Thursday, April 27, 2006

Getting excited again

I thought it would really bother me when the other June DTC people started posting their referrals on the boards. It has actually done quite the opposite! I got excited and nervous and giddy about receiving our referral. We just have to be next! The ages of the babies is really exciting, too. The ones that I have seen so far have been very young. Several have been 6 months old! I can only hope that we will have the same luck. There was one set of identical twins as well. The oldest baby listed was 16 months old. All of the babies have been girls! That's pretty good! I told Todd tonight that we need to kick it into high gear and finish getting our stuff together. I still need to find a pediatrician and there are several things we need to purchase. One day at a time.

On another note, I do not have school tomorrow and I am planning on going to the Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse! I'm very excited.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

My Big 'A'

No, not my ass--my attitude. I was feeling pretty down about the news (when it finally sank in) and as I was leaving the grocery today I ran into my dad. He would always tell me that attitude is everything. Our code was "Get your big 'A' up" which meant that I needed a little attitude adjustment. Dad always knew when I was feeling sorry for myself and would say this phrase to me. It used to infuriate me, but today it was just the kick in the pants I needed. God certainly does work in mysterious ways! Anyway, dear old dad helped me realize that this process isn't over, only temporarily delayed. By golly we have to be next!! There are only two LID's in front of us. Aren't dads the best?!

Not so disappointed

Well, we haven't received the official word from our agency yet, but the CCAA is reporting that they have finished matching families whose dossiers were registered before June 6th. Being June 9th I'd say we are definitely not in this group. I think it is fairly safe to say that we will be in the next group, but I am not betting on anything these days. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the amount of dossiers the CCAA is getting through. I'm thinking that May 31st must have been a really large group. What really bothers me is that our agency hasn't informed us yet of anything. I got all of this information from the CCAA website. I was under the impression that they informed the agencies first and then made it public knowledge. I must say that I am very disappointed in Great Wall.

Soooooooo, it looks like I will be going to my brother's wedding and attending July 4th festivities at my aunt's cabin. If we travel before August I will be VERY surprised. I never would have thought that almost a year after our friend's returned from China we would still be waiting. I'm not sure we would have gotten involved in this had we known. Our wait time will be 11 months on May 9th. Crazy, I tell you. Sometimes I gotta wonder if this is a sign from God; that maybe we were not meant to be parents. Or maybe God is testing us. Who knows.

Well, we're off to wait another month!

Monday, April 24, 2006

More waiting

We thought today was going to be the "BIG" day. According to our agency, China was to send referrals today. I guess something happened because now they are expecting referrals to be mailed on Wednesday or Thursday. The rumor sites are reporting that the cutoff date is June 6th. This is an unconfirmed rumor from Spain and their track record isn't very good. They were the ones who said the last batch of referrals would go through the middle of June. Keep your fingers crossed!

Friday, April 21, 2006

On pins and needles

Our agency sent us an e-mail yesterday saying that they were not sure when the cut off would be for the next batch of referrals. They said that this batch should include all of the people logged-in on May 31 and the first week of June but that they still didn't know if this would include June 9. Our agency doesn't have anybody logged-in between May 31 and June 9. There will be a lot of unhappy people if the CCAA only sends our agency enough referrals to supply one log-in date. I will be surprised if we are in this group. They are supposed to let us know today if we are included. The e-mail seemed to be leaning towards no; there was just something in the way that it was worded. We will have to see. . .

I just figured out that I can play with the font color and type. Woo-hoo, it's the little things . . .

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

My heart fell to my feet . . .

I nearly lost my afternoon snack today. We received an e-mail from Great Wall stating that they still had nothing to tell us, they can confirm that the CCAA will be sending referrals for those families registered on May 31, and that they cannot confirm if the CCAA will send referrals for families registered on June 9. I about died--there was our LID on the referral update. Todd was sitting at the computer and began pointing at the screen with a bewildered/shocked look on his face. Then we read the message in its entirety. I had to read the message several times to make sure I had the correct information. The long and the short of it is that we still know NOTHING and neither does GWCA. The next several days are going to be tough. We are so close and living in the world of unknowns. I am not getting my hopes up but at the same time I am preparing myself for referrals. I told Todd that if we get our referral we have to kick our asses in high gear! We still have a lot to do before we go to China!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Message from GWCA

We received an e-mail today from our agency stating that they expect to receive referrals this week but that they still don't know which LID's will be included. The chat boards are going crazy! Most other "big" agencies are saying that the CCAA will get through June 3. Technically, this is the first week of June. June 3 is a Friday so the next day will be June 6 and then us, June 9. I don't think there are too many people logged in on June 8 and I haven't heard of one person being logged in on the 7th, although I'm sure some of the more obscure agencies have that LID. Anyway, I still don't think I will be in this group. Miracles do happen, however!

On another topic, my allergies are in FULL swing! I haven't stopped sneezing since 5:00 this afternoon! It is driving me absolutely bonkers! I had to make a mad dash to Walgreens to get some allergy meds. I forgot that they now have that BS pseudophedrine law where you can only buy so many pills a week. As I'm wheezing and blowing my nose I have to fill out a form in triplicate, get fingerprinted, and give her the secret handshake--all for a 24-pack of pseudophedrine. I just wanted to stop sneezing! It was miserable. God love the drug dealers!

Monday, April 17, 2006

More rumors . . .

I am typing on my laptop in bed so there may be more typos than usual--LOL! Today's rumor is that the CCAA is only going to fill referrals through June 6. That is pretty on par with what has been happening in the last several months. I'm OK with this news, if it turns out to be true. It means we won't travel until July at the earliest. I hear Beijing is HOT, HOT, HOT in the summer. Oh well! What can we do?

Since I've had a student teacher I have been in and out of other classrooms. I subbed for our ENL (English as New Language) teacher and had the opportunity to talk to several students who are from China. They were telling me where we should go when we are in China and teaching me some words. It was a hoot. What was really funny was the kids who were from Mexico and Afghanistan trying to say the Chinese words! Again, absolutely hysterical I really enjoyed being around all of those multicultural kids.

Back to the rumor--one of the positive things about getting a later referral is that I will be able to go to my brother's wedding. That has been a real booger of late. Unfortunately the purse that I bought for our daughter to take to the wedding will not be used in the manner in which it was intended. I had really hoped that we would get to see her toddling down the aisle with Alex and Emily as a flower girl. We will just have to wait and see. Nothing is set in stone yet and we have heard nothing official. Hopefully we will have some info in the next several days. Things are too quiet on the boards . . .

Friday, April 14, 2006

New information

We received an e-mail this morning from our agency saying they expect to receive referrals by the end of next week. I just don't feel that we'll be in this next group. I want to be in this next group, but I just don't think it is going to happen. The "Rumor Queen" has posted that one of the big agencies said that they believe the CCAA is going to send referrals through the first week of June. I have been searching in vain for a calendar to see if, perchance, June 9 is in the first full week of June. I know there are LID's of June 2, 3 which means the 4th and 5th are weekend days. Then there are LID's of June 6, 9 and 10 with the 11th and 12th being the weekend. The next LID is the 13th, but I'm not as concerned with that!! With that same logic, and if the rumor of filling only a week is true, we will definitely not be in this next batch. Nobody really knows anything until China sends the referrals. I think it is looking like late May for us.

I better have something before the end of the school year. I don't know what I will do if I don't. For those who know me I may have another episode at the end of the year school party! Ha! Not happening!

I think I may bite the bullet and hang the border in the baby's room this weekend. It is fairly feminine and as soon as I hang it, we'll be referred a boy! That is just my luck. I've been thinking of ways to make it less feminine. The set that we are using was coined as unisex, but I wouldn't have picked it if we were having a boy. It is Sir Leapsalot from Babies 'R Us. It has a frog prince and princess and uses lavender, pastel green and pastel yellow. The border is more celestial and I think we could pull out the stars and use more of the yellow and green than the lavender if we had a boy. We painted the room light green. Any thoughts?

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

No news to share

We just received word from our agency that they have no news about referrals. Our rep e-mailed a message to families yesterday saying they have no news to share, but that they expect referrals by the end of the month. Isn't that news? She didn't give specifics about who would receive referrals but I have a feeling that only May 31 will receive them. I think it is dangerous to think we will be in this next group. We should be in the next group, but I'll believe that when we see it!!

Friday, April 07, 2006

Adoption Lingo

I thought I should take a moment and define some of the terminology I have been using in my previous posts, so here goes . . .

Dossier -- this is the packet of information we had to collect to send to China in order to adopt. In this packet are our birth certificates, marriage certificates, fingerprints, security clearance, and anything else "official" you can think of. Each piece in the dossier had to go through three different government offices to be authenticated. They first went to our local government in the form of notaries; second they went to the state to be certified; and finally they were sent to Washington, D.C. to be authenticated. Collecting these documents took about 4 months.

Homestudy -- this is when a social worker came to our house and asked us all kinds of questions about our personalities, childhood, married life, etc. We met with her four times. Twice individually and twice as a couple. She looked at our house and made suggestions on how we could make our house more child-friendly. In the home study we had to include photos of our house, which room would be the baby's room, the two of us participating in our hobbies, and anything else we deemed important. We also had to have complete physicals and be up to date on all of our vaccinations. Our medical histories are also included in the home study. Two copies of this 18 page document (I think) are included in our dossier.

DTC (Dossier-To-China) -- This is the day that our agency, Great Wall China Adoptions, sent our completed dossier to China. When we finished collecting everything for our dossier, we sent it to our agency to be quadruple-checked. Our DTC was May 27, 2005. This date doesn't have much significance to the adoption process. It is more of a checkpoint/turning point for the adoptive parent.

LID (Log-In-Date) -- This is the day China (CCAA) received our paperwork and the clock officially began ticking. Our LID is June 9, 2005.

Referral -- The referral is the information about our baby. This is what we are waiting for!! In the referral will be several photos of the baby we have been matched with, his/her medical history, and what the child's personality is like. Hopefully we will be receiving ours soon! Once we receive our referral, we will travel to China in 6-8 weeks.

CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) -- this is the government office in China that handles ALL adoptions. This is also one of the reasons why we chose China.

Hope this clears things up for people!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

The latest news

We received interesting information yesterday regarding how many dossiers were logged in our date: 31. Not too bad. If you add the 21 dossiers on May 31, that is a total of 52 referrals all together. It's possible we'll be next. Unfortunately, other agencies have dossiers logged in from June 1 - 8. Lots of people in the groups are posting information about how many dossiers their agency has on those early June dates. It doesn't look like there are a huge amount of dossiers but I have a feeling that it will be enough to keep us from getting our referral by the end of the month. Is it only April 5?!

I announced to Todd this evening that I was NOT celebrating Mother's Day this year if we do not have our referral. I figured last year would be my last Mother's Day without a child. Who needs Mother's Day anyway? It is a holiday that Hallmark created and everyone has played right into their devilish hands! All of the card buying and gift giving! Bah humbug! I can do without it, of course until I can actually celebrate that day! Then I want all the hoopla--brunch at the Seelbach, diamonds, flowers--oh yeah!

So, we're still waiting. Only 3 1/2 more weeks of this month.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Magnolia Doll

I just received a doll for our baby called a Magnolia Doll. She is a soft Asian doll and is she ever cute! I was so excited when I opened the package. Todd wasn't as excited as me, but he made the statement that the doll was going with us to China. Gosh I hope this baby is a girl! I've got an entire room full of girl stuff.

No new rumors today. I did read that the May 31 group is large as well as the June 2 group. We are June 9 so who knows. That is all.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Spring forward!

Well, we turned our clocks up an hour this morning. I've felt rushed all day. I can't believe that it is 10:30 P.M. already! No new news on the adoption front--still waiting! I did have some "kid" therapy this week and had a chance to get away from all of the adoption nonsense. I visited my older brother, Rob, in Georgia last weekend and got to spend a lot of time with my niece and nephews. I also visited my grandmother in south KY with my younger brother Michael. We took his fiance' to all of the sites in southern KY including my favorite spot--Cumberland Falls. Hopefully the next time I go to the falls, I will get to take my child. It was raining very hard while we were at the falls and on our way out of the mountains, we saw a rainbow. It was the biggest rainbow I have ever seen. Maybe it was a sign!

Call me crazy, but when we were in Georgia we went to a place called Tallulah Gorge State Park. It is a 900 ft. drop into a river and they have waterfalls (I love waterfalls.) Anyway, we hiked to the bottom of the gorge and went across a suspension bridge. The video I took is hilarious because I was freaking out! The bridge was shaking, bouncing, swaying, etc. I kept accusing Todd of teasing me by causing these motions, but he claims innocence. I took a bunch of pictures of the waterfalls from the suspension bridge and when we looked back at the pictures there was something very interesting in one of the photos. In one of the rock formations in the middle of the photo it looks like a little Chinese girl's face. I swear it is eerie. To my credit, Melissa said she could see it as well. I will have to post the picture. I think that could be another sign; either that or I have officially lost my mind!

I went into the baby's room before posting this evening. My sister-in-law gave me some clothes and the cutest pair of black patent leather shoes. I love to go into the room and look at all of the clothes that we have so far. Todd made a joke that at the pace things are going, some of the clothes I was afraid I wouldn't get to use because of the seasons may work after all. It is good that we haven't lost our sense of humor. I think if our LID date was later the delays would be bothering us more. We just have to be close at this point. There are only 10 LID days in front of us. If we aren't next, then we have to be after that. I keep telling myself that anyway!