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| DECEMBER 2007
A little early for
an entry but.....
Since
our referral, my time has been spent getting all of our
ducks in row. We immediately resubmitted our LOI, now we
wait for LOA. (as of this writing, we are 38 days and
counting) And we are finished with our homestudy update
with our new homestudy agency whom we HIGHLY recommend
if you are in the area. There are several interesting
items on Ellery's referral page like albinism info, care
packages we've sent, her SWI and etc. We are gearing up
for a simple Christmas. I'm bummed that we will be
celebrating with one of our children missing but I've
put photos of her everywhere and special touches on the
tree and hung her stocking up as well. Hopefully we'll
travel in early January, so by the day of Christmas,
we'll have travel approval (TA) and maybe even the date
of our consulate appointment (CA) to help us through.
Supposedly we may have updated photos as well...maybe.
New pics
of Ellery!! Dec 13th and LOA!! Dec 14 Whoo hoo!!! |
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NOVEMBER 5th 2007
SHE'S HERE!!!! YAY!!
HURRAY!!!
Woohoo!! The day has finally arrived!! Our agency got
their waiting list. Interestingly, the baby that Joe and
I fell in love with, did not have a cleft as we had
expect or asked for. We fell in love with a baby girl
named Hu Ruxue with albinism. That's right! She is an
albino, which simply means her skin doesn't have
pigments. She has lovely milk white skin and frosty
blonde hair. Her eyes are a light reddish lavender from
the lighting in the photos we have so far. She is
currently 17months old (which is disappointing for me,
because I wanted to snuggle a widdle baby, but I'll live
because I'm in love!) We HOPE to travel during or before
Christmas but that might be a long shot. Please click
referral above for a photo of this beautiful new
addition to our family!! |
    
| OCTOBER 2007
INTERESTINGLY....OCTOBER REFERRALS CAME AND WENT?
Ok.
So a few days before the referrals were supposed to come
out, the director of our agency calls and says he has
"good news" I was BESIDE myself with excitement! Then he
proceeds to tell me that we are unable to be matched by
CCAA, we have to choose from a list. A rule that had
been changed by CCAA back in April and I knew about the
change through online friends but our agency kept saying
"they knew otherwise" UGH! so anyway, long story short,
we had to wait for our agency to send back the current
list and CCAA to come back from vacation (Oct 8th) and
put together another list and send it to our agency in
late Oct. Supposedly it will contain a baby
"specifically requested" for us. I'm so done with
this runaround. I just want to see her face, fly to her
country, hold her in my arms and bring her HOME!!!!
In other
news, there really is not much. We went to Asheville, NC
to tour the Biltmore Mansion for our mini-trip on fall
break. We stayed in a very nice cabin in the mountains,
with a lovely view. The kids are back in school and
doing great. |
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SEPTEMBER 2007
Good news, but not
*that* good news you were waiting for.
I cried my eyes out because we didn't get our referral
last month....shocker. And then I became angry at the
sheer lack of info from our agency so I emailed the
director again (who was in China at the time) and he
made some calls. Long story short, we are APPROVED!
FINALLY! and we will get our referral this month!!
Meaning October 2-3 whenever they arrive this time! I'm
so excited, a little nervous, because I've been let down
so many times but still filled with hope! |
| AUGUST 2007
SO THIS *COULD* BE
THE MONTH....AGAIN..
yah, and
monkeys might fly outta my...well anyway, we got a call
from Gina at the agency a week ago saying that the
director was in China and he was pulling on our behalf
and was 98% sure we would be approved unscathed....and
the next word we would hear would be referral, which
could be in days or another month. Wow, such precise
predictions, thanks for that. So we are fast coming up
on the days when referral calls are heard around the
world and I'm refreshing the rumor site like a crazy
person. If ours doesn't come this month, I just don't
know how I'm going to make it to next month. I've
already figured out that I'll need to buy Ellery a warm
wardrobe, all she has are summer clothes so far since
we've been waiting since spring. I guess a little
shopping will take my mind off the waiting!
Maureen
is on the local swimming league, Connor is doing some
volunteer work at the Humane Society and we are keeping
very busy. But, of course, in the back of my mind, I
wish I was sharing all this with a little cranky,
drooling, ankle biter. Fingers crossed!!!! |
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JULY 2007
Tragedy yet
again, why, oh why, do I get my hopes up?
Here I sit, glued to my computer for six to eight
business days in the beginning of July, refreshing the
rumor site like a fiend waiting for referrals, because
DUH! we are supposed to be NEXT, RIGHT?!
Wrong.
I got a call from our agency that we are just now in
review and CCAA needs a couple more documents. These
need to be notarized and of course the individuals from
which I'm to acquire these documents.....are on
vacation. ACK! I'm going gray with stress. Why can't
this be easy? I just want to step on a plane, fly to a
beautiful foreign land and hold my newest daughter and
complete our family....is that so hard?
As of the
evening of July 10, we have the documents, Joe will
overnight them tomorrow to the agency for translation
and they will be sent to China, then we will be sent to
the matching room.....then, and only then, can we expect
a referral. |
| JUNE 2007
CREEEPING TOWARD
EXCITEMENT......
So, we took
our house off the market because it wouldn't sell when
"we" wanted it to. We decided that we are going to stay
here until Maureen is out of her school and Connor will
be fine at his school. I'm stalking the adoption rumor
site like a mad woman. Supposedly it could be any time
in the next three weeks. I'm so busy with organizing.
Trying to get all the stuff out of storage and back into
the house now that we are not moving is such a treat,
let me tell you. The kids are helping out a lot but
everyone will be a lot happier when we get to see the
sweet face of the person we are doing all this for! I
made it through ONE more week without calling the
adoption agency and hounding for info that doesn't
exist. I'm so proud of myself. Can I be any more of a
lunatic???
My
birthday is coming up and I've made it known that I want
a trip to China and don't bother getting me anything
else! Until next time, all you waiting fans.... |
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MAY 2007
OK so there have
been no updates for you one or two avid readers.
That would be primarily due to the fact that there have
been no important developments in our adoption
journey....or should I say there have been no good ones
:)
Here's everything that's going on in a nutshell.
1)
We've
put our house on the market, hoping to move before going
to China. We want to move because we want Connor to go
to a better school and were unable to get rezoned for
it.
2)
We updated our fingerprints and
everything went according to planned with that.
3) The
kids are out of school but we are not planning anything
great because we are hoping to SELL this house and move.
4) According to my calculations <insert
insane adoptive waiting parent laughter here> we should
be getting our referral around the first of July....but
you know how that goes.
5)
Maureen started horseback riding lessons which she
really likes.
6) Joe
has been softening up about another adoption...so I'm
starting to wear him down already :) But I think this
time it will be from a different country, possibly
Vietnam. Ironically, we chose China because of the
stability of the program....insert that maniacal
laughter again.
So theoretically, this may be the last update until
referral....um right. |
| MAR 2007
TO KNOW GNUS IS
GOOD NEWS IS NO NEWS......
What!?!?
well here's the deal, I pestered our agency til they got
annoyed and checked our status. Come to find out, there
was a mix-up with our dossier, we were not expedited as
requested. We were placed in the wrong pile, NSN. Our
director has been trying and trying to call CCAA
non-stop since and had no luck. Right now our best case
scenario might be to request a waiting child and wait
for that list to arrive, which would mean us traveling
in late summer to fall, or just wait to be referred a
NSN baby in summer 08. Either way, I'm pretty devastated
(altho I'm finally over the crying stage). Our director
is may have more news soon.
Turns out
our file was lost & is now in the expedited pile, we are
in the review room and will stay there until we are sent
to the matching room. Referral will come right after
that....no guess on time frame but I'm saying two more
months maybe three....
We have
to update our fingerprints, oh goodie. Plus some other
parts of our dossier. That will be thrilling. |
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| FEB 2007
Happy
CHINESE New Year Everyone!!
I suppose it would be even happier if I was spending it
with my daughter in China....but there you go. The
updates are few and far between these days. Not much to
report. I supposedly could find out our status this week
but I'm not holding my breath because the CCAA basically
shuts down for CNY, like our government offices do for
Christmas. So, there's not much info coming across the
ocean for a few weeks at least. One of my fellow
adoption stalkers was supposed to get her referral in
January and she did not... her LID was May.....always SN
like us. What that means for us is that we may not be on
for a March referral if the May folks still haven't
gotten theirs. (Remember our LID is July 24th)
I
signed up to walk a half marathon....I know, scary.
I've started really getting our packing stuff together
and organized. We set up the crib in our room and added
the rocker and tried to make her little "area" before
she moves into her big girl bed in Maureen's room.
Connor is having some tough times at school. I read a
sign that said "RAISING A TEENAGER IS LIKE NAILING JELLO
TO A TREE" Wow, how true. |
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JAN 2007
Happy New Year Everyone!!
Not much exciting stuff to report this week. Daddy
did have his wisdom teeth out but boy it was not a good experience.
He has been in pain ever since. He is now packing them with clove
stuff and trying to suffer through. He is pretty pitiful. We had a
good holiday and the kids are back in school. Which is kinda nice,
haha! Our Scottish friends have returned from their trip and we are
so glad to have them home.
I redesigned this
site because I needed to focus on something FOR Ellery instead of
focusing ON Ellery, hahahh, I just keep obsessing that I want her
HOME and we missed her first Christmas and that I want to make sure
she is getting good care, sigh, I just want to hold her. I've almost
finished her photo book, been knitting for her like crazy, been
gathering stuff for our trip like dri-fit clothing and suitcases and
travel stuff. Hopefully we will get her referral in March...of
course, I've been saying the word "hopefully" in context with a
timeframe for a looooong time. ARGH.
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