loaf of bread and a jug of milk...

Oh wait! Toto, we're not in Kingsport anymore! We're now under a heavy snow warning with up to 10 inches possible. Wowzers! We'll be stocking up at our version of Food City tonight so we don't starve tomorrow.

Party Hardy

Brad and I were asked to help plan the Chinese New Year party for our local adoption group. There's a big group of party planners who met at our friends' house Wednesday night to discuss the party. It's designed to give the China adoptees a chance to celebrate their culture. It's also got a Vietnam angle since the Vietnamese celebrate Tet at the same time as CNY. Brad's volunteered to take photos from past adoption group events and come up with a sweet slideshow highlighting the kids. And my job? Hire this kid to get the party started.

Snow, anyone?

Looks like it's going to snow tonight and all day tomorrow. That will be nice! On the agenda for tomorrow? Cleaning house, wrapping presents and snuggling up with Brad to watch three DVDs: A Mighty Heart (haven't seen it...not sure I want to because I'm not in the mood for sad films), The Namesake (highly recommend this one), and The Science of Sleep (a visually beautiful film from the director who brought you Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

On tap for tonight: Dinner chez Macaroni Grill and "I Am Legend" with Greg and Laura. Misty and Joel couldn't join us and we'll miss you guys!

For Sunday (I realize I'm going completely out of chronological order here): Missy sings and plays piano at the 9:30AM service in the sanctuary (we lovingly call this service "The Christmas Variety Show" because it's a hodge podge of different groups and soloists as well as really meaningful narrations). Sunday eve, we'll be at Brad's company Christmas party. That's always a fun time.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Welcome Tula Jane!!

I want to give a big hug to my bestest friend Katie who gave birth to daughter Tula Jane last month!! We are SO happy for Katie and Justin and can't wait to meet Tula ourselves! In my official role as Auntie Missy, I have given her a nickname already: Tula-Belle. Belle is French for beautiful and you can see just how beautiful she is by visiting Katie's blog.

(Pardon the delayed post on such a BIG announcement...but I didn't want to post anything here until Katie had a chance to do a post on her own blog.)

60 Days Post-LID

As of today, it's been 60 days since our paperwork was logged in by Vietnam. We had originally been told that we would get matched with a baby 30-60 days after getting logged in but that hasn't happened. It seems many families signed with our agency around the same time we did, making the wait a bit longer than expected. We've waited this long, a few more weeks won't hurt. Anyhoo, it's another milestone in a long list of milestones in our journey to become parents.

The ice storm has moved out of our area. My cold is getting better. I'm being super productive at work, checking off items from my long to-do list that must get completed before we leave for Christmas. It's a good feeling and it helps pass the time as we wait to see Zeke's sweet face for the first time!

On ice...

We have an ice storm in our area today. It's not as bad as the one last January but it's still a pain. I'm sick with a head cold to boot. Blah. On the positive side, I did file two ice storm stories for NPR this morning. Stay warm!

Holiday Survival Guide

If you ever wondered what couples struggling with infertility go through during the holiday season, check out this collection of articles from Resolve. I think you'll find it insightful and/or useful. Resolve is the national support organization for families facing infertility.

Have a wonderful weekend!

China Referrals

Another round of China referrals came out this week. Congrats to those families who got to see their China babes for the first time! Here's a blog with photos of their new baby and their older daughter also from China: http://www.malingerkam.blogspot.com/ Oh, how I love to look at these blogs and share in the joy!!

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but the number of dates covered by this latest round of referrals was quite low. China has referred babies to families with LIDs through December 14th, 2005. ARGH! When will they get through the 2006 LIDs (Greg and Laura!) and get around to us (April 23, 2007)? Who knows. On a positive note, we got news from the director of our China agency, Great Wall. She doesn't think the wait will reach four years. That's great news but I'm quite skeptical. I mean, it's a simple numbers game. You've got to look at the current rate of referrals and you see that unless there's a significant speed-up, we'll be lucky to travel in 2011 for Lily!! Double ARGH! I do believe it's all part of God's plan for our family and I take so much peace and comfort in that. After all, if we didn't have such a long wait ahead of us for Lily, we probably would not have considered adopting from Vietnam, since China was our first country choice. And this Vietnam adoption has already brought so much excitement and richness to our lives and we haven't even seen our baby yet! So, there are blessings in the journey, often unexpected ones. Any arbitrary turns here or there and we'd be someplace else. We would be different. (yes, that's a paraphrase of Under the Tuscan Sun) We're here for a purpose and we're just trying to enjoy the ride...

Brad and Missy's Tennessee Romance

When we arrived at Second City in Chicago, the usher seated us in the SAME SPOT we had the last time we came to the show. It's a table right up front...our knees were touching the edge of the stage. This is up close and personal theatre, people! As you might expect from a comedy/improv show, the audience gets involved. After intermission, the show resumed and one of the actors came over to me and Brad and asked us our names, what our friends like about us (ha!), what we do for a living, how we met, where we met. They then took the info and proceeded to act out "The Tennessee Romance of Missy and Brad" complete with a graphic on the projection screen that looked like the front of a cheesy harlequin romance novel! We laughed our heads off! "Missy" was practicing the piano while "Brad" was off getting a story about a little boy stuck in a well but alas, they meet and fall in love. It was so, so, so funny! The whole show, entitled The Pratfall of Civilization was really great. We especially liked the sketch featuring two NASCAR fans discussing the intricacies of US foreign policy...the one guy had perfected the northeast Tennessee version of the word "okay" and the phrase "I tell you what."

Another great moment from our trip: Venturing out in the snow and ice to get to Lou's for dinner. Lou Malnatti's deep dish pizza is legendary. And yes, it was worth risking life and limb to get there Saturday night! Brad walked over an icy subway grate and I thought he was going to fall for sure. But, we arrived sans incident. I was so cold on the walk to the restaurant however, that I refused to walk back to the hotel and asked Brad to get us a cab. He hailed a cab and it cost all of $8 (including tip!) to get back to the hotel from Lou's. We laughed about how that was the best $8 we had spent in a long time!

We stuffed ourselves on Garrett's popcorn. If you're unfamiliar with "the mix," it's cheese and carmel popcorn mixed together...a sweet and salty treat!

I felt bad but we ended up skipping out on our plans to attend the BIG Chicago church that pioneered contemporary worship. It was just so cold and yucky Sunday morning that we decided not to go. I'm sure we missed out on a blessing but I do feel that this whole trip was a blessing, an absolute gift. We're so thankful we had this opportunity. We had so much fun getting to spend time together without work. And then we went to the conference (which was "work" time for both of us), it was great to be there together. We are blessed in so many ways!

We now return to our regularly scheduled program

Sorry for the blog hiatus. We had a wonderful, fantastic, magical time in Chicago! A little work, a little snow, a lot of fun. It was just what we needed! I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend! We have many fun stories and photos to share. Once we decompress and get unpacked, we'll be back with more.

A little update on the adoption front...I emailed our case manager before we left. She said she didn't have a time line for us yet for when we would receive our match. Will definitely keep you posted as things progress...