Rumors

Today, there are rumors all over the internet groups about the possibility of referrals arriving at agencies TOMORROW! Don't know for sure so we will be going nuts all day wondering and jumping when the phone rings. Supposedly, our agency calls with the basic info(given name, date of birth, province)on the same day that the packages are received. Then, we have to wait for them all to be translated before we can go in and see the photos and all the information. Going NUTS with the anticipation...

Baby Quilt

This is a beautiful quilt that Nancy's Mom made for the baby. It has squares that open up(with velcro dots) to reveal pictures hidden underneath. She did a terrific job and we will always cherish it. Can't wait to peek at the pictures with our baby!

Waiting and Wondering

Well, no news yet. I was hoping to have some info to share with my mom on her birthday, which is tomorrow.Rats! I have repaired the link to CCAA if anyone had trouble with it. You have to hit the "english" button, but it connects now. I am about to attemp to post a map of China. Every time the phone rings, I get butterflies in my stomach until I see the Caller ID is not the agency. I am trying to keep busy but I feel so distracted; just doing my chores and projects like a robot. Will the call come this week? Who knows? Hopefully this weekend we can finish putting in the last window in the baby's room, I am anxious to set it up, have the furniture, have the paint, have the motivation...
not sure if I have enough PATIENCE!

Update

This is where we stand in the process as of today... We have a "Log-In-Date" or LID of September 29, 2005. This is the date that our application was translated and approved by the China Center of Adoption Affairs, or CCAA. Approximately each month, the CCAA puts out a report on their website of the applications that have been matched to children, this is called the Referral. The last report was on January 3, and stated that they had processed the applications through the LID of September 27, 2005. That was a crazy day! We were dissappointed that they came so close, and excited that they came so close. Now we feel that we can safely assume that we will be included in the next batch, possibly by the end of the month. This means like, NEXT WEEK!! It finally seems like it will really happen. When we signed up for the China Program, the wait between your LID and your referral was only about 8 months, we have now waited 16 months.
So, what happens next? Well, we will get a call from our Social Worker with our baby's given name, gender, date-of-birth, province of birth and how many families will be in our group to travel to that province. We set up an appointment with her to meet at the agency in about 2 days to review the photos and especially the medical report. This will be the first time we see the photos. (That is going to be 2 LONG days!) Then, we have 7-10 days to get the medical report reviewed by a Pediatrician and to sign off on the Acceptance Certificate.Then, there are travel meetings where we go to the agency and meet the other families and discuss all the information about the trip. They will give us packing suggestions and lists for reference, answer our billion questions, etc. After that, we wait for our Travel Assignment which can take 6-8 weeks to put together. We expect to travel in late March or early April, but that is just speculation right now.
We hope to learn how to manage this blog from afar and post pictures and notes on our trip. Today, I will post the link to the CCAA and try to put some China info on the blog, like weather and time, etc.

Watching the sunset

Watching the sunset from the beach near our home is a cherished family tradition that we are definitely looking forward to sharing with our child.

In the Beginning

This is a photo of Nancy actually mailing our application to the Agency in January 2005. She had the Postmaster take it to 'chronicle" the event. At this point we hadn't even chosen a program.