Ladybug on my arm

Today we went to church with my Mom in Brooksville. When I went outside after Mass I sat down for a minute--it was such a nice day out--Patrick came over and noticed a ladybug crawling on my arm.

I took it as a sign of good things to come!

The CCAA workers should be back to work today--Monday for us-and hopefully they are busy putting the referral packets together and start sending them out this week.

It is surreal to think that we will soon see our little one's face!!

We will update the site with pictures as soon as we get them.

Love,
Aleisa and Patrick

Congratulations to the Palmieri Family

Gary and Kerry Palmieri of Franklin, MA welcomed their third son Jackson Ryan to the world on Saturday!
Jackson has two older brothers Owen 5 and Kyle 3.

Gary and I worked at Dorchester High back in 2001 and have been friends ever since. We got to spend the day at the Magic Kingdom with the Palmieri's a couple of weeks ago when they came to Disney World.

Hope to see you guys when we come up to Boston in a few weeks.

Congratulations!

Aleisa and Patrick

Referral update from FHSA!

I received this email from Bonnie--our coordinator--regarding the next batch of referrals.
I want so much to believe that this is really going to happen in just a few more days (11 to be exact!!)
Please keep praying and your fingers crossed that our referral will come in the next batch.

From Bonnie:
Happy New Year to you too!

We certainly expect the CCAA to cover your lid in the next batch. Generally
speaking, referrals are issued monthly, so hopefully it will not be too much
longer. But keep in mind they have been closed for the holiday as well.
There is nothing you need to do at this point besides wait for the referral
news. You are up to date on everything.

Hang in there. I hope we have news for you soon.

My best,
Bonnie

16 months tomorrow!

We are getting so close---here's the lastest number crunching:

We started this process 722 days ago (Feb. 28, 2005)
We were DTC 515 days ago (Sept. 23, 2005)
We were LID 487 days ago (Oct. 21, 2005)

We've been fingerprinted twice, been given an I-600A twice and an I-171H twice. We've had our homestudy addended.
and WE ARE STILL WAITING!!!

We could potentially receive our referral within the next 25 days (through March 17th)

We will update you all as soon as we hear anything.

Welcome baby Finn!

Today, my cousin, Annemarie and her husband Erik welcomed their son, Finn, into the world. He weighed in at 9 lbs. 2 oz. Anne had to have a c-section--know wonder--he was a pretty big baby!
Mom and baby seem to be doing fine. I just spoke to her on the phone and she was with the nurse getting ready to feed and change Finn.
We are so happy for them and cannot wait to meet him in a few weeks.
Congratulations Annemarie and Erik!

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Happy Chinese New Year! It is the year of the pig. I just hope it the year that we become a forever family.
We spent the day at Epcot and had eggrolls in China. It was great.
Wednesday will be 16 months since our LID. It is still looking like we will receive our referral in the early part of March--15 more days and we should know something.
Jim and Jill Straka have agreed to come to China with us. We are so blessed to have them as our friends. We are going to have a great time over there with them.

Congratulations to the McCard family

Our friends Jessica and Doug McCard are very close to being able to adopt their foster child. They have had Trinity since she was six months old--she will be three in June!
Hopefully we will be celebrating our finalized adoptions together.

Map of China

Somewhere in this vast country our daughter waits for her Daddy and her Mama. We pray that she is safe, healthy and loved.
We are so close to getting our referral--it feels like waiting for Christmas when you are a little kid--the excitment is overflowing.
For Valentine's Day--Patrick bought the her a cute dress with ladybugs on it. He is going to be the best Dad.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is in the air...hopefully with referrals flying over from China!

It does not look like we will receive our referral before Chinese New Year--which is what I had expected--so I am not overly disappointed. We can realistically expect our referral the first week of March--which is less than 20 days from now.

To all of you who have been so supportive throughout this journey--we send you our love!

To my hubby, I love you very much!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Feb. 16th

This is the date that the adoption forecast site has predicted a referral for us for awhile now! That date is this Friday--wow!
My cousin Annemarie just emailed that this is the day she is schedule to give birth to her first child. So come on CCAA--let's get those referrals in the mail Monday morning--in time for the 16th--before the CNY holiday begins.

How cool would it be if we both received our babies on the same day?

This is going to be the longest week ever--I will do my best to get through one day at a time!!

Referral countdown

No referral yet!!!
Today is the day that the Adoption Forecast site predicted we could possibly receive our referral--their prediction goes up through St. Patrick's Day (3/17).

We have approximately 25 more days before we can realistically expect our referral.

Mere Mere

Yesterday, my aunt Karen's mother, Gladys Griffey, passed away. She was affectionately known as Mere Mere. She had been diagnosed with alzheimers a few years ago.
Our deepest sympathy goes out to the Griffey Family--especially to Papa Lou.

Birthdays

The first week of February is a busy one for our family--we have six birthdays in eight days!
So Happy Birthday to:
Sam--my cousin--who on the 3rd turned 37
Jo-Jo--my stepsister--who on the 5th turned 34
Mom-aka Nana Birdie--who on the 6th turned 56
Charles--my uncle--who on the 6th turned 76
Taylor Rose--my "niece"--who on the 7th turned 13
Paul--my stepbrother--who on the 8th turned 37

Love,
Aleisa and Patrick

Surprise visit

Around 7 p.m. tonight I received a phone call from my cousin Kathleen--who said, "Guess where I am?"
She had just flown into Orlando from NY for the home builders convention--it was a last minute business trip and a nice surprise.
Patrick and I met her for dinner. We ate at Raglan Road--the Irish Pub at Downtown Disney. It was great to see her.

Way to go Raheem and the Colts!

Congratulations on your first of hopefully many Superbowl appearences!! We are so proud of you.

To my dear friends in Indiana--hope you have a blast celebrating the Colts first Superbowl win!

Forever a Pat's fan!

Aleisa

Our sonogram

Referral predictions go from 6 days to 43 days

Here is what the Adoption Forecast sites about our LID
"Our prediction for LID 2005-10-21"
"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: 2007-02-16." 14 days from now!!!!!

"That's our best guess for when you might receive your referral. For completeness, we can also show the largest likely range for your referral, based on the CCAA either going as fast as it has ever gone, or as slow as it has ever gone. The CCAA probably won't do either of these things (go as fast or as slow as it has ever gone before, and stay at that speed), so your referral is very likely to come somewhere in between these dates: 2007-02-08 (6 days from now!!!) to 2007-03-17 (43 days from now!!!!)"

History of February referrals

Last February the CCAA posted on the 26th--after Chinese Year. The month before they posted on Jan. 26th--not that this means anything to how they might post this year--but thought it was worth a mention.

May February go by super fast!!

Waiting patiently for our little one,
Aleisa and Patrick

CCAA referrals now complete up through 10/13/05

WOW--the CCAA is finally in our month--this is so exciting!! Congratulations to all of the families who waited 473 days to finally see their babies faces.
They managed to do 16 days worth of referrals in this batch-they typically do about 14 days at a time.

We are at 468 days since LID. There are only 8 days worth of referrals until they reach our date!!!!
Which means WE ARE NEXT!!!!!!

Wishful thinking would have it so that the CCAA would post referrals again before 2/16/07 (just before Chinese New Year)
It is more likely that we will get our referral in early March--which is just four weeks a way. I really believe we will have our referral in 32 days--but who is counting!!!!

I am soooooooooooooo excited!!

Love,
Aleisa and Patrick