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Wow, who would have thought you'd be reading my blog and would listen to little ol me? I woke up this morning and saw that you had updated your website just as I had requested. AND you matched more than just a week. You matched 18 days worth of LID's. That's actually way more than I even expected. It's been a long time since that many days have been matched in one month. Hooray CCAA - keep up the hard work.Oh, and one more request . . . . do you think you could match 29 days next month so that Sept. 7 is included in referrals? You'd make our family so very happy - then we'd get to see our little one's face for the first time and no more waiting. Thanks.
It's Sunday night and I just want you to know that I'll be going to bed soon. I know you are 12 hours ahead of us and that means you are just starting your work day. As I sleep, please continue to work on that pile of dossiers. I'd love to wake up to some really, really good news. Perhaps referrals for at least two weeks worth of LID's (I'm not really asking for that much). Please put smiles on the faces of all of us Mommy's and Daddy's in waiting. I will be checking your website soon after I awaken in the morning so I would appreciate it if you could please update it so we can celebrate some good news. Thank you. :)
Not just one . . .
TWO!!!!! Check it out. That has to be a good sign.
I know nobody wants to hear about another ladybug sighting but I have to share this one. My mother-in-law came to stay with us for a few days and surprised me with a charm for my italian charm bracelet. It's a ladybug! Thanks Peggy. It's so cute - I just love it. So technically that's the third ladybug I've seen in the last week or so. That's gotta mean something.
CCAA should be letting us know about referrals for this month in the next week or so. Let's hope they at least finish all of July and perhaps even get partway into August. We're starting to exercise our fingers so they'll be in shape to cross off all those days on our countdown calendar. I'll keep you posted. :)
Can you believe it? I spotted a ladybug! Does that mean our referral is coming soon? That's what it means doesn't it?
Ok, ok . . . the ladybug I spotted was on these funky cool napkins my mom gave me today. She saw them at a store and just had to get them for me. Neat eh? They're the kind of napkins though that are so cute you almost don't want to use them. Perhaps they should be saved for a referral party. Come on CCAA - bring on those referrals!!!
. . . our file was logged in at the CCAA.
Wow! At the beginning of this journey we didn't think we'd be celebrating such a day. A 12-month anniversary of being logged in didn't even exist. We thought we'd be to China and back for a few months already at this point. Anyway, things change and here we are. We're a lot closer than we were a year ago and that's the only way to look at it.
Our agency is telling us that the wait may increase to 16 - 18 months from LID. So if that's the case, we may not get to see our little one's face until January or March. That will be two whole years since we began this whole process. I know it will all be worth it in the end. We have been so blessed over the past year (and more) by the support of family and friends. We know there are so many people out there praying for us and our little one. Also getting to know our travel group (Group #244) has been amazing and a great support as we encourage each other and go through each step together. Thank you everyone!
Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we come closer to the day we see the face of our little one for the first time and then eventually hold him/her in our arms.
A couple at church surprised us on Sunday with this great book. It will be an awesome way to help explain to our little one how he/she came to be part of our family and how he/she grew in our hearts before we even met him/her.
Here's what the publisher says about the book:
"Based on the author's own experience, this heartfelt story follows a woman on her journey to China to adopt a baby girl from China. From paperwork to plane flight, the narrative chronicles the baby's trip from a crib in a big room shared with many other babies to her own crib in her own room in her new home."
What a thoughtful gift! Thank you Steve and Agnes!
Well it's not exactly official until the CCAA updates their website but the word out there is that referrals this month are only including LID's up to July 22. That's only nine days covered this month. It's quite disappointing that it's taking forever to get through July but again, there's nothing we can do about it. Every Friday we receive a weekly update from our agency. Often there's really not a lot of news in it, especially lately with all the delays in referral times. However, this week I really appreciated one of the paragraphs. Here's what it said: "To be certain, extended timelines and changes to adoption program requirements can be very stressful for families. We all sometimes need to be reminded that international adoption is about providing families for children, not finding children for families. When children are unable to remain in their birth families or to be adopted domestically, international adoption provides a final option for children to be placed with a family. As an agency, our goal is to “make families happen for children”. "I thought this was a great reminder for everyone - especially myself - to keep focused on the real reason international adoption even exists. It's all about the children. We are blessed to be able to provide a loving home for these children and whatever the time frame is, so be it.
I've been waiting and waiting to post this because technically it's not official until the CCAA posts it on their website; however, that doesn't seem to be happening. I suppose with the CCAA moving their office, perhaps they don't have all their computers up and running - we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. So here it is anyway. The CCAA has sent referrals this month for people with LID's up to July 13. We were hoping it was going to be the whole month of July. Now it looks as if they're only sending out two weeks at a time. If that's the case, we can expect our referral in November with travel in January. Too bad - we were totally hoping to have our little one in our arms before Christmas but that may not be the case. I suppose we can still hope and pray that it happens sooner but it doesn't look like it. Anyways, that's the news for now - we'll keep you posted.
Ok, here is some more material we've received for the quilt. I am still waiting for just a few more squares and then the real sewing can begin. I have most of the pieces that go in between the squares cut out too and I actually have started sewing a little bit. I don't want to do too much until I have all the pieces so I can lay them all out and see the final outcome. That way I can still move things around so it's just right. To tell the truth, I've been a little attached to the computer the last few days. I am anxiously waiting to see how many referrals the CCAA will be sending out this month. We usually find out around this time of the month. I think this month will tell us a lot about the timing of our referral. If the CCAA sends out referrals for the whole month of July, that means the wait is still at 12 months and there's hope that we'll get our referral perhaps in September and travel in November/December. So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We'll keep you posted.
Victoria, Austin and I have created a countdown calendar. Out came the scissors, glue, markers and rubber stamps. Victoria wrote out the months and they both decorated them with stamps. It's hanging where we can see it all the time and can cross off the days with x's.
Ok, here's how it works. There's a calendar for June, July, August and September 2005. We're counting down LID's (log in dates) until the CCAA (China Centre of Adoption Affairs) gets to ours, which is September 7, 2005. For example, in the month of May the CCAA sent out referrals for all the families who were logged in between June 7 -15, 2005. So those are the days we crossed off. Then just last week the CCAA sent out referrals for all those families who were logged in June 16 - 28, 2005 so those days were crossed off. It's usually near the end of the month when we hear from the CCAA about how many days worth of LID's they'll be sending referrals for. So we shall wait until the end of July to cross of some more days - hopefully a whole month's worth! (that's the rumour anyway.)
Someone (not mentioning any names) really, really wanted me to post this picture. It's a very adorable backpack given to us for our little one from China. Isn't it the cutest thing ever? Dora would be so jealous! Thanks Aunt Deese - I'm sure she'll love it.
The CCAA has updated their website:
"The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before June 28, 2005." Ok, this means that this time around the CCAA sent referrals for two weeks worth of LID's. Still not great but a lot better than just five days as it has been in the recent past. Does this perhaps mean they're picking up the pace? Doubt it - but we can always hope! :) So, if they keep the pace of sending two weeks at a time, we can expect our referral in November and perhaps travel in January 2007. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they at least keep sending two weeks at a time - if not more.
Ok, this post is a little late but better late than never. We had our pre-travel seminar for our trip to China last Saturday (June 3). It was quite informative and a little overwhelming at times. We learned quite a bit. Being there made this whole journey real for us again. We were in a bit of a lull with the timelines getting longer and longer. Now it's so real again and we just want to go NOW! Unfortunately we still have a long wait ahead of us . . . but we'll try not to think about that.
It's funny because so many people (especially at this seminar) said to us "this is all old hat for you guys since you have your own kids already." Well, adopting and having your own biological children is so different. For one thing, I've never done the bottle thing before. My kids went right from breastfeeding to the sippy cup at 6 months or so. Our kids also are, and always have been, really good sleepers. We may be in for a huge shock when it comes to sleep issues. Yikes! And of course there are so many other things, such as attachment issues, that we've never had to deal with. There are so many unknowns but we're so very excited and our referral can't come soon enough!
Anyway, after the seminar, our travel group (#244) went out for dinner to Le Bifteque in Etobicoke. It was really nice. It's always good to see eachother because it pumps us up and keeps us going through this long waiting period. Here are some pictures of our group at dinner.
