Gifts, Weight and Halloween

I haven't been posting much lately so I'll try to cover everything in this one.. LOL Since I work from home, I'm pretty much in my office all day long on 2 laptops. Once 5Pm rolls around, last thing I want to do is hang out in this room and on the computer! LOL

This month was the big reveal for one of my Yahoo groups (CCAI). This is the month where my secret pal reveals herself to me with the last gift. Drumroll please... My secret pal for the last 6 months is Cathy from SC! And here is a pic of the last gifts from Cathy. A very cute ladybug bag, 2 little baseball hats, one pink and one denim with ladybugs, cute little t-shirts with ladybugs (see the theme here..lol) a little notebook with a ladybug, cute cute CUTE little dragonfly hair clips and a beautiful handmade pin with our LID month and year on it! She also wrote a great note telling me a little about herself. This was a great secret pal swap and definitely helped the last 6 months go by so fast! Thank you Cathy for everything!

Now as I said, under the denim hat there is an adorable little pink hat.

And it bears a striking resemblance to a certain pink hat that a certain grandma-to-be is obsessed with...

The pink hat has been replaced a few times, but always with another pink hat. I let Yoshi chew a hole in one of the pink hats, I've tried to "accidentally" loose the pink hat.. but noooo, it just multiplies. Ma, I thought your favorite color was blue? LOL Anyway, Grandma-to-be loved the little pink baby hat the most! Gee I wonder why! LOL

Ok next, on the other Yahoo group I'm in (April DTC) I received October's secret pal gift. This secret pal swap continues till I think next July. This month my wonderful secret pal sent an adorable little stuffed pumpkin head toy that lights up and plays spooky music. Yoshi LOVES that toy.. but too bad Yoshi, it's not for you! LOL There was also a cute bib that says "watch me as I grow",a set of 3 pre-school puzzles and a very pretty journal with a very thoughtful inscription from my secret pal. Thank you Secret Pal!! I loved everything!

Oh and a little Halloween critter was also included in the package and actually made me jump.. LOL

Let's see what else.. ah the weight loss journey. Well, since July 26th, just a little over 3 months, I have lost 17.2 lbs!! WOOOHOOO! Sometimes it goes back up a pound or two before continuing to go down but still, I'll take it! The hardest part of this is trying to eat good stuff, especially snacks. I try not to eat any white bread, not alot of pasta or rice, trying to eat more fruits. I have been doing SlimFast almost once a day since I have a bad habit of skipping breakfast, so that's better than nothing. I've been doing pretty good, except that today we had pizza for dinner. It's really hard to do this when one of us who shall remain nameless (but it's not me.. lol ) wants to order pizza for dinner. Oh yea sure, I could say "no pizza" and I even think I did, but it's pizza! If I can smell it I am going to eat it. The working out part isn't too hard at all though which is good. I do about 30 minutes on the bike every other day or so and sometimes follow that with the treadmill. Anyway, the combination seems to be working so far. And now that it's been 3 months, I think I'll be able to keep up this pace.

Here are a few pics from Halloween. First one is the pizza-ordering monster and Yoshi.

My fur-baby waiting for the trick-or-treaters to come by...





I'm tired of typing now... LOL I'll try to post more frequently. I am way behind on posting all the lovely quilt squares I've received so far. I'll have to make some time to update that site too.
Wow, it's November already! LOL

Moving Right Along...

Six months have gone by pretty quick. I wonder if the next 2 -3 years will go by as quickly. LOL I somehow doubt it.

Last year around this time is when we made the decision to adopt. We were going through the last miscarraige and just had enough of the fertility meds that were making me crazy. It was a pretty easy and freeing decision. It dawned on me I didn't need to be pregnant to have a family. Then it took us about a month to research all our adoption options. Choosing China was also a pretty easy decision. It fit for us and we qualified, at the time. Then we finally chose an agency, learned about the new restrictions and did the mad dash paperchase to meet the May 1st deadline (otherwise we would no longer qualify). Well, we made it, and here we are 6 months after our log in date. Of course when we were logged in April 17th, the wait time was 18 months at the time. Now I think it is 22 or 23 months. I've learned that it is 22 months for those logged in from Nov. 2005. Which just means the wait time is going up up up! Oh well, we are in it for the long haul. So while we've been logged in for 6 months, we made the decision to adopt a year ago. Time flies!!

Fortune Cookie

We had Chinese take-out the other night and I just got around to opening my fortune cookie. Here is what it said...
Ahhhhh, yes it is! And I am working on it! LOL Almost 6 months down too! Some days are better than others. I have plenty of things to do to keep busy that's for sure. I have my mind set with waiting 3 years (well now 2 1/2 years!) but when I think it could be more, well, let's not go there.

Thank you to my April DTC Secret Pal!

I received my Sept. secret pal gift today! This Discovery Ladybug is the cutest thing!! Is it a book? Is it a rattle? Is it a squeaky toy? YES YES YES! All of the above. She also sent these cute magnets that spell out "Raven". Sooooo cute! They are up on the fridge already! Right under my little LID map! Thank you Secret Pal!!

LID Map

Ok, I know... I have WAY too much time on my hands! LOL I wanted to make some kind of visual countdown thing that I could look at and update every time there are referrals. So I made this map which list all the LID (Log In Dates) that still have to be referred before they get to ours, April 17, 2007. Looks like this month (they only send referrals once a month) they only referred up to Nov. 30th, 2005 (Not official yet), which is really only 3 days. I've included weekend days on my map just because it was easier to countdown that way. So since last month when they referred up to Nov. 25th, 2005, they have now referred up to the 30th, 2 days being a weekend. That in itself is very sad that they only got to 3 days this month. hopefully it'll pick up next year. So I am going to color in the dates with red marker every month, and in the end it'll be my own little representation of the "red thread" because all the the circles will be red, starting from the USA to China. Anyway, like I said, I have way too much time on my hands!

Yoshi's Shiba Inu Scream

This post is dedicated to my canine baby, Yoshi. LOL

One distict characteristic of a Shiba Inu is called the Shiba scream. This is a high-pitch yell/howl/whine/cry/ouch!-my-ears kind of yodel that Shibas seem to have mastered. This happens almost every time the phone rings.



If you've never heard of a Shiba Inu before, here is a little information for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiba_Inu


I saw a "red" one years ago and always wanted one, whenever the time was right to get a dog. I didn't even know they had "black and tan" Shibas until I saw this cute little puppy at the pet store one day and HAD TO have him! How he has grown!

Can you believe this is the same dog?? At least he grew into his ears!! LOL

Sept. Secret Pal Gift (CCAI)

I received one of my secret pal gifts for this month already. An adorable panda rattle/toy, a Panda-Z Japanese Anime (which Freddy loved of course!) and a panda notepad. Also love the Hello Kitty card! Thank you CCAIMarchApril Secret Pal if you are reading this!! You're a great secret pal and I can't wait to find out who you are next month!

I'm starting to really have a thing for all things panda and ladybug related!

Books & Making Money!

As I mentioned in previous posts, I LOVE BOOKS! I also love money! LOL But hardly have any money these days... LOL In an attempt to make a little extra money (probably very little) one thing I did was to add some Amazon links to books about either China, adoption or children's books and if you scroll through the pages and find a book you want to buy and click on the link, it'll bring you to Amazon.com and if you decide to actually purchase that book, I get a very small percentage. Hey, every little bit helps!! LOL Heck, I am even going to click on my own links if I decided to purchase any of these books, which of course, I WANT THEM ALL!! I doubt this is really going to drastically increase my income, and I have some time but one of the big things we have to save for is money for the Leave of Absences that we both need to take when we go to China and after. I'd love to take off at least 2 months and I think Freddy can only take off 1 month, but unfortunately, we don't get paid for that time so it's something to save for.

Anyway, this is a new book out that I am trying to hold off buying (with the whole saving money thing..LOL) but I may have to break down and buy it.. LOL If you wanna check it out (and maybe even purchase it, I've included a convenient link for you! LOL Oh come on, I'm trying here!! LOL



What I am going to try to do is provide a little review from time to time on something I've read or something new I find with a new link from time to time, but on the right-hand side of this blog I added a complete list of all the books I either have, want or just came across so you can click on those links too.

I think I'm also going to see what stuff I can put on Ebay. I definetly could work on reorganizing the house and getting rid of a few things!

5 Months Down!

As long as I don't think about how long it's going to take before we go get Raven, I'm good. LOL The months are still going by pretty fast. I'm trying to keep busy with everyday life, Secret Pal shopping and projects around the house. So 5 months really did seem to fly by. Once in a while I feel like life is on hold, but as long as the time doesn't start dragging too much it'll be ok. A few things we kind of put on hold are buying a new car for me (not sure if we'll need to provided updated financials when we hit the Review Room), getting another dog, a companion for Yoshi, but then that is 2 dogs we'll probably have to board when we go to China, anything involving spending money.. LOL

Anyway, I'm happy with the 5 months! Let's keep it moving! Hopefully the CCAA will also start referring more LID days in the next couple of months as well. Hopefully the wait won't extend to more than 3 years.

Under BMI 40!

For those non-China adopters, China had changed some of their requirements to adopt from China after May 1st (Doesn't apply to us this time around because our paperwork was in before May 1st, so we're good), one of which is the adoptive parents must have a BMI lower than 40. We were both over the 40, but as of today my BMI is officially under 40! That was my first weight loss goal, which amounts to 8.6lbs lost so far. The next weight loss goal is a bit more, 31 more lbs. Piece of cake! Well, ummm... maybe not cake.. LOL Piece of carrot just doesn't sound right though!

My system has been pretty simple really, and I always knew that this would work (so far so good anyway). Eat less (and better), work out more. Pretty easy right? LOL NOT! I'm at least trying to eat 3 meals a day even if one of them is a SlimFast shake. I'm used to not eating breakfast so now I am eating something for breakfast. Sometimes I have cereal for lunch. No, not Lucky Charms or Fruit Loops.. lol something a little less sugary. I already eat whole grain bread (most of the time). And I TRY to work out on the stationary bike and/or treadmill everyday for at least 30 minutes. Most of the time I drink water or seltzer. Hopefully I can keep up this momentum. 8.6 pounds in 7 weeks isn't bad at all. I'll take it!

Books! Books! Books!

I love books! I bought these today (Well I bought them a few days ago online, they came in the mail today..LOL). Both are board books, one is a book of babies smiling, the other is a cute little panda book with cutouts! I think I'll have to ban myself from all bookstores for a while!

I Have A Second Secret Pal!

I'm in a second Yahoo Group called April2007DTC which just started exchanging Secret Pal gifts this month. Yesterday I received a package from my new Secret Pal for this group! It is 2 adorable children's books, My First Counting Book and Dr. Seuss's A B C, a pretty card and a Sing-Along Microphone! The microphone has a recording on my Secret Pal's daughter on it! It's soooo cute! I think I'll have listen to that from time to time during this long wait to keep my spirits up! The mike also plays songs to sing along to. Too cute! I love it! Thank you April2007DTC Secret Pal!!

4 Months Down!

Not alot, but if you think about it terms of months and not years, 4 months is a nice little dent. Say the wait is 36 months total (which noone really knows and it could be more or less), then 4 months down leaves only 32 months left! LOL Ok so that is stretching the enthusiasm a bit, but that's getting closer to being under 30 months! LOL I was thinking last night, I keep saying that the wait could be 3 years and I was saying that months ago, so it seems like the wait will still be 3 years, BUT we've already waited 4 so we could technically have LESS than 3 years left! I put WAY TOO MUCH thought into this! But whatever makes the wait not seem as long as it is!

This is a short post since it's very dark out and there is thunder and lightning so I should turn off the PC.

August Secret Pal Gift is here!

I'm really enjoying this secret pal swap! Another group I'm in has just started a secret pal swap too so I'll be doing 2 swaps a month. It's so much fun shopping for my pals and of course it's fun to receive gifts from my secret pal each month! Each month the group has a theme for the gift, like this month was children's books for one group and children's music for the other group. It's funwhen shopping trying to find things to fit the themes.



I love checking the mail! I received a gift from my CCAI March/April Secret Pal today. It included a VERY cute toy that plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, some scrapbooking stuff and a Baby Einstein music CD! Even the card was cute! Where do people find these cute things??

This definetly reminds us what we are waiting for and makes the wait not as bad. Now when I go shopping, if I find something for my secret pal, I've been buying one for Raven too! LOL Especially if I find a good sale. I would post some of the pics of cute things I've bought recently, but then my secret pals could probably figure out who I am.. and it's a secret, remember? LOL Shhhhhh! LOL

An Interesting "Theory"...

I figured I'd post this since this is the second time this week I've heard this "theory" although it was only directed at me once. This would be the idea other people have that once you decided to adopt, you're bound to get pregnant. I've been told this a few times before but after hearing it 2 times in one week I figure I'd post about it. First time was said to me by my GYN. She knows I've stopped seeing the specialist and was just there for a regular exam. I told her we decided to adopt and she asked some questions and all was good. Then of course she just had to end it with "Now that you're adopting, who knows, you'll probably get pregnant." I just laughed. Is it possible, yea sure. Is it likely, probably not without medication, which I reminded her of. LOL

Then today I heard Oprah say it to a woman on her show who was stuggling with infertility and had done IVF only to miscarry later. Well, she didn't really say it as her belief, but she said that she had heard that many times people that want to have children so bad and can't have children go and adopt children and then the end up pregnant. The woman said that she hates that statement the most because it's physically impossible without medical intervention to get and stay pregnant and she'd wish people didn't tell her to "take a vacation" or "it'll just happen". She seemed in pretty bad shape. I'm so glad I'm not in that place anymore..and wasn't there for too long in the grand scheme of things. What's interesting is that I don't necessarily want to get pregnant now that we're in the process of adopting. I mean if it happens great, but now that we are doing the adoption, that is my focus. I think I've posted before how if we are able to have a second child I'd like to go back to China. I'd like my daughter to have a sibling that is also adopted, and ideally would like her to have a Chinese sibling, so they'd share that heritage. If I got pregnant, then we'd most likely just have 1 bio child and 1 adopted child, which is fine too, if it were to spontaneously happen, but we're not trying for that. Plus money-wise it's enough that we are going to prepare for Raven's arrival 2-3 years from now. We have time to save, time to get some things done around here, etc. Always the planner! LOL Anyway, that's how I feel about it right now.

Fortunatley, I'm not even overly sensitive (yet) by those type of remarks (and there are many others, but that's another post). In the adoption community I get the sense that alot of people are very offended by these types of comments. I guess it all depends on the person, and the comment. I've definetely read about some interesting things that have been said to waiting families, some said innocently and some said out of ignorance. It's very interesting this world I've gotten into... LOL I've also heard that once you get your child you feel diferently about the comments, so we'll see what happens. I'll have to post more about the types of comments adoptive families get at another time.

New Years Resolution

Ok, so I'm a little late, but hey, better late than never right? So, I've decided today, I will NOT be overweight when I turn 40 next year. I've been doing the on again off again exercising thing for a while now. Not working too well! I've been doing alot of work in the yard but it's really not the same thing. I've been trying not to eat crap "most" of the time. I'm doing a real good job of maintaining my current weight...BIG! LOL Anyway, I once again started getting on the treadmill this past Monday, walked a mile. Then again yesterday I did 1.75 miles. Today, I was just thinking this morning how I am going to turn 40 in less than a year. I will NOT start off my 40's overwieght. I just won't do it. That's what my 30's were for.. been there done that. And now that I've put all my business out there, I'm going to have to stick to it, make it happen. Not sure why it hit me today, but it did and that is the goal.

Another reason for the new found determination is for the adoption. #1 - I don't want to be an overweight mom if I can help it. I want to be able to keep up with a toddler.. lol #2 - I don't want to be squished on the plane for 15 hours approx. each way to and from China. #3 - In about a year or so, our Dossier will hit the Review Room in China. This is where they review all of your paperwork and will ask questions if they have any or request updated medical forms or whatever it is they are questioning. I didn't have to provided a separate letter from my doctor in addition to the medical form because I'm not on any meds, but hubby had to and from what I understand they will most likey require and update from him. But just in case, I want to be in better shape than when we did the Dossier. Hubby really needs to get on board with this goal as well but that's another post..LOL. #4 Should we decide to adopt a second child in the future, we'd like to go back to China, but with our weights right now, we won't be eligible.

So those are my key reasons for wanting to loose the weight, finally. As if I really need reasons to loose weight. LOL Those are just the reasons for doing it NOW!

July's Secret Pal Gift!

My CCAI March/April 2007 LID Secret Pal went all out this month!! I got a big box in the mail today from my secret pal and opened it immediately! First, the card was a very encouraging card with the Chinese proverb "Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it" with a great note inside from her. Then inside was a beautiful decorative box that looks like a little suitcase with different Asian tea labels on it. I LOVE decorative boxes! I love to put all sorts of keepsakes in them to save and look through them from time to time, like a memory box. Definetly something I want to share with my daughter so she can have her own little memory box to put her keepsakes and memories in. This is perfect for that! Then more goodies inside. A cute rattle that I really wanted to take out of the package and play with, but I restrained myself...LOL. A little 9-12mos white t-shirt with a firecracker on it and a beautiful bracelet of Chinese beads with a "red thread" thru it with a little ladybug at the end of the red thread.. very symbolic, very thoughtful. I love it! Also there is a red thread saying with a picture of what I think are Chinese firecrackers (I've never actually seen one so I'm not sure).

"Chinese folklore says that there are invisible red threads that connect a newborn child's spirit to all the people that will be important in her life. As the child grows, the threads shorten to bring these people closer together."

I love it all! Thank you Secret Pal!

To All My Infertility/Adoption Homies...

Need a good cry? Well this video (Kellie Coffey) was posted on one of the message boards I frequent and it's not the kind of music I listen to, but get out the tissues people.



You can also just click on this link to go to YouTube to watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqfGqOx2iDQ

I'm not posting this to be depressing...actually the opposite. At the end of the video she is actually holding her bio son (I read her website), so by either pregnancy (not likely) or adoption (already on the path) it will happen one day. Sometimes thinking that the wait time could take 3 years is frustrating. I never wanted to be an "older" parent. But there are plenty of people on the groups I'm in that say you'll forget about the wait time once you hold your child (maybe like you forget about the pain once you give birth), so I am looking forward to that day. The video was touching to me because many of the signs they were holding up apply to me.

3 Month LID Anniversary!!

Three months down... how many more to go??? LOL MANY! But at least I am still in excited mode! Glass is half full and all of that. People who just received referrals in July I believe have waited 20 months and I am sure the wait time is going to increase. Everything is pointing to a 36 month wait time. Anyway, nothing much new here, as usual.

We bought a freezer which we put in the basement to store meat and frozen goods. Trying to buy in bulk and save a little money. Of course in order to do that we had to spend money on the freezer.. the first bulk shopping run and then of course we needed one of those Food Saver machines that packs the meat in air tight baggies. So EVENTUALLY we'll start to see the savings from this! LOL

I've updated the counter because it wasn't counting anymore.. you'd get a random number everytime the page is refreshed.. interesting. Plus, it took me a while to make this post. I don't know if it's Blogger or the graphic I was using, but hopefully it will work now!

Happy Early 4th!

Ok so I know I haven't been posting much and I'm a little early with the Happy 4th pic..lol I just figured I'd post something now while I am thinking of it, although I don't really have anything much to post about. Some of the things I've been up to... I'm still working on one section of the garden I am putting alongside our new fence. The other sections will have to get done in the coming years, since I #1 don't have that kind of money to do it all at once and #2 I don't have that kind of energy! I've also been trying to spend more time training the dog. He needs all the training he can get! Here's a updated pic of Pyscho Puppy.

I try to practice with him a little each day. He's in an intermediate training class, once a week for 8 weeks. He's learning to "heel", "stay" (with distractions) and "on your bed". He does ok as long as he knows you have treats to give him! LOL

Let's see, not much else happening. I read alot of other blogs, especially the ones of other families who are currently in China meeting their children, or waiting to get their referral and some people just have so much to say and it's very interesting to take a glimpse into their lives. Kinda makes me feel like I have nothing to say compared to some of these blogs I've read.. LOL but that's OK, I'll continue to just journal from time to time to keep a record of this very long journey!

I don't know if I've posted before about this but there is a rumor that the wait time could reach 3 years. That's just crazy! The China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) was here in the US recently visiting some of the agencies and I believe they actually said that the can see the wait time getting to 2.5-3 years. Hopefully it won't go any longer than that! I'll be 42 by the time we get our child! We'll see what happens in the next year. Still, China adoption is a pretty reliable program (except for the wait time!), which is why we chose China in the first place. For those of you who are not familiar with the program, the costs are pretty much spelled out, the program is the same for everyone requesting a non-special needs child, the travel is relatively short (about 2 weeks), there isn't too many unknowns with Chinese adoption, except for the wait now. CCAA says there are just way more dossiers than there are paper-ready babies available for International Adoption. If in a year or so it looks like it's going to go longer than 3 years, tehn I guess we might have to look into other countries again. I've briefly looked at some others already and either we don't qualify because we haven't been married long enough or we weigh too much or the length of travel is just too long or multiple trips are required or it's just way to much money. We might have to just stick it out with China now that we are about $9000 down. I really hope we don't have to change countries because I already feel as though our daughter will be born in China.

2 Months LID!

Haven't been posting much, but just realized it's been a little over 2 months now since LID! I'm surprised that time seems to be flying but maybe that's because I am keeping busy with doing things around the house and trying not to spend all my time focused on the adoption or anything adoption or China related. I'm sure when I'm at 13, 14 months LID it won't seem like time is flying anymore.

June Secret Pal Gift

Just wanted to post a pic of the gift I received yesterday from my Secret Pal from the CCAI March/April 2007 LID group. June's swap theme was books. I love books so this was great. It's a book called "My Friends" and it's in Chinese and english. It's really cute! Raven already has a small collection in the bookcase that I made so this is perfect! Thank you Secret Pal!

Shopaholic!

Ok... I admit it. Hi, my name is Chris and I'm a shopaholic! LOL Although, it's not so much the buying as it is the looking for something to buy..haha. And I am trying to only buy things on sale so it's not too bad. Plus I signed up for a couple of Secret Pal swaps so I get to buy things for other people too, which is fun!

I got this little dress last week on sale, of course. It's 12 months. I didn't think I'd be a big pink person but looks like I might be after all.






I was originally thinking about painting the nursey pink, but the pinks I like will end up looking like Pepto Bismol, so I am thinking about purple. Still trying to decide, but I have time. Maybe we'll do a mural or just some simple things like a cherry blossom tree (to go with the purple walls..lol) or maybe just flowers all over the place.

I've also received more squishes (squares/wishes) for the 100 Good Wishes quilt which I've posted to the other blog.

100 Good Wishes Quilt Blog

I've received my first quilt square for the 100 Good Wishes Quilt I'll be making (or attempting to make) for our daughter once we receive 100 squares. I created another blog to document all of the great quilt squares we will receive. Wishes4Raven

Over 1 Month LID!

I just realized that we've been logged in for over a month now! If the wait time is going to be 24+ months, hopefully those go by as fast as this first one did! Here's to wishful thinking!

New Blog Look

So I've been playing around with the blog trying to make it look pretty..haha. Starting to get there. Probably some more changes to come.



I've joined several Yahoo groups for those logged in during March/April of this year to help past the time with the long wait ahead of us. Through these groups they do things like a Secret Pal Swap and 100 Good Wishes Quilt Squares Exchange, among other things. I've joined 2 of each. One secret pal swap has a gift swap every month. The other alternates between a gift every other month and a card/inspirational note or poem on the other months. Both have different time frames too. One is for a year and the other is for 6 months, then you get a new secret pal. Basically, you get the name and address of the person you will be a secret pal for and send them little gifts each month, and someone else is your secret pal who sends you gifts. I got my first card yesterday from my secret pal! It's a very nice Mother's Day card with a bookmark and some lady bug stickers. Very exciting to get mail that is not bills! haha Thank you Secret Pal!



The 100 Good Wishes Quilt Square exchange seems like it'll be fun too. Basically you get a list of everyone in the group who joined the swap and you send each of them a 8x8 square of fabric and a wish on a card for their child-to-be. Then you make a quilt out of all the different fabrics and a scrapbook of all the different wishes for the child. I'm debating whether I will attempt to make the quilt or have it made. It's a Chinese tradition when a child is born where friends and family give pieces of fabric to make the quilt. Your supposed to get 100 squares from 100 people and make the quilt. I'll try to find the details of the tradition that might explain it better. It's late and I need sleep!

Happy Mother's and Mother's-To-Be Day!!

Just wanted to post quick about the Mother's-To-Be Day gift I got from hubby. Pictures are not that great but you can sort of see them. He had 2 charms added to the charm bracelet he had bought me a few years ago. The first one is an angel, which symolizes the miscarriages..my guardian angels. The second one is a little ladybug, which in the adoption community is a symbol for adoption. I'm not sure if this is only in the China adoption community or adoption in general, but I think it's a lucky symbol., symbolyzing the journey to our daughter-to-be. It's really cute!

Let the shopping begin!

I've read on some adoption message boards that when you get your LID and are officially waiting that to celebrate your LID some people go out and buy something pink (and I assume blue if you are requesting a boy). I guess it's a way to officially begin the wait for your child! And since I don't need an excuse to shop normally, this was a fun idea! So I have been looking around and finally found a little outfit cute enough to be the "something pink" LID celebration purchase! It's this little pink seersucker sundress with little hearts on it. Too cute. It's 24 months. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on this blog yet but we are requesting a baby girl, 0-12 months or as young as possible. Most likely she will be at least 10 months or more. In the future I probably won't buy anything smaller than 12 months, maybe a few 9 months, but not to many. I only plan on buying things on super duper sales so as not to break the bank!




Also, one of the adoption groups I am on will be having a "Secret Pal Swap" where you have a secret pal that you send a goodies box to once a month (or every other month) with baby things in it. I think they usually have a theme each month , like bathtime or beach and then you'd go buy several baby items for the theme and mail them anonymously to your secret pal (and your secret pal sends you things too) and then at the end of the wait.. all the secret pals are revealed. Sounds like fun and yet another excuse to go shopping!


On the downside, on some other boards I have been reading how the wait times might hit the 3 year point. That would really be horrible. But nothing I can do about it really. We've invested enough money to stick with China and not change countries or agencies and I've already gotten over the whole getting pregnant thing, so I guess we just wait. So I'll be about 42/43 by the time I have my first child, which I always thought was kinda crazy, but there are people out there adopting children (sometimes their first) at 50+! So I think I'll be fine (old, yes.. but fine! haha).

We officially have our LID - 4/17/07!!!!

We got the email today that our LID (Log in Date) is 4/17/07!!!

"Congratulations! Your dossier has been logged in by the China Center of Adoption Affairs.

Your official dossier log-in date (LID) is: 4/17/2007"

That means China has received our dossier and has logged it in. Now we just wait in line. When they match children with families this is the date they go by, so everyone with the same date pretty much gets matched at the same time if they are requesting a non-special needs child.

Now let's hope the wait time doesn't go past 24 months!!! Right now they just matched children to families with LIDs of 10/26/05.

DTC 4/3/07!!!!!

Got an email from our agency a little while ago stating that we are finally DTC (Dossier to China) as of yesterday!!! Wooohooo!! We should get a log in date (LID) within next 8 weeks, but I've seen some people getting them alot sooner so hopefully it'll be sooner than later.

We are in Translation!!!!

Our agency called us yesterday to let us know we passed critical review and our dossier is being sent for translation!! I'm so glad everything was ok with the dossier!! Translation takes about a week then it will go to China (DTC)!!!!

Final Document Off To Agency!

So our Dossier is complete and the last document has been all certified and authenticated today and Fedex'd to our agency! Here we come Critical Review!

I-171H IS HERE!!!!

Ok for those of you who don't know what that is or why I am so excited.. this is the LAST piece of paperwork I need to send to the agency. It is the Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition. This means we will make the agency's deadline!! All I need to do is spend a few days in NYC getting it certified and authenticated and off to the agency it goes. The next step is the agency will review all the paperwork and translate it and send it off to China. This is called DTC. Then when China gets it they log it in, LID. The LID is important because they match children with families by the LID date. So everyone with a LID before us gets matched first. That is why it's so important to get LID asap! THEN WE WAIT!

I bought Raven a couple of books from Barnes & Noble this weekend. One about a panda and another about a cat, both board books. They were on clearance so why not. Can never have enough books!

Now that we KNOW we are meeting the deadline, it's so much easier to refer to the baby by name, even though she probably will not be born until next year. She might not even be conceived yet!

Life is good! (I saw that on a spare tire on the back of someone's car today as I was going to get the I-171H notarized - how appropriate!)

USCIS Approval Email!

After emailing USCIS (Immigration) on Monday asking for a status, I got an email yesterday stating that our case was pulled and will be reviewed. I got an email today stating that we are approved and the approval notice (I-171H) will be mailed in 3-5 days!! That is the last thing we are waiting for. I'll be stalking the mailman now till it comes. Then I'll go into the city the day after I receive it to get it certified and authenticated, will probably take 2 days. Then I can Fedex to CCAI with some more fees. Looks like I'll be DTC (Dossier to China) in April since it's getting close to the end of the month.

At least we know at this point we are definetly making the deadline for China! Then we just have to sit back and wait. Right now the wait time is up to 18 months, but I'm hearing it'll probably go to 24 months if not a little longer. That's not good but at least in the meantime I'll have enough time to get some things done around the house adn save some money as well. We'll be able to take our time with the nursery and maybe can either get a new fence for the backyard, or maybe new windows. We need some furniture too. We are also thinking about getting me a new car since my car is 11 years old now. Maybe get something a little bigger with a hatchback. I think I need to make a list! haha At this rate, 24 months will fly by!!!

Dossier off to CCAI!

I will be heading to Fedex in a little while to drop off the package that contains our Dossier, minus the I171H which we are still waiting for. Here is a picture of all the docs spreadout on my table. They include:

Adoption Petition

Financial Statement

Medical Report - Freddy

Medical Report - Chris

Police Clearance Letter - Freddy

Police Clearance Letter - Chris

Employment Letter - Freddy

Employment Letter - Chris

Birth Certificate - Freddy

Birth Certificate - Chris

Marraige Certificate

Homestudy Report

Passport Copy - Freddy

Passport Copy - Chris

Doctor's Letter - Freddy

3 Passport Photos - Freddy

3 Passport Photos - Chris

Couple Photos (Need 3, but included more)

Family Photos (Need 8, but included more)

AND

A full set of copies of everything!

The agency will only be able to start the review if time permits since this Dossier is incomplete. They usually only start the review process when they have a complete Dossier, but since so many people are probably trying to get in before the deadline, they want to get started reviewing as many as they can, if they can.

When I get teh I171H and have it notarized, county certified, state certified and authenticated by the Consulate, then I just need to send it to them with a check for the fees and if they haven't started review at that point they will start.

ONE MORE DOCUMENT TO GO!!!!

I went to the Chinese Consulate in NYC today to get 3 more documents authenticated. Now we are officially only waiting on the I171H from USCIS!!!!!! In the meantime I can send all of the dossier documents and photos to our agency so they can start to review them if they have time (they usually only review complete dossiers). Once we get the I171H it'll probably take about 2 days for me to get a copy of it notarized, county certified, state certified and authenticated at the Chinese Consulate, then Fedex it to the agency. Hopefully USCIS will be good to us and get it to us sooner than later.

WOOOOHOOOO.. almost there!!

Another step closer....

Last time we went to USCIS there was a snow storm. Today we attempted to drive to the city in a rain storm! Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will keep me from finishing this paperwork! We ended up getting off the expressway and taking the train in. Of course when we got there the sun was out! We received our completed homestudy reports yesterday, had another little bump with the Notary's Commission expiration which we got fixed. Today we dropped our homestudy off at USCIS, which they need to finish processing our paperwork so that we can get approval to adoption and orphan from overseas (that's actually how they phrase it). So we were told to call them in 3 weeks to "gently" ask if it was done yet. Mind you, we only have 3 weeks left to get this last document to the agency so we are cutting it close.

We also went to the State Dept. to get 3 more documents certified and I am going Monday to the Chinese Consulate to get them authenticated. That will only leave the USCIS doc to be completed.

We are soooooooo close! Once we get our paperwork to China we can relax.. for about 2 years.. HAHA Right now the wait time to actually receive a referral of a child is 18 months I think, but I keep hearing rumors it's going to go up to 24+ months because of all the last minute people trying to get their paperwork in before the deadline. So we'l just have to be patient and keep ourselves busy for 2 years. There's plenty I can do around the house... like THE NURSERY! LOL Among other things. Freddy is going back to school for Fine Arts. I want to take the dog to another training course. We'll keep busy for sure.

LOVELY DAY!

After many voice messages and emails, we just found out tonight that our fingerprint clearances came through yesterday according to our social worker! She will have the completed Homestudy report on Thursday!!! That means that we can move to the next step!! Most importantly, we can hand in a copy of the report to USCIS so that we can get the last document for our Dossier, the I171H, which is supposed to take about 4-6 weeks. Hopefully we will get it sooner because we need to get everything to our agency by 4/13 which is a little more than 6 weeks away. In the meantime, I can get 3 more documents certified and authenticated (including another copy f our homestudy report) and get our Dossier to our agency, without the I171H, and then send that document when it comes (after certification and authentication).

What is pretty ironic in a couple of ways is that we had Chinese food for dinner and this was one of our fortunes...

Several hours later we got the news that the clearances had come through! So it does look like we were meant to go to China!

Yesterday was a GREAT day!

Wednesday we called USCIS in NYC to see if they were doing anything to help speed up the process for people trying to make the May 1st CCAA deadline. They basically said no, BUT that we should hand in our I600A application right away (usually you have to wait and submit it together with the homestudy report in NY) and they would be able to at least get the fingerprint process underway. Usually you apply then wait 2 weeks for an appointment letter. So we applied yesterday which was interesting because it took us 2 hours to get into the city thru the ice and snow. Then we asked if we could get a fingerprint appt letter while we were there so we didn't have to wait 2 weeks and then even longer for the actual appt. The lady gave us an appointment letter and an appoitment for SAME DAY!!!!! I've never heard of that happening! Maybe because we were the only ones there, maybe because she said the lady that normally give out appointments was out, who knows! So we had to rush from NYC to Hempstead to the USCIS office there to get fingerprinted! So that is taken care of! We are just waiting on the homestudy report now, which we will have to hand into USCIS when we get it. The home study report is being held up by the Office of Children and Family Services who were supposed to be expediting those fingerprints 3 weeks ago. Technically we should have had clearance 2 weeks ago. And now, our social worker is on vacation until Feb 26th! Good timing! NOT! I sent OCFS an email because this is really holding us up. At least we are half way done with USCIS though, that is such a relief. I think once we submit our homestudy to them it takes 4 - 6 weeks to get the final document, I171H. I hope there are as good to us about getting it to us quickly as they were getting us a fingerprint appt.!!!

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting....

Well, it's Monday so it's been a week since NYS OCFS should have flagged our fingerprint cards to expedite. Hopefully we will hear back this week that they have been expedited and the social worker can finish the homestudy. We really need to apply with USCIS as soon as possible so that we can get that all done before April 13th. Hopefully we'll be able to go to USCIS sometime next week.

I've finished the dollhouse/bookcase I was working on. Here are some pictures.

I've put it in the nursery already...LOL. And it just fits against the wall under the slant so that's good. I don't plan on painting the nursery till our paperwork gets to China, but I just had to dress up the bookcase with the stuff I already had!

Last Homestudy Appt Complete!!

We had our last meeting with our social worker to finish up what she needs to write the homestudy! Also, she hasn't heard from NYS OCFS which is a good sign because they said they would call her if there were any problems finding our fingerprint cards, so hopefully they found them and if they did we should have them back by next week. She will call mid next week if we haven't heard anything. Once the fingerprints clear, our social worker can finalize the homestudy report and get it notarized and give us our copies. We have to immediately run to the USCIS (Immigration) office to had one copy of the homestudy in with our I600A form and then wait for an appointment to be fingerprinted (again). Hopefully this will take no longer than 2 weeks, then we just have to wait the 4-6 weeks for the last document from USCIS, the I171H. When we get that we gotta run to the city with a couple other documents to get state cerified and authenticated at the Chinese Consulate. THEN we mail everything to the agency. This has to be before April 13th! But it's looking good and we might actually make the deadline now, so I guess we were meant to adopt from China since things are going in our favor right now. We'll see in the next few weeks what happens.

So I think I mentioned before that I am building a bookcase/dollhouse for the nursery. I'm almost done, just putting some finishing decorative touches on it but here are some pictures.

I even have some books to put in it when I'm done!

Fingerprint update...

We got an email today from our agency that says,

“The NY state Dept of Child and Family Service has decided to expedite the clearances for China Adoptions. The petitioners need to have their agency submit the fingerprint cards overnight mail and the clearances will be done in one week.”

Only issue is that our fingerprint cards were already sent back to the OCFS. Our social worker called them and they have flagged our names and will know by Monday if they found the cards that are already sent and can expedite them OR they will send the agency new cards for us to get fingerprinted again and our agency will overnight back to them and then they will be expedited. Either way, we'll have our clearances done at around the timeframe they would have been done if they had not sent them back the first time and probably several weeks earlier than the new process would have been! So we still have a chance to meet the China deadline. Let's hope USCIS cooperates too!

In case we don't meet the deadline we have been researching Vietnam adoption and will be ready to switch over to another agency and the Vietnam program if we have to. The timeframe for a girl is about the same as China so we'll still have to deal with that.

Another snag....

We found out Monday that our NYS fingerprint cards were sent back to the homestudy agency because as of Jan 11th they need to be submitted with another fingerprint card for the FBI. So our agency mailed the original cards back to us along with new cards for the FBI fingerprints. We got those late last night and rushed to the police station to get fingerprinted, again, and then rushed to Fedex to get our Fedex out by 7PM (we got there at 6:30!) so that the homestudy agency can get the fingerprint cards back to NYS so they can begin the clearance. The snag is that it used to take 3-4 weeks to get the clearance, which was fine because that's probably how long the homestudy will take anyway, but NOW the time to process the child abuse clearance is 6-10 weeks!! That could definetly rule us out of China because our paperwork needs to get to our adoption agency by April 13th. Once the child abuse clearance comes back our homestudy will be done. Then we need to go to USCIS (Immigration) and submit it with the I600A form and wait 2 weeks to be fingerprinted (yet again) and then 4 -6 weeks to get the last paper we need, the I171H which then has to be certified and authenticated, THEN all the paperwork goes to the agency. This needs to be all done by April 13th! If the clearance takes 6 weeks we might be ok. If it takes more than that then we will not make our deadline and will probably have to change countries and agencies.

If we can't meet the China deadline we are going to go with Vietnam. The programs are similiar, maybe a little more $$ for Vietnam and a slightly shorter timeframe than China. The only problem is we will loose about $3000 because the agency we are with now only does China adoptions so with the exception of the Homestudy, we basically have to start over. We might also have to be open to having a boy or a girl since Vietnam apparently has more boys available for adoption than girls. Although I always wanted a daughter, we could have a son first. At this point I just want a child in this house! If we specifically request a boy I think the timeframe for Vietnam is 6-9 months and a girl is 12 months. The process is a little different regarding paperwork but I'm not worried about that.

So that's the story... still with China... but might have to change to Vietnam which is fine too. Maybe I should not paint the nursery pink anytime soon, just in case! I'm also working on building a dollhouse bookcase that I was planning on painting in pastels, very girly. I guess I can still do that, and then if we change to Vietnam and get a boy I'll just repaint the dollouse to be more of a barn/farmhouse and use primary colors! HAHA Always have to have a PLAN B! I'll also store away the RAVEN letters for baby #2..HAHA We'll just have to wait and see.

Craft Time!

Well, I just couldn't keep from making something for the nursery, and since we already picked a name, I got some unfinished wood letters from Michael's and painted them today and added some cute little daisies (the future theme of the nursery). Obviously, the name we picked for our future daughter is Raven. We'll probably keep part of her Chinese name as a middle name depending on what it is. We've been thinking about names for a while and this is one of the few names that we both agreed on. I also started working on a bedding set, pink and purple of course! I know it's a little early but I'm trying to stay positive that we will meet the deadline and then I will really start working on the nursery!!

First Homestudy Visit DONE!

YAY! Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The social worker was very nice and asked us a bunch of questions about how we met and why we want to adopt, etc. She took a tour of the house and that was it pretty much. Painless! Our next visit is next week. We have to have 4 visits total. Then she will write up the homestudy, which needs to go to my agency for approval, then to USCIS (Immigration) with the I600A form. Then USCIS asks you to come in for fingerprinting 2 weeks from then, then you get your final piece of paperwork, the I171H which has to be certified and authenticated along with another copy of the homestudy and then everything goes off to the agency for processing. The social worker seems to think we will make our deadline of April 13th. I sure hope so!! I want to start shopping!!!! Pretty much once your dossier goes to China and gets "logged-in", the rest is just waiting. More time to shop! LOL I also drove out to Riverhead today to go to the Suffolk County Clerk to get our Police Clearance forms certified. WOOHOO!

Running around today...

I took a couple of vacation days today and tomorrow and went into NYC today and went to the NY County Clerk and Dept of State and got a bunch of documents certified. One step closer to getting all the paperwork ready. I'm going to the Chinese Consulate tomorrow in NYC to get them authenticated. All we'll need then is the Police Letters, Homestudy and Immigration paperwork certified and authenticated. Our timeline is tight. Between getting the homestudy done, getting fingerprinted and getting the last document from USCIS, we will just about make it. If any of these goes longer than anticipated (Past April 13th) then we won't make it and will probably either have to wait longer to see if we can qualify under the new rules or go with another program/country, which means going with another agency and loosing whatever money we've paid so far. Hopefully we will make the April 13th deadline.

Moving right along...

We got a bunch of stuff done between yesterday and today including getting fingerprinted, requesting a police clearance letter, getting some documents notarized and certified adn going to the doctor for our medical reports. Productive 2 days!

We also got an email from the agency confirming that we need to get our paperwork to them before April 13th. Hopefully that will be possible. We will certainly try.

We also picked a name for our future daughter!!! I know it's a little early but it seems like most Intl. Adoptive parents-to-be pick out a name early. Makes it more real to call her by name instead of "the baby".

To announce the name to my mom, I made a Search-A-Word puzzle so she could figure it out without me flat out telling her. This is the easy version of that puzzle. I had given her questions to answer but they were specific questions for her so I'll just post the words to find here. Once the words are found, unscramble all the letters that appear in a pink square to solve the puzzle!

1 CHINA
2 GORILLA
3 GARDENIA
4 BLUE
5 PINK
6 SILVERBACK
7 JINGLES
8 AUSTRIA
9 PLAYPEN
10 CAMEL
11 RAYMOND
12 SEVEN
13 AIRPLANE
14 PERRY MASON
15 YOSHI
16 REINDEER
17 PANDA
18 FLOWER
19 SONJAHENIE
20 GODZILLA
21 RED
22 SNAKE
23 ELVES
24 COMET
25 BRUCE


The answer to the puzzle will be her first name and we will most likely keep her Chinese name (or some variation of) as her middle name.

Agreements Signed...

Ok so we signed the agreements and sent in the first payment! We actually have to get all of our paperwork in probably by the beginning of April so that the agency can review it and get it to China by May 1st. We contacted a homestudy agency and should be speaking to them on Monday. I'm not sure yet but I think we have to have 4 homestudy appointments, then apply to USCIS (Immigration). Our frst appointment will probably be in the beginning of January due to the holidays. That's only 2 weeks away but seems like FOREVER! Other things we have to do is make appointments for our medical reports, start the immigration process, get police clearances and I am sure I am forgetting a bung of things! I really hope we can get this all done by April. In the meantime we are both going to attempt to loose some weight just in case. That is what could hold us up if we don't get our paperwork in by April. We both have to have BMIs of under 40. Time to dust off the treadmill.

Well that's all for now.

WE'RE APPROVED!!!

We called the agency today and they told us we were approved! I was getting worried because China has just changed their eligibility requirements this past Friday and we do not qualify under the new requirements (yet) so that would have made us have to wait a while before applying again. It turns out that all we need to do is get all our paperwork in (called a dossier) by end of April in order to still be eligible under the existing requirements. So let the paperchase begin!!

I've been meaning to try to post some pictures so here it goes.

Here's a picture of our puppy Yoshi. He's a Shiba Inu and is 8 1/2 months old. This is one high energy dog let me tell you!

"Come on Mom, can't I have some more sugar pleeease?"

Yoshi got his first Xmas card today from my Mom with a cute little note inside for him and one dollar... (notice it has cats on the front)

If you can't read the note it says "To Yoshi, Merry Christmas. put this dollar in the bank for your little sister. Love Grandma". Now how cute is that?

We picked a different agency!

Ok, so after a minor glitch, our first bump in the road, we are applying with a different agency. We're going with our second choice (which should have been our first choice) Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI). We Fedexed the application today so they will have it tomorrow morning. Hopefully we will hear something by the end of this week or beginning of next week and can officially start the process.