Saturday, June 28, 2008

Rumor

The CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) is rumored to have started the next round of referrals. Let's hope that the expedited families with LID's in Dec. 2006 are all matched this time. That would hopefully put us on track to receive our referral in October this year... and Daisy could be here before the end of the year! What a wonderful Christmas present that would be...

I just hope that our dossier makes it out of review without any issues, and that we ARE indeed considered an expedited family. (If not, the wait may be until 2010(!) and I'm not sure we want to wait that long).

Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for some matches before July 4th!

Monday, June 23, 2008

SHE'S A STAR!


We're so thrilled! Larissa was incredibly brave, and was able to dance on stage for her first recital on Sunday! Not only that, she said it was FUN! We're so proud of her...
(Larissa is the 4th from the right - the one that's posing with her right knee bent in...If you look closely, you can see the hair extension/ponytail sticking up in the back...)


If only you could have heard all the conversations over the past 8 months.
We tried bribes:

"If you dance...I'll take you to Disneyworld",
"If you dance...I'll buy you a Power Wheels car",
"If you dance...I'll get you this _____________(toy, candy, game, etc)".

None of those worked.


We tried threats:

"If you don't dance, we'll put you into swim lessons..." (She HATES the water).
"If you don't dance, we'll wash your hair every night..." (Once again, that fear of water)

Those didn't work.

We're not sure what convinced her to perform, but we're certainly glad she did. Kids have a mind of their own, and once they've made up their minds about something, it's incredibly difficult to change their opinion. (Even at the age of 4!)
Makes one wonder what life will be like when Larissa's 13...

Tuesday, June 17, 2008


So here's our little dancer. This was taken in our dining room a few weeks ago, when I was trying to figure out how to style Larissa's hair for the upcoming recital. After struggling with a curling iron for over 30 minutes, and getting absolutely NOTHING. I went to the local mall the following day and bought a ponytail extension. I'll post that picture when I get a chance.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Busy week

These past few weeks have been so busy! Even though we only have Larissa at this time, our schedules are always packed. Last week, Larissa graduated from her preschool. There was a little graduation "ceremony" at a local park, where she was given a certificate/diploma. Grandma Elise and Grandpa Richard were able to attend. and Larissa had such a nice time with her friends!

Larissa also has weekly dance lessons, where she is learning ballet and tap. Her first show is next week, and there was a dress rehearsal this morning. For the past few months, she has adamantly refused to dance for the show, but I think she is slowly overcoming her stage fright. We'll see how it goes next Sunday!

Twice a week, Larissa has taekwondo lessons. She just started 4 weeks ago, so she's currently a white belt. She seems determined to become a black belt, and we think she'll succeed! It's one of those activities that seem to come naturally for her.

It's so nice to be able to let Larissa enjoy all these activities, since her days as an 'only' may be coming to an end soon. The China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) has recently started matching Chinese Expedited Referrals again, after about a 5 month break. The November 2006 waiting families were matched with children this past week. With a March 2007 LID, we may only be another 4 months away from getting our referral!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

First entry

It's hard to believe we've been waiting over a year for Daisy. We've been referring to "Child #2" as "Daisy", because that's the name Larissa wants. Roger and I would like to name her Irina, in keeping with the Russian origin of Larissa's name. The meaning of Larissa is 'cheerful', which is definitely very appropriate for her. The meaning of Irina is 'peace', which is what I'm hoping for, because the longer we have to wait for her, the older I'm getting...and I'm not sure I want a rambuncious child running around the house!