Just a hello and an update

Nothing new to post other than this process is once again a hurry up and wait kind of thing. China sent out referrals again today which is the closest two batches have been since I have been watching this process. We are just waiting for our travel approval and our visas to be processed. I will tell you that everytime I look at Kaleigh's picture I fall more in love with that little face. I cannot wait to bring her home. Other than that life is full of sorting thru the massive amount of clothing that I have accumalated over the past few years, sorting out the age appropriate toys, washing everything to make sure that it is ready for Kaleigh when she gets home and gathering the last few supplies that we know that we need (for those of you who think I might be forgetting some things feel free to let me know about those things).

Other than that our neighbors have their own good news to share!!!

Thank You

I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who has posted comments on our blog and who have called and emailed. Your excitement at this time in our lives means so much to us. The day we got our referral our friends Mike and Susan presented us with a predone scrapbook for Kaleigh and it is so nice (thanks Susan, I know you put a lot of time into it and we love it!) and our other friends James and Paula put on a Chinese dinner for us which was wonderful. We of course miss having family around to celebrate with but having friends like this makes it much easier.

Titans!!!!!

Steelers rule???? I think my brother meant Steelers who???? Yes I am using Kaleigh's blog to shamelessly rub both of my brothers faces in the fact that my Titans beat their Steelers today to secure homefield advantage in the playoffs. Yes both of you know that you have avoided my phone calls today. Don't worry I will get my moment to gloat!!! And let's talk about those terrible towels......I think they use them to dry their tears or to clean off the blood from their quarterback who spends most of his time on his back. Lots of love to you both and Greg I think Max realized I was wearing the winning jersey at Thanksgiving and he really wants his own Titan's jersey!!!

Information on Kaleigh

I know most of you are waiting to know a little more about our wonderful daughter Kaleigh. At 6 months she weighed around 13 1/2 pounds and was almost 25 inches long. According to the doctor who looked at her paperwork she is tiny but her growth rate is normal.

Here is the fun part:

She is listed as being active, energetic, and quick in reaction. She smiles constantly, likes imitation and likes to listen to music. Her favorite toy is a "sounding" toy. Brent and I have decided that she is going to be a handful and into everything. She sounds like she already has a wonderful personality.

It also says she is sleeping thru the night and takes a two hour nap during the day. If she really is as active and energetic as the paperwork says than I am sure we are going to be looking forward to that 2 hour nap!!!

We are so excited and just can't wait to be able to bring her home. We should be traveling in February (hopefully!!!) with five other families. Three of these families are the ones we started out with in Memphis and the other two we have actually found on different boards and websites so we are all getting an opportunity to get to know each other in advance. Everyone sounds so nice and I know that with us being such a small group that we will form bonds that will last a life time.

Trying the photos again

I hope these are easier to see!!! She is so cute and we can't wait to bring her home.

And here is what you have all been waiting for

Introducing Miss. Kaleigh Noel Callahan!!!

Yes the rally beard is GONE

The rally beard being gone is good in more than one way. First it was too scratchy and second it means we have our daughter's referral!!!!

First a couple of events of the day

Before I show the pictures of my beautiful daughter I want to show you the moment when Brent and I first saw her picture. I think it will show you how happy we are. I can't begin to describe the feelings we had when we first looked at her face.

WE HAVE A DAUGHTER!!!!!

Yes it is true we have a daughter. Her Chinese name is Ye Gui Chun. Her date of birth is 2/22/08. Her birth date is the same as our LID. Anyway we are SO EXCITED!!!!! I hope to have her pictures up either tonight or tomorrow so everyone can see how beautiful she is.

Update

Nothing really to say right now. The rumors are all saying that we are in or will most likely be in but after my friends missing it last month after is sounding like they would be in I am afraid to get my hopes up. The current rumor is that they are on their way and will go thru the 23rd which would include us so everyone please pray for us that we are in and that we get our referral this week!!!! Besides Brent really wants to shave his "rally" beard especially since I have found several gray hairs in it.

Pictures of the nursery

I realized this week that I have not place pictures of the new nursery on the blog so enjoy!!

Update on Rally Beard

Here is the update on Brent's rally beard. All I can say is please pray that we get our referral soon. I want my daughter but I want my clean shaven husband back as well. I will admit that he does get a lot of compliments on it from other people.

Our cold little girl

Yes I finally broke down and bought clothing for one of my dogs. She has been freezing since they had their last hair cuts back in September. Every time it drops in temp outside she starts shivering. She was very good at wearing it as well. Brent thought she might fight trying to get it off but she seemed very comfortable in it.

Waiting

This is the difficult part of the month. We didn't get in the last batch and we are a good possibility for the next batch but don't know for sure. This time of the month is filled with waiting and watching and listening for rumors of when the next cut off will be and when the next batch will come. We have waited for so long already and we so thought we would definitely have her by this Christmas and now we are just hoping to have her picture and to know who she is before Christmas. I hope that we either have her information by Thanksgiving so that we can share it with my family while we are there (which is doubtful) or by Brent's birthday which is a better possibility. I just want him to have something to celebrate other than being another year older. We waited for a few months for him to get closer to the required age of 30 before we started the process and now he is definitely past that age.

Now for an update

Lots of tidbits to report.....Since the last update more referrals have come out. They were only for one day but came about a 1 1/2 week after the batch on the 29th of Sept. They were only for one agency but it was for 2/16/08 and the last batch only covered thru 2/15/08. So now I don't know if I am 6 or 7 days away from my referral. The next interesting tidbit is that when Brent and I went for our updated physicals we found out that our doctor is also adopting from China. Talk about connections. She was wonderful and she talked to us about what we needed as far as immunizations and antibiotics before we go. She is LID is Sept of 06 so she is still several months behind us.

The only other new thing we have been doing is going to hockey games and Titans games!!!

The rally beard

This is Brent's "rally" beard. He is doing this for the rest of the wait for our referral. For those of you who love me........pray for a quick referral!!!! I think Brent is finally losing his mind with the wait or he is really getting excited over how close we are. He says he is not shaving again until we get a referral. I am just glad he didn't start growing this beard at the start of the adoption.

I Have Been Tagged!!!

I never do these things, but for my friend Jen who did the tagging I will.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules.
2. Share 7 random or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and link to them.
4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Facts about me:
1. My husband is younger than me
2. I am a huge James Patterson fan
3. I never suspected that I would enjoy hockey almost as much as my other 2 favorite sports (college basketball and professional football).
4. Once I decided I wanted to be a mom there is nothing I have wanted more
5. Pepsi and potato chips are my weakness
6. I now enjoy spending nights at home with my husband watching HGTV, TLC, and Food Network.
7. I am crazy about my two dogs!!

Jan
Daeon
Teresa

Unfortunately I can't think of 7 people who have blogs!!!

Latest Update

I have been getting a lot of questions this week most likely because I was around people that I only see every couple of months. So I want to take a minute to let everyone know the latest. We had been hoping for months that we might get our referral in October but as many of you may or may not know referrals came out on Monday September 29th. Yes these would be considered the October batch. The good news is that they came on the early side the bad news is that we were not included in this batch. This batch covered from Feb 10th thru Feb 15th. If they do the same number of days in the next batch we are still looking at two more months before we get our referral but if they will do 7 days then we should be in the next batch. On the rumor queen website her predictions show that even with a worst case scenario that we should get our referral by either the end of November or the first of December. I would really like to be with my daughter for Christmas either here or in China so the only way that would be possible at this time is if we get our referral in this next batch and that we get travel approval quickly. So everyone that will please be praying for us. We have spent too many Christmases without her already and it would mean so much to not have to go thru one more. On the positive side of it, even if we are not with her for the Holidays we should at least have her picture and be getting ready to go get her.

Other news on the adoption front.....

Yes, it was true referrals did cover from Feb 1st to Feb 9th which really isn't that big of a group but it feels like it to me. I don't think I could explain to anyone who has not been in my shoes how exciting this time is for us. It is kind of like finding out that the baby had dropped into position and labor could start at any time. Rumors have started circulating about when referrals will come again and how many days it will cover but I know at this point everything is just speculation and that people are taking every ounce of information and trying to get it to mean something. The odd thing about this batch of referrals is the fact that they came only 22 days after the last batch. I am trying so hard not to get too excited but I can't help it. I really need to start focusing on getting things for travel. I have bought the gifts to take with us and we have new luggage that should be easier to travel with. I have a partial preliminary packing list but until after we visit Brent's parents in late October there isn't any reason for me to even start packing anything or doing pre-packing to see how it will all fit. I think this weekend we may start shopping for some of the essentials we will need for the trip. Please everyone keep us in your prayers or better yet keep Kaleigh in your prayers that she may soon be in the loving arms of her mom and dad down here in Murfreesboro, TN.

More pictures from my shower

Yes I know the shower was over a year ago and I am still posting pictures. Just keep in mind the past year has been very busy. There is a picture of the cake and one of my friend Melanie's husband saving the day by getting the ballons out of the ceiling fans.

Update

Well, things are getting exciting. The latest rumor is that the cut off date for this batch of referrals will be Feb 9th. Since we have a Feb 22nd LID this is very exciting. It is so hard to believe that we are finally close. We also met with a couple today who brought home their daughter from China 4 years ago. We got to see their pictures and hear about the trip. I also found out that Gymboree clothing is made in China and that you can pick up things really cheap there. Teresa and Emily are you hearing this????? Anyway we did get some good packing tips and found out some good travel tips as well. I know that between now and the time that we actually are getting ready to travel that I will have tons of other questions for her. It is so nice to have some one to talk to about this whole experience who can give some BTDT tips. Anyway stay posted for more updates as we find out more.

Here it is the long awaited for...season tickets

Yes we are proud owners of season tickets for the Tennessee Titans. This is how we are going to spend the next several weeks and hopefully not several months finishing the wait for our longed for daughter Kaleigh. Jon and Greg just keep praying that we are either in China or have just gotten back from China and maybe you might get tickets to the Pittsburg game for Christmas.

Coming Soon.....

So how are we going to keep ourselves busy between now and the time that we get Kaleigh??? Wait and see......could it be sports related?

Shower

Yes, I am just now posting some pictures from the shower that my mom had for me last summer. At that time we fully expected that we would at least have our daughter by Christmas at the latest. Now we are still hoping to have her by this Christmas. Anyway here are a few pictures that were taken by my sister-in-law Teresa and you will see my neice Sydney helping me to open things and show them to the guest. The blanket and pillow were made by my mom who as I am sure all of you know is anxiously waiting on her next grandbaby.

Getting Closer!!!!!

I am almost 28 months "pregnant" now so almost any news is good news now. The most recent batch of referrals covered through Jan 20th of 2006 leaving 33 days of log ins between that and my daughter. As slow as the the process has been at times that could mean nothing but being down to looking at the number of days and not the number of months is very exciting to this expectant mother. Anyway I promise to keep everyone updated as I get more news. There are a lot of predictions out there but I am only going to share facts for right now.

Looking forward to her Irish connections

I know this shirt may be to big for her next year or just right or even to small but with a last name of Callahan how could I resist. Not to mention her daddy loves it!!!

Waiting for Kaleigh

I wanted to include this picture of Malcolm and Abbigail looking out the back door. I like to call it waiting for Kaleigh.

Our New Home

I know most of you (maybe all of you) have not seen our new home so I just wanted to show you a picture.

Past the 2 year mark

Well, we definitely did not ever think that we would be sitting here still waiting after two long years (almost 3 if you count the research time and paper chase). The rumors are stating that the next batch of referrals will make it to either Jan 4th or 6th. I personally hope the 6th but just making it into the year of 2006 is exciting to me. I really do think that we will have Kaleigh home this year, but I do know that is all in God's time and that when she is ready for us to come and get her that is when it will happen. I will admit the week of our 2 year LID anniversary was a difficult week for more reasons than one but we got through it and I know that with each passing day we are getting closer and closer to having Kaleigh home.

Another Site Update.....

There is now a "Links" section on the sidebar. There is a link to our original blog for Kaleigh. On that site you will find all of our favorite links. Any new sites we find, we will add them to the new site.....Till next time....

What has changed in the last few months

Well, as most of you know Brent and I moved over the summer. Right during the middle of July when it was extremely hot. The heat did not let up for several weeks, so we did not get to spend a lot of time exploring our new town for a while. We finally got out of the Memphis area and now live in Murfreesboro, TN which is about 30 minutes south of Nashville. So far the only negatives are work being more difficult for both of us and Brent having a much longer drive to work. We love the area so far and have already made more friends than we ever had in Memphis. The neighbors who live across the street from us are also in the process of adopting and I wish them lots of luck. We have already met more of our neighbors here than we met the entire time in Memphis. We went to several TN Titan's games this year and that was a lot of fun. We are hoping to fence in our backyard soon so that the dogs can have a little more freedom. It took them a while to adjust to the move. Oh, that is one other negative. We did buy a larger home and while our property is about the same size we now have a much smaller backyard. Our house sits further off the street so that is a good thing even if it does contribute to the smaller back yard. Anyway that is all for now. I will get some new pics up of the nursery soon. I will also update on the baby shower my mom had for me and the girls at Crestview before we moved.

Getting Started Again

For those who have been following our blog you have probably noticed that it has not been updated in a while. When we moved we had to change our email addresses and I had a lot of trouble trying to get the old blog going so we just decided to start fresh. I will eventually have a link to the old blog on here so you can go back and look at the last couple of years. With a LOT of help from Brent I hope to have this one looking as cool if not cooler than the other blog.