Happy Holidays

Hope everyone is having a great holiday, whatever you celebrate. We had a great time on Christmas Eve (my first time hosting the family) and Christmas Day (at Mike's parents' house).

I have two favorite gifts this year: first, my mom is moving to my neighborhood after a couple years of being far enough away that we don't get together as often as we would like. We are all super excited to have her nearby. Second, I received the best adoption morale booster possible: the 2007 Families with Children from China calendar. The calendar, which can be bought at chinasprout.com, contains oodles of photos and stories of children adopted from various provinces, special needs and non-special needs, all ages, boys and girls. (The proceeds from the sale of these calendars benefit charities for children in orphanages in China, plus cultural education initiaves.) Mike and I got a huge lift from this. We are obviously a little sad that we've still got such a long road ahead, but the faces of these adorable kids grinning back at me every day will serve as a reminder that yes, we'll have our daughter one day and get us through another year!

OK, I confess that there was a third gift I'm totally in love with: my Coach bag from sis. She apparently "knows people" in NY? (I didn't ask.) For someone who usually buys her purses off the clearance rack at Marshall's, this was quite a treat. Note to self: do not spill wine on this bag, it will not wipe up easily like pleather.

Happy Holidays to all!!

Sophie's New Do

Just back from the spa... just like her mom, the nice straight locks you see here gave way to her tight, God-given curls approximately ten minutes after we got home. But, being a curly girl isn't so bad, is it Soph?

In other news, we did quite possibly the most suburban thing ever and had a playdate with another puppy last weekend. The trainer from puppy school set us up. On the drive over I was thinking how I wouldn't admit to this outing to anyone, but on the drive back home I had to admit that Sophie and Molly (a cockapoo 8 months old) had the time of their lives and we owners enjoyed each other's company too! Next time we get together I'll take pictures of the girls in action.

Re-elect Cora for US Senate

Obama Schmobama! There's another new senator making headlines: moi.

I received a box of Harrod's chocolates today from one of my clients in the UK. So excited was I at the prospect of spending my Friday afternoon sampling truffles (and generally avoiding working as much as possible), I nearly missed the address on the package.

I haven't yet gotten to the bottom of this. Do the British address their US business associates as "senator"? Could she possibly think I am a senator? And most importantly, is this a sign that I should be running for the Senate?

Ahh, who cares. I'm just going to eat my lovely chocolates.

NYC Get Together!

Yesterday we got together with our new waiting-parent pals - that's Mike and me, Bob and Tracy and Jen and Matt. For anyone in the Northeast who is interested, this little get-together was organized on Soul of Adoption, and there will be future messages about getting together for Chinese New Year. We met up in Little Italy for lunch and quickly learned that the experiences we've had during the paperchase, the wait, etc. have been SO similar. I for one am really happy to have been able to meet others with LID dates so close to ours - we have all had such similar experiences over the past year. We promised that next year we'll get together again with either referral photos firmly in hand, or babies snug in our laps!

Referrals were mailed this past week, and somehow some 9/14/05 LIDS got theirs although others were skipped. Nobody knows why, and it's perplexing to hear about families being skipped. Hopefully this will be resolved soon... and progress is progress so I can't complain too much. We are inching closer and closer!