baby franklin

no baby....

2008-10-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

i regret to announce we are no longer expecting a baby.
bill and i have decided to go our separate ways and are getting divorced.
i am planning on relocating to the greater baltimore area and bill is staying in NH.
we remain friends.
thanks to all who have been with us in this journey.

matched through January 20th

2008-06-11T04:39:00.001-07:00

this month they got from 1/12 to 1/20...steadily closer.....

2 years...

2008-05-06T17:19:00.000-07:00

well April 29, 2008 made it 2 years of official wait...and referrals are only out through January 12....
getting closer, but with the Olympics in Bejing this summer, I doubt there will be any speeding up any time soon.
2009 baby?

23 months...

2008-03-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

as we appraoch the 2 year wait mark, we still have no idea when....they have matched through 1/4/2006 so far...which still leaves almost 4 months of families ahead of us. while traveling this year is possible, we are starting to think it unlikely....we'd love to be surprised on this one though :)
i managed to go through all of the clothes we have for her and get things sorted into bins by size and season. now we just keep on waiting..

feb 2008 referrals

2008-02-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

well, they made it through 12/27/2005 this time...which is a big improvement from last month. but still a long way to go.

ah the wait...

2008-01-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

so rumors are flying, now that the CCAA has taken down the part of their website where they used to post where they were in the process of reviewing families and referring children. That information is now not being released to the public. Some agencies are speculating that people with LID in April 2006 (that's us) might not see their referrals until 2009!
ugh.
what will be will be, but man would we be happier if we just knew what was going on....

matches through 12/19/2005

2008-01-03T06:43:00.000-08:00

i promise to update this more often this year, because hopefully we should be getting closer to real news....
this month, the CCAA refered only 5 days again (from 12/15-12/19).

this stinks, but at least referrals are still happening.
i guess we are 5 days closer to our LID of 4/29/2006, but it seems so far away.
and a big question-how will the olympics in Bejing this summer affect things???
we have no idea.
fingers crossed we meet our daughter this year....

happy 1 year anniversary of our wait...

2007-04-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked 1 year of official waiting.....
Today it was announced that the next referral batch goes through 11/1/2005....that means there are still almsot 6 months of families ahead of us...
and 2007 is looking less likely for us.
Hoping for a speed up....

Happy Year of the Pig!

2007-02-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

Happy year of the Fire Pig! It's Chinese New Year today...
noword on the next referral batch as of yet, and the office is closed for the week to celebrate.

9 months today!

2007-01-29T08:49:00.000-08:00

Today is our 9 month anniversary of official waiting....
current wait is 16 months and hopefully will not get any longer.

8 months into official wait today

2006-12-29T12:16:00.000-08:00

sigh. still no cutoff date announced for the last referral batch of 2006 (we hope they get them today and don't have to wait until after the holiday).
but, we did order our crib yesterday :) it was a gift from the franklin grandparents and is a Babia Italia lifestyle crib. I'll post photos when we get it and have it put together :)
hopefully we'll be headed home tomorrow (yet another large snowstorm in denver this weekend).
maybe we'll travel this summer????

Christmas Eve at the Broncos game

2006-12-25T07:28:00.000-08:00

We spent yesterday afternoon at the Denver Broncos game in the snow :) It was not only a good football game, but the Broncos won..it was great fun despite sitting in a snow bank for our seats and being wrapped in 12 layers of clothing. I'll edit this post to add photos once I am home to download them.

snowed in ...

2006-12-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

well we made it to denver on tuesday, and the storm started that night. we've been snowed in for 2 days with 2 1/2 feet of snow :)
but luckily we didn't really have anything we had to do so we could just sit around, drink cocoa, eat cookies and play cards ...
the 8 month mark is approaching quickly and no word on the cut off date for the last batch of referrals for the year....
i'll psot photos of the storm when i am home and can download them :)

holiday decorations photos

2006-12-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

Photos of the decorations inside and out (including the 2 wreaths I made for the doors)

same rate of referrals...7 months into our wait

2006-11-30T05:22:00.000-08:00

the latest batch of referrals that went out today are through 9/8/2005....same number as in past months and no sign of a speed up yet....
maybe we will travel before 2008?
sigh
but as of yesterday, we were officially 7 months into our official wait...so maybe the 15 months is is now won't be so bad....
lot's of time to learn chinese, prepare the house (and ourselves, and our bank accounts....)

review room???

2006-11-07T15:23:00.000-08:00

There are rumors that at least part of April LIDs are in the review room (some familes are being asked for more information....). Officially they've finished reviewing through the end of January 2006...
where is our dossier??? we won't know for sure until they finish all of April or we are asked for more information....

slight speed up?

2006-11-02T03:42:00.000-08:00

referrals were received today and went through 8/25, which may be the start of things picking up...
fingers crossed!

halloween photos!

2006-10-31T05:50:00.000-08:00

6 months...

2006-10-30T04:41:00.000-08:00

we've officially been waiting 6 months now and no end in sight. the next batch of referrals should arrive this week, but will likely only make it until the end of Aug 2005....which leaves all of September, October, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb and Mar all ahead of us....that's 7 whole months... and since they are currently taking 2-3 months to get rhough each month of LIDS, the wait that is now 15 months may be over 2 years unless things speed up.....
sigh
but all we can do is wait...

Fall photos :)

2006-10-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

my folks were in town for Columbus day weekend and we had a great time. Some photos from the weekend:

her name and our new website

2006-10-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

so we finally announced our daughter's name:
Susanna (middle name(s) still being decided)

we also have a new dedicated website as well:
www.journeytosusanna.com

yay :)

5 months....

2006-09-27T05:32:00.000-07:00

We will officially have been waiting 5 months on Friday....when we first started this process, the 6 month wait seemed so long... now that it's 14, 6 seemed so short...
The last batch of referrals were received this week and went through 8/9/05. Here's hoping the next batch gets into September and they can start shortening this wait again....

New haircut and random musings

2006-09-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

I got my haircut on Tuesday and donated it to an organization that makes wigs for women undergoing chemotherapy who cannot afford a nice wig. Trying to get used to ahving no hair still, but I like the cut :)

We just purchased a domain name for the baby's website. I'll post the link once it's up and running.
Rumor has it that some people with LIDs in March are in the review room! For those unfamiliar with the process there are lots of steps....Once you complete your dossier and get approval from US immigration and homeland security, you submit your documents to China (DTC). Then the CCAA logs you into their system (your LID date). This LID date is what puts you in line for your referral. All agencies are treated equally in the Chinsee adoption system, so all LIDs of a certain date will get their referrals at the same time. Once your documents are logged in, they sit around a long time. The first place they go is the "review room." This is wear officials read through everything, make sure you have all documents in order and that you qualify as an adoptive family. As a part of this process, some families are asked to provide further information (such as more detailed medical history or clarification on something). Once you make it through the review room, you wait in the matching room to be matched with your child. Since we have an LID in April, having March families in the review room means we are getting close to at least moving a step in the process. The CCAA has officially reviewed all dossiers with an LID of December 31, 2005 or earlier and this point. Referrals are still averaging 13-14 months right now and we are waiting for the next batch to see if that wait changed at all....
wait wait wait....
back to my quilting :)

Random dog pictures :)

2006-08-30T04:35:00.000-07:00

The trio :)

Megan being Megan

Carmen at 8 lbs 4 oz (that's 3 1/4 lbs total loss so far!)

The chihuahua "look":

4 months down...

2006-08-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Almost exactly 4 months since our paperwork was logged in ....The next batch of referrals have been received. Unfortunately, they only go through 7/20, so they are still slowing down. The wait is now to 14 months and no sign of picking up....hopefully that will change soon.
But all we can do is wait. and try to save some money and work on the house and finish the quilt and run another marathon and wait :)

3 months into our wait today!

2006-07-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

today we have been officially waiting 3 months. seems like forever already....word in the rumor mill is that referrals are being received on Monday that go through July 18, 2005 LID dates. That means that CCAA is still matching less than 1 month of LIDs per month and our wait continues to lengthen. It's now officially a 13 month wait...Hopefully they will pick up speed now that they have moved into the new larger offices in Bejing and because Aug, Sept and Oct have a smaller number of dossiers to match. We shall see....The photo is us at the Bon Jovi concert 7/27 :)

the wait may be getting even longer...

2006-07-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

there are rumors that our wait could get out to 18 months...it was 6 when we started our paperwork and we were going to have her home by the holidays 2006. now it looks like we'll be lucky to have her home by the holidays 2007....
ugh.
but we are keeping busy. i ahve 2 new addictions-quilting and Turbo Jam (yes the one from the infomercial....sigh). Both are fun and keeping me busy.
And it's hot hot hot....whew. First the monsoons and the flooding and now a 4 days heat wave that hasn't broken.
Off to the falcon ridge folk festival tomorrow for 4 days of music and camping. Should be a blast :)

LID 4/29/2006!!!

2006-06-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

we received out LID via email today! So we were officially registered with the CCAA in China on 4/29/06....
how it feels official :)

New dog!

2006-06-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

We added a 3rd rugrat to our posse of small dogs. Meet Carmen, a 4 year old Chihuahua :)

She's in the process of losing weight-her previous family fed her lots of junk and never took her for walks :( She's already lost over 2 lbs (from 11 lbs 7 oz to 9 lbs 5 ox in just 3 weeks!) As you can see from the photo she still has a few more to go, but at least she can get up the stairs on her own now :)

Triathlon photos from 6/18/06

2006-06-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

12 month wait....

2006-06-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

it's official that the current referral batch took 1 year from LID to referral....they have been only matching partial months for some time now...hopefully we'll see all of July matched by the end of July or our wait will be getting longer...
In the meantime, I am learning to quilt :)
I'm in the process of collecting fabric for our 100 good wishes quilt, and I am almost finished piecing together the quilt top for the first trial quilt (not the official one, but one made from fabric I bought myself). It's been an interesting process becoming reaquainted with the sewing machine (and trying to keep the critters out of the fabric).
THe triathlon went well last weekend. I finished in 3:45 which made me happy, but was good for 101 out of 102 finishers :) Now time to train for the Baltimore marathon in October :)

still waiting...

2006-06-07T04:54:00.000-07:00

it's been a while, but not much is happening with the adoption at this point. we are just in the long wait with little in the way of updates...current estimates still put us at a 12 month wait (referral in April 2007), but no one really knows...
in the meantime i am making a 100 good wishes quilt. this is an old chinese tradition to welcome a new member to a family. basically we collect fabric squares along with good wishes from 100 people, and sew them into a quilt. then the wishes go in a scrapbook so you can look to see who sent each piece of fabric later. so time to relearn how to use the sewing machine that has been collecting dust :)
i'm also continuing to work on the nursery and on her baby book...
otherwise we are playing ultimate, running road races, and i am training for triathlons. i'm racing an international distance tri on 6/18 (1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run). also planning a fall marathon (either NYC or baltimore). i think it's good to keep busy and to counter all that nervous eating :)
i'll update periodically with nursery and quilt photos as i get there....
wait wait wait...

Officially waiting :)

2006-04-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Our dossier was sent to China on 4/3 and the remaining families in our travel group had theirs sent over 4/7. Our documents are all being translated now and will be logged into the system in China soon. It will likely be a month or so before we here when our official log in date (LID) is (and this is the date that determines when we will get our referral). Unfortunately referral times have increased dramatically since we started this process. When we started the paperwork in Oct and Nov, it was a 6 month wait and had been for a long time. Since then, it has increased to 11 months, and is expected to get longer before it gets shorter. So much for having her home for the holidays in 2006. Heck, now we'll be happy to get her in the spring 2007 and to not have to wait until summer 2007....
but it's out of our hands completely now....

Immigration form arrived today!

2006-04-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

It's finally official! We receivd our I171H form today giving us permission to bring an orphan into the country! So tomorrow morning we will get the copy notarized as a certified copy, I will get it apostiled by the NH Sec of State office in the afternoon, and it will go to our courier in NYC via FedEx tomorrow afternoon. They will hand deliver it to the NYC Consulate on Wednesday and our agency should receive it back authenticated by Friday!
YAY!

All docs at agency....

2006-03-28T03:52:00.000-08:00

except the INS permission letter which we haven't received yet. I have things set up such that when that letter arrives (granting us permission from the department of homeland security to bring an orphan into the country), I'll be able to get it through the authentication process in 4 business days. There are also rumors started about an 18 month wait for referrals... but we just won't know until we get there.
All we can do is wait....

MA Sec of State has our documents today :)

2006-03-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

I just got the fedex notification showing that our documents were delivered today. Hopefully they'll turn them around in the next few days so we can get the whole lot to the Consulate in NYC.
Another step along the path completed!

criminal background forms arrived from MA!

2006-03-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

Finally, we got them back today (3/10) after mailing the requests in 2/1....whew.
tomorrow it's off to fedex land to send all of our documents notarized in MA to the MA Secretary of State to be apostiled, then they go to the Chinese Consulate in NYC. One step closer...
we also had our fingerprints done on Tuesday without any problems, so we are also waiting on our official forms that give us permission to bring an orphan into the country.
we are so close to being done with the paperwork, but yet likely several weeks away stil. argh...

we got our fingerprinting appointment!

2006-03-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

finally, we got our letters in the mail yesterday giving us permission to have our fingerprints done. so we have an appointment on Tues 3/7 at 8:15 am which brings us one step closer.
still have not gotten our criminal background checks back from MA though...should be any day now.

ugh..

2006-02-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

Boy is this taking longer than it should be. Friday we went to the NH USCIS office to be fingerprinted and were told we were not in their computer system yet....I just got a call from our social worker today, saying she had just gotten off the phone with the INS office asking why we hadn't been fingerprinted yet....sigh. But, the good news is that that mess is all straightened out and we should be getting a letter giving us permission to be fingerprinted (hopefully) by the end of the week.
I also called the MA State police office to find out why our criminal background checks were taking so long....finally got a nice woman on the phone that explained that their computer systems had been down for a week and that she would look for ours this week and process it ASAP :)
so maybe we'll get to submit our paperwork to the MA Secretary of State to be apostiled in the next 2 weeks....
then it's off to the NY Consular office and and all of it goes to our adoption agency to be reviewed and translated.
if we are lucky, it will be submitted by the end of march....
our hopes for having her home by the end of the year are fading unless referral times pick back up again, but it will feel good to at least have it in the hands of the Chinese government and completely out of our control....(i think...)
:)

still waiting....

2006-02-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

we are still in a holding pattern waiting for the state of MA to get our criminal backgrond check in the mail to us. I know our application arrived at the office on 2/6....ugh.
once those arrive, it's off to the MA Secretary of State office to get state certification....
We are also waiting for our letter giving us permission to get fingerprinted from the INS office.
so we wait wait wait...
i think the waiting will get easier when everything is submitted to China and there is nothing I can do about it. Now I feel like I should be doing something, but our hands are tied at the moment...

one step closer, one step back...

2006-02-13T03:58:00.000-08:00

well we just got home from vacation last night. 3 envelopes awaited us-our revised homestudy for China, one from the Boston INS office and one from the Chinese Consulate Office in Chicago. The one from the consulate was good news-our birth certificates are now fully authenticated and ready to go. The one from the INS was a rejection of our I600A. According to the form, it said to check to website for the most current information on fees and payment. So I did, and it said to send a personal check. The application was returned because they no longer accept personal checks, just certified checks and money orders.... So back to the bank I go this morning to get a certified check, and then back to the post office to mail it again....
grrr.
but the cruise was an excellent time had by all :)

wow, this was more complicated than it should be...

2006-02-02T12:22:00.000-08:00

So yesterday morning, I picked up the finalized copes of our homestudy. I mailed one copy to the USCIS office in Boston along with our I600A application and other documents they needed. I mailed our criminal record requests for Massachusetts to the State Records Office in Boston as well. All good. I took the NH criminal records request to the office in Concord in person since it is only 15 minutes from work...they took my check, stamped my form and sent me out the door. I asked specifically if that was all I needed for an international adoption (as I thought I needed a notarized statement that said "No criminal record") and I was assured that what I was holding was the official and only seal frmo the state of NH. So then I decided to take all of the NH documents to the Secretary of State's office in person (along with a FedEx envelope so she could send the authenticated documents back to me). The good news was that she could do them right then and there, so no need to pay FedEx to get them back to me. The bad news was that I was correct and I did need a notarized letter for our criminal record statement. I also needed a new copy of our marriage license because the copy I had was certified at the town level, and not the state level. Lucky for me, the Department of Vital Records was across the street from the Department of Safety (where the criminal records are done). So I fought Concrod traffic and drove back to the other side of town to the office I had just come from. I got our marriage license without any problems, but when I went back to criminal records, I was again informed that they did nothing special for internation adoptions. I drove back to the statehouse with the phone number of the person in criminal records. The secretary of state official called the criminal records and explained what I needed. I had to go back the next day (today) to ge tthe correct form, and the drive back to the statehouse for the certification....
whew...
So I have all of those forms in hand and authenticated now, but it took 3 trips to each office over 2 days to do it :)
Then I get a call from the homestudy agency coordinator who tells me that there was an error in our homestudy (which was one of the documents I just had authenticated at the state level) and would have to be redone...So that means I get to make one more trip to the statehouse after they reissue the homestudy.
Too bad I don't get frequent driver miles...
But at least everything else is submitted and maybe will be back waiting for us when we get back from vacation (leaving tomorrow!).
:)

Homestudy finalized!

2006-01-31T19:59:00.000-08:00

I got a call this afternoon that our homestudy is finalized and notarized. I'll pick it up from our agency on the way to work in the morning! YAY!
I also mailed our birth certificates off to the Consulate in Chicago today.
Our I600A will go to the USCIS office in Boston TOMORROW!
All we need now is to be fingerprinted and get through homeland security. USCIS will send us a 171H form and then we just need to send everything off to be authenticated by either MA or NH, then off the the Consulate in NYC.
We may have everything submitted by the end of Feb!!!!
If we get everything in as planned, then we are looking at a Nov 2006 referral :)
(assuming current wait times hold out)

yay! we received bill's birth certificate yesterday!

2006-01-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

Now that we have both of them back certified, they'll go out to the Consulate in Chicago to be authenticated on Monday. I finished the I600A form this weekend as well, so that is sitting in an envelope awaiting our finalized homestudy copy to arrive so we can mail it. The other bit that needs doing is we need a second original copy of our state police clearances for both NH and MA, so that's my Tuesday project this week. The NH one is easy because I can walk in the office and have it done while I wait, but the MA one needs to be mailed in and back again.
Soon soon soon :)
gives new meaning to "hurry up and wait"....

One birth certificate down, one to go....

2006-01-27T07:13:00.000-08:00

My birth certificate arrived back from the Michigan Secretary of State last night with their seal of approval. Now we just need Bill's back from Illinois and we can send both off to the Chicago Consular office to be authenticated.
who knew there were this many layers of approval for one document....

Our homestudy draft arrived today!!!

2006-01-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

Yay! We just need to edit it, send it back and we should be getting the finalized copies soon! :)
One step closer. I'll get the edited copy back in the mail tomorrow, so maybe if we are lucky we'll get the final version by the end of next week???
:)

another nursery photo...

2006-01-20T15:54:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of the laundry hamper/toy storage bins that came in today, as well as her castle bookcase :)

And this is the first baby gift we have received (from a friend at work):

She's likely not even born yet, and already being spoiled....
:)

Our agency chose our Dossier photos :)

2006-01-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

so here are the photos that will represent us to the Chinese adoption agency:

I should be able to pick up my medical clearance next week, and then all we are waiting on is our finalized homestudy to get the final round of paperwork started. We are also still waiting on the state certification for our birth certificates, but that should be relatively quick (in theory).
yay :)

paperwork update

2006-01-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

I got a call from our social worker saying that our homestudy is in the process of being typed up and should be finalized soon! Yay.
I also unfortunately just realized that I have several more steps to put some of the documents through that I could have been working on the past few months...
We have certified copies of our birth certificates (mine from MI and Bill's from IL). These certified copies need to be sent to the Secretary of State in the state they were issued in order to be certified on the state level. Once we get those back, they have to go to the consulate for the midwest (which is different from where the rest of our documents have to go) to be authenticated. So we need to get documents certified by 4 states and then authenticated by 2 consulate offices....
Yipes.
Hopefully that will all go quickly and smoothly. We still have likely another week or two before we get the finalized homestudy in order to submit the INS request for permission to adopt an orphan, and get fingerprinted and cleared by homeland security.
So January is not going to happen as far as getting the paperwork to China, but hopefully Feb or March! We also got an update from our agency saying that the current wait times are 1 month for our documents to be logged into the system in China, and 8 months from the LID (log in date) to referral of our child. Which means if we get our paperwork in to China in February, we are looking at a November referral unless things speed back up (the wait was 2 weeks to LID and 6 month to referral a few months ago).
sigh. we'll get there though :)

Dang Pats, go BEARS!

Nursery progress :)

2006-01-08T06:27:00.000-08:00

Finally, some progress and some photos :) This is the closet (and the ever helpful Clyde)

Another wall and the valances:

The rugs:

The big wall:

yay :) the crib and changing table will be in oak to match the trim and the dresser, and there will be a glider in the corner with the green paintings. we are still waiting on a few small pieces of paper and then we will be officially in business as far as waiting for a referral :)

nursery and paperwork update...

2006-01-01T14:50:00.000-08:00

Happy 2006!
The paint is on the walls, the bedding has arrived (although there is no crib yet) and the valances and blinds are bought. We even started a registry at amazon.com....
I'm hoping to get some of the decorations up on the walls this week and maybe I'll post some photos then (after I get the junk out of there and into the basement or attic).
As far as the paperchase goes, we are still waiting for our medical forms and for the home study to be finalized. I need to call our social worker to find out if she's gotten everything she needs yet and if the draft has been submitted for processing.....
The rest is done and waiting.. :)
2006 looks to be a good year already.

Nursery work officially begun....

2005-12-23T05:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got half of the wallpaper off the walls in there, and today i hope to finish removing it. Then sanding and priming...and then paint. I bought a buttery yellow color for the walls. Since I have Monday and Tuesday off, I should be able to get the walls finished this weekend :)
We also got the bedding set (won it off ebay actually) which is sage green with red ladybugs crawling on it. I'll post photos as soon as there is something worth showing off.

Announced pending adoption to our friends and extended family....

2005-12-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

We decided to announce the pending adoption to our friends and extended family with our holiday cards this year. It's been pretty exciting hearing all of the encouragement and everyone so far has been very supportive. Many of these folks have no idea about or fertility struggles, but I am sure word will travel fast on that front. Heck, I may even post the link to this blog on our family webpage so everyone can follow along....

Nursery started and looking at clothes....:)

2005-12-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I am admitting this, but I have started buying baby clothes :) Started innocently enough as perusing the baby clothes when at Marshalls, then I saw some really cute stuff pretty darned cheap, so I bought a few outfits. Sizes are interesting because Chinese babies tend to run a bit smaller than the standard american baby sizes....We also won't know how old she is until we get our referral, and then we won't have much time. So I have started to by stuff ranging from 6 month to 18 month size assuming we'll get her late fall early winter. This should save us money in the long run if I guess right, but will end up costing more if I guessed wrong.... ah well. We plan on bringing a variety of sizes with us to China and donating anything too small to the orphanage there.
We have also started thinking nursery design. THe previous owners of our house put up wallpaper trim border with animals on it. I am thinking of taking it down and giving the room a fresh coat of a light yellow or beige paint. We are definitely going with oak toned wood for the crib since we already have a dresser that will double as a changing table, and the room has wood trim around the closet and windows. I orders a few pieces of wall art from www.chinasprout.com. I can't wait until they come in :) I also found great crib bedding that I love, so hopefully I'll get that soon.
As far as the paperchase goes, I finally have my doctors appointment scheduled for Tuesday 12/27 for the remaining tests they need for the dossier. Bill has his this Friday. We got all of the paperwork notarized last week. Our homestudy is written but waiting on the Indiana criminal background check and a couple of our references to arrive to be finalized. As soon as that is finalized we can start the last paper work push and get on the official waiting train :)
Hopefully our last holiday season just the two of us!!!!

we've started talking names...

2005-12-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Kinda scary but we spent last night and this morning talking about possible names. Given we have a 98% chance of getting a girl from China, we figured we were pretty safe in sticking to the girl name debate. It's an interesting process trying to name your child. I mean finding a name you both like, that isn't outrageously popular, that goes with your last name well....the add in wanting to honor a family member or two and her Chinese heritage...yipes. But hey, at least we have some time to work on it. We did decide we would not announce anything until after the referral, partly because we think we will incorporate her given Chinese name as a middle name. Plus, that way we can look at her picture and see what fits. We may even wait until we get her to officially announce it, but we haven't decided that one yet.
In other news, I decided to get running again. I had stopped because of the whole trying to conceive thing and my doctors worries that long distance running my be contributing to our problems. Now after fertility treatments and too much comfort food, I have gained 15 lbs and have aches and pains I didn't have before.
SO we joined the Greater Derry Track Club today which seems like a great local running club. We also went out for a morning jog this morning since the roads were clear and it was sunny out. I only went about 2 miles, but it felt good to get out there. I also didn't want to hurt myself by doing too much too soon. So I plan on running a half marathon in the spring and the NH marathon 9/30/2006 if we aren't traveling for the adoption then.
I typed up our official financial statement for the adoption dossier yesterday as well. So now we wait on getting those doctors forms back and our homestudy finalized and we are in business :)

Adoption poem

2005-12-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

I found a great poem today while surfing adoption web sites:

"You first came to us in an envelope, with letters, forms and such
A few tiny little pictures, with nothing warm to touch.
You grew in our imagination. In our hearts and in our minds.
You brought us greater joy, than we ever thought we'd find.
A phone call started labor pains, which lasted 'til we met
Strangers brought together, A day we won't forget.
You bloomed as you were planned. In our hearts, our lives, our home.
Our child of chance, of plan, of will, you are our very own."

The paperchasing process is still in full swing. I got my certificate of profession back from my boss yesterday. Bill still needs his frmo work. We have a growing stack of things that need notarizing, but figure we will try to make only one more trip on that front. I found out this week that we need different medical report forms than we needed for our homestudy. And in order to complete those forms we both have to be tested for HIV. So now we wait for the doctors to request the bloodowrk, get the blood drawn, wait for the results and then wait for our doctors to finish with the forms and get them notarized for us to submit them. I also have to see if all of our references made it to the social worker....
ah, but it will all be so worth it when we get that referral....
:)

Holidays and waiting

2005-11-29T08:25:00.000-08:00

We just put my in-laws on a plane yesterday. They stayed with us for almost a week for THanksgiving. Always an interesting experience. And now that things are quiet again, we continue to wait. We have done all we can at this point and are at the mercy of others. We are waiting for those who have agreed to write us references to get them mailed in to the social worker. We are waiting for the states to mail our official criminal background checks in. Judith (our social worker) has already written most of the homestudy at this point and has to hold off on finishing it until she receives the above mentioned paperwork. If all goes well the homestudy will be finalized by the end of the year and we can submit our I600A to the US government for approval to bring an orphan into the country. That usually takes a month or two. Once that is in hand, we can officially send all of our documents to China and wait for a referral. People who had every submitted to China in April on 2005 are receiving their referrals now. Which means if we can get ours in by Feb or March, there is a good chance we may have her home for xmas 2006. Then again with bird flu, earthquakes and politics, who knows....

Final homestudy meeting today!

2005-11-22T18:27:00.000-08:00

We had our last homestudy interview today. Yay.
Now all we need is to get our references all in and wait for all the criminal background check forms to arrive. Once all that is together, the homestudy should be finished in another week or so.
Once that is complete, we can send in the INS paperwork and wait some more :)
And we have one more visit to the notary coming up to get forms signed off that we don't own guns and other such fun things.
At least it is progress....
The in-laws are coming tomorrow for turkey day so i will be busy cooking and entertaining. That should distract me for a few days anyhow :)

finished our holiday cards today...

2005-11-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

aren't they cute? This is Pedro and Megan, our lovely, but mischievous dogs.
Nothing to do with the baby, but I could not resist posting the photo :)

and yet more paperwork....

2005-11-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

We got the forms for the last of the criminal background checks yesterday. So hopefully Bill will get that done and in the mail today. You have to get a criminal background check for every state you have lived in for the past 10 years. Meaning I got to do NH and MA, and Bill did NH, MA and Indiana. They all have different forms, different rules and of course all want their own fees as well.
We need to get all of that paper work back from each state before they can complete our homestudy.
It is also time to start gathering our references from those who have agreed to write them. I need to call everyone so they have the address to mail it to and hopefully they can get them out before the holidays when everyone gets really busy.
We faxed our bios over to the social worker today as well, so that part is done.
I also mailed the guardian letter to my brother to sign. Normally no big deal, except that he is in the peace corps in Albania and the mail isn't that reliable....SO it will likely be a month before we get that back from him (assuming it isn't lost and we have to send it again) and then we can forward it to my sister-in-law in CO to sign it as well.
They don't call it the Paper Chase for nothing...

Things are moving along rapidly, but it's never fast enough. Especially knowing that once we get all the paperwork officially mailed to China, it will be 6-12 months before we get our referral.....

Adoption application mailed!

2005-11-16T04:43:00.000-08:00

So I finished the financial forms last night and we are putting the adoption application in the mail today. So far we have spent $4000 and we have not gotten into any of the government fees. Yipes. But it will all be worth it in the end when we meet our baby.
The other thing I am mailing today is a letter to my brother. He is in the peace corps in Albania. We need to appoint guardians as a part of the adoption process, and both need to sign the same form. So we will send it to him first, so if it gets lost a few times it's ok.
Now all there is to do is wait for the last homestudy visit on Tuesday morning.

Progress on the paper chase...

2005-11-15T18:29:00.000-08:00

Today I wrote my autobiography for the social worker. It's kinda intimidating to put your life story (and a brief version at that) on paper for someone else to read. It ended up being 4 pages long, and kind of meandering through different aspects of my childhood and adult life. Hopefully it gives her an idea of who I am and where I am going in addition to where I've been.
I also got the MA state criminal background check forms notarized and mailed today.
The other thing I got accomplished was to sit with an investment broker and sort out some of my retirement funds. I had stock certificates sitting around from old jobs, as well as multple retirement accounts at different places. I have the forms now to get them all rolled into one account so I can actually see what I have. Hopefully the stock is worth something so we can use the cash for the agency fees that we need to mail this week.
Now my last task of the night-finish the adoption agency application and get that mailed.

First homestudy meeting

2005-11-11T17:15:00.000-08:00

We had out first meeting with our social worker this morning for our homestudy. She is very nice and laid back. She took a tour of our house and then we sat and talked for almost 2 hours. She wanted to know about our neighborhood, our plans for daycare, our philosophy on discipline, how we met and how are marriage is... Our next meeting is 11/22 to go over our faimly history and financial stuff. In the meantime, we have to get her our autobiographies and all of our financial info together. We also are planning on submitting the adoption agency application this weekend as well, so we have some work to do :)

random musings

2005-11-10T17:23:00.000-08:00

Ii told a few people at work today (including my boss) that we are in the process of adopting. I had clued them in very little up to this point on our TTC journey so they were a bit surprised to find that I had been dealing with infertility so long. The whole thing came up when we were looking through a catalog with lots of really nice jewelry in it. There was this great necklace that had 2 charms on it. One charm was engraved with "mother and daughter" and the other with the chinese characters for mother and daughter. I mentioned that I really wanted to buy that, and ended up explaining why.... The reactions were all so supportive and positive. A little surprised, but definitely all good vibes. Now I just have to order my necklace :) (although I will wait until after all the adoption fees are paid since things are going to be tight for a couple of months.)
Tomorrow brings the first home study visit, which has got me more excited than anything.
We also got more paperwork in the mail today that needs to be notarized. I get the feeling that my local bank is going to get to know me pretty well over the next couple of months of getting things signed and notarized. This weekend is the time we decided to finish the adoption agency's application. The only thing we really have left is to write out all of our financial info. Have to go look up life insurance policies, how much equity is in our house, what our retirement funds are at, etc.
I imagine that after all this is submitted and we are faced with many months of waiting and nothing to do, I'll miss the whole paper chase aspect of the adoption process. So I guess I should just enjoy it as it comes. Heck, soon we will be so busy with the baby, we'll have forgotton all about the amount of work it took to bring her home.

The homestudy begins...

2005-11-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

I just got off the phone with our social worker Judith. I dropped off our homestudy application first thing this morning on my way to work. She seems really nice and has 3 adopted children of her own (2 domestic, 1 international) and has been doing homestudies for 18 years. So not only has she seen it all, but she has been on both sides of the process as well. She's coming by Friday at 8AM (in 36 hours....) I am actually looking forward to meeting her, despite the fact that my house is still a disaster and I won't be able to get it done before she gets here. I mentioned that fact to her, and she just laughed and said she is skeptical when a house is actually really clean.... Good thing, because with 6 cats and 2 dogs, there is no such thing is really clean.
So tomorrow will be frantic running around trying to make it at least presentable.
We also got our adoption agency application in the mail today and I started filling that one out. We get to gather all of our financial records this weekend and actually figure out our net worth. That should be interesting. With the house, student loans and cars, it'll be scary to see how much debt we are in. At least we don't carry any credit card debt.....

and I even did my yoga today, what more can I ask of myself? :)

Preparations and paperwork

2005-11-08T06:39:00.000-08:00

I spent the morning cleaning and organizing the house in preparation for our home study. We just moved into this house at the end of May and while we are mostly unpacked, there are all the little things. There are boxes still lying around attracting large amounts of dust and cat hair. There are those things that you can't part with but don't really know where to put. How did we acquire so much stuff????
My goal for the week is to find homes for all of our things and to get rid of things we don't have any use for. Easier said than done since I'm a total packrat.
I also started to look for a scrapbook cover for our adoption life book. I'll put some of these entries in there, as well as photos and momentos from the entire adoption process.

Today is also the day to get some paperwork notarized so I can get the homestudy application officially in the mail.
It's a perfect New England fall day, so I am going to get myself outside for some fresh air and exercise.

......

I had a nice relaxing afternoon with a facial and shiatsu massage. I also managed to get my errands run (mostly). I did manage to find a scrapbook I liked for our adoption lifebook, so I will start on that soon as well.

I have decided to get back to practicing yoga daily. My back needs it and it is so good for relaxation. I just finished 1 hour of practice and I just feel so much better. Now if I can just convince myself tomorrow that 1 hour of yoga is much better for me than 1 more hour of television.....

Tomorrow I officially submit the homestudy application. I am going to drop it by the social worker's office in the morning because it is just as easy as taking it to the post office.

an end and a beginning

2005-11-07T05:22:00.000-08:00

Our journey to our first child began almost exactly 2 years ago in November 2003. We had just decided to stop birth control and see what happened. I was concerned of getting pregnant too soon because I was training to run the Boston Marathon in April 2004 and did not want to miss the race. Silly me. The race came and went. In April we started making a concerted effort to BD during my fertile time.
In July I got a positive pg test, only to get my period a few days later. This is something the medical community calls a chemical pregnancy, although why they don't just call it the miscarriage it is I'll never understand. We were devastated, but hopeful that we would conceive again soon. November 2004, and the same thing happened. Positive test, bleeding several days later. I went to see a specialist to find out what was going on. We both underwent testing and they found nothing wrong. In April 2005 I went for more invasive testing to ensure that my uterus was normal and my fallopian tubes were clear, and all was deemed good. Still nothing....
I did 6 months of acupuncture and herbs since Western medicine didn't have an answer. While I felt relaxed, still no pregnancy.
In May I graduated from veterinary school and got a real job. Friends told me, "now that you are done with school and less stressed, you'll get pregnant for sure." In September of 2005, we saw a reproductive endocrinologist at one of the fancy fertility centers. He was very hopeful that we would be able to successfully have a biological child, but not without the help of drugs. So I went through daily bloodwork, ultrasounds, and injections as well as IUI to increase our chances. The side effects were aweful and the emotional aspect 10 x worse with the added expectation that it would definitely work this time...
On Sunday I got a positive pregnancy test and we were thrilled. I called the dr on Monday morning, but the nurse said I could not come in for blood work until Friday. It was a very rough week of waiting, but Friday finally came. When I got the call that my levels were not high enough for a viable pregnancy, I decided I had had it. No more treatments, no more drugs. I had gained 10 pounds this cycle due to stress, lack of time and energy to exercise and the bloating from the drugs.
I wanted my life back. I wanted to be able to have a drink now and then. And I wanted to be able to have sex with my husband when I wanted, not when the drs told us to.
So we stopped.
I told myself we were unable to have a biological child and mentally moved on to adoption.
I had been researching adoption for months. I had read lots of books and even found an agency I liked. Bill was so set on "having one of our own" that he just hadn't come to terms with the idea of adoption. After our treatment cycle failing, he finally agreed to go ahead with the adoption process. We had attended a meeting with the social worker over the summer and our state mandated preadoption seminar in October. I had all the paperwork on hand and ready to go.
We had also brought up the idea with our families a month or two ago now. They were a touch disappointed at the idea of us not having a biological child, but were supportive of our decision. They are starting to get excited about their first grandchild....
So today we are finishing the application to our home study agency. Tomorrow I will take it to the notary to get the signatures certified and we will mail it along with the first of many large checks. Who would have thought wanting to start a family was such an ordeal? I always thought I would just want a child and then just have one. But now I know there is a little girl waiting to be born in China that is our baby girl. And all we have to do is spend months filling out paperwork saying we are good enough to be her parents. And then wait, and wait and wait. And then we will get that phone call saying we can go get her. And that is how our family began....
I feel a sense of closure now, and a great feeling of excitement and hope as we begin this new journey.