#200

I'm sure most of you can guess what long day I had. Thank you again to those who are taking care of us as we wait here on pins and needles for some good news.

Most of you also know what a wonderful husband Ron is. I am so blessed. Ron came home from work and took me out for a couple hours before he had to leave for bowling. He knows how emotional this time is for me and he is being so supportive. We decided that since we're having such a beautiful spring afternoon and we're so close to our 200th cache that this was the perfect time to head out and reach that milestone. We did it! We started geocaching last June with our friends Wendy, Larry, and Hannah, and have loved it ever since. YEA #200!!! Is it fair to set a goal for #250 in China?

This is #199 - CREATIVE HIDE! The hint was, "two's common, three's a cache." There were only two spikes on the other side of the bridge. Ron gets credit for this one.



Here it is - #200! Just for the record, I found this one first. ;)


So, you can see what a beautiful afternoon we had today. Perfect sweatshirt and jeans weather. What is this rumor I'm hearing now abou 3-5 inches of snow for tomorrow? I thought we were done with that.

Referral Update

I know that there are a lot of people out there praying for us and our strength as we near the end of the waiting portion of our journey. Thank you for all the encouraging messages and support. I just wanted to let everyone know that the rumors of last week, referrals in the air/on the ground in the U.S., etc., are now changing. It sounds like some families are receiving TA's (travel approvals) today and the package that was sent from China probably contained those and not referrals. Bummer for us, YEA for them. We will just have to keep our ears to the ground for more news and hope that our referral will arrive very soon. No matter what, we are close, and WE ARE NEXT. For now, I'll just try to have a productive spring break week and get some things accomplished around here. Thanks again everyone.

Beth

Geocaching Sunday Afternoon

No news on the adoption front this morning. Things are pretty quiet. Maybe today is not the day. We'll post as soon as we have news.

So, I thought I'd share some of the fun we had yesterday geocaching in the rain. In spite of the weather, we walked about 2 miles around River Falls, found 3 caches, and had a great time. We introduced our good friends Mark, Melody, and Hope to the sport and we had our other young friend Kaitlyn helping us out as well. Hope (1) was a trooper keeping up with us all and Kaitlyn (4) kept us all on track. She was in the "treasure hunting" mode. "Come on guys! We need to find another treasure!" :) We met at the Brue home in RF for lunch after church where Melody made us delicious BBQ beef sandwiches. Then we headed down by the river where we parked our cars for the walk. There were lots and lots of ducks and geese who thought we were there for them. I guess we should have brought some bread or something. They were definitely expecting it. We even saw a white goose with two different colored eyes. Anyway, it was a great day. We got home, warmed up, and settled in for the night. AND, yup it is true, I did finally go to bed. It was pretty quiet last night on-line. People are posting messages now, but mostly impatient notes about how nothing has come yet. Maybe tomorrow.

'til then - enjoy the pics.


Our guides for the day, Hope & Kaitlyn.











Hard Core Cachers!!!

Sleeping Beauty

Well, it took a little coaxing and explaining that upon getting a phone call I would not blog before going to see our referral. Beth decided it would be ok to put the computer down and get some sleep. It is about 5:30 so I would guess she will be looking at rumor sites in a couple of hours. No jury duty for me today so instead it’s off to prison. We have a small job to do at the Rush City prison today and maybe tomorrow. Have a good day all.

Ron

I'm Ready

OK - I'm camped out here and ready to watch a little TV and pay attention to what is hopefully going to be happening in Europe within a few hours. All signs are pointing to "good" that the referral packets will be delivered to agencies Monday morning and if it happens, families should start to hear about their babies and post pictures of their new little family members shortly thereafter. I've got my cell phone, home phone, computer, remote, and Ella nearby. I should have some time later to hopefully post about our day today geocaching in the rain. Stay tuned, and pray for the best Monday ever.

Happy Birthday Eleanor!

We are headed out for some geocaching with friends, but I wanted to get some pics up from last night...so here you go everyone. These are of the birthday girl herself...looking fabulous (notice the FAKE sundae), and her current great-grandchildren, Alexa and Mitchell.

Busy Saturday

I’m not in the practice of sharing my thoughts but it seems that lately I have been having a lot more of them. So, I’ll try to use the blog tonight.

Today we went to a “Meet the Parents” gathering in Edina, MN (Crossroads HQ). We had the opportunity to meet the parents and one of the daughters from Group 90 who traveled in January. The new beaming parents answered questions from the social worker and waiting parents in attendance. We learned useful information about travel, packing, feeding, and those precious babies.

It was a nice chance to see some of our group there and at last we met part of the family that we haven’t yet been in contact with. Tim and kids represented the Anderson family. Welcome to Group 91! We’re a fun crowd. We got their e-mail address and are anxious to get them in the loop. Holly Epstien lives in Hammond so it was nice to ride together and have some entertaining conversations with her. With referrals being so close, the women are becoming pretty chatty. It is good for them to have another outlet in each other.

After the “Meet the Parents,” it was off to Woodbury for a bite to eat and then a short drive to Hudson for another seminar about when and how to share info with your adopted or foster child. The obvious answer is to always be open and truthful. It is important to begin at an early age so the children become familiar with adoption language, and you also are able to practice what you’d like to say. By the time the children are truly comprehending more of the conversations our explanations are much more fine-tuned and we are also more comfortable with the very difficult topics that will come up. I think that one of the more important lessons of the seminar was to give the child all their history information by age 12. It was presented to us (though it is somewhat controversial), that by 12 yrs. old, most children should know the entire truth about their past and at that time should also begin deciding what information should be shared with others and with whom it should be shared. Beth and I are looking into another seminar for the 14th of April which is called the “Dance of Adoption.” The more information we can gather the better choices we can make in the future or the more confused we will be when conflict arises.

Grandma Eleanor (Great-Grandma to Baby Hoot) had a birthday dinner tonight. Most of the family was able to make it. The wait staff even got in on the fun and gave her an “April Fool’s” birthday sundae. She has tricked the family so many times over the years! It was great to have this little retaliation. “Oh...that’s hard,” she said when her spoon wouldn’t scoop into her ice cream. The staff had put a little cup upside-down in a dish and covered it with whipped cream and a cherry. Good times! Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!!!