Here I Am

There's some satisfaction in finishing before some people who were in earlier wave groups (anyone around me who doesn't have gold number).

Army 10 Miler

Wow. That was a hard 10 miles. I thought that it was going to be a very easy, flat run. At 8 a.m. (I finally crossed the start line at 8:20), the temp was 70 degrees, 96% humidity, not a cloud in the sky - not the greatest running conditions. On top of that, I've had a cold for a few days and typically would not run with a sore throat, stuffy nose, etc. However, I am pleased that I was able to run the entire way. It was good training in the sense that if there are similar conditions on marathon day, I know that I'm not running :)

Beautiful race though. Pretty cool to run by the Capitol, especially because that was one of the few shaded areas. There was someone repelling off the dome, presumably doing the windows. It's also a very crowded race so I've learned that to run a better time, I have to register at a better time to get in a faster pace group. My time was 1:42 which was slower than I had wanted but, considering the conditions, I won't be too hard on myself.

Tropical Storm Karen

For the first time in my memory, I was a tropical storm this week. I don't think I amounted to much, which when it comes to storms is probably a good thing. Probably not very fun to have the name Katrina in the gulf region.

Logged another 20 running yesterday. Had to walk a little bit at the end. I parked at mile 3 on the Mt. Vernon Parkway, ran to King Street in Old Town Alexandria and then back to Mt. Vernon, then back the 3 miles to the car. Having run the 10 Miler on the GW during the spring, I assumed the trail would be equally flat. I was quite wrong. There are relatively level areas, but there are some challenging inclines, especially the last mile or 2 back to Mt. Vernon. I don't think it helped that I forgot to take Aleve prior to running.

I'm not sure if I'll get another 20+ in before the marathon. Next Sunday is the Army 10 miler. I'm looking forward to a nice, short run :)

Running Update

When I read other people's blogs, I'm always frustrated (that's a strong word :) when they don't keep their blogs up-to-date...so it is with much guilt that I notice I haven't added anything here for the last couple weeks.

My workout patterns this summer have been really bad. Vacation didn't help. The main thing I've learned about my running though is that it's not a physical battle - it's mental. 2 Saturdays ago, I ran 14+ miles in horrible conditions (hot, high humidity) by doing the run/walk/run method (ran 3 min / walked 1 min / ran 3 min, etc.) Last Thursday, I decided that I would run after I got home from work - something I never do. I set out to run at least 4 miles. Within about 1 minute, I was considering cutting the run down to 1/2 mile :) I'm not used to running at that time of day and in that heat. My legs felt like lead weights and I had a side stitch almost immediately. But, I kept telling myself that I had to go at least 3 miles and mentally pushing myself forward. I ended up making the 4 miles - but it was a battle the entire way.

Saturday, I had the day off so I decided to try and do 20. That's a bigger mileage jump than is suggested, but the weather was beautiful (low humidity). I ran from the Iwo Jima to the C&O Canal Towpath mile marker 10 and back. I was able to do 16 miles straight running, and then ran walked the last 4 back. Wow. For me, it's not the mileage, it's the time. It was over 3.5 hours of me, myself & I...listening to music, people watching, telling myself I was crazy, telling myself that I can make it one more mile, telling myself that I was crazy.

So, to finish the Marine Corp., I only need to cover 6 more miles than I did on Saturday, and who can't do that? LOL. I just bought some ClifShot with caffeine, so the next time I set out on one of these treks, I won't need to worry about being hungry and wanting coffee.

For the next couple weekends, I'm back to running the roads of Stafford. Unfortunately, that means hills and traffic fumes. I'm looking forward to my next 20ish miler being on the Mt. Vernon Trail. I believe it's paved, which is an advantage over the C&O.

On other notes, China times continue to be at a tortoise's pace. We look forward to bringing Julia home in God's timing...not ours. In the meantime, we have the dogs to baby. They bring experiences we could never have anticipated (like inducing vomiting after Stella ate a large quantity of dark chocolate m&m's...)

By the way, after living here for 15+ years, Saturday was my first time seeing the Iwo Jima. It's beautiful & impressive. Amazing that we go to the other side of the world to site see, yet there is so much in our own backyard that we've haven't seen.

Tomato Update

The tomatoes have overtaken our deck. We have had several to eat so far - very yummy - and there are many more to come. Unfortunately, some creature also finds them quite good so we are trying to time out letting them ripen as much as possible on the vine while protecting them from being eaten by the tomato snatcher. Jim tried to bait the creature into eating a store bought tomato that he put out, but the animal is too smart for that. We have lots of peppers too, but most have bad spots that I believe was caused by a lack of bees. Who knew how much was involved? We are already planning on our garden for next year though.

European Vacation

We're back from vacation and trying to get used to real life again. Here are a couple pictures - we took hundreds so it's a little hard to narrow down what to use, but I figure most people would rather see a picture of us than pictures you can see in any history book :)

This one was taken in Nice on the French Riviera. Interestingly, there wasn't sand on the beaches - it was pebbles. Didn't look very comfortable for laying out on.


This one is from Pompeii. Pompeii was one of the highlights of the entire vacation. We had a great tour guide who did a fabulous job of explaining what we were seeing. It is hard to fathom how old the remains are and also to believe that there are people who once again live in the shadow of the still active volcano.

4th of July

Here is a rare picture of us. This is from our annual trip to DC for the 4th. We had a great time and great weather (except for the tornado watches...). This picture is in the gardens that are at the old Smithsonian building. It is a neat treasure to find in the mall area.

Little Richard was staying at our hotel but we didn't get any pictures of him - I tried to get tickets to the "Capital Fourth" from his people, but no luck.

The tomatoes are taking over the deck and we now also have little peppers forming on the pepper plants. I don't know how long it takes for tomatoes to ripen, but we figure it will happen while we're on vacation.

Tomatocam

Tomato Update - we now have 4 tomatoes. They're not quite ready to eat yet :)

Marathon Training Update - I'm up to 10 miles on my long run. That's well ahead of pace for a rookie marathoner, but I'm coming up on some rough training weeks (rough in the sense that I'll be on vacation and unable or unwilling :) to log that kind of mileage).

Adoption Update - China's not getting any faster so the long journey continues.

Tomatoes, Part 2

An updated tomato plant picture.

Completely unrelated, here's a picture of the dogs. No, they are not posing for the camera.

Tomatoes

We're trying our hand at growing tomatoes for the first time. So far, they are doing really well. The ancestry of the tomatoes goes back 10 years when my Grandma McCall planted this "breed". My mom has used seeds from those tomatoes to grow new seedlings each year. Last summer I had one of the tomatoes and it was the best tomato ever. They brought me some seedlings this year and here is their progress.

LID 05-29-07!

We're officially official. We received the news this morning that our dossier was logged in on May 29th. There is also another couple from Fairfax County who was logged in on the same date, so when the time comes, we might even be travelling with a neighbor!

I wonder when we look back on this process which will be the more difficult season - the document gathering & processing season or the season of simply waiting. Either way, I know when we have our girl(s), the difficult part will all be forgotten.

Mom & Dad - the tomatoes are planted and already growing.

DTC 5-23-07!

Our documents are on their way to China (DTC - docs to China)! Now we are waiting for our LID (Log In Date), the date that China logs our documents into their system - and really the date that the countdown (still @ 18 months) will start from.

A Little Closer

Our docs are back from authentication at the Chinese Consulate, so now we are just waiting for them to be sent to China. The agency sends them out in groups, so as soon as they have 6 complete applications, ours will be on its way.

No updates on the timeframes - looks like they're still at an 18 month window.

Update on the Journey

Jim and I have been on a long journey to adopt a baby girl (or two :) from China. Because the journey is far from over, I decided to start this blog to allow our friends and family to track the progress. This way, you won't get tired of asking me where we are in the process, and I won't get tired of answering where we are in the process!

So, here's where we are in the process. Our dossier (application that goes to the Chinese government) is at the Chinese Consulate here in the US being authenticated. Once it returns to our adoption agency (Bethany - would recommend them to anyone!), it will be on its way to China where it will be assigned a LID - log in date. This has been taking up to a month, although recently, they've been doing them much faster - probably to accomodate the May 1 changes. Currently, the wait time is 18 months from your LID. So, we are estimating 18 months to 2 years from now. There is a hope that the process will speed up, and a reality that it will probably slow down.

While we wait, I've decided that if I'm ever going to run a marathon, this would be the time to reach that goal, so I have registered to run the Marine Corp Marathon on October 28th. Perhaps I'll blog about that journey as well.

We covet your prayers for our journey. We know that all of the timing is in God's hands, and His timing is always perfect. We are also praying that we will be matched with twin girls.