Oops..

Since we received the happy news, I have been busy preparing for the baby. Aside from setting up the closet in the baby room, I have also focused on buying a few essentials -- cute hats, socks and a pretty diaper bag.

The mail brought us "Step 5 -- Preparing for travel to China". Imagine my surprise when there was no mention of flowered sun hats, but long lists of 'essentials' I hadn't even thought of..bottles, thermometers, binkys. Not to mention diapers and formula! I guess it has been awhile since I have spent time with a baby!

The call!

We knew our time was getting close. Nonetheless, when I answered the phone and was notified, "You have a referral!" I was rocked. When I first saw the information about OUR baby, I started crying. The crying didn't stop for a few days. Neal was out of town on a work retreat, but I immediately sent him copies of the photo and read him all of the information I was given. When I picked Perrin up from school, I told him "I got a very exciting phone call this afternoon" and he immediately said, "A baby!". He had lots of questions about how old she would be, what she would eat, what she would play with, and what we would name her. Next we informed our parents, and then our immediate family. We had decided to hold off telling others until we had a better understanding of when we would get our baby. But, Perrin decided to tell his class the next day and we knew we needed to go public. The following is the email we sent:

Subject: Fawn Hopping Mouse or Demindoff Bushbaby?

Those are Perrin's name picks for the baby referral we received
earlier this week!!!! (the exclamations for the referral, not the name picks).

She was born 1/19/09 in the Southern part of China. We will need to
wait 7 -8 weeks before we can go get her, and then at least 10 days in
country (this is pretty standard). We hope to be home by New Years at
the latest. We don't have the translated information for her yet (later this week), but she looks to be female and healthy and we are very excited. Very.

We have not picked a name for her and hopefully we will get Perrin away from

the Encyclopedia of Animals book before the naming goes any further.

I apologize for the group email but our plan to slowly and personally
spread the news was shot down when Perrin decided he wanted to tell his 1st grade
class immediately (tomorrow). We are happy he is excited to share the good news even if it isn't on our time frame! We want to keep things low key, but are so happy to share our long awaited
addition to the family.


A

The beginning...

In 2005 we decided to adopt a baby. After much discussion we choose China. China has a centralized program with very specific guidelines and well documented procedures. This very stable adoption process and the clear need for safe homes for baby girls solidified our decision. Plus, we had always loved anything Asian (especially dumplings!).

After a bunch of research and thought, we decided to work with a local agency. You can read about the agency and the process of adoption at this link: http://orphans.com

Once we picked an adoption agency to work with we started our "paper chase", This included multiple legal documents, referrals from friends and family, proof of an income to support an additional child and a full report from our personal physicians testifying that we were healthy. Most nerve racking was the home visit from a social worker to ensure our home was appropriate for a child to join. Most annoying was the long lines we had to wait in to get fingerprinted by United States Immigration Services (I think anyone that survives a day in that building should immediately be allowed in to the country.

We completed our paperwork and sent it China where it was reviewed and logged in on March 28th, 2006. This became the critical date we would watch. Everyone in the world with an adoption request logged in on 3/28/06 would receive the referral of a baby at the same time. There is no line jumping, no preferences and no way to to speed up the process.

We have been waiting (im)patiently ever since. We have had to renew our paperwork several times -- this was not only costly, but frustrating (more visits to the USCIS buildings). But, all of that is forgotten now that we have a baby!