If Patience is a virtue.....

I'm a virtueless girl. Let me share with you how my work days have been going. I probably actually work about 2 hours a day. The rest of the time I am glued to the Rumor Queen site and the Yahoo Group boards hoping beyond hope that someone is going to post the referrals have been mailed out. It's been 24 days since the last batch of referrals. We're getting e-mails almost daily from our agency now which tells me that they know things are going to be coming down the pike soon. I kind of wish though that I'd stop getting e-mails that say, "We don't anything yet...." My heart gets all excited when I see the e-mail..and then the inevitable let down. I have an illustration about how this process has beaten me down. A friend of mine sent me an e-mail today with a link to a news story. Her e-mail said, "I didn't know if you've seen this." My immediate reaction was "Oh no, China has shut down international adoption." Of course it was just an article about someone we used to work with....but I think the point has been made.... a week before our referral and I'm still terrified. I guess I will be until we actually hold Zoe/Jack in our arms.

Oh, a little about the names we have chosen... If we are referred a girl her name will be Zoe Katherine and if it's a boy he will be Jackson (Jack) Eric. Zoe was Eric's grandmother's name and Katherine was my sister's name. My sister passed away when she was 18 and I was 10. I've always known that if I had a girl I would give her Kathy's name. It will not be her first name because I thought that might be too hard for my family members. We just love the name Jack and it means God's Gracious Gift, which seems fitting. I want Eric's name in our son's name and Jack Eric doesn't really flow so we will give him the more formal name of Jackson and just call him Jack.

In brief other news, Eric and I may check out some new homes that are being built near us this weekend. The incentives are good, the prices are way down compared to last year, and it's the area we want to live in. I'm nervous about selling the townhome though. We LOVE our townhome but are just worried about the stairs and the lack of play space on the main area. If anyone has any insight into the real estate market, I'd love to hear it.