Easter weekend

The stress from a few months ago has finally started to subside. I'm not comfortable explaining it all still but I can say Brent is much happier, the kids are dong well, I am still working a lot of hours but I put in my notice and I won't be working after May 22nd. The referral for Sarah should be coming in the next few months. I'm still hoping for May because I really don't want to do a homestudy update - we will do one if we don't get our referral in May just to be safe - if we don't get travel approval and the consulate appointment by the end of August we have to redo one. Travel approval is usually about 2 months after referral and our referral will likely come a week or two after everyone elses because of the process with our agency and the agencies it works with. So, we are looking at early to mid July travel. If we get into August we have to travel that first week.

Brent is taking Maya to a new "home". She doesn't like to "compete" for attention from other animals or from the kids. We have had some nipping issues with the kids and full out fights with Kodi. Kodi is afraid to go outside because that has become Maya's territory so I've had to lock him on the tile when I'm not home - which has been a lot more lately. Kodi has also gotten into the habit of sleeping in the shower in our bedroom because he feels like he can "hide" from Maya. The dealbreaker is the nipping and growling at the kids. I don't think she would ever purposely hurt them but she is as big as Hannah and the kids safety has to come first. I would never forgive myself if my babies had scars or stitches because she nipped too rough just one time. She needs a home where she is the only dog and the kids are older than mine. The kids are really going to miss her - so am I. This was such a tough decision for us - I've really been working with her on the behaviors we don't like but nothing changes. Kodi was here first (even though he was gone for a few months - look back in the archives for that story). We wanted to keep both but we just can't jeopardize our kids.

We are going to decorate eggs this evening. The kids can't wait until the Easter Bunny comes. I need to do some grocery shopping but it may have to wait until Monday - I don't want to fight the crowds. I'd really like my car washed - it is a mess. So, I'm off to do some things around here.

Happy Easter!

A message from Adam...

Dear colleague,

CCAA cutoff date for the month of Feb. is Jan. 4, 2006. The cutoff date our next group is Jan. 13, 2006. So unfortunately there is no referrals coming this month.

Adam

THAT'S US!!!!!!

How long have we been waiting:
From and including: Friday, January 13, 2006
To and including: Tuesday, March 4, 2008

It is 782 days from the start date to the end date, end date included

Or 2 years, 1 month, 21 days including the end date

Alternative time units
782 days can be converted to one of these units:
67,564,800 seconds
1,126,080 minutes
18,768 hours
111 weeks (rounded down)


I like to look at the prediction sites but only one is updated -

Our prediction for LID 2006-01-13
If China did all future referrals at the exact same speed as they did this month: 2008-04-04

Our best guess - a weighted average of recent CCAA velocities, guessing that CCAA will perform about as well in the future as they are performing now, but might return to previous trends: 2008-04-01

That's our best guess for when you might receive your referral. Just at a guess, we can suppose that the CCAA either speeds up or slows down significantly, and show you those dates. If they speed up: 2008-03-18. And if they slow down: 2008-05-02.

Since China generally sends out referrals in a batch about once per month, your referral date could easily vary +/- one month depending on whether you just get included or just get missed in a particular batch.

I still think May is more likely. My thought is there are 9 more days of log ins ahead of us. If they do 5 each in the next 2 months we are still in for May. They would have to do 4 days each for April and May for us to be out of May and into June.

If I make the chart I made before:

1 day months = 9 months or December - still this year!
2 day months = 5 months or August
3 day months = 4 months or July
4 day months = 3 months or June
5 day months = 2 months or May
6 day months = 2 months
7 day months = 2 months
8 day months = 2 months
9 day months = 1 month or April

See, May is the clear leader. :) I'm okay with that.

Definitely, Maybe

So we are definitely within 3 months of referral! Yeah!!!!! CCAA got through January 4th - just a reminder we are the 13th. That was 8 days again. If they get through 8 days next month they will get through the 12th which means we are definitely getting our referral in May! What a great birthday present to me! Maybe they will go all out and get through 9 days we could see our Sarah for Brent's birthday.

It was a good way to end the day after the day we had around here:

My Uncle passed away this afternoon. It was expected - he has been sick for a long time and the last few months have been particularly bad. He has been on life support and my cousin came in from Seattle to see him.

One good thing that happened today was that my brother-in-law found out his cancer can be classified as stage 2 not stage 4 like originally reported. They also are saying it is curable.