Rumors are in

Well, we just got the next set of rumors and it is looking like they're only making it to July 6th for this batch of referrals. So, it's looking like we will finally be getting our referrals by the last week of July or first week of August! We never expected to be in this batch, so now we can start planning and getting ready for being in this next one.

Stay tuned all... it's going to be a LONG 4 to 5 weeks for us! (but so worth it!)

What will our adoption trip look like?

I've been getting a lot of questions lately about how long our trip will be, what will we be doing. So I found this on our agency's website and thought this was a great synopsis:

Q: What does a typical adoption trip look like?
 

A: Every trip is a little different because each province has its own requirements, but we can tell you about a “typical” trip. Groups meet in a port city (usually Hong Kong) where you will stay for 1-2 nights. The purpose of this is to help you adjust to the time difference, rest and tour before meeting your child. Then you will fly from the port city to the capital city of your child’s home province. You will be there for 5-7 nights. Generally, you will receive your child within 24 hours of arrival in the capital city. During your stay in the capital city you will register the adoption with the Chinese Government, apply for your child’s passport, tour, rest and get to know your child while you wait for the government to complete all the necessary paperwork. Usually you can expect to be in the capital city for at least 5 working days. Once the paperwork is complete you will fly from the capital city to Guangzhou where the U.S. Consulate is located. The purpose for going to Guangzhou is your appointment with the U.S. Consulate where you will apply for your child’s U.S. entry visa. You can expect to be in Guangzhou at least one day prior to your Consulate appointment and at least 24 hours after your Consulate appointment. Typically, groups fly from Guangzhou to Hong Kong and then back home. When you throw in a weekend, travel days and put all these elements together you have a 14-16 day trip, under normal circumstances.

Robert and I plan on leaving about 3 to 4 days early to do a bit of traveling ahead of time and get acclimated to the time zone. So, our total trip will be about 3 weeks.

Father's Day

Today, Robert got the sweetest note from one of the girls in my adoption group (thanks Beth!).
It said: "You are a dad, it just hasn't been made official yet!!!"

That about sums it up! We are parents, we just don't know to whom yet. Should be very soon now!

Our last Father's Day without someone to actually celebrate it with.

Notarized and Mailed

Robert and I got one of the forms from our Pre-Placement packet notarized today and then I copied the pages and mailed them off to CCAI (our adoption agency). I also sent along a copy of his new Passport as that also needed to be current for when we need to apply for our China visas.

Now all we have to do is wait for our referral! Will it be in this batch or the next? The suspense is killing me!

Pre-Placement Packet

Well, today we received our "Pre-Placement" packet from our adoption agency, CCAI. They are preparing us for match day and travel to China. We have a few forms to fill out, sign and get back to them and a few things to read up on to prepare us for what will be a very grueling and rewarding travel trip.

What it means is that we are that much closer to an actual referral which could be here in about 2 weeks or in the batch after this one in around 6-7 weeks. Either way, we are so close to seeing our daughter's face for the very first time!

The timeline we're looking at:
Travel will be about 5 to 8 weeks after match day. There will be LOTS of stuff to do and prepare during those 5 to 8 weeks!
Travel will be finalized about 7 to 10 days before we actually leave for China. We will either travel to Hong Kong or Beijing (depends on the province that our daughter will be from) and end our trip in Guangzhou where the US Consulate appointments will be.

So, I think we're looking at travel around August or September depending on when we actually get our referral. Time to start getting the packing list together!

Projections... finally some great news

As those in the Chinese adoption community are familiar with, a few days after the last batch of referrals comes out, the "Rumor Queen" (RQ) comes out with a post with her latest projections as to when she thinks the next batch of referrals may hit. Well, if you look closely at this chart, you'll see that we probably only have 1-2 more months/batches to go until we're referred our child(ren).

So, how does this chart translate? As China started doing fewer and fewer matches each month, RQ kept having to downsize what she thought the typical batch size would be. During the Spring of 2008, we thought they were doing really small batches only to learn a few years later the batches would get even smaller. So Spring2008Small is a bigger estimated size than Spr 2010, and Wntr 2011. Are you confused yet? Well, suffice it to say that the 2 left-most columns are the more likely columns to look at for reality, which means that our day has finally come!

I hope Shan (from my amazing adoption group) doesn't mind me copying some of this, but if China does the same size batch they did this time around at the end of June, they will get to about July 22nd. When I tell you that, if that happens, you will hear screaming from CO to the East Coast and everywhere in between. I have been waiting all these years with some amazing women whom I've grown very attached to and the thought of some of us not traveling together breaks my heart. So if all you readers out there could cross your fingers and say a little wish for us, wish that the CCCWA gets to 7/22/06 next time.

So to my MaMa Sisterhood, it IS finally our time and we WILL be in China together soon enough! We'll need to do a group photo with our tees on!

Our First Hike of the Year

Today we took our first hike of the year up at Devil's Lake. We hiked the Balanced Rock trail to the top of the cliffs on the south side of the lake. It was beautiful. We had amazing weather with a good healthy breeze that kept us cool. This will be our first of many hikes there for the year. Even found out about a new (new to us) trail that we have yet to try out. Yeah summer!

Balanced Rock

View of the lake from the top of the south cliff

Shootingstar - a prairie plant that is in full bloom right now

It's confirmed!

Well, I can't believe it's finally happened, but the CCCWA referred families through June 30, 2006. So, what does that mean? It means that we're now finally (after almost 5 years of waiting) on our lovely little month of July Log-in Dates (LID)! We are now down to 14 LIDs to go!

So, I know you're going to ask - when will you get your referral? Well, it means that we will most likely be getting our referral in August, but we should be prepared in case it actually comes next month. Unlikely, but possible.

What does this mean for us? We now have to get our house baby ready! Everything that we've been putting off for the past 5 years now has to go into overdrive! Plug up the outlets, buy kid gates, car seats (once we know her age and size), baby carriers, bottles, diaper bags, and all sorts of other stuff I can't even think about 'cuz my mind is going faster than I can type.

My heart is racing and I'm excited and scared at the same time. We're about to move toward to this next adventure in life. These next few months are going to fly by.

For those who have done this before, please feel free to leave some pearls of wisdom.

Stay tuned...

"Good Fortune"

Referrals are around the corner and there are some positive ones being spread around. If the rumors hold out to be true (I'll believe it when I see it!), we could have only another 1 to 2 more referral batches to go until we're referred our daughter. How amazing will that be. Just the thought can send me into a tailwind spiral!

You would think that because we've waited 5 years for her to be home that we'd be all ready by now, but you'd be wrong. There are so many things that we've had to wait on until we actually see her face, know her age, and how many little munchkins there will actually be. If we get referred twins (unlikely, but possible) we'd have to redo the nursery and move it to a different room in the house (one that can actually accommodate 2 cribs). We also have so many projects around the house that need to be completed – like the baby-proofing! (I'm going to have to borrow a neighbor's little cutie to give our house the seal-of-approval before I deem it safe). HELP!

All I can say is that by the end of this year, all this waiting will be a distant memory. We will finally be able to begin the process of actually becoming a family. Happy thoughts indeed.

UPDATE: Matches have been mailed! Seems like we'll find out on Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend holiday (no mail on Monday). Yippee! I hope it's June 30th! Keep those fingers and toes crossed!

Chinese for Travelers Class

Today I decided to sign myself up for a class at the University from their Continuing Studies courses (an advantage living in a college town). I'll be taking "Chinese for Travelers". It's a 5-week class that meets for 1.25 hours a week. It starts in June. According to the syllabus, I'll learn how to order in a bar or restaurant, book a hotel room (probably won't be as helpful for us as our agency or travel planner will have taken care of it for us, but who knows...), greet people, ask for information about a destination, and "much more". I'm pretty excited!