This is the Red Thread Bracelet my sister Lisa gave me for Mother's Day!

Mother's Day

On Mother's Day, my sister Lisa and her husband Rob invited the family over for brunch. Everyone was there: Lisa and Rob, Art, Ruthann, Zach and Jake, my parents, and me and Guy. Lisa gave me a red thread bracelet. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that reads: "An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break." The bracelet symbolizes the red thread. (I will post a picture of the bracelet!) It was a great Mother's Day! Guy gave me my first Mother's Day card, my sister Lisa gave me a card too as well as my mother-in-law and sister-in-law!

I can't wait unitl next year when the baby is with us on Mother's Day!

Adoption Travel Meeting

Tomorrow our agency, Great Wall, is having an adoption travel meeting. We are very excited to be going. We will get to meet some people who have travelled already, but mostly people like us, who will be going to China very soon. They are going to go over all of the specifics of what to pack, what we will be doing, etc. More to follow on this!

Crib Set We Picked Out

Finally Made It To Next Room!

Well, we got an email from our agency and we are finally in the Review Room! Next stop...Matching Room! We are still looking at August for referral! More news to come!

Four Months To Go To Referral!

The latest batch of referrals come in for people whose dossiers went to China in October, so the CCAA is still running at 6 months. That means we should get our referral sometime in mid-August. Hopefully we can travelling in late September. Everyday I read this website: www.thestoryofyou.com. This website has on-line journals of people who are currently in China getting their babies. It is so much fun to see the pictures and read their stories!

In the meantime, we are still in the process of fixing up the baby's room. I think we are going to paint the room lavender with white trim. I will post of picture of the cribset we decided on. It is really pretty!

Finally Received our LID

After, what seems like months, we received our LID (Log In Date) and it is later than we expected. Our date is February 21, 2005. Because of the Chinese New Year on February 9th, no dossier's were logged in for two weeks! So this officially starts our countdown to referral when we will receive our baby's picture! So if the referrals continue at a six month pace, we should be getting her picture around August 21! Let's keep our fingers crossed!

The Brown Envelope Finally Arrived

We finally received our Brown Envelope from the US Consulate in Guangzhou. The envelope contains the paperwork we will need to submit when we are in Guangzhou to complete the US end of the adoption. It also contains the medical papers that the doctors there will fill out when the baby has her medical exam.

Every milestone brings us closer to Elizabeth.

Still Waiting for the LID, Chapter 2

Everyone who was DTC (dossier to china) in late January and February are still waiting for their LIDs. LID means log in date..the date your paperwork gets registered in China. Our DTC date was January 28. Our log in date should be sometime the first week in February. The Chinese New Year was February 9th so that is probably the reason we haven't received our date yet. Let's hope it comes this week!

Still Waiting for Our LID

Well, we are still waiting for our LID (Log-In-Date). The LID is the date that our paper work is officially logged into the Chinese government. Our paper work went over to China on 1/28 so I am pretty confident that our LID will be sometime the first week of February. The Chinese government usually sends this information to the agencies 6-8 weeks after the paper work is received in China! I will keep you posted!

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!