(Jest)ation

For those of you who are not familiar with the China adoption process, “the wait” is the period of time between sending your paperwork to China and receiving your child match. Because of a multitude of reasons that I will not get into, China’s wait times have increased dramatically. For example sake, once our paperwork was complete, we waited 10 months for Hannah. Now we are looking at 3-4 years of waiting for our second child. Yuck. Since there is not a single thing we can do about this unexplained increase, I have chosen to poke fun of it. And now that we have waited for one year, I feel that we have done “enough time” to justify our tomfoolery without offending other families who have been waiting longer than us.

During our last wait for Hannah, my mother joked that I have the gestation period that is longer than an elephant. Ever since then, I have stuck that in the back of mind and have recently done some research to see if that indeed is true.

The human gestation period is an average of 266 days.

So far our “gestation period” has been 371 days. Currently it looks like our wait will be at least 1095 days.

For comparison sake,

The average gestation period for an American buffalo is 270 days.




The average gestation period for a cow is 280 days.




The average gestation period for an otter is 290 days.




The average gestation period for a horse is 340 days.




The average gestation period for a Bactrian camel is 410 days.




The average gestation period for a black rhinoceros is 450 days.




The average gestation period for a sperm whale is 490 days.




The average gestation period for an Asian elephant is 645 days.




See? Mom is always right.
:)

Merry Christmas!

Whew! Last weekend was a whirlwind! On Saturday we had Chris's appreciation dinner. That's where Hannah met up with Mr & Mrs Claus making some last minute preparations before the big day. Luckily Santa had some time for a quick photo opportunity.

On Sunday, Grandma took Hannah and me to a local production of the Nutcracker. Hannah's first ballet! Hannah was wonderful and patient throughout the whole thing. It was about twenty minutes too long for her. She was antsy - but thankfully she didn't make a lot of noise.

After the ballet, we had to rush back home for the Christmas concert at our church. Hannah took a quick nap in the car on the way, so she was refreshed and ready to go once we got her costume on. During the concert Hannah sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" a cappella all by herself. Hannah's cousin Greyson was supposed to sing too, but he had second thoughts. Everyone got a kick out of Hannah's song. I was thrilled that we got it on tape. Although we don't know how to post a video - but that's a different story. Once the concert was over, we had refreshments and then it was time to go home. Hannah got it in her head that she had to give every single person at the reception a hug and wish them "Merry Christmas!" There was about 30 people to hug that night. What a sweet girl.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

:)

Holiday Friends

Right before the holidays we invited Sierra and her family over for some playtime, dinner and fun. Hannah loves playing with Sierra and it was great to get to know her family a little better.
Happy Holidays!
:)

Christmas Parade

Back in July, I asked our pastor if he wouldn't mind pulling Hannah in his tractor for the Christmas parade. Luckily our pastor has a better memory than I do. Unfortunately, I had to miss the Christmas parade this year, but Uncle Billy (who just happened to be in town) was nice enough to take some pictures for us. Chris got the video. The first picture was taken by Pastor John before the parade started. I just love the intent expression on Hannah's face.
Thanks again Uncle Billy.
:)