Happy New Year's all! It is the year of the Dog, according to the Chinese Calander. We celebrated the New Year by going out with some friends to a Chinese Buffet. Well, okay so it was very westernized... Needless to say I am bringing crackers and poptarts to China with me. We did have a good time... and Paul and Josh had rice from one end of the restaurant to the other. ah well.

For the next two weeks CCAA is closed, so who knows when the next batch of referrals will come in. I guess historically there aren't any referrals given in February. We can only hope that history changes and more referrals will come towards the end of the month! we have about 7 weeks of referrals ahead of us.

Next Saturday is a VERY special day in our lives. It is Paul's second annual adoption day. we are celebrating with pizza at Marion's and going to the Children's Museum. Fun family activities.

Wishing you all a wonderful "New Year" and have a wonderful evening! Good Night Sweet Kyra, Mommy loves you and thinks of you all the time! Can't wait to have you in my arms, and your big brother can't wait to play with you!!

Sandy

Oh, what an exciting day! Paul's big boy bed is ready! We are in the process of getting his big boy room finished... it is painted; we still need to put the boarder up and decorate the walls... but Paul is very excited about sleeping in his new bed, we didn't want to wait till the whole room was done. Okay, so when I asked him tonight if he wanted to sleep in his new bed, he did say "no I sleep in your bed'" but we are working on that too! He has helped us through the whole process. He picked out his paint and his boarder. Maybe with a little guidance and very limited choices, but he did have the final decision. Last Saturday, Grandpa picked Paul up so daddy and mommy could paint his room. Now I am trying to convince Grandma and Grandpa to come this weekend, so we can get the boarder up!

Other exciting news for the day: from the CCAA (straight from China) referrals have been sent for those with a LID from April 25th through May 13th. slowly but surely we are getting closer to a referral. China shuts down this Friday night (saturday morning there) until february 4th for their Chinese New Years. (which actually is January 29th) we hope some time in February they will give another batch of referrals.

so until next time... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sandy

Hello all! This is our first attempt at Blogging so please bare with us! first off, I have to apologize for my horrible spelling! Hopefully I will find spell check sooner vs later. anyways. This will hopefully become our communication link to our family and friends during our Journey to China and to provide updates on Paul and his future sister Kyra. So, today's post will get everyone up to speed on our China Adoption. almost a year ago we started the paper chase for our daughter. We have what is called a Log in Date (LID) of July 5th, 2005. What that means, is our paperwork was sent to china and accepted on the 5th. Currently China is placing children with LID in the Month of May. So Essentially we have two months ahead of us. typically the CCAA match 1/2 to full month of referrals each month. so our best guess is we will be getting a referral late March early April. Occassionally China will send out larger batches of referrals, but that has not been happening lately. We can always hope and pray though.

So, in the meantime we have plenty to keep us busy. Namely PAUL. our Siberian Cyclone keeps us on our toes. We are currently working on his Big Boy Room. Paul is very excited about this, and can't wait to sleep in his big boy bed. I only hope he stays there all night, and will end coming into our room in the middle of the night. He insists on sleeping in the middle... ah well, such is life of a parent. We are also quickly approaching a very special day in the Belanich Home. February 4th will mark our 2nd annual family day! Time has flown by since we brought paul home! But more about that will come in the very near future.

for now I am going to end this so I can figure out how to post it to our BLOG! I believe it shows bob email address as the one to respond to, feel free to do that, or you can always email at sbelanich@otterbein.org.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy our "Great Journey".

Sandy

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