Emily sings

Emily is 6 and was asked to sing at her schools 4th and 5th grade chorus production. The only 1st grader to sing! The video quality is horrible so please excuse that! I just sat through the whole thing and cried.

THREE MONTH LID ANNIVERSARY and ramblings

Another month down, I guess a baby step closer.

We got an a website post for our agency in regards to new restrictions/changes coming from China. Supposedly, we will be grandfathered in. The only one I'm worried about is weight if we are not grandfathered in. Well time to get motivated. I need to move it and loose it. So of course, after the holidays, ha ha....My new years resolution will be...yes..the one I have every year...to loose some weight.

You might ask why wait....well the Christmas tree... (Yes I know I'm Jewish -- but we celebrate Christmas because Bill is catholic and Emily still believes in Santa. She is just so cute about it. I cannot break her dreams yet. When I was a kid, I wanted to believe in Santa. I could never understand why Santa didn't come to our house. I do think next year we will only celebrate Hanukkah as it is getting too expensive to do both!) back to the tree..

The christmas tree is occupying the space where the treadmill was....so conveniently I have to wait....

Oh yeah, the wait will not shorten per China....they won't state how long it will get. Just wonderful........

What Tarot Card Are You?

Something to do to past the time. I cannot talk about the adoption since jack squat is happening so I will focus on fun, non nonsense type stuff.....

It says "Everything Goes My Way" -- yeah right -- it forgot I married a polish guy!

You are The Sun

Happiness, Content, Joy.

The meanings for the Sun are fairly simple and consistent.

Young, healthy, new, fresh. The brain is working, things that were muddled come clear, everything falls into place, and everything seems to go your way.

The Sun is ruled by the Sun, of course. This is the light that comes after the long dark night, Apollo to the Moon's Diana. A positive card, it promises you your day in the sun. Glory, gain, triumph, pleasure, truth, success. As the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious, from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully consciousness and wide awake. You have an understanding and enjoyment of science and math, beautifully constructed music, carefully reasoned philosophy. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

How I feel....

In regards to the China adoption, this is how I feel right now....

enough said.

I know it will get better....

Ok I guess I will post the disappointing referrals

They have referred up to to and including Sept 8th 2005.

Yes I'm happy for the new parents that have been waiting over 15 months for this to occur.

But it still rots...[I'm tempering what I really want to say because I know my parents read this blog].

There was a rumor about a large batch, all of September 2005 or at least most. This was very disappointing.

The writing is on the wall that this will be a very long wait. I was hoping at least to be in China by January 2008. Well, it is very doubtful that will happen unless China starts referring whole months at time instead of 10-14 days.

I also just read about family who switch to Vietnam in June (they were LID in March) and are now traveling to pick up their twin daughters. Oh so very tempting but knowing my luck it wouldn't work that way for us. Plus we are with a China Only agency so we would be out some big bucks. Also my gut still tells me China is it.......

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM

ah I feel better.....

now back to work.

jen

Something I will admit.....

I'm nervous about this adoption. Ok I said it. Does it make me a bad person?

Here is what I'm nervous about:

1) Emily (our bio dd) -- how will she adapt? She is very spoiled yet well behaved. She has had us to herself for 6 years. She is very much the center of our universe. That's not her fault --- we did it. I know kids adapt, but I'm still concerned. We have involved in the process of adoption since day 1. I hope that helps. She will be coming to China with us.

2) Me -- I had a hard time adapting to Emily. I had post partum depression for about 6 weeks after Emily was born. I was never on any medication. I worry if I get overwhelmed again, will this come back in the form of post-adoption depression. Yes there is such a thing. I'm worried about this. The first 6 weeks of Emily's life wasn't very pretty for me.

3) The new baby -- will he or she attach to us? how much grieving will they go through? Everything for the baby will changing. I love this baby now even though I don't even know if he or she has been conceived yet. Will this baby grow to love us? How much time do I take off from work? I'm allowed up to 6 months (3 months paid, 3 months unpaid). I have had people poo poo the attachment process and say not to worry then others say it is a big deal.

The one thing I'm not nervous about is Bill. He will be the rock throughout this whole process.

I have a lot of questions -some with answers some without.

TWO month LID Anniversay

I know I'm a bit early by two days but I'm not sure I will be able to post on Saturday. It is amazing how my optimism fades right after the referrals are released. I was really optimistic last week. Now it is in the toilet. RQ (The Rumor Queen) is posting that agencies are now telling people that it is a two year wait. Yes, I can see how easily it will become this. It is already at 15 months. 15-18 months is hard to swallow yet alone a possibility of 2 years. Some say the 2 year wait is NOT the worse case scenerio. I guess we have to try to live life as it is and not focus on this. But is very hard waiting.

Have a great weekend!

Jen

Next Referrals Are Here

Yeah! What does this mean for us.....well most of these people waited 14 months 3 weeks. This will put us with a picture in Nov/Dec 2007 timeframe. I will be watching the next months to see where this puts us.

The Pain.....

I don't know why I feel the need to bring this up but I do....

Most people don't understand the pain of infertility. To have it paired with the pain of miscarriage makes the infertility journey so much worse. When couples say that we are going to have a baby, most succeed with no problems. It seems like it is our right to multiply -- it was what God wanted us to do. Most take reproduction for granted. Most insurance companies doesn't even cover treatment. It is only mandated in 13 states to cover infertility treatments. They don't see it as a disease or problem. Bill and I were lucky -- we had it partially covered when we conceived Emily. Our last set of treatments, were fully covered. The firm I work for provides infertility coverage. This is such a great benefit that each year, I voice my concern to our benefits group to make sure that this covereage is still there even though Bill and I might not ever use it. I feel that I need to speak up for the those who might need this benefit in the future. Infertlity treatments is not easy, emotionally and physically. I actually think emotionally it is worse than any of the real treatment, at least for me. It is awful cycle that you go through each month: starts with the drugs, then the tests (bloodwoork, ultrasounds) to make sure the drugs are working, then the actual transfer, then the 2 week wait of hoping and praying only leading to disapppoint and pain. Then the cycle starts again.

Even though Bill and I are no longer seeking treatment to conceive, there is still pain there. It has lessened over time.

I didn't understand the pain of miscarriage until we expereinced it. I say we because Bill did experience the pain as well -- he didn't have the physical pain but I know emotionally he hurt just as much as I did. What also hurts is that no one acknowledges this baby we lost, it just a forgotten memory for most. I guess what counts is that I do remember. This pain has lessened as well but it is different. When I think about the miscarriages I can cry all over again like it just happened yesterday.

These experiences have taught me that when we finally have our baby from China, we will be the lucky ones as he/she will make us complete as a family. I just hope that this child will grow to love us as much as I already love him or her.

In a way I am grateful for these experiences as I know what a miracle it is to have a baby. I am also grateful that these experiences have led us down to this path of adoption.

Things to work on.....

I have list of things that I need to work on. However, have yet to get motivated. This is how I see us.....fast forward 12 months or so.... [yes, I'm being positive about the wait ] We still don't have the baby's room done, we are rushing around trying to get things done.... You might wonder why I think this way, well with Emily, it was done like this:

Bill and I were living in the basement of his parents house. We decided to move in to help out his mom and dad. His mom had breast cancer that went to the bone and was fighting a tough battle. They would loose the house if we didn't move in. So the plan was that we would remodel the downstairs and make it an inlaw suite complete with kitchen, living room, bathroom and 2 bedrooms. They would move downstairs and we would move upstairs. Well....7 months into pregnancy, nothing was complete yet. We painted Emily's room when I was 8 months pregnant. Everything was such a rush.

Now that we have all the time to prepare for number 2, you would think it would get done.

The baby's room is currently our office and junk room. In order to clean out the junk, I need to clean out our large hallway closet. This is where most of the junk needs to go... The office is going into a corner of Emily's playroom. Yes this child has a playroom all her own but a word for the wise....it doesn't work. She drags all her toys out to the living room to play and then leaves them there until I yell for cleanup. Then she drags them to her playroom -- everything just thrown in -- until I yell for cleanup. The office in Emily's playroom will be wireless so we can be on both the pc and laptop at the same time.

The baby's room has yucky paneling on the walls (and no drywall behind them)..So we have to tear the paneling down, dry wall, paint, carpet and decorate. At the same time this is done, the hall way which still has yucky paneling up will get the same tear down and drywall/paint action. These are the last two areas of the house that have the yucky paneling up. We have taken all of it down.

As far as the theme for the baby's room, it will more than likely be generic for either a boy or girl. I have found a cute alphabet/jungle animal pattern that will work for a boy or girl. Although, I have dreams of Bill repainting the room upon referral if it is boy so he can have his sports related nursery -- like the Georgia Bulldogs or NY Jets..... He says he isn't going to do this but.....I think he will.

Referrals for the next group should be coming soon......I hope and pray it is large.

Jen

One Month LID Anniversary!

Very excited to have one month behind us. Only 23 more to go....hopefully just kidding.

I keep praying that we will be in China by Christmas 2007.

Infertility is Just One Big IF statement

I'm getting a lot of "now that you have decided to adopt, you will get pregnant" speeches. I guess that is better than "if you move to Floor XX at work you will get pregnant" -- everyone at work on the floor seems to have no trouble in that department.

We have done nothing to prevent a pregnancy for years now and based off our last rounds of infertilty treatment, most of the infertility problems are now on my side rather than Bill's (although he still has issues -- they are just more known). That's not to even mention the miscarriages.

Why don't people understand that I'm happy about adopting. Getting pregnant is not something I want right now. Sure if by some miracle if I got pregnant, and if I was able to manage to stay pregnant, I would be estatic. That would be one big IF. Funny how the word "IF" is the abbreviation for Infertility on the boards on the internet. Sort of fitting if you think about. Infertility is just one big IF statement. I think the one word I constantly heard from doctors was IF....

• If this works...
• If you lost weight...
• If we remove the fibroid...
• If you do this treatment...

I have definitely moved past wanting a pregnancy. I dream about a little baby with asian features. I really believe we are meant to go down this path rather than the have another biological child.

Our next baby will not be an IF statement, it will happen...it is just a matter of WHEN.

The matching room

I came across this website that talks about the matching room and how matches are made.
see http://www.wesselsworld.nl/ccaa.htm

Referrals Are Here.....

CCAA has issued referral up to and including August 9th, 2005.

They did 18 days of LIDs. Which I guess is better than before, however, I have heard that there were less dossiers during this time frame. I'm going to look at the positive spin on this -- they did 18 days. Still....the wait....

I feel like I have been waiting for years. We tried several years of infertility treatments. So I guess it feels like we have been waiting forever.

If the wait is 13-14 months -- this will mean a referral in October/November with travel in Dec 2007/Jan 2008. This means our little one is probably not born yet. Bill thinks we will be celebrating Christmas/Hanukkah in China in 2007. I hope he is right.

Jen

Here is my one miracle

I have talked alot about adopting a baby. But I cannot forget, my one true miracle, Emily. Emily was conceived almost 7 years ago. We went through infertility treatments to have her. In fact her conception was 9/15/1999. We found out a month later while we were on a cruise that we were pregnant. I packed pregnancy tests with me. I remember waking up Bill at 4 in the morning because I had to pee and it was time to test. We had such a faint positive that it was hard to see. I only packed 2 tests and this was a 7 day cruise. 2 days later we took another test, positive. We had a hard time believing it was true. Once we were back in the USA -- we ran to Walgreens in New Orleans (where we flew into) and took another test. Positive. Emily was born the following June. She was not a very lovey baby. Didn't like to be held. She did love to swing though. Never napped.

6 years later --- she is smart as a whip. Reads voraciously. What is so great about her is that she is a good person inside and has a great heart. (I know Mommy is prejudice).

Here she is.....

Reasons Why Adoption is Better Than Infertility Treatments

One of my fellow bloggers posted Why Adoption is better than Pregnancy. Here is my spin.....

Why Adoption is Better than Infertility Treatments

10. No more buying those damn ovulation kits and pregnancy tests. I probably could have financed this adoption with the amount of dollars I invested in these kits.

9. No more bruises on the legs. They looked like I was a drug user.

8. No More Infertility Drugs. Another waste of money!

7. No More Unconfortable Legs in Stirrups every month. Nothing is worse than having an exam when you have your period. It is disgusting!

6. For my husband -- No More "Donations" at the Clinic. I'm sure that this was not his most favorite thing to do.

5. No More mood swings -- see #7. ah but in my case, mood swings are still there

4. No more dr. appt's. Even with insurance covering most of our treatment, I had to pay a co-pay each time we went. Again, we could have financed our adoption with this money we wasted.

3. No more dr's telling us well it could be this, it could be that. We just don't know.

2. No more timed sex. Nothing is worse than sex when you have the flu or you are sick but you cannot let this key moment go by without trying.

1. Best thing -- We KNOW that there will be a baby at the end of this LONG journey. Infertility treatments to me was hopeless.

Jen

We got a LID ----9/11

9/11 for us will be a mixture of sadness (for all those who lost their lives) and joy.

We have been assigned a date 0f 9/11/2006. Currently the wait is 14 months. So that will give us a referral in November 2007. Travel would be January 2008.

Let's hope China speeds things up!

Jen

Remembering 9/11

I can hardly believe it has been 5 years. Time certainly does go by fast. Remind me I just said that when I'm complaining about the China wait. I remember vividly where I was. We were having a training class for our desktop upgrade. We had classes going on. Then news started to spread. They had TV's turned on in one of our conference rooms. We saw the towers go down. At that point, Atlanta was shutting down. I work one of the tallest buildings in Atlanta (it might be the tallest). 55 stories high. I work on the 48th floor. Everyone was really nervous that something might happen here so we were closed for that day and the next. I think our eyes were all glued to the tv for the next coming weeks. Immediately following, we had building drill to test if we could walk down. It was very hard. Legs were jello by the time I got down.

Please say a prayer for the families of the victims of 9/11 and our soldiers in the Middle East.

Jen

No LID Yet....

Looks like we head into the weekend with no LID.
Bill predicted a 9/7 LID based off what we were seeing.
People with DTC up to 8/11 have been assigned......

I have been very tempted to shop for the baby room.
I actually had everything in the shopping cart.
But I exited out before completing the purchase.

Hmmm I guess a good start to this process would be to clean out the junk room and then paint and then buy baby stuff. I like the retail shopping part of this not the cleaning and painting.

Maybe I can get HGTV (Home and Garden TV on cable) do a Clean Sweep of the room. They come in and clean and then give you a whole new room.

Have a great weekend.

Jen

No News on LID Yet

The person who does the LIDs at the CCAA is on vacation. It is looking more like a September LID.

The following has taken place in the past week. Referrals were made to everyone with a LID from July 14th to July 22nd. It includes July 22nd. So you see we are basically at a 14 month wait now.

Also LIDS with a Nov 2005 date, their dossiers all have been reviewed by the CCAA. Basically dossiers get logged in (called a LID -- this is what we are waiting for now), then they get reviewed (they just reviewed Nov 2005), then they get referred.

There was an interesting post on yahoo today from Jane Liedtke. Jane runs an organization called OCDF ( Our Chinese Daughters Foundation) http://www.ocdf.org/. They provide heritage tours in China for adopted children. They also do provide facilitation in Chinese Adoption. She lives in China. Well anyways, there was a question to her about domestic adoption in China and if it was increasing -- one of the reasons behind the delay on international adoptions. Here is her response:

Domestic adoptions are encouraged through the new one-child policy that was instituted in Dec. 2004. However, the numbers (10,000 adoptions reported on the low end but they could be higher now) are not huge when compared to the population (1.26 billion persons) or compared to the number of births in China (1.7 million annually). CCAA is now responsible for all adoptions from the total of 1000 orphanages in China - both international and domestic (thus the slow-down - you have shifting offices, shifting employee roles, new employees, new procedures, getting a handle on domestic adoptions, promoting domestic adoptions, getting the 750 institutions that aren't international adoption-ready up to standards, etc etc etc). Add to all that the media focus on baby-trading in China and CCAA has it's hands full these days. It is highly responsible of CCAA to slow the process to be sure that they can get their staff up to speed and balance work loads, train new staff, and be ready for a larger volume of potential domestic adoptions. It doesn't mean they won't continue international adoptions, no way will they "shut down" that income stream. They are just adjusting their business for a larger scope and mission. We should all be thankful for their good work and increased attention to ALL the children who are institutionalized in China, not just those from 250 institutions allowed to adopt internationally.

-----------------------------------

From what I inferred from her post, is ONE that China will not shut down their international adoption process (this was a rumor), and TWO perhaps more orphanages will brought on line to international adoption standards. Maybe, in time, our referral wait will decrease. The CCAA just moved to a larger building, added more staff. To me, that is all good signs.

Those Rumors
I asked our agency last week about the rumors, especially those concerning weight. They told me it is all speculation. They have asked CCAA about these rumors and nothing is confirmed. They also told me we would probably be grandfathered in so whatever new changes that do happen, won't affect us. I have complete confidence in CCAI (our agency). They have only had only two dossiers rejected in over 10000 placements. Those two dossiers had issues that weren't revealed to the CCAI from what I have been told. Even so, 2 out of 10000 isn't too shabby.

So when I hear about the rumors, I'm going to stick my fingers in my ears and scream "LA LA LA LA LA" and ignore them. hopefully.....

That's all for now. Have a great weekend.
Jen

The Reason Why....

Today I searched on YouTube.com -- it stores videos. There are videos of adoptive parents's journeys to China.

I found one in particular that was so moving. Here is a peek into what we will hopefully be experiencing. It is long but watch at least the first 8-9 minutes. You will see the Gotcha Moment.



Just watching these videos remind me the reason why we are doing this and why we have to wait....

Jen

Roller Coasters

You might wonder what a roller coaster has to do

with adopting a baby from China. Well I think we warned that international adoption is sort of like a roller coaster ride. There are a lot of ups and downs. It looks like once we became DTC (maybe it was there before, but I was so concentrated on the paperchase), we have official stepped onto the roller coaster. Today is sort of a down day, the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs -- the Head Honcho's who do referrals for China), sent referrals from July 14th to July 22nd 2005. Only 7 business days. What was weird about this notice is that usually the European Adoption agencies know ahead of time when referrals are coming and what the cutoff date is. US agencies typically follow suit later. Well whatta ya know....know one knew! Referrals came to some US agencies yesterday and people starting posting their referral notices.

I'm trying to be optimistic about this but if they only refer 2 weeks at a time (keep in mind they only referred 1 week), it will be a 2 year wait. I won't even specualate what happens if they only keep referring 1 week to 10 days at a time.

I'm trying not to have a sad day. I just thought in the next couple of months we would see things pick up and the Head Honcho's stick to the 12-14 month referral past.

Bill is the optimist in the family right now. I'm trying not be a pessimist but more of a realist. After having so many disappointments in regards to fertility, I feel the need to guard my heart against disappointment.

It is a good thing my stomach can handle roller coasters but right now I'm not sure if my heart can.

Tomorrow will be a better day!

Jen

Learning Mandarin

Since I now have all this free time, I thought it would be a good idea to be able to communicate a bit when we are over in China.

For my birthday, Bill bought be a beginners Mandarin book and audio cd. Well it sucked. Sorry Bill. I tried to use it. I just want conversational Mandarin. Like where is the bathroom? Thank-you, Good Morning etc...

I found a website called ChinesePod -- see www.chinesepod.com

This site is great. Best of all most of it free! Fits right into the budget. I have downloaded about 70 lessons. Burned about 15 to cd right now. I'm listening to them in the car. I can now say:

Good Morning
How are You
I'm good and you
I'm good too Thank-you

I'm not sure on the phoentic spelling yet -- I have to pay membership to get that. Still deciding if it is worth it.

This morning, I had Emily (who is 6) listen to the first track. She went into school this morning and said Good Morning in Mandarin. I bet her teacher was shocked!

Off to listen to track 2 tonight!

Jen

Books to Read about Chinese Adoption

Besides paperchasing, I have been reading up on adoption in particular Chinese Adoption.

I have read books on China Adoption. Georgia has a great adoptive resource library so I can get books for free -- they mail it to you free of charge and then provide you free shipping. Here is the website, if you are interested: http://www.gaadoptionresources.org . So I have read:

A Passage to the Heart by Amy Klatzkin - The articles in A PASSAGE TO THE HEART, taken from FCC (Families with Children from China) chapter newsletters, discuss all aspects of adoption from China. These include: the waiting period, the adoption journey, settling in, health and development, adoption after infancy, single parenting, culture, language, identity, race, going back, birth parents, and much more. By turns funny, moving, practical, and deeply personal, this collection is a treasure trove for those who have or are planning to adopt from China.

Dim sum, Bagels, and Grits: A Sourcebook for Multicultural Families by Myra Alperson - As the adoptive Jewish mother of a Chinese-born daughter, Alperson is able to offer personal as well as professional insight into such topics as combining cultures in the home, confronting prejudice, and developing role models. Focusing on adoptive families she provides guidelines on how families can prepare for their exciting journey toward becoming a multicultural family. her book includes a wealth of on-line and "conventional" resources to find books, food products, toys, clothing, discussion groups and heritage camps that help families to enhance their lives as they build a multicultural home.

Lost Daughters of China, The: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and the Search for a Missing Past by Karin Evans - Evans weaves together her experience of adopting a Chinese infant with observations about Chinese women's history and that country's restrictive reproductive policies. Borrowing an image from Chinese folklore, Evans conveys herself, her husband, and their daughter as tethered by a red string that yoked them a equally awesome cultural divide.

Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son: Abandonment, Adoption, and Orphanage Care in China by Kay Ann Johnson - Kay Johnson provides an intimate portrait of the complex processes by which, over the past decade, thousands of little Chinese girls have made their way from orphanages in China into adoptive homes overseas. Johnson untangles the complex interactions between these social practices and the governments population policies. She also documents the many unintended consequences, including the overcrowding of orphanages that led China to begin international adoptions.

Adopting After Infertility by Patricia Johnston - The issues raised in this book are difficult ones. ADOPTING AFTER INFERTILITY examines the lifelong impact of building a family by adoption after experiencing infertility. Couples struggling to decide whether to adopt, those who have said yes to adoption, and parents of young children who have been adopted are the intended audience for this compassionate book. It will help you and your family make the decisions that are right for you.

I have book that I bought called Adoption Parenting:Creating a Toolbox, Building ConnectionsEdited by Jean MacLeod and Sheena Macrae, PhD. I haven't read it yet.

Out of all the books, I really liked the Dim sum, Bagels, and Grits. It really fits well into our family (Interfaith (Jewish/Catholic) ( living in the South).

Another recommendation is to get the National Geographic Video - Lost Daughters.

Here is to good reading!

Jen

It is in their Hot Little Hands!!!

Our dossier was hand delivered to CCAA today!!!

Doing a happy dance!!!!!!

Jen

DTC (Dossier to China) 8/14

Our dossier left Colorado on its way to China. We believe it will be in China by the end of the week! It takes about 4 weeks for us to be notified of our log in date. We may hit August, it could be September.

Now we wait.......

Jen

Somewhere over the Rainbow

I have changed the name of the blog to Somewhere Over the Rainbow. This is one my favorite songs. This version is done by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.

Somewhere in China in the next year, our child will be born....

Miracles....

I just saw a post on a paperchasing board that someone who sent in their homestudy prior to ours to the USCIS just received their I797C. Their date was June 2nd. Ours was June 7th. They waited 10 weeks. We waited almost 8 weeks. hmmm not sure how that happened.

Somehow the polish curse wasn't with us. A miracle!

Bill thinks that our file was flagged. We had problems getting all of our fingerprinting appointments. USCIS forgot the inlaws. So we had to call Senator Isaakson's office for help. He thinks that is what flagged us as RIPs (Really Important People). Yeah right -- I will let him think that he is a RIP in the eyes of the Gov't. (he is really important to me though if that counts!)

I just sent a pleading email to our dossier rep to see if we are out of translation and on the way to China!

Jen

Those Rumors.....

Hi my name is Jen and I am an addict. An addict of the Rumor Boards. I just cannot stay off the board. To the right of this message is a link to the Rumor Queen. The Rumor Queen is a mom adopting from China. I believe she has a late Sept 2005 lid. She uses her blog to track potential rumors from all over the world. It does give you a great perspective on the situation but also you always got to keep in mind that these are rumors. Right now the rumors aren't good. With us just getting logged in (hopefully this month) -- the wait could be over 2 years. Think August 2008. I know in the big picture we will still have a baby but it is hard when you want it to happen now or okay I'll even take a 12-14 month wait. Our I171h/797C expires in January 2008. This means we have to travel by October 2007 in order for us not have to redo it. I will talk about what that means in a minute. Back to rumors...

They are talking about imposing new restrictions on adoptive parents. The one that alarms me is the weight restriction. Both Bill and I are what I call "fluffy". One rumor is that neither parent can weigh more than 300 lbs. Well neither one of us do, so I really hope that if a restriction is put into place we are safe. Other rumors include 1) you have to own your house (mortgage okay) -- we are safe on that one, 2) make more than $50,000 -- we are also safe on that one. These new restrictions have been rumor'd for over year now. Nothing has come of it. The reasons for the restrictions would be to lower the amount of dossiers in China.

One of the reasons for the wait that is speculated is that there are too many dossiers compared to paper ready babies. Then there was a scandal in the Hunan province that people were arrested for baby trafficking. The Hunan province was a large province in which babies came from the Chinese government shut down the entire province to International Adoption. Hence, less babies being referred. There is also speculation that the Chinese Gov't issues a number. This number reflects how many babies they will allow to be adopted internationally. So too many dossiers logged in means they will far exceed this number. Again this is speculation, remember that this is China -- a communist nation -- I'm not sure anyone knows except China. And it is well within their right to control this. They grant us permission to adopt their beautiful children, that is a blessing. I'm hoping that this blessing is bestowed upon us. {tears are running down my eyes}. This is something I sooo want. I'm not sure how I will handle it if we never see this dream come true.

Back to the I171h/I797 c -- if we have to redo it. This is what it will mean.

1) We have to get refingerprinted by August 2007. Our fingerprints are only good for 15 months. We will probably have to get this done unless China really speeds up the process.

Cost - $875

2) Homestudy Update -

Cost per our agency - $200

One thing about have our agency be our home study agency as well is that I think that they can control things better in regards to pricing. I have heard this can cost other people as much as $2000

3) Physical Update

Cost - $40 for co pays. Hopefully that it is.

Total cost $1115

Why does the I171H/797C expire -- well according to the US gov't it is for the best interest for the child to make sure our circumstances haven't changed. With all the immigration stuff happening today, you would think our gov't would focus on different things than wasting time and money on this.

There is a new bill introduced into Congress to extend the the I171H for 2 years. We have already written our congressmen, our senators, head of the USCIS. There is a grass roots campaign among the adoption community to get this going. So we wait and see if it works. It is kind of exciting to be part of it. I hope it works.

Hi my name is Jen and I'm a Rumor Board addict so I'm off to the rumor boards....in case something has changed in the last 10 minutes.... :-)


Jen

Patience

You would think after all these years of infertility, raising a 6 year old daughter, and my job -- training/helping people on computers, I would have developed patience.

Well I guess I tolerate things. I'm not a patient person. I want to be DTC (Dossier to China!), Now! Stamping my foot like a 2 year old.

I found some quotes on the Internet on Patience....

"There was a time when Patience ceased to be a virtue. It was long ago."

That sounds just like me.

Another one.

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." John Quincy Adams

Now that is is very true.

Maybe we will hear something today or Monday....

Jen

We are off to translation......

I was watching United States Postal Service today waiting for our Houston documents. They arrived. I ran up to the agency and delivered them.

We are officially done with the paperchase.

Next step translation then off to China!

We hope to get an August Logged In Date....We shall see...

now onto my next task -- the baby's room! Yeah!

Jen

Got the Revised Golden Ticket!

USCIS reissued us the I-797C. We got it in record time. We also found out we are out of critical review. Critical review is where the agency reviews your dossier three times to make sure that there are no mistakes. So what is our next step.

I get our final two documents back from the Houston Consulate early this week. Then we off for binding and translation. Then off to China!!!! This means will get an August Logged in Date (LID). This date becomes most important because this is how China tracks your dossier. Right now they have referred LID dates up to July 13th 2005. So you see it is just over 13 month wait.


Jen

Well we got the golden ticket (sort of)

Of course nothing is ever easy. We have a polish last name as my dear husband likes to remind me. We stepped out on Saturday night and went to a social gathering of waiting families. The FCC (Families with Children from China) has a waiting group. We had a really good time. We were surprised as Bill and I are not really social groupees. We are more into our family activities and such. We met about 10 other families who are waiting. We were the "new" kids on the block. One of only two families still chasing. We were talking about the elusive I797C/I171H stating our we think it will be over 8 weeks. We were just over 7 weeks at that point.

Well whatta you know, we got home and guess what was in the mail. The I797C. Don't jump for joy yet. Remember that polish last name -- nothing_comes_easy_ski. Well it had a mistake on it. yes a mistake. I about cried. Bill was pi$$ed. You know he works for the gov't so he had to take a jab at the gov't employees. They made a small mistake of leaving off his name from the form. There was a small field that said Spouse's name (if any). Well it was blank. Small problem. His name needed to be on it. So here were are on a Saturday evening wanting to jump for joy but instead we are now wanting to jump out the window. Small problem though we live in ranch home :-)

I called our agency on Monday am. USCIS needs to fix it. She will place a call to them. However, one small glimmer of hope is still flickering. We can notarize, county certify, state seal, chinese consulate authenticate this document we now have. They will just attach the new one to this one we have. So on Monday, I went driving all around Atlanta to get this done. The documents went off to Houston yesterday. They typically have a 4 day turn around so I hope to have it back early next week. USCIS should be reissuing this document soon....

The rest of our documents have been in Critical Review since last Wednesday. Critical Review is where the agency basically reviews each document like 4 times to make sure everything is correct. They say it typically takes 10-15 business days to complete. We haven't heard anything back yet so this is good news. But remember our last name -- nothing_comes_easy_ski -- so no celebrating yet.

One last note, CCAA (China's adoptive gov't agency that controls all international adoptions) just issued referrals for June 29 through July 13 2005. So people are waiting about 13 months now. Lets hope they do more next month.

Wait Week 7.....

Well we are almost 7 weeks in wait till the elusive I171H/I797C. Last email from our agency said it will take 8 weeks. We will get an update each week so that is good I guess.

I'm dropping off all our dossier as it stands to the agency. They will do a critical review on it now. This is considered great news because when that elusive document comes, we should sail right to translation. Critical review typically takes 10 business days.

I just want this part over.....

As far as what China is doing.....several US agencies (not ours as far as I know) has issued Stork Alerts.... This means that that referral are coming for families logged in from June 29th 2005 to July 13th 2005. The wait for a referral is now over 13 months...........and growing.........

Jen

USCIS document might not be here till August

We just got an email from our agency stating that Atlanta is backlogged. On average it is taking 8 weeks which puts us the first week of August. oh well....I said August originally when we first started this. In the big picture, what is a few extra weeks, months, years.......

:-)

Jen

A video of an orphanage

I ran across this the other day. I wanted to make sure I show this to Bill.
http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=97713&cdate=20060517&ctime=002610

Watch the babies....not one crying....
You may think that this great! All these babies don't cry. It probably means that they have cried in the past, but have learned that crying doesn't get them attention. So they don't cry.
Just something to think about.

Jen

The Rumors....

One thing about China adoption is that there are rumors. I'm not too sure if other international countries have the rumors that China does. China operates a little differently than other countries -- it is looked upon as the model.

On the right side of this blog is a rumor board link created by the Rumor Queen. Who is the Rumor Queen -- she is a another mom adopting from China -- she has a late september 2005 lid. She seems to have resources that give her leads on the newest rumors. Spain seems to get the rumors first. The site is very addicting. However, you have to keep in mind that these are rumors. Just last night we went from the the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) was closing down for 3 weeks due to a move, to now stating yes they are moving but no they are not closing down. Who to believe, What to believe, Who Knows What --that are the questions we all want to answered. It is hard not to get caught up in the whirlwind of rumors.

I have been looking at the next few months of referrerals to see possiblity of a trend when we might get a referral -- even though we are still a year or so away from this happening. The thing is if they only refer a couple of weeks at a time, that means our referral is not year or so away but more like 2 or yikes 3 years away. That is particularly heartbreaking. I cannot believe it will take that long. Our agency states 14-18 months from start to finish....so that is what I'm believeing.

Now if our USCIS would just get our I171 here.

oh where oh where is our 171H...tap tap tap

We are now 5 weeks into the wait for our I171H (or call it I797C -- they changed the names so it is now called I797C) from Homeland Security in Atlanta. We just got an email from the agency stating that it has been averaging 6-8 weeks due to staffing changes. This is horrible -- Atlanta use to be quick draw mcgraw -- four weeks maximum. I was so hoping for a July LID but now it is looking at August.

We are getting our pretty little pictures done on Saturday. We need a couple of good poses for our dossier!

Oh yeah, since we didn't hear back on the fingerprints of Bill's father-- we can assume everything is Kosher with that! One bit of good news.

I'm checking the mail everyday. Please come some soon!!!

Jen

Our Timeline so far in the journey....

Click on the picture for a close up zoom.

Practicing Maderin

Eventually we will take a course in Maderin.

but here is some practice for you...

Hello Ni hao sounds like Knee How-(oh)

Good bye Zai jian sounds like Zeye JEN

Thank you Xie Xie sounds like See-AH See-AH (or seeYA seeYa)

You're welcome Bu ke qi sounds like Boo KUHchee

Yes Shi sounds like Sure

No Bu sounds like Boo

Good Hen hao sounds like Hen How-oh

Not good Bu hao sounds like Boo how-oh

I love you Wo Ai Ni sounds like Woah EYE knee

All Beautiful Babies

The June 2005 referrals (June 16-28th 2005) are coming in. The babies are so beautiful. I get tears in my eyes to think this will be us. It seems so surreal like I'm watching another person go through this. Like I'm the fly on the wall. It seems so far away but yet so near. Someone on the radio said it is only 6 months till Christmas. My first thought was maybe our baby would be born by then. I get teary thinking about it. I cannot wait till I get my hands on him/her.

There was a surprise boy referral! The parents were very surprised. They didn't have a boy name picked out. I think this gives Bill some hope for a boy. I know he doesn't care but I think it would be great to get a boy. We've starting talking about the baby's room. I want to go and decorate it. Bill just wants to paint it and then wait for the referral. Ughhh doesn't he know I want to shop???? I can be gender neutral. The problem is that if it is a boy -- it will be a boy's room -- football, baseball, University of Georgia stuff etc.... He will personally repaint any gender neutral color we put up.

Please pray that our I171H gets here soon!!!!!!!!! That's all we are waiting for to send our dossier to agency then onto China!!

Jen

fingerprints are done

Well we went to get Bill Sr's fingerprints redone. I was armed and ready to ask for a sworn statement (this is the next step in case these fingerprints don't pass). They told me they don't do a sworn statement (contridicts what our agency stated). They said they will take the best prints. He got 2 sets done today.

I called our agency afterwards and she said that they have never heard of this but things change so who knows. If we don't hear back in a week we can assume everything is okay. I also asked about the wait for the I171H -- I didn't know if the wait was from when the home study was done or when the last fingerprint was taken. They said when the home study was sent in. So that date is June 7th. They are stating it could take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks now. Let's hope on somewhere in the middle 6 weeks. I would love 4 weeks.

Other news is that CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs -- the China Gov't) matched up to June 28 2005. So the referral wait is about 12 months from your logged in date (LID) to China.
Here is a picture of the news :
Everyone on all the China boards looks anxiously for this announcement. I will be eyeing this as well as this will tell us how long the wait will be.

I have set up a Picture taking appointment with Picture People on July 14th. We need to have 3 couple pictures and 8 family life pictures to represent us. So far we have very little taken. So....I'm forcing us to go to Picture People. They do a good job. We will get a couple of couple pictures then some pictures with Emily.

We are going to Florida in a week so hopefully we will snap some more.

Jen

The fingerprint saga hopefully will be over today

My father-in-law goes today to get his fingerprints redone. Please say a prayer that it passes. We are told we are in for a 4-6 week from the time our homestudy was went in. Homestudy sent in on June 7th. So.......Maybe mid July if we are lucky....

crossing all fingers and saying a prayer...

Jen

The baby....

I have been trying to picture our baby. Bill and I refer to the baby as Ming. We called Emily, Sam I am when she was in my tummy. We read her Dr. Seuss books while I was pregnant and she would kick all the time to Green Eggs and Ham.

I really think we will be referred a girl but we have left the door open for a boy. The one bad thing about this is I cannot BUY anything clothes related. One -- we don't know the size and Two -- we don't know if Ming will be a boy or girl. At least shopping would keep me occupied!!!

We still need to work on the baby's room. Once our paperwork is done that is our next step. We need to get a contractor out to dry wall the room (there is paneling up in the baby's room with no drywall behind it).

The baby's name will either be Patricia (We will call her Tricia) or Patrick (leaning towards call him Ricky). The baby will be named after Bill's mom who passed away over 5 years ago. The middle name will probably be their Chinese given name.

Jen

The Wait.....

Currently, the wait for a referral is almost at 12 months from the time the paperwork is in China. Our agency states it could go longer 14 months. China doesn't have enough paper ready babies, plus the CCAA (the gov't agency in China that handles adoptions) is in the process of moving. There was also a Hunan Baby Trafficking scandal that shut down several orphanages in the Hunan Province.

I have been reading about wait times. They go up and they go down. Just like a rollercoaster. We are now in the up period. Maybe by the time, we get to referral it will be a shorter period. CCAA has told the agencies they want the wait not to exceed 12 months. Or at least that is what the rumor is.

My best hope is that by Christmas 2007 we are home with the baby. This is my worst case scenerio that I have accepted as of right now.

Jen

Update 6/15/2006

It has been a bit since I have updated. My paperchasing has slowed down to a crawl. We are almost done. We were fingerprinted on May 19th. My inlaws needed to get fingerprinted as well since they live in our inlaw suite. Father-in-laws fingerprints were rejected. We found out about a week after May 19th. He needs to go get refingerprinted on June 22nd. This puts us back on getting the I171h (document needed from Homeland Security) about one month. I was very upset about it then in the big picture of things what is a month.

Our homestudy was finally turned into the agency. It took exactly 4 weeks from the date we completed it. They sure weren't in a rush. I'm not sure why it took so long. We were done on May 6th. It was mailed off to USCIS (homeland security) on June 7th. Homeland Security needs our application (filed in late April), fingerprinted (May 19th) and the Homestudy (June 7th). They won't approve us now until father-in-laws fingerprints clear. I hope they clear this time. Please say a prayer to the fingerprint gods!

I was hoping that our paperwork would be to China in July. At this point, it looks like August unless Homeland Security performs a miracle. Once I get the elusive 171H back I need to get it notarized, county sealed, state certified and Houston Chinese Consulate authenticated. Then we have to send everything to the agency. It takes 2 weeks for them to critical review it and then off to China.


Jen

Houston Chinese Consulate Documents Are Back

Our documents are back from Houston. They took exactly a week.

We go for our fingerprinting on Friday. That almost did not go smoothly. Bill and I received our appointments for the fingerprinting but Bill Sr and Gayle did not. They have to be fingerprinted as well because they are in our household and over the age of 18. I had to get a Congressman's office involved. I had a contact phone number from our agency. He worked his magic and voila we got their appointments as well. We just found out that we now need the Bill Sr and Gayles birth certicates for homeland security. We have Gayle's now but Bill Sr. I had to order express service from NY. Cost us $75! I should have it next week. We need send that into Homeland Security by June 8th or we have to start the process all over again. Let's all hope that we get the birth certificate from NY.

Our homestudy is almost done. We should have a factual check back to us by Monday then off to CCAI for approval on Wednesday. Once that is done we send that off to Homeland Security and then we wait for the elusive I-171H to arrive. This document (along with the home study) needs to be notarized, county certified, state sealed, consulate authenticated. Then we get to send everything off to CCAI (our agency) for critical review and off to China. Then the wait begins.

I shouldn't be reading any websites. It is getting discouraging. The wait will be long. I have seen anywhere from 12 to 18 months to as high as 24 months. I am prepared for a 12-15 month wait. I'm not sure on the 24 month wait. The next few months will give an indication on how quickly China is matching children.

Jen

NY Consulate Documents Back!

Breathing a sign of relief. We got our two documents back from NY in record time. Things seem to be moving. Our homestudy is done. It should be typed up for review by Friday.

Fingerprinting is next!

Jen

Documents off to the Consulates

Our last documents that we have done are now off to the Houston Consulate. All that is left is the homestudy and getting the I-171H from Homeland Security. Homestudy will be complete on Saturday. I have been told it takes a week to write then we get a copy in draft format to check. Once the homestudy is complete the agency sends it to Homeland Security and they will issue the I-171H (we still need to get fingerprinted for this as well, we are waiting for an appt). Once we get those two documents back (homestudy and I-171H), I need to get them notarized, county certified, state sealed and then off to Houston Chinese Consulate. Then we are done.

We are shooting for our documents to go to China in late July. Please pray that all goes well there.

Jen

Almost done with the paperwork!

I am a woman on a mission!

We are basically done with our paperwork chase. My physical was this past Friday. I will be picking it up hopefully Wednesday from the dr. Then I'm off to CCAI to have everything notarized then county certified, then state certified, then Chinese Consulate authenicated. so within the next week or so -- everything will be off to Houston Chinese Consulate.

Our NY documents went to the NY Chinese Consulate today. It was sort of hard to let it go. I double checked everything twice.

We also got an email today that we can send out our I600A to the the USCIS (use to be INS). This is the last of the paperwork that needed to be completed. This particular process will take typically 6 weeks to get approval. So if and I say if, everything goes as planned we could be possibly be DTC'd (dossier to China) by sometime in July I hope. Then you start counting 10-12 months for a referral.

To think I was going to pay someone lots of money to do this chasing around. It wasn't really that bad as long as you are organized!

After all this paperwork is done, I will be able to concentrate on the fun stuff -- the baby!!! The baby's room etc....

I ordered some books on Amazon to help Emily out in understanding Adoption. She knows we are going to China (yep, we are taking her!) when she turns 7 (next June). I'm not sure if she completely understands what that means or how it will impact her life as she knows it. Plus the baby won't look like her -- I don't think that has even crossed her mind yet.

Jen

Birth Certificates Are Here!

Our Birth Certificates from NYS came. They were expensive. Cost us over $50 each to get one delivered. Our marriage license here in Georgia only cost us 5 bucks.

Besides getting the documents that you need (see previous post), you have get each document notarized by a notary. Then go to the county where the notary is registered and get the documents certified by the county that the notary is indeed a notary in the county. Then you go to the state and get the document sealed with the state seal which basically states that the county does exist in the the state. Then you send these documents to the Chinese Consulate to get authenticated by the Chinese Government. Phew.....

Since our documents are from both NY (birth certificates) and Georgia (everything else), I have to send our NY documents to the NYS to get certified and the Georgia documents to the State of Georgia to get certified. Then NY documents go to the Chinese Consulate in NY and GA documents go to the Chinese Consulate in Houston which covers that state of Georgia. Birth certificates don't need to be notarized so today I sent them off to NY State for the Seal!

Hope this all makes sense. We have our first homestudy appt on Thursday. This is probably one of 4. I have a physical on Friday. I hate going to the doctors so please say an extra prayer that things go well.

Jen

Update on 4/15/2006

Orientation went well. We met a couple from Grayson. It is a small world. We also briefly met with our social worker. We setup an appointment for our first meeting with her next week. She is going to meet with us at work.

We have started the paperchase. There are alot of documents we need:

1. Adoption Petition -- basically petitions the Chinese Government for adoption. We have completed this.

2. Birth Certificates -- we have ordered them from NY.

3. Marriage License -- done! yeah.

4. Financial Statement - done. We have to lists our salaries, our life insurance, our assets and liabilities.

5. Physicals -- Bill got his done. We are justing waiting on the blood test results. You have to be tested for HIV plus about 3 other things. My physical is scheduled for next Friday.

6. Police Clearance -- this is turning out to be a little bit difficult. We live in Walton County. We do have a Monroe address but live outside of the city limits so we cannot go to Monroe Police. We went to Walton County Sheriff. Paid 15 dollars each and got back something that is not acceptable. We need to have a statement of no record on letterhead. Walton County doesn't do letterhead. We have to do this step over again and go with the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) -- downside to this is we need to get fingerprinted (need to pay for it) plus add another 30 dollars to submit the form back to the GBI. We should have just gone with the GBI to begin with. Live and learn I guess.

We have been told by the agency that the wait is more than likely 10-14 months from LID. LID means Logged In Dossier. We hope to get our Dossier into China maybe by August. So count Sept as month one. The wait doesn't bother me. I know we will have a child next year!

Orientation is tomorrow

We are going to orientation tomorrow. Mom and Dad are coming over to watch Emily.
Things seem to be falling into place. We have secured finances for the adoption -- yeah!!!!!

The paperchasing begins. So what exactly is a paperchase? The short answer is it's the gathering of all the documents China requires to be sent to them in order to adopt. This collection of documents is called your dossier and it's what you spend all your time doing for about the first four months in the process. You need birth certificates, your marriage license, paperwork from your doctor, police clearance letters, a completed homestudy, employment verification, financial statements, a letter to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs and form 171H from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is now part of the Deparment of Homeland Security. You need to be fingerprinted! - during this process and once you have a document you then need to have it notarized, then authenticated by the Secretary of State in the state it originated in and finally certified by the Chinese Consulate that represents that state.

Bill says I'm so organized that he has no doubt that I can handle doing this. We do luck out that my law firm has notaries on staff. So I won't have to pay for notary service!

Jen

Approved on March 17th

Boy that was quick. We were approved by CCAI in one day! Bill told me not to worry but of course I worry.

An interesting fact came with the approval, CCAI confirmed that we wanted an infant under 12 month, boy or girl. I said yes. She said we have about a 30% chance for a boy. I didn't realize it was that high. We thought our child would definitely be a girl. I better not run out and buy pink!

This will be a long process. I have been reading that referrals can be as long as 12 months from the time you get your paperwork to China. We hope to have our paperwork (called a Dossier) to China by late August.

We have orientation scheduled for April 8th. Mom will come out and watch Emily for 4 hours. Emily likes it when grandma watches her. Mom always comes with stuff to do.

The paperwork is already starting prior to orientation. Bill and I have to write autobiographies about ourselves. They ask tons of questions. This will be used for our homestudy. We also need to gather rabies vaccinations certificates for the dogs, home safety checklist (which includes getting our septic tank inspected), copies of our health insurance cards etc. We are also working on Emily's passport. I hope to submit our application next Friday for that -- both Bill and I need to be present in order to submit the passport.

Jen

Sent in Application Today

Bill must think I'm nuts. I have been driving him crazy in trying to get things done.

I sent our application to CCAI today. Fed Ex. They should get it tomorrow. We might hear by the end of next week if we have been accepted. I'm sooooo nervous. It is very hard to think that someone will be scrutinizing your life to see if you are suitable. I understand it but it doesn't make it any easier. They look at every aspect of your life -- personal, health, financial, work etc.

Just call me nervous nelly!

This is our first step to our next child!

Jen

Decided on an Agency!

We have decided to go with CCAI. They are headquarted in Denver but have a branch office here in Atlanta.

I'm just so excited I can scream.

We hope to get the application into them by the end of this week. If approved, orientation will be next month!

Yeah!

Jen

News from Jen & Bill

Bill and I have been trying to have another child for sometime now. Emily will be 6 in June. The path that we were on was filled with what I feel was nothing but grief and misfortune. Honestly, I wasn't very happy -- everytime I thought about infertility treatments, I got very angry and depressed. We have had 2 miscarriages in the past year and half -- that is in addition to having to go through the infertility treatments. Finally, in order to go on, I needed to have a major surgery that would have hopefully decreased the chances of miscarriages. This surgery was purely optional -- the only reason to do was to try to have another child. I would have been out of work 6-8 weeks. I was very apprehensive about doing the surgery -- there was no guarentee that it would reduce the chances of miscarriage.


We have come to decision to leave that path and go on a different type of journey. Adoption. I have always wanted to adopt. There is a child out there that needs a mom, a dad and a big sister. After looking at our options (domestic vs international), Bill and I have decided to adopt a baby from China. Most people when I tell them that we are going to adopt have a great reaction -- Wow you are going to adopt that's great. When I say China -- everyone is a bit surprised that we will adopt from China.

Why not domestically or some other country?

We ruled out domestic adoption for several reasons. I feel like we need to market ourselves to a birthmother then hope that she is going to choose us, then hope that she doesn't change her mind. I really didn't want to be filled up with disappointments again.

When we looked at adopting internationally, there were several countries that we looked at -- Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine), Guatemala, or China. Each had some pro's and con's. Honestly, I was drawn to China first but since it was so far away, I looked at Guatemala first then the eastern European countries. I kept coming back to China.

China has a one and half child policy. Boys are typically wanted to due to cultural reasons. The majority of the Chinese population are farmers and boys are needed to work the farm. Girls get married and leave. If your first child is a girl, you are allowed to try for another child. If that child is a girl, these girls are the ones that typically abandoned. More than likey, Bill and I will receive a daughter. Although we will be asking for a healthy baby as young as possible. There is a slim chance our next child will be a boy.

So Why China?

The process while long is pretty straight forward. There are no unexpected fees that will come along. We will know upfront how much this will cost us. Out of all the adoption programs we looked at (even some domestic programs), China for us is most affordable. More importantly, the children are healthy. They may have some developmental delays such as not walking or crawling on time but they typically thrive after being home. There is also a large support network in Atlanta for families who have adopted from China. We plan on actively becoming involved so that our son/daughter will know their heritage of where they came from.

How long will it take?

It will take us approximately 13-15 months to complete the process when we start it. Alot of it depends on how fast the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) in Beijing, China processes the paperwork. It will take us approximately 4 months for us to gather our paperwork and send it to China. So we are looking probably going to China late summer of 2007 or more than likely early fall 2007.


Our Next Step

Bill and I are in the process of trying to pick an agency. We have narrowed it down to two: Great Wall of China Adoption Agency (GWCA) and Chinese Children Adoption International. (CCAI). We have already been to seminar held by GWCA. We are going to a seminar on March 11th for CCAI.


To Learn More about Chinese Adoptions, please see the links provided on the Home Page.


Jen