Politically incorrect

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION. DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU MAY BE OFFENDED BY A DISCUSSION OF GENDER PREFERENCES!

Congratulations again to all the families who received a referral this week!! That said, this referral cycle has created a whole new area of fear and worry for me (as if it's not enough to worry about getting through the review room, or to obsess about the wait). The new worry has to do with the relatively high number of boy referrals, some of whom went to families who expressly asked only for a girl.

Here's where the politically incorrect thing comes in. I posted a question on the Rumor Queen's site asking what happens if you get a boy referral and turn it down. Someone wrote in saying she was "shocked" (shocked, I tell you!) that I or anybody else could even imagine turning down a referral, suggesting that I should take what was given to me and be grateful.

Okay, here's the thing: I want another daughter. I want a girl and only a girl. I do not want a boy, for various reasons that I won't go into right now and really aren't relevent. To be honest, I was actually worried about having a boy when I was pregnant last summer, as horrible as that may sound. I like girls. I "get" girls. I adore girls (this is the same thing my friend B. said to her parents when she came out to them but that's a whole other story...). I truly ONLY want a girl and I'm now worried that we'll get a boy.

It does not escape me that my preference for a girl is ironic in the face of the Chinese preference for boys, cultural factors notwithstanding.

I truly and absolutely have my heart set on another daughter. David and I both feel strongly about adding a girl to our family. I don't think I could accept a referral for a boy. That's how strongly I feel about this issue. Are we alone in this? Anyone else feel this way?

GREAT NEWS ABOUT REFERRALS!! Sometimes it seems as if this wait is just some interminable... well, wait. No end in sight. For the lucky LIDs of June 16-28th 2005, that wait is about to end. Congratulations to all the families who will be receiving their referrals next week. We can't wait to see the referral photos of all the new additions!

Is it just me, or do does anyone else feel something shifting in the air? For the past several months (otherwise known as The Great Slowdown of 06) I have felt as if the wait was always stretching farther away, that as soon as we got a month closer, the time frame extended to another yet-impossible to believe length. Now I have hope again that the CCAA will manage to keep the wait to 12-14 months and we'll see Kavanna's face sometime next Spring.

Hope springs eternal, I guess!! In the meantime, congratulations again to this referral group!!

Say Cheese!

Here's Ariel with our new friends Mai Ling and Gale. We first met in cyberspace (in the RQ's forum - thank you, Rumor Queen!) and got to meet in person this weekend. Their LID is close to ours, so we're hoping to be in China together next year!! We had so much fun meeting them and their friends. We can't wait to see them again!!



David and Nina in ancient Egypt... and for those who might notice that Nina and Ariel are wearing the same shirt, a strange thing has happened in our household. Ariel, who has a closet overflowing with clothes (overflowing onto the carpet, her bathroom floor, to such an extent that we now suspect her clothes may be dividing like amoebas and multiplying nightly, which explains the ever expanding nature of the overall pile) has no interest in her clothes. She likes Nina's clothes. She fits into Nina's clothes. Nina must now put some of her clothes onto the floor and hope they multiply so she can grow her wardrobe to keep up with Ariel!!


They did facial tattoos of snakes in Ancient Egypt. Who knew?!


Ariel and Stephanie at their booth...



My beautiful ancient Egyptian....

Ni Hao!

Ni Hao! Ni Hao-ma! Hello! How are you? Our family is learning to speak Mandarin. Surprisingly, it's not as difficult as anticipated, maybe because it's very logical. Of course, it's also challenging (ie, there are different words for "or" depending on whether you're asking a question or stating a fact) and as for reading Mandarin? Highly unlikely! As in, that's not gonna happen! We're using Pimsleur on our commutes and Ariel is picking it up from us.

According to the chart above, Mandarin speakers use more of their brains than English speakers. But is this a good thing? After all, if we're using so much more of our brains to speak Mandarin, will we have enough grey matter left to worry/fret/ponder/speculate/agonize over the wait??

What of after the wait, you may ask? If memory serves, when a baby joins the family there's an immediate loss of interest in adult matters (politics-shmalitics, etc.) and a sudden avid interest in such riveting subjects as bodily functions and sleep. Forget the NY Times bestseller list. We'll be reading "Goodnight Moon" and "Everybody Poops". I remember spending an inordinant amount of time listing the benefits of Huggies versus, say, Pampers. Not to mention giving excited reports about the contents of said diapers. "Time" suddenly becomes not a magazine but a measure of sleep. Ours. Hers. Especially ours.

My prediction: we will love every minute of it!! I can't wait!

Get Out The Vote!

For some people, yesterday was the potential apocolypse... although someone pointed out to me that 6/6/6 added together equals 18, which is "chai" in Hebrew and that means "life" and thus good luck... so numerology may be in the eye of the beholder. But I digress. For us, yesterday was the four month anniversary of our LID.

As great as it was to hit this milestone it brought up other questions. How far in is four months? When we started this process (those golden days of last year when the wait was a mere six months) we'd have been two-thirds into the wait. Now, we don't have a clue. So I created the poll (to your right) to see what everyone out there in cyberland might think.

Let us know what you think. Every vote counts!

Here's Ariel after her last performance, with her best friends. Note the ladybugs on the flower wrapping!! They're everywhere!!!

"Anytime Annie"

Allow me to gush for a moment. Ariel performed the role of "Anytime Annie" in 42nd Street this weekend, at a local theater, and she was amazing! Okay, I am admittedly biased but from all accounts, including completely objective strangers, she kicked stage butt! Not only is she talented (she sings! she dances! she acts!) but she's completely confident and fearless on stage. No photos were allowed in the theater so I don't have any from the show, but you get the idea... She's got attitude to spare! (luckily, rarely does she give us 'tude... she saves it for the shows)

I'm really proud of her commitment and tenacity. She worked very hard for months, rehearsing, taking tap and dance lessons, four days a week (on top of school and religious school). I can't wait to bring Kavanna to her shows!

Real live ladybugs!

<----A REAL LADYBUG (and above)
















Since learning about the "good luck" aspect of ladybugs with respect to Chinese adoption (where does this idea come from; does anyone know???) I've seen ladybugs painted on vases, ladybug toys, ladybug art, ladybug clothing, but never a real, live ladybug... until now. Just in this past week we've seen two of them. One (above, fuzzily captured on my handy cell-phone) was walking - yes, walking - on the sidewalk, and wasn't too keen on getting photographed. David kneeled on the sidewalk trying to snap a photo of this moving target, looking as intent as a photographer at a Vogue shoot, I'm sure. We must have seemed way strange to passersby, aiming our camera at the sidewalk! The other ladybug landed on one of our screen doors. Somehow I only managed to capture half of it on film. Anyway, if ladybugs are a sign of good luck... BRING IT ON!!