Welcome, Miss Belle!

I was fortunate enough to be in the delivery room as my sister and her husband welcomed Isabelle Marie into the world today! She made her debut at 10:33 AM, and weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz, and was 19 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great!

Now let's hope that we get Ladybug soon so she and Belle can be best of friends! We hope to hear sometime this week from the director of our agency about the meeting that she had with CCAA officials last weekend. We hope one of the topics of discussion was realistic wait times and what is being done to shorten them.

Keep you posted!
:D

Thank You, Becky!

This GORGEOUS quilt was made for Ladybug by my friend Becky. The dedication on the back of the quilt says: "For Ladybug ~ When your wings have carried you home." Isn't that the best?! I hope you can see all the different ladybug fabrics she found. How blessed am I with such talented, caring friends?!

I am still collecting squishes for the 100 Wish Quilt. Thank you to all who have sent their squish already. There is still plenty of time to send one in if you have not already.

We finally got some good news this month - the USCIS (Immigration) has made a ruling that those who have to renew their I-171H (Permission to adopt an orphan from overseas) after 7/30/07 can do so free of charge! This is a $600 fee that will be waived! YEA! Let's just hope that we only have to renew it once and not twice! (It is good for 18 months, and we got ours in January 2007.)

Well, I hope to continue to share good news with you! Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!
:D

Hang in there?

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! Perhaps this wait will go quickly after all!

May has been very busy. The first weekend found us at a family reunion in PA. It was great to reconnect with some family that we haven't seen in a while. The cuties are my niece and nephew, who I love to spoil.

The second weekend was graduation weekend at the university I work for, so I was quite busy getting student records ready and helping the graduates line up and get their regalia on straight.

This weekend was the neighborhood yard sale. It was an early morning, and the sales were slow, but I got to spend some good time with Siena! I helped her mommy get things set up and torn down.

And of course, the yard work keeps us hopping! We will sod part of the back yard next weekend, and hopefully get our back yard up to par.

The news for the month was quite depressing. (VENTING ALERT!) Although no one knows for sure what the time line is, we are now in uncharted territory for wait times. The next group who will receive matches have been waiting 19 months (since November 2005), and there is no indication that that wait time will go down any time soon. Our agency told us that they now expect wait times of 18 - 24 months. Sometimes I think that we will never get our referral! Of course that time line could change if the CCAA decides to do several months at a time, but NO ONE KNOWS.

That is the most frustrating part of this process. When we started our journey last summer, all indications were for a 9-10 month wait ~ about the same as a natural pregnancy. Now things have ground to a halt, and we are fully emotionally and financially invested in this process. If we pull out now, who will look after Ladybug? (I guarantee that if we did pull out, the wait times would drop to 5 months!) If we adopt from anywhere else, or by some miracle get pregnant, we are automatically disqualified from China. It just seems so unfair! I just want to be a Mommy ~why is that so hard to accomplish?

As you can see, May has been busy, which is good. June will also be busy with getting the nursery prepared ~ watch for pictures! Please keep up your prayers for a speed up in referrals, and for my sanity! :)

:D

One Month Down!

We have one month of waiting behind us! I only wish we knew how many more to go. There seem to be two camps out there now ~ one that says 16-18 months after LID, and one that says 3-4 years after LID. Our agency told us 16-18 months, so that is what I am holding onto. Please keep the prayers coming for a speed up!

We've started getting quilt squares in. This is going to be an awesome quilt! I will be collecting fabric all through the summer, so you still have time to go fabric shopping! I had such a hard time choosing fabric for the fabric swap that I am doing with my Feb2007DTC Yahoo! group ~ so many great choices! Just to recap ~ send a 8"x8" square of fabric to be used in the quilt, and a note with your wish and name on it. The note can be as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be. A lot of the notes I've gotten so far have been on card stock, but any paper will work.

We have been enjoying Siena in the meantime. She is growing bigger every single day, and coming out of her shell. She has captured our hearts! We'll get lots of great tips from her Mommy and Daddy.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!
:D

L I D !!!

We received word today that our dossier was logged in (LID) on March 30, 2007! WHOOOO HOOOO! We already have 3 weeks of wait in! The agency is still holding to 16 months from LID to referral, so hopefully by next summer we will have some really great news!

I feel like DTC was like taking a home pregnancy test, and LID is like having it confirmed by the doctor. It is just so wonderful to know that our folder did not get lost and was not rejected, and is now sitting on a shelf waiting to be reviewed!

From what I understand, they have through March 31, 2006 reviewed and ready for matches. They are at October 26, 2005 for matches. So keep up the prayers for expediency! They need to start doing at least a month of matching each calendar month for the 16 month wait time to become a reality. Adoption math!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Love,
:D

100 Wishes Quilt

We are still waiting to hear of our LID. The CCAA only did 2 days worth of referrals this month, and our agency missed the cut off by one day. So we probably won't hear of our LID until May. Keep up the prayers for a speed up in the process!!!

In the meantime, I am going to start Ladybug's 100 wishes quilt. It is a northern Chinese custom to invite friends and family to contribute a patch of cloth with a wish for the baby. Part of the patch of cloth goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other part of the cloth can go into a creative memory notebook with the wish for the child. The quilt contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric.

If you would like to contribute fabric for the quilt, please send a 8" x 8" square and a swatch of the fabric attached to an index card with your wish for Ladybug. The fabric can be any color or pattern that appeals to your eyes! I hope the quilt and the scrapbook will help pass the time!

If you need our address, please leave a message and your email address in the comment section and I'll send it to you.

Have a blessed Easter season!
:D

Waiting to Hear

I was waiting to post until we heard that we are officially "logged in." This is the date that our official countdown clock starts. Our agency told us that we are probably already logged in, and we just have to wait for notification, but it is still nice to know that we are official and there wasn't something missing from our dossier. The referrals are late coming this month (they could have come as early as yesterday, and they are not in yet) and we hope our LID (log in date) notice will be with the batch of referrals.

Brian called our dossier consultant this week to ensure that things were moving as they should. (apparently my word wasn't enough! :) ) She assured us that everything is OK. She was still promoting a 17 month wait at the most. She seemed to think that things will slow down for a little bit, then it will pick up again to an 8 month wait. We are just caught in the goofy spot that it will still be a 16ish month wait. Who knows! The best we can do is get everything ready and hurry up and wait!!

Fingers crossed that we learn our LID this week!
:D