Today I (Julia) met my Mother and Grandparents at the Georgia Aquarium (This was my first visit to the GA Aquarium). Unfortunately Matt had to work and was unable to go with us.

We had a fabulous time! Despite the 1,000+ children on their final summer camp field trip! The highlight for me was seeing the infamous GA Beluga Whales. They were very active! The picture here in the front is the male. He swims with 3 other Beluga's (all female). You can tell this is the male by the upturned front flippers. Females have straight front flippers.

Also, the petting station... there were 20 or so small sting ray and 3 small hammer head sharks~ all waiting to be "petted". We arrived at the petting station during the 15 minute "no-pet" break. I patiently waited while Mom and Oma/Opa walked onward. Once the petting began I chickened out! YES!!! 100's of kids all had their full hands in the water and I could barely contain my fear with just one finger in the water! I managed to keep all my fingers but did not manage to "pet" a single animal.

This is the first of several Layouts I created today of Matt's accomplishment in running the 5K. 36 minutes, 44 seconds. You ROCK!! I am SO VERY proud of YOU!!

Day #304 and counting

Today we began the paper chase for the home study update (for immigration). We sat in our Dr.'s office for 1-1/2 hours waiting to do another physical. We were told to arrive with fasting blood. However, once there we were told we would have to go down the street to LabCorp because our insurance does not allow the Dr. office to pull blood. Once at LabCorp we found out they close for lunch. With growling stomachs and attitudes of "why us" we waited...impatiently.

Also, today we spoke with our home study agency to confirm dates and expirations. We found out we can wait until November 07 to turn in the documents to CIS (immigration). Our current paperwork expires Feb 1, 2008. We are attempting to get as close to that date as possible~ in hopes of not having to re-do everything for a 3rd time.

Both our agencies are projecting a 24 month wait from LID (log in date) to referral (matching w/ child). According to our LID (9/18/06) we are looking at referral (9/18/08) and travel early 2009. Thus our paperwork needs to be good thru Summer 09~ for filing adoption paperwork when back in USA.

This is Matt. Today, I ran in my first 5K. The race was run at Tribble Mill Park in Grayson. It was called the 5-Alarm 5K and was run to benefit the Gwinnett County Fire Department Benevolent Association. I had been wanting to run a 5K for awhile and this sounded like a good one to start with in terms of the course description. Also, Fire/Rescue is a cause that is near and dear to our hearts.
I had heard about the race last week and told Julia about it. She heavily encouraged me to register for it, so I did. In order to get over the "mental" portion of it, last Sunday (7/8), I went to the gym with Julia and did the distance on a treadmill. For those of you who may not know, a 5K is 3.1 miles. Last Sunday, I did the distance in 38:41. This was doing a combination of slow-running and fast-walking. The couple of days after the "dry run", my right knee bothered me a little and the muscles in my legs were definitely sore. For several months, I have been going to the fitness center at the CDC a few mornings a week, walking on the treadmills there. In my walks there, I had been doing an average of 1.5 miles at a time. I had really not been doing any running, however. I was typically going at a 4mph pace on the treadmill.
This past week, I went to the fitness center on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and just did some light walking/running, mostly to try to work out any soreness or kinks before this morning. I came to the conclusion that my primary goal for this was to finish and not come in last.
Well, this morning, we got up at 5:45 and arrived at the park around 7:30, with Penny. It was really great conditions for the run. The skies were overcast, and it looked like rain. I got signed in and ran into James Mason, an old friend of mine from Gwinnett Fire, who I later introduced Julia to.
The start point for the race was marked by Gwinnett Engine 8 (out of Grayson), and Gwinnett Truck 12 (out of Snellville). In a nice touch of patriotism, a huge American flag was suspended from the extended aerial of Truck 12. The participants gathered by the apparati, and shortly after 8:30, both trucks hit their sirens, signaling the start of the race.
The course itself was along a paved path, around a large lake and in and out of the woods. The first mile was the toughest portion, in that it was quite hilly. I quickly formulated a strategy, which was to run the downhill and flat portions of the course and fast-walk the uphill portions. Along the way, I befriended another participant who was at approximately the same level I was. He's in the top picture with me. It felt like it took forever to get to the 1 mile marker. After that, the mile 2 marker felt like it came along a bit quicker. A good portion of the 3rd mile was rather flat, but by that point, we were fairly tired. On the approach to the finish line, FF Doug Kalmbach (24-B) was standing by the side of the path. He let me know that it appeared I would finish in under 37 minutes and high-fived me. This was energizing and pushed me to pick up the pace a little bit. As I crossed the finish line, I grabbed my time card to fill out from a race worker. My final time was 36:44, which I was very pleased with. I met both my goals and will definitely do more 5Ks in the future. I am also considering attempting next year's Peachtree Road Race, which is a 10K (6.2 miles). We'll see if that actually happens.
It was a great experience and something I enjoyed getting to share with Julia and Penny.

Today we finally had an opportunity to sit down and talk with our homestudy agency regarding our options. We discussed having a concurrent adoption~ having 2 adoptions in process at the same time. Apparently because of the long wait (with China) many families are choosing to move forward with other countries~ while they wait for their China adoption to finalize. Vietnam, Korea & Thailand are some of the other countries most looked at. However, because China requires any child be in a home for a minimum of 1 year before another child is brought into the home we need to consider the real possibility of overlapping and missing our chance to continue with China.

Also, we inquired more about domestic adoptions. Our agency gave us some contact names and phone numbers and will be mailing us a reference list to review. The homestudy for domestic adoptions and international adoptions are completely different. Therefor, should we decide to continue with a domestic adoption we would have to do a homestudy all over again. Should we be interested in pursing a domestic adoption we were encouraged to look into open adoptions thru an attorney. However, a major concern with this type of adoption would be that if the birth Mother changed her mind at any point we would lose the money we put forward.

Our thoughts go back to China... Worse case "At this point" we will receive referral January-February 2009. Best Case "at this point" we will receive referral news June-July 2008. Most likely, we are expecting referral to arrive September-December 08.

We find comfort in God's promise in Isaiah 40: 31. A few days ago Matt, myself and Penny went on a short Geo-Caching jaunt- which are what the pics are of up top. Of course I played around a little with the bricks on my pic, lol... having a little fun.