I'm back!

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. I have been a little "down in the dumps" about the wait and the fact that there is not any sign of a speed-up. However, I try to keep my spirits high and know that one day, we will be matched with the perfect child for our family.

On a happier note, we had a very nice Christmas with our families. Emily even received a couple of gifts! Her Aunt Dee bought her 2 of the most adorable outfits, Grandma Marilyn bought a picture ornament with Emily's name on it and Katina bought her ladybug socks and a ladybug yo-yo.

I continue to be active in my Yahoo groups and have a Holiday Pal named Kristen. She sent us the most beautiful handpainted glass Chinese ornaments for our tree. I will post some photos in my next post once I get new batteries for the camera!

We hope that everyone had a joyous holiday season!

It's been a while!

I haven't posted in a while, so thought I'd give an update. As I've mentioned before, I belong to several Yahoo groups and am involved in several gift exchanges. I have 2 AWESOME Secret Pals. Sending and receiving gifts each month makes the time pass more quickly.Below are some of the gifts I received for the month of June.


I've also been buying clothes for Emily, although I have promised myself to stop for a while. I've found some really great buys, but my favorite is this ladybug bikini I found for $6!

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day and I feel so far away from being a mom! Lou was sweet and gave me a card and CD from the dogs. I can't wait to celebrate my first Mother's Day with Emily.
I also wanted to show everyone the adorable ladybug chair that I got! If you're interested, I got it from ABC Distributing and I love it!

Hope you had a great Mother's Day!

One Month Down!

It's hard to believe that a month has passed since we were LID. I hope all of the months feel this fast! In order to celebrate the occassion, we went to the Disney store at the mall. We bought Emily a Mulan doll, an outfit, a sippy cup, a blanket and a stuffed Eyeore!
We only have a couple of weeks left of work and then we are on vacation for 2 months...we can't wait. I plan to spend the time cleaning out the closet in the guest room (soon to be a nursery) so that I have a place to store Emily's things. Stay tuned for another update soon!

LID Network

Our agency provides a nice service for their adoptive parents. If you sign up for the LID Network, they will provide you with the name and e-mail addresses of other clients who have an LID during the same month. I've "met" 2 new friends...Kari and Anne. Our LIDs are within a day of each other, so there is a VERY good chance that we will be in the same travel group. It will be fun to get to "know" them during the long wait.

We have our LID!!!!!

We just received word that our dossier was logged in yesterday! Our official LID is 4/5/07. We are so excited! This date is very important because this is when we begin our countdown. We're hoping that the wait time to referral begins to go down, but it is currently at 16-18 months and could go as high as 3 years. I'm choosing to be an optimist and hold out hope that it will eventually get shorter. Either way, time will pass and the trick is to keep busy, which I certainly don't have a problem doing! I know that when we finally receive our referral, it will be for the child that is meant to become a part of our family. Stay tuned for more updates!

We're DTC!!!

We just received the e-mail that our dossier was sent to China yesterday. Our official DTC date is 3/20/07. Our last step is to wait for the CCAA to log-in our dossier. It can take up to 4 weeks. Once this happens, we will receive our LID. THEN...WE BEGIN THE OFFICIAL WAIT FOR EMILY!
It's hard to believe that we started this process in December and we will not be "in line" until April. Here's hoping for a speedy LID!

Translation!

Our dossier has been sent to Colorado for translation!!! It is projected to be there on Saturday. CCAI has been translating quickly, so we hope to be DTC (dossier to China) sometime next week. This puts us one step closer to being "official."

Delay

Our certified and authenticated I-171H should have been ready to send to our agency on Friday. Just our luck...the consulate was closed on Friday, so it was delayed until today. However, I just received an e-mail that the Consulate was backed up because of being closed on Friday and our paperwork was NOT ready today. This means another day's delay. Hopefully it will be ready tomorrow and our agency will get it on Wednesday. It is so hard knowing that our dossier is still not in China.

Surprise!

On March 10th, my friend Katina and I had a surprise party for Lou and her boyfriend Ross. We actually managed to pull it off and they were shocked! The theme was comic books and when Lou and Ross entered the house, all of the guests were wearing Spiderman masks! It was great fun and we laughed the entire time. Enjoy the pictures!

Emily's Stuff

I'm dying to go shopping, but I'm trying not to buy too many things. Here are a few that I bought for Emily. Once we're LID, I'll be hitting the stores!

It's Here!!!!

Our coveted I-171H has arrived! We are so excited to receive this last piece of paper. I have just returned from FedEx where I have sent it to our dossier service to be authenticated and certified. Then it goes to our agency in Orlando and then off to Colorado to be translated. Finally, it is sent to China and that is when we will receive our DTC date. Approximately 4 weeks later, it will be logged in. THEN, we are officially "paper pregnant" and begin the LONG wait for the referral of Emily. Stay tuned to find out when we receive our official LID (Log-In Date.)

CCAI Open House

Today, we visited the new office of our agency. We are with CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International.) It was a long drive to Altamonte Springs and Lou slept the entire way (what else is new?!) I met some "friends" that I have been communicating with through our Yahoo groups. It was so nice to be able to meet and talk with them in person. We may possibly be in the same travel group since we are all at about the same point in the process. There were lots of kids there including some who have been adopted from China. It really makes the whole thing seem real when we see the families that have adopted through our agency.

I'm checking the mailbox every day in the hopes of seeing our I-171H!

Still Waiting

We are still waiting for our I-171H. It has been 3 weeks since we were fingerprinted. I've been told that the Tampa office is running about 5 weeks, so we're waiting with bated breath.

This weekend we are going to an open house at our agency's new office in Altamonte Springs. We are planning to meet up with some of the people that I've been communicating with through some of my Yahoo groups. I think it will be a lot of fun.

Hopefully, next time I update the blog I will have some good news!

Dossier update

Yesterday, we received word from our dossier service that everything in our dossier (except the I-171H) has been certified and authenticated. It has been sent to our agency, where it will go through critical review and then it will be sent off to the Colorado office for translation...yeah!!! Once we receive our I-171H and get it certified and authenticated, it will go to our agency and our complete dossier will be ready to send to the CCAA in China. We are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Please send good thoughts our way for the I-171H to arrive quickly!

Waiting for the "Golden Ticket"

Well, our certified and authenticated dossier items (with the exception of the I-171H) are almost ready to send to our agency. We are now waiting for the elusive I-171H, also known in adoption circles as the "Golden Ticket." Once we receive it, we will be SOOOO close to having our dossier sent to China! It's hard to be patient since our wait doesn't actually begin until we have an LID date (log-in date).