One of Baby's first gifts

For lack of anything better to share with you, here's something that you may find interesting. You just have to love this book. I bought it many months ago for $5.00 brand new! What a deal. Anyway, it's all about a little panda bear named Ping-Ping who is searching for juicy bamboo to eat. Along the way she meets all kinds of little Asian friends, such as a red panda, a pika and some birds and butterflies. It's a pop up book and the pictures are just beautiful. It's so neat how it teaches kids about animals that live in Asia. I thought it was perfect for our little one.

That's all for now. I wish I could share some good news about referrals but it looks like it's going to be a long, long wait (as if it hasn't been already!). We'll keep you posted.

Fabric Find

Check it out! Can you believe this fabric? I came across it accidentally at Walmart yesterday. Really, I wasn't searching for Elvis fabric. Most of you are probably thinking, "okay, Karen, that's really ugly fabric" but for those of you who know Mike at all, you'll know what a huge Elvis fan he is. Sooooo. . . . even though he already has a piece of fabric picked out for the 100 Good Wishes Quilt, this one just has to be part of the quilt too.

File Review

Well, our file is out of the reviewing room. The CCAA has updated their website with the following:

"The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before September 30, 2005."

So since our file was registered with their office September 7, 2005, that means we passed! I guess that means we're one step closer. Our file will now go to the matching room where we will be matched with a little one. Unfortunately referrals aren't coming any faster so we are still many months away from seeing the face of our little one. But at least our file is moving.

Stay posted.

16 Months!?!?!?

Ok, we received another update from our agency just like we do every Friday. The news just keeps getting worse. Delays, delays, delays. The newsletter on Friday said, "the time lines are not expected to come down. In fact we feel it best to start to prepare for waits of up to 16 months to referral." Yikes! Our LID was September 7/05 so that puts us at January 2007. We were really hoping to have been to China and back again before Christmas this year. Now we may not even have the referral before that time. I guess the hardest part is that originally we were expecting our referral in February or March 2006 so we would be travelling right around now. As it sits now, it may be a year longer than originally thought.

Again, this is very frustrating. It's all in God's hands and we will continue to wait His timing.

Rumours, rumours, rumours

Ok, I'm not listening to any more rumours - good or bad. Over the past week or so, we had heard that the CCAA will possibly be sending referrals for everyone with LID's up to the end of June. That would mean that they are doing some major catching up which is a hopeful thought. Well, we found out on Friday that this is really not true. In fact the referrals that are being sent this time around are for less than a week's worth of LID's - only up to May 30. That is not very much at all. So, like I said, I'll try to ignore rumours from now on - it's hard not to get your hopes up though.

Anyway, the one good thing is that our file must be in the process of being reviewed. The CCAA has posted on their website that they have "finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before August 31, 2005." Our LID is Sept. 7 so we must be in the reviewing room. It really doesn't mean anything but I guess at least something is happening. One of the couples in our travel group got a call this week telling them that they had to send a letter to CCAA to clarify something that was in their file. So that must mean someone is reviewing our files.

I'll take whatever little bit of good news I can get - as long as it's fact and not rumour!

Do you see our file anywhere?

I came across some photos from the CCAC (China Centre of Adoption Affairs) and thought I'd post them. I find it kind of interesting. If you're interested in seeing more pictures and reading more about the process that our files goes through at the CCAC, go to http://www.faithadopt.org/home/ccaa/

Family Picture

I wanted to post a family picture on the main page of our blog but I wasn't sure how to do it - this will have to do for now until I figure it out.

More Delays

We found out today through the Children's Bridge weekly newsletter that our referral will now take about 10 – 12 months from our LID of Sept 7. That puts us at traveling in Fall or Winter 2006. This is another huge disappointment but we have to continue to be patient and see what happens.

China Babies

Friends of ours let us borrow some traditional Chinese clothing for our kids. Victoria and Austin loved them and we think they look pretty cute!

Delay

We had heard rumours over the past few weeks but got word from Children's Bridge today that we can probably expect a delay in getting our referral. Here's what Children's Bridge wrote to us: "there is an indication that time lines will start to stretch out in the CCAA’S New Year. They are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the growing demands of international adoption. Trying to match files in a six - seven month period is no longer feasible. I do think waiting families should start to prepare for a bit longer wait, perhaps nine (9) months to referral in 2006."

This is rather disappointing for us as we were sort of counting on traveling sometime in May 2006. Now we may not receive our referral until June 2006 and travel in August 2006. We know there is a specific child out there that God has already chosen for our family so we will continue to pray for patience.

If it's a girl . . .

. . . she'll share the Dora room with Victoria.

If it's a boy . . .

. . . he'll share the Nemo room with Austin.

LID (log in date)

We received our LID (log in date) this morning from Children's Bridge - it is September 7. This means that our file was registered with the CCAA (China Centre of Adoption Affairs) on September 7. So basically we're still on track with our timing and we predict getting our referral around March and travelling around May. This is probably the last we hear about anything until our referral comes.

Bai Jia Bei (100 Good Wishes Quilt)

Dear Family and Friends,

As we’ve been reading and studying a little bit about China and Chinese culture we came across an interesting tradition from the northern part of china. When welcoming and celebrating a new life, family and friends are called to put together a “Bai Jia Bei” or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. The quilt maker invites 100 people to contribute a single square or patch of fabric to be included in the quilt. Often times the squares would come from the fabric of their worn clothing and it is said that the luck, energy, and good wishes of the people who wore these clothes now surrounds the child when he/she is wrapped in the quilt. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. We think this is a great tradition and would like to make a Bai Jia Bei for our little one from China; however, for us it would represent the love, support and prayers of our family and friends. The squares do not need to be from old clothing but can be scraps or newly purchased material – something that either has special meaning to you or just something you like. We would love to have as many of you as possible contribute a square to our quilt if you are able. If your children would like to contribute their own squares and blessings and wishes, that’s great too. We think it will be a beautiful treasure and keepsake for our little one.

If you are interested, here’s what we would need:

1. One 7” x 7” square of 100% cotton material (washed and ironed before cutting the square to allow for shrinkage).

2. Along with your quilt square please include a “wish” which could be a prayer, poem, thoughtful quote, Bible verse, original thought, or whatever you choose on a piece of paper along with your name.

3. On this piece of paper with the wish and your name, paste a small square of the fabric (can be about 1” x 1”) that you’re sending for the quilt. This small swatch will help us to identify your fabric within the quilt. The piece of paper can be as simple or as fancy as you’d like to make it and will be kept in a scrapbook for our little one to read. We know that he/she will love to read the blessings from each of you and find the fabric you’ve contributed within the quilt. If the fabric has special meaning to you, please include that information on the paper as well.

You can either give the fabric and paper to us personally or put it in the mail. Your help will make this a wonderful keepsake. Thank you so much.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email.

Love Mike, Karen, Victoria and Austin Carmody

Group 244 - Dinner at The Mandarin

Today group 244 met for dinner at The Mandarin in Toronto. There were nine families represented. This picture was taken by one of the servers.

After talking through email it was nice to finally meet some of the other families face to face and share our experiences so far. We plan to get together again sometime soon and hopefully some more families will be able to make it.

BBQ Fundraiser

A few of our friends and family members helped us organize a BBQ fundraiser to help us with some of the adoption costs. There were lots of games and activities for everyone of all ages. It was a huge success and everyone seemed to have a great time. There were over 100 people there including the kids. We really appreciate the fact that so many people came out to show us their support. Above are a few pictures from the BBQ.

Group 244 is born

Our file has been sent to China and we have been given our group number - #244. Our group is a big one - 18 families altogether!

What is a group you ask? Children's Bridge puts together a group of files that go to China for approval and matching up with children. These are the families we will travel to China with to bring home our children.

Today in the mail we received a list of the other members in our group and have already been in contact with some of them by email. It will be nice to be able to keep in touch and get to know each other a bit before we spend time in China together. Most of the families are from Ontario but there are a few from New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Unfortunately we won't be able to meet some of these families until we travel.

Those of us who are in the area are planning on getting together for dinner in the near future.

August 9th, 2005 -- Ministry Approval!!!

Today we received a phone call from Jenna at Children's Bridge, letting us know that the Ontario Government has approved us for adoption.

Our file was sent to Children's Bridge on June 27th, and from there was sent to the Ontario Government. We received approval in just under six weeks....which is quick.

Over these past few weeks our birth certificate and marriage certificate were notarized and our file was translated into Mandarin.

All that needs to happen now is for our approval to be translated and then the entire file to be sent to China. Children's Bridge will take care of all this for us.

March 2 - June 16, 2005 -- Homestudy

Our homestudy was completed in just over three months. During this time we met with Donna, our adoption practitioner (social worker) four times. Basically her role was to ensure we were acceptable applicants for adoption, as well as ensure our home would be a safe place for our adopted child. Donna was able to answer all our questions as well as give us great insight and advice. She is awesome!

We also had medicals completed, police checks, RCMP clearances, passports updated and tons of other miscellaneous paperwork.