Meeting State Senator Fred Risser, D-WI

Well, today I met with Senator Fred Risser, President of the Wisconsin State Senate. I shared my meeting with Anne (my home study social worker). Believe it or not, he spent 1.25 hours talking with us! I found out that he is a father of 3 domestically adopted children. He was so sorry to hear about what we've been having to go through - with all of the varying expiration dates of our fingerprints, I-171H, and home studies and especially the longer than 2 years that we will be having to wait. Since he is on the state level, and not the federal level there is really not much he can do. He suggested that Anne and I write an article and try to get one of our local papers to publish it. He also offered to write letters or to help in any way that he could.

After leaving his office, we headed over to meet Andrea Baglowski - in Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin's office. She is in charge of the fingerprinting and adoption section in the Congresswoman's office. Congresswoman Baldwin is on the Judiciary Committee to approve H.R. 628 to extend the I-171H to 2 years. The one good thing we found out is that our fingerprints will be renewed once for FREE! The USCIS had been so unclear on that, so that was so nice - saves us $160. Yeah! She seemed to think that it would be hard to bring about change, but that's what we all thought about the I-171H's and now we are getting our FREE renewals on those, too. The squeaky wheel is the one who gets things done...

My next stop is to get in touch with the lobby group in D.C. that deals specifically with children's issues regarding international adoption. I have an e-mail out to them already. Just waiting on a response. Wish me luck!

Ma Ma Sisterhood is born!

I would like to introduce our new logo that I designed for my cyber "sisters" who have been instrumental in my sanity these last months - as we are all still waiting for our daughters to come home from China. What started out as a "chat" has now become our mantra - we are all sisters, going thru the same pains of childbirth (albeit, not the normal way and a heck of a lot longer...). This group of about 25 women usually send on average about 75 emails a day! Mind-blowing, isn't it! We are all logged-in during July 2006 and are keeping our fingers crossed that we all get to travel together. For those who don't read Chinese, the characters say "Ma Ma," and the Ma Ma Sisterhood is born! The red thread saying is a saying picked up by the adoption community, stemming from an Ancient Chinese belief.

If you'd like to check out our "Ma Ma Sisterhood" gear, see my CafePress store.
http://www.cafepress.com/blackkatstudio

Happy 18th Birthday!

Shayna enjoyed an extra treat and catnip. What more can a kitty want!

CCAI July 06 LID - Madison contingency

It was a wonderful breakfast this morning with Lisa, Davis, and Lily. We are both logged in during July 06 (they are one week ahead of us) and are with the same adoption agency (CCAI). Hopefully, we will get to travel together. Keep the fingers crossed!

Mary and Maddy

Thank you Mary and Maddy for coming this weekend. Here Maddy is showing her mom the proper technique to fishing in the creek in our backyard. We finally had water after 3 or 4 weeks without a drop of rain.

Our new stroller!

Well, I finally made our first "big" purchase for our daughter. I just ordered online a new stroller (Peg Perego Aria MT Single Stroller 2005 Metallica). It is actually almost the same one as the 2007 version, but half the price! Yeah! It is even RED. I am so excited to get it! The car seat we'll wait on until we know how big she's going to be.

Congratulations Joel!

Today I went to Milwaukee to watch my brother Joel finish off his Super Week bike races. It ended on a great note. He took 20th place, which meant he actually got paid! (albeit not enough to cover the cost of the race, but paid nonetheless). Great job, Joel! My mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and my cousins Lisa, Rob, Abby, and Ryan were all there to cheer him on.

June is out of review!

Well, we are getting so close! They just finished the reviews of June 2006 dossiers and we're next! I can't even believe it. We are getting there. It's just too exciting for words.

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before June 30, 2006. The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 14, 2005.

One Year Down, More To Go...

Well, it has officially been one year since our dossiers have been logged in at the CCAA in China. On the one hand, the time sure has flown by, but on the other, the wait has been excruciating! Right now they are saying that the total wait time could be up to 3 years. I hope not, but at the current pace the CCAA has been placing children with their families, this could be what we're looking at. I try to be optimistic about all this, but some days it's just so hard. I see all the children of my family and my friends, and I think, "when is it going to be our turn?" I hope to say that "our turn" comes in the next year, but I just don't know... It's the not knowing that is the most painful part. I know our daughter is coming - I just wish it was today and not some tomorrow in the future.

To mark today's occasion, Robert and I went to a very nice restaurant and looked out onto Lake Monona and had a really nice dinner. I guess this is the time to cherish our alone time together before our daughter arrives. But, I would rather our lives be crazed with a lovely little girl who exhausts us completely on a daily basis.

I already miss our daughter, and I don't even know who she is yet...

Getting to meet Rachel

Well, my day began yesterday shopping with my friend, Kris, who's also adopting a little girl from China. She bought a crib (very nice convertible crib) and I bought the cutest pair of Robeez with pandas on them. See below. A girl can never have too many shoes! Now she has her airplane shoes that make her daddy happy, and her panda shoes that mommy couldn't resist!


For dinner, I met our friends Darrell and Deborah who just came back from China with their daughter, Rachel (Rui Rui - pronounced Ray Ray). She's 2 and doing very well. She's only been home for 2 weeks. She was amazing especially since she had spent all day at the doctor's offices. Poor thing. And I shouldn't forget about their son, Alex who was also stuck waiting at said hospitals all day. Also in the group were Heather and Dustin who are about 6 months ahead of us in the adoption process and also live in our subdivision. Yeah! Play dates! And of course, Kris, who is about 6 months behind me and helped me spend my money on our shopping date... many more of those to come.