Our slow boat to China is picking up speed.

One of the perks of adopting is that when you are the equivalent to  "8 months pregnant" you can pitch yourself through some class 3 rapids in a lightning storm and afterward, polish off a frozen Margarita or two to calm your nerves!  

While I was trying very hard to navigate the river in a semi wimpless fashion, my RQ buddies who knew I was mountain bound and tech-less this week were calling to leave referral updates on my cell.  Oh how I appreciate my little on-line community of waiting moms around the world navigating their own set of rapids during this long, long wait!!  We are all in the same slow boat to China.

The good news is... referrals are arriving in the U.S. and I'm so happy for my fellow March families who are getting their calls this week!!! 

The bad news is... it looks like we missed the cut-off  by ONE day!

The referrals this month are for LID's (log in dates) from  3/15 to 3/20.  Which means that we can finally say, "We are next!"  This means that we will be looking for our referral this time next month.  Hopefully by mid-July we will have our little girl's picture in hand. We will finally be able to shout to everyone and their dog that after four years of waiting, we have a daughter!   

We are using this time before referral and travel to China to do lots of things with the boys that most likely will come to a screeching halt when Miss Iris arrives on the scene.  We've been camping, hiking, and white water rafting with friends.  We've done the beach, the pool and just about every new movie that hits our little town cinema.  We will most definitely show up opening night for Transformers 2 and of course, Harry Potter.  There's more fun in store when the cousins come to visit for our little Mayberry parade and festivities on "The Fourth." 

On the home front, we almost have the nursery ready for Miss Iris.  Her cute Picci bedding is in and all we have to do now is track down curtains, a table and a couple of lamps and it's done.

I will wait to see how old she will be before I hit the clothes shopping.  I have had wonderful friends pass on wonderful clothes for her already so she will most assuredly be a fashion plate on the square.   Now about those hair bows...