Did you hear the good news...

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Happy 6 month LID anniversary to us! We are headed for an adoption seminar in Madison on the 19th. In some ways it seems silly to us to have to go through this day A.G.A.I.N after we've already gone through an adoption from China. (Heck, we were even asked to speak at this type of thing on our own adoption experience. )But...on second thought...it IS a day dedicated to Daisy. A day to remind us that this is REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN...someday...even though it seems like an eternity from now.

Good-bye November!

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Congrats to the new families that were created last week with October referrals. Referrals are now in through November 30, 2005.

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Au revoir Novembre! And good riddance!

5 Months Down to Daisy!

I was thinking...

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If circumstances were the same as they were for Sofia's adoption...we'd be 1 month away from referral. Sigh...

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This month produced a whole 3 or 4 days of referrals. I think they are now up to November 25, 2005. (Yes, you read that correctly.) I think the Chinese adoption community is deserving of some good news in the near future, don't you??

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We will continue to be patient waiters. We love you sweet Daisy!

I can't believe I missed it again!

4 months down in our wait!

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Time has flown by this summer! It's hard to belive we are already 4 months into the wait. Too bad we have like 30+ months left (yes...it really is looking that bleak lately). With Sofia we were already 2/3 of the way to our referral by this time. I guess you can't sit and dwell on it...it will happen when it's supposed to happen.

A little late, but...

It has been 3 months since our log-in date (on the 12th)!

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Another month closer to our Daisy!

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Happy anniversary to us!!

Referral time again...

Congrats to the lucky mommies and daddies who will FINALLY be seeing their little ones' faces! Referrals have been issued through November 14, 2005.

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We're getting closer, one month at a time!

Happy Father's Day...

Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Daddy.

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Wishing all Daddies out there a GREAT DAY!

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We love you Daddy, Grandpa Geno, and Grandpa Pat!

2 months down!

It has been 2 months since our dossier has been logged in by the CCAA in Beijing. Unfortunately there isn't any excitingly positive news to announce. We are still looking at a heckuva long wait. I keep praying that one of these days I will log onto Rumor Queen to find some wonderful, worthwhile rumors that actually turn out to be true. The IA community has had far too much bad news from China lately. We could really use a boost.

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At any rate...another month down, another 18+ to go. At least we are getting closer to Daisy...even if it is only baby steps.

Can I just vent a little bit?

This whole wait thing seemed OK in the beginning. We thought, 18 months, hmmmm... That doesn't sound very difficult. Actually, it seemed like it might even be a good thing considering the age of our kids right now. It would give Sofia some more time to be the baby and Tate a little bit more time to enjoy middle-child-dom. (Actually, middle-child-dom can end at ANY TIME...I think Tate will be in a much better place when he is actually one of the big kids...)

But...fast forward 5 months...and here we are almost 2 months logged in and up to a 19 month wait (and climbing). Can the wait actually reach 36 months?? Is that even possible? It seems like so much can happen in 3 years. In many ways that feels like F.O.R.E.V.E.R.!! I need to adjust my attitude accordingly and it JUST ISN'T WORKING!!

OK...I'm done now...

Referral time...

Congratulationbs to all of the new families being created this month!

The stork made a surprise landing yesterday and the babies are as sweet as ever! This referral batch covered families logged in between November 2 - 7, 2005. I know that November 2005 is annoyingly large, but does it have to take 3-4 months to get through??

The wait is now officially up to 19 months and rising. Geesh...

1 Month LID Anniversary

It's official...1 month down, a gazillion to go...

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Do you remember in high school when you were excited when you celebrated monthly anniversaries with your boyfriends/girlfriends?? I remember when I was excited to reach each monthly milestone. I'm not so sure how I feel about that with regrads to our adoption...I mean, another month down is another month down...but when you're talking 36 months, 1 month doesn't seem like much.

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Not much new on the adoption front. We received a list of families that will potentially be travelling with us somewhere down the line. One of the families is from Wisconsin (I think the Milwaukee area), and we are very excited about that! Hopefully by the end of this horrendous wait our group will all still be in tact...let's face it, a lot can happy in 3 years (please, please, P*L*E*A*S*E don't let the wait get.that.long...) The encouraging news is that the next batch of referrals is RUMORED to include 15+ days. In the Chinese adoption world that is MAJOR news! What does that mean for us?? Well, IF the CCAA does deliver on the 15+ days this month and IF they can continue to keep that trend in the coming months (which is highly unlikely, given the bleak track record), we might be looking at an 18 month wait at a minimum for our referral. Oops...I mean 17 months...we are 1 month down, remember??

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We'll wait for you sweet Daisy...as long as it takes...

The stork is flying!!

It looks like new families will be made for those with a LID between October 27th and November 1st of 2005. Yes, this marks only 6 days of referral matches...but hey, it's better than the 2 days at the beginning of the month! Congrats to all of the new families!!

Only 17 more months ahead of us.

Ouch...

Let the Wait Begin...

Our official LID is April 12, 2007!!

Now...the 30++ (??) month countdown begins???

D*T*C!!!

As of today, March 20th, we are officially DTC (dossier to China)! We received word this afternoon from Sara that our dossier was sent to China TODAY along with 3 other families. We should be getting information about the other families in the near future so we can get in contact with them prior to travel. In our case, maybe we can get together and commiserate over the wait. It is going to be a long, yucky 18+ month wait. Fortunately for us, we have 3 sweetie-pies at home to keep us occupied.

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Next stop...LID (log in date)...

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(Hopefully this will happen sooner than later!)

Drumroll please....

On Saturday, March 3rd (Grandma Sarg's 95th Birthday!) we received our final document back from the state of Wisconsin and shipped our whole entire dossier off to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. YIPEE! It is a bittersweet moment when that package leaves your hands and is put into the hands of a system (ie. the US Postal Service) that doesn't have a bit of emotional connection to its contents. I've seen the TV specials where postal people throw their postal bags into the ditch and their mail never gets delivered. Fortunately for us we DID have the envelope tracked and it was signed for on Monday morning around 11:00 at the Chinese Consulate. THANK GOODNESS! We should get that back by the end of the week and then we can meet with Sara to go through the final walk-through. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it will feel to get everything to China. Even though the wait is now 16 or 17 months (and climbing...), we still will be logged in and waiting. It will be a long, hard wait, but at least we know first hand about the miracle that awaits us in the end. How very appropriate that the end of our paperchase for Daisy is happening on the anniversary of Sofia's Gotcha Day! (2 years ago today!!)

I wonder when Daisy will be born???

And the winner is...

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We are very excited to have FINALLY come to a consensus on a name.

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We eagerly await the homecoming of our daughter/sister...

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DAISY MARGARET

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Named after my maternal Great-Grandma and Bob's Fraternal Grandma.

Cool, huh?

WOW!

Things seem to be moving so much more quickly this time around. This time I feel we are working against the clock because of the new regulations. Even though both my husband and my SW tell me that we will be FINE even if we, for some reason, DO NOT make the May 1st deadline for our LID, I still feel safer getting things in before D-day. I just want to play it safe. Within the last few weeks here is what has happened...adoption-wise:

• I got my physical (and a clean bill of health!!)
• Bob got his TB test and should be completely DONE with his medical exam
• Received a copy of the kids immunization records - will bring their paperwork to Dr. Ed tomorrow to be completed
• Bob and I both received the letters from our employers
• Finished the PILE of paperwork for our SW
• Police background checks came through clear (whew!) - These have to be re-written because of a problem with the notary...not a big deal, but still a pain
• We had our joint interview and I had my individual interview with Sara
• We received our fingerprint appointment date (Jan 25th! Yah!)
• Our home visit and Bob's individual interview with Sara is next Tuesday
• We've come to no concensus on a name...except for the fact that we CAN'T agree on anything!!! (If only Bob would see things MY WAY!!)

As I mentioned before, the process seems SOOO much easier this time around. Of course, I should probably shut my mouth...it isn't over yet...

Timeline to our Newest Lovey...

The Race for our LID begins!

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Thus far...

January - December 2006 - Spent time soul searching about taking the plunge again! The question was always "when"...it was never "if"!

November 28th - Decided it's a go! We're off! Call Sara for an application.

December 5th - Receive application in the mail. Immediately fill it out!

December 6th - Spill the beans to EVERYONE who will listen! Fam and Friends are SOOO excited!

December 8th - Our completed application is in the mail!

December 11th - Ordered birth certificates and marriage license.

December 13th - Talked to Sara; Scheduled 1st meeting for following Monday the 18th (my personal day)

December 18th - Met with Sara to get the skinny on what needs to be done (and redone! Grrrrrr...It's amazing how much needs to be repeated only 3 years after it was done for Sofia!!)

December 19th - Started to fill out the mountain of paperwork required for adoption from China. WOW! I had forgotten what was involved!

December 22nd - Bob had his physical. All is well except that he still needs to get his TB test done (in the near future) because the upcoming holiday weekend messes up the reading of the results.

December 20th - Filed the I-600 (Orphan Petition) - We are REALLY on our way! This is starting to get REAL!

December 28th - Received the reciept for our I-600 in the mail. It was logged in on December 22nd. I don't remember receiving this last time...we also will get fingerprinted BEFORE our homestudy is submitted this time. A definite change from last time. HOPEFULLY this will help to speed things up for us!

December 29th - Bob got our police background checks done at the Menasha PD. We are both clear! Yeah! - Have to be re-written because of problem with the notary

January 3rd - HAPPY NEW YEAR! Arranged our next 2 interviews with Sara. We will do our last joint interview and one single interview next Monday (8th); Our home visit and second individual interview will be on January 16th.

January 4th - My physical; Bring Sofia's adoption paperwork to clerk of courts to petition for finalization of her adoption (to be continued soon)

January 7th - Finish the PILE of paperwork required for International Adoption; Bob and I receive employment letters from our workplaces

January 8th - Joint and my individual interviews with Sara

January 9th - Bob gets his TB test

January 10th - Receive fingerprint appointments (YAH!) for January 25th

Just a few words from the peanut gallery...

Did I mention how excited we are??

Not too much to report. We are well into our dreaded paperchase. We got our birth certificates and marriage license, we got clean police background checks, Bob has had his physical (he has to get his TB test yet),I have my physical next Thursday, most of the paperwork for our agency has been filled out, our I-600 (orphan petition) is sent in...whew! I forgot how crazy this whole process is!

The news on the referral front is not very promising. Timelines continue to climb. By the time we are logged in we will probably be looking at a wait of about 2 years. We are, of course, hoping and praying that the pendulum will swing the other way during our wait and that we will be united with our daughter sooner than later.

The name situation is still up in the air! But we are considering all offers for naming rights and would probably yield to the highest bidder! (Just kidding of course...If only it were that easy! Bob and I might be in divorce court over the name before this whole thing is over!!)

The Countdown Begins...

On Friday, December 8th (I think) the CCAA met for their annual meeting where many new rules and regulations were added to the Chinese international adoption program. Apparently the Chinese program has become so popular with adopting families that they now are getting twice as many dossiers submitted as there are paper-ready babies. With that said, China is now becoming more stringent on their adoption criteria. The main areas that they are going to chang are with the singles adoption and there will also now be a weight requirement. As of May 1, 2007, single women will no longer be able to submit dossiers to China for adoption. I think this is so very, very sad for both potential mommies and babies. The new weight requirement states that all adoptive parents have a BMI of 40 or less. I guess that they are assuming that people above that level have a bigger chance of having serious health issues.

So what does this mean for us? Not too much. For starters, we hope to have our dossier submitted by April. We will definitely have our paperwork in on time, it is just a matter of how quick and efficient INS is with our fingerprint processing. It just stinks that we have to wait on something that is completely out of our control. If for some reason we don't make the May 1st cut-off we should still qualify under the new rules and regs.

Anyhoo, we meet with Sara on Monday to get our stuff rolling. I aleady ordered our birth certificates and marriage license...now we only need 10 or so more documents! Geesh...I forgot how much fun the paperchase is!!