Target -- Here We Come!

Well, I finally broke down and bought some really cute baby clothes. My sister Lisa and I went to Target and did some shopping! Everything I have read says to get clothing in size 6-9 months and 12 months. The babies are usually very small when you get them. I really have to stop buying pink! So far, every outfit I bought is either pink or has pink in it! The baby girl clothes are so darn cute it is hard to resist!

We Got the Official Email From Great Wall

Well, we got the email from Great Wall on Friday. It is official! The email said that our dossier was sent to China on Friday afternoon. Once the Chinese authorities receive it, they will send us a log in date. This day will probably be sometime next week. We will start the six-month count down to China from this date. Great Wall has assigned us our Referral Education Manager, Beth Breedlove. Beth will be contacting us next week to start us on our way to referral. We figure we will get our referral sometime in August and travel sometime late September. It will be here fast!

The Day We Have Been Waiting For Is Here.....

We received an email from Great Wall late yesterday, all of our paperwork is finally finished! Our dossier will be sent to China this afternoon! Believe it or not, it is just a little over 5 months ago that we started our adoption journey. Great Wall said we would be getting an email this afternoon confirming our dossier went to China and they will give us the name of our Referral Case Manager. During the whole paperwork process, we have been working with Natasha Taylor at Great Wall. Natasha reviewed every document we sent and made sure it would be acceptable to the Chinese authorities. Without Natasha, we would not be here today! A million thank yous Natasha! I will post again later after we get the email from Great Wall!

Slowly, But Surely

I checked our FedEx account today and our I171H is in New York now. We are getting expedited service to have it Certified by the Chinese Consulate. They are going to FedEx it back to our agency in Austin, Texas and from there.... C H I N A! Let's keep our fingers crossed!

All Was Going Well Until.....

Well since our last post, there has been an update. We did take our FedEx to a drop off center on Saturday morning expecting it to be picked up and off to Austin, Texas for Monday delivery, however, we found out yesterday that FedEx never did a pick up. We were both so angry and incredibly sad at the same time. The package will be delivered to Great Wall today. Natasha, our dossier contact, is going to do everything she can to get it processed so we can still make the Friday deadline. This will give us a January DTC (dossier to China) date. If it doesn't make the run, then it will definitely go on Friday, January 28, but this will give us a February DTC date. Which means in the long run instead of travelling in September, we may not travel until October. Oh well, we can't think about it at this point. What will be, will be. It is out of our hands.

It's Finally Here!

Well, yesterday it finally came...our I171H form. So today we went and got our notarial statement notarized and FedEx the package off to Great Wall. We also included additional passport photos for our dossier. If the Chinese authorities truly try to match a child to you based on looks...we are in big trouble. In my picture I look like Uncle Fester's long lost sister, Guy thinks he looks like a deer caught in headlights! Great Wall said that once they get it on Monday, they will expedite the form to Trenton, New Jersey for Authentication and then use a special courier to New York City for Certification with the Chinese Consulate. If all goes well, we can finally get our paper work off to China by Friday, January 21st, then the wait begins.

Update on Wait for 171H

Well, I finally called the CIS office last Friday. The woman there assured me that our 171H was being worked on as we spoke and that we should have it this week. Yesterday, because I am the nervous type, I called again. The woman said that it was mailed on Tuesday!! So far, we don't have it. I am hoping when we go home today it will be in our mailbox! Keep your fingers crossed.

Happy New Year...and Still Waiting!

Well, today is seven weeks since we were fingerprinted. If we don't hear anything by tomorrow, I am going to call our Congressman to see if he can speed things up! I heard from our agency today, they have received all of our documents back from the Chinese Consulate in New York. Once we get the 171H, we are paying for a courier for expedited service.

Great Wall China Adoption

The adoption agency we picked is called Great Wall China Adoption. They are located in Austin, Texas. We did so much research on agencies and Great Wall was just the perfect fit for us. They return my calls and emails right away and always can answer my nervious questions! Here is their website: www.gwcadopt.org.

The Wait Continues.....

Well, it has been 25 days since we were fingerprinted at the CIS...still waiting for the 171H. I really hope it comes soon. We want to be DTC (dossier to China) by the end of the year! Our agency, Great Wall, has sent our New Jersey papers to Trenton for Certification. We decided that once we get the 171H we are going to pay a little extra to get expedited certification. Anything that will help get our paperwork to China faster!

Still Waiting

It is now December. It is a rainy, miserable day here in New Jersey and we are still waiting for our 171H. I read something on line the other day that said someone got fingerprinted on October 19 in Philadelphia and is still waiting for their 171H from Newark!!!! I hope this doesn't happen to us. We are so anxious for our paperwork to get to China! I spoke with Great Wall yesterday and our dossier person is going to send all of our documents (with the exception of the 171H) off to Trenton for certification and then to New York for authentication. Once we get the 171H, we are going to get expedited service. We are still hopeful to be DTC by the end of December!

Fingerprinting Finally Finished!

We went to get fingerprinted again today. This makes the second time. We were fingerprinted for the homestudy and now this time for the I600A form. Now we wait for the 171H form from the government. This will give us permission to adopt a foreign child! Hopefully they will move fast!

A Baby Is Waiting For Us In China 

Great News!

The CIS logged in our I600A on November 4th and we received our fingerprinting appointments yesterday! I can only hope that the 171H form comes just as fast!

The Beginning of Our Journey

Well, this is our first entry. I thought I would give you our story to date and then start with the individual entries!

We are Cathy & Guy and will live in South Jersey. We have been married since 1993. We always knew we wanted children, but life got in the way. First job loss and no money, then busy lives. Before we knew it we were 40 years old. We started with fertility treatments in 2001, but they were not successful. We did one IVF cycle, but that too was unsuccessful.

In July of 2004, we started to talk about adoption. We decided not to pursue a domestic adoption because it was very expensive and most are open adoptions. We then started to talk about adopting from China. We did some investigation and chose Great Wall China Adoption for our agency. They are fantastic. We submitted our application on August 7th and were approved the next week...and the paperchase began!

Our home study was started on September 14 and we received our completed home study document on Friday, October 29th! Our case worker was very good and fast!

We filed our I600A form with CIS on Saturday, October 30. We are currently waiting for our fingerprinting appointment.