And Now The Olympics Are About To Begin

When we started this process two and a half years ago, I really *really* thought we'd be home with our daughter by now. Everyone assured us that we'd have a complete family by the Olympics. No one could foresee the never-ending wait increasing soooooo much. In fact, I'm fairly sure that people have completely forgotten that we're even still in line. I read on CNN today that Beijing has officially begun traffic control ahead of the Olympics and it got me thinking. So much has happened to us in two and a half years. Life changing things. Moves, a miscarriage, medical scares....


There's really no point to this post, other than to take a minute and reflect on how far we've come, and how far we still have to go.

I Know It's Been Awhile

We have definitely had a busy 6 months, what with moving across the country and settling into a new house and a new job (at least for the DH). We haven't intentionally removed ourselves from the world of adoption (although I have to admit I haven't had a lot of time to keep up with some of the boards...and I really am sorry about that), but we've been a whole lot more swamped than either one of us had anticipated.

So here's an update: We've now been waiting for almost 19 months. We don't plan on leaving the program. We're still getting settled into our new life in our new state (but we ARE having a blast). We've made some new friends, and we've been able to spend a lot more time with the DH's family. I am still addicted to RQ, and even the husband has been known to log on every once in a while. And I promise to get back into the loop with everybody I've let get pushed to the side during our upheaval. Thanks for being patient with us......That's one thing about this wait: It really gives a person patience.

Chinese New Year

How many more Chinese New Years will pass until we get our referral? Our agency has 198 families currently in their China program. We've been waiting for 16 months. Currently, the wait seems to be around 25 months. We know we'll wait about 36 months. That means we're almost halfway there. Somehow, it doesn't make sense to me to withdraw now. We started this process 24 months ago, and it honestly doesn't seem like that long ago. That's not to say that we haven't had some rough days, but being able to look at from the halfway point makes it not so bad.


I don't know. Chinese New Year just really got me thinking today. It's tempting to want to dual-track, or to switch programs, but it doesn't feel right to me. Maybe our daughter will be born this year. I think we really can stick this out.

Breaking Radio Silence

In case anybody was wondering what was up, until today I would have said nothing. Y'all know how it is. Wait, and then wait some more. Not today, though. Today we have actual news.

Today, we've officially made it through Review.

It's A Slow Boat

We're back. We had a great time on vacation, and now we're settling back into reality. I actually spent the whole week not thinking about "the wait", which I'm pretty sure is a record. No new news, just still waiting. That being said, today I'm surprisingly zen about the whole thing. Sure, I've started the nursery. I've even picked up one or two things for our baby-to-be, but right now, I'm still pretty content to wait it out. Do I wish it was going faster? Absoutely. Is there anything I can do about it. Nope. So we wait. And wait. And wait some more. In the meantime, we've made a conscious decision to live our lives to the fullest, which for us means taking advantage of this last opportunity to do stuff that people with kids can't do so easily. Not a bad way to spend the wait, if you ask me.

Welcome Home!

To Do List

1) Sleep
2) Wake up late
3) Take a walk on the beach
4) Nap
5) Swim
6) Kalik
7) Repeat

Vacation

We're headed to the beach for a much-needed vacation. We will be totally incommunicado (well, mostly), and if you need me, you can find me by the sea with a cold beer in my hand. If the phone doesn't ring, it's me.

Wow. It's May 1st

May 1st. That mythical and elusive date that we've been clinging to since the new regulations were announced. The whole mentality of "things will surely speed up after May 1st" seems so unlikely now. With the two day batch last month and the six day batch this month, I'm mostly just hoping for things to go back to how they were when they were doing two week batches. Yesterday was the first time I broke down and hit the junk food (thank you Little Debbie, Wavy Lay's, and French Onion dip). I really have been mostly positive throughout the whole process, and things are looking a little brighter today, but I guess everybody has their down days.

So now it's May 1st. I know there are positive things happening at CCAA, and I understand all about the paper-ready baby shortage, but I really do think (call me naive) that a couple of months down the road we will start to see a little bit of a speed-up, because with fewer dossiers coming in after today, there will be manpower freed up to get people through the review room at the very least. Granted, they still have to deal with logging in the in-flux of dossiers of the people rushing to beat the deadline, but I'm holding up hope that come July, we'll see a little bit of a speed up.

So there it is. For friends and family members that read this blog, my intention is certainly not to make you think that this is never gonna happen. It is. We just have a wait ahead of us, and I wish I had a better answer for you when you ask "How's the adoption going?". Right now, I know y'all are all pretty tired of our stock answer "We're one day closer", but really, that's all I can tell you. For the other IA parents, I know you totally get where I'm coming from.

I Found the Formula

I'm fairly certain I have discovered the mathematical formula used by the CCAA and others regarding our adoption. Here it is:

Homestudy+CIS(fingerprints x FBI clearance) x I-600(171-H)+G4(authentication)+DTC/LID(10-18-06) x wait x wait x wait+Guanzhou(consulate x IR7)+18 hour flight=FAMILY.