June 7, 2002 - Well, still no referral. It's odd to think that this time 2 years ago we were saying the same thing about Kaitlynn's referral. We did talk to AAC today and they are hoping for referrals to come in on Monday. Apparently Korea has been working on accounting and census things and not referrals hence the slow May and slow beginning of June. There have been referrals with 3 other agencies so we hope that means that the floodgates have opened and we will hear something, anything soon. While I HOPE we get our referral THIS month, realistically I know it could still be July. At this point, I'll take moving up 2 spaces (they got 2 boys referrals the beginning of May so that is why I think it may only be 2 boys again.)! So, no new news as of today. I hope to update with better news on Monday. The wait is really starting to get to me at this point. We are so close and yet so far. I just want to know who my SON is!

June 21, 2002 - AAC finally got referrals today and we are now #2!! Yeah! It is such a relief that we have FINALLY moved up!!! We are hoping for a referral next month. If so, he will be home by October. Keep your fingers crossed that they get at least 2 boys next month! Our friend's Dana and John did get their referral and their new son is just adorable! I will keep you all posted!

July 11, 2002 - WE ARE NOW #1!!!! WE ARE NEXT!!! I called AAC today to ask how they got a hold of us for referral (they have every possible phone and pager number for us!) and they said they did get 1 boy referral today so WE ARE NEXT!!! FINALLY!!! We hope to hear something in the next few weeks but as we have found out, only time will tell. Send ALL the possible BOY thoughts you have to Korea and help us to keep SANE while we wait for the phone to ring! It won't be long now! Yippee!!!

July 25, 2002 - Yes, we have been quiet but we have some AWESOME NEWS!!! WE HAVE A SON!!!

Yes, it's true! We now know who Ian is!! I had pretty much given up on getting news today and left work at 3pm completely down. About 5 minutes from work, as the song, You'll Be In My Heart by Phil Collins was playing on the radio, my cell phone rings! It's Lynette from AAC with the wonderful news that we have a son!!! So, go to his page to hear his stats! We hope to have him home by October!!! YIPPEE!!!

July 28, 2002 - Okay, now that we have somewhat landed back on Earth, I'll write out our referral call story! LOL! We got the call on Thursday, July 25th at 3:15pm. I had left work at 3pm as I was just having a horrible day and was basically waiting for the phone to ring and not doing much else. I had gotten to the point where I couldn't take it anymore! I wanted to know who my son was and I wanted to know NOW! Well, someone must have heard me! LOL! I was on my way to Mervyn's (yes, I am the typical woman. Get stressed out and upset and I go shopping!) and listening to the song, You'll be in my heart by Phil Collins (the theme song from Tarzan) and basically sniffling and sobbing a little bit because Ian was definitely in my heart that day. My cell phone rings at 3:15pm. I look at the caller ID and see our agency's phone number on it! My heart skipped a beat and I tried to compose myself somewhat as I yell HELLO? into my cell phone. The street I was on is one of the worst in the city for cell phone coverage. My some miracle, I got through the call without losing our agency! Lynette is on the phone and says she is sorry to bother me on my cell phone but she had a question for me. Now, I had just talked to her earlier in the day to ask about their China program for a gal on our China email group, so I was wondering what on Earth had come up that she had to ask me about. I stammer, okay, and she replies with the words I had been longing to hear, " Are you ready to know who you son is?" I started bawling and it was a wonder I didn't crash my car! LOL! There was NO WHERE to pull over so I hysterically yell, YES! She says, " Well, we have his photo right here and he is just adorable! BTW, he's half Caucasian!" I was so happy over the fact that we had a referral, that the fact that he was half Caucasian took a minute to sink in! LOL! I said, okay, I am fine with that! How late are you open tonight and what time do you open tomorrow? From there, I called Doug who couldn't hear me at first (see earlier statement about the cell phone coverage!) and yell, WE HAVE A BABY!! I told him to call AAC so they could fax his information to him and that I would be at his office in 5 minutes! I then called my best friend Cat, who was on her way up to Sacramento of all places from San Jose so I had to catch her quickly on her cell phone, then called my mom and then my sister. Everyone was just thrilled for us and I couldn't get to Doug's work fast enough to see our son's photo! I get there and start crying when I see his picture on the email! He is sooo cute! We then called Lynette and told her we would be up there first thing Friday morning! We went out to dinner that night to Asian Grill where we went for Kaitie's referral celebration. Dinner was great and we even ran into another China mom there with her little girl! It's a wonder I got any sleep that night!

So, then Friday morning FINALLY arrives and we get up somewhat later than usual as Kaitie decided to get up EARLY that day. We take her to school and drive up to AAC. It seemed to take FOREVER to get there! We finally do and we are given two original photos of our son and 2 original photos of our son with his foster mom and 3 referral announcements that AAC made for us with his photo and stats and the words, Introduced to Mommy and Daddy on July 25, 2002! They are wonderful! We sign off on all the paperwork with Doug doing most of the signing. We find out he should be home by the middle to end of October and then we are done with paperwork until he comes home! We have a pre-arrival meeting on September 20th and now we just sit and wait for our INS paperwork to come in. Hopefully that will happen by the beginning of September. We spent the rest of the day running errands and we went to lunch at Spaghetti Factory downtown and then went and picked up Kaitlynn. She just squealed with joy and yelled, BABY BROTHER! MY BABY BROTHER when we showed her his photo! So cute!

Saturday, we had a BBQ at our house with our friends, Dana and John (they got their referral on June 21) and Ashley and Jason (they are now #4 on the boy list) and just celebrated our referrals. We had a great time and Kaitlynn LOVED playing with the men! She is such a flirt and heaven help us when she is a teenager ! LOL! Anyway, that is our update for now. Sorry it's so long but as you can see it's been a BUSY HAPPY weekend! Now, I need to finish Ian's room and his cross-stitch! Click here for the August update!