Happy Chinese New Year - Year of the Dog

What a weekend! Saturday T and I left for Charlotte to get our fingerprints done. We arrived around 1:30 and waited - something that I'm getting used to!! The office was very busy but we were out of there by 3. I talked to the gentleman at the front desk and asked if they accepted walk ins. He said YES!! That really upset me because we could have had this done a month ago, but then I thought about it and two things came to me. One, our homestudy was just sent to them the week before and two, this adoption has been in God's hands for the beginning. He has a plan for us and our daughter. God is good and will take care of her while she and her her forever family wait to meet.

On our drive to Charlotte T and I talked about a few things. One of them was teaching our daughter about her culture. He made some very good points about this and after thinking about what he said I agreed with him. We talked about culture, school, language, etc. We also talked about the rest of the fees and how close we were with the money aspect. He said that he would make sure I had money to buy gifts with and for me to just make sure everything else is taken care of.


Sunday I celebrated Chinese New Year with some friends who returned home around 6 months ago with their daughter. This was the first time we met but a good time was had by all. She shared a ton of information with me and her daughter is adorable!! The visit made me just want to get to China faster!! I took my friend J and my youngest son with me. They enjoyed the dancing and singing along with some good food and great company. Thanks for inviting us!!

On a side note, seeing all those beautiful kids yesterday brought tears to my eyes. Not knowing what my daughter looks like and her not knowing how much she is already loved by her forever family is very hard for me to deal with. We are not even DTC yet and I'm already driving myself crazy.

We are so close to having everything done. All the paperwork is being certified as I write this. All we have to do now is wait for our 171H from Homeland Security and then authenticate everything. I faxed our homestudy to the agency last week and will need to make some minor changes to it but other than that it looks great. Maybe we can be DTC by the end of February. I also got my passport on Friday and T's should be coming this week. Everyday is a step closer!!!

Homestudy is in!!!

Ok, we got our homestudy back from our agency. They only made a few mistakes that are easily correctable. I'm faxing it to the agency today for their review. I also mailed all documents out (finally!!) to be certified. Seven went to NC, one to NY, and the other one to NJ. We are getting closer and closer to being DTC (dossier to China)!!.


Saturday we get our fingerprints done. I know everyone is glad because that's all I've talked about! Sunday we might go to W-S for CNY but it depends on some friends. We'll see. I think it would be a good experience and fun for all. I think J and L are going. J might bring her daughter and if so I might bring H with me too since they get along pretty good.

Hey, K - if you are reading this know that I'm thinking of you and your family!!

Nothing New Happening

I haven't had anything to blog about recently. Nothing has been happening with the adoption. I did call our homestudy agency and was told that ours was next to be reviewed. Hopefully CCAI will ge getting it soon along with BCIS. I am getting excited about this weekend. Not only are we getting fingerprinted but CNY is being celebrated that day. Hubby and I are going to check everything out!

Doesn't someone out there want to put me in their will? Hey, I know, Tina and Scott O - Kai is "coming into some money" right? Let's get our kids together!! (jk) I honestly think I would go nuts at home all day but sometimes I really wonder. If there was anyway for me to stay at home I might...but alas, there really isn't so why am I even thinking about it?? Actually, I like my job, it is just stressful at times and most of that stress is what I put on myself. That and the so called deadlines that are most of the time unattainable!! Why do people want something ASAP and then when you deliver it, they just say..oh, I'll get to it next week. HUH??!! I just worked my butt off and you'll get to it next week??!! jeez!!! And then we have this one guy who has to walk around in our area to make sure we are here...yes, that's right. He has no other reason to come over here except to see who is and who isn't here. I know, that's how some people get their kicks!

Hmm....looks like I need to go meet with the girls tonight and talk with Jose!!

Finally, I've made it!!

Yep, that's right folks, I have finally made it to the QDM blog!! It took a while but my post concerning the show "Book of Daniel" on NBC had enough merit to make it. I'm soooo proud of myself!!!


'nough said

Back to the Name thing

So L and I are talking the other day once again about names. Tommi Ann is out but guess what?? He likes Tianna Claire!! Huh? Jeez, come on guys, make up your mind. I asked both T's what they thought and they grunted out "I guess" while watching football. So, it looks like we are back to the beginning and naming her Tianna Claire.

Tianna Claire - soon baby girl, we will be coming to pick you up and bring you home to your family!!!!

What a Waste of Time

Yep, that's right. It was a total waste of 4 hours of vacation yesterday for our final meeting with the social worker. All we really did was talk about her puppy (who is very very cute by the way). She collected all the paperwork and ended up calling us last night for some silly questions. She hopes to have this sent off to her boss by Sunday so we should get a draft by the end of next week. I'm getting my friend to come over this weekend to notarize everything for me so I can send it all off on Monday to be certified!!! That paperwork should come back in a week and then it's off to get authenticated. I've looked at the assistant stork and think I'm going to use her service for this as she seems to be pretty resonable. We get our fingerprints on the 28th and should be the 171 in February. It's all starting to come together!!!

Check out this link: http://www.geocities.com/edubsportsfreak/logan.html This is somthing my youngest is doing for school. My heart swelled to see him write that we are going to China to pick up his sister!!

Scrapbook or Quilt or Both??

Now that we are coming to the end of our paperchase I'm starting to think about a 100 wish quilt or a 100 scrapbook. One of the other bloggers on my favorite board is doing a scrapbook and I must say, doing a great job!! I think I'm going to combine the two. I want a quilt for our little one but I would also like a scrapbook of the wishes. Instead of just putting the wish and scrap on paper I will create a page for each one. In fact, if Donna doesn't mind I'm going to copy her idea and give famiily/friends the choice to create a page for the scrapbook or to have me create one. That way I can have the best of both worlds.

Update on paperchase. This Thursday (1/5) we will be meeting our sw for the last interview. She should get the draft to her boss and we should have it in our hands in a week. On the 28th of this month is our fingerprint appointment. If all goes well our homestudy should already be there when we get fingerprinted. I'm also going to get my passport done on Thursday and dh is going to sometime this week. Once that is done I can get everything notarized, certified and authenticated. I'm really leaning towards the assistant stork to get the paperwork authenticated. She walks it right over to the Chinese consulate which saves time. I should have all that done by the end of the month so all we will be waiting on is the 171H, which should come in February.

2006 - Could this be THE year??

Is this the year that we will go get our daughter? Who knows!! It depends on CCAA and how they do their referrals. I hope and pray they will get back to the 6 month time frame but only time will tell.

In an earlier blog I talked about names for our little one. Right now we are leaning towards Tommianne Claire CN but that is a mouthful!! My youngest does not like just Tommie but is okay with Tommianne. I'm concerned about how this will be mispronounced once she starts going to school. Decisions, decisions.

Back to the new year - Our last homestudy interview is this Thursday. I've contacted my friends and they will get our references to us by then. We get our fingerprints on th 28th so we should get our 171 by February. They say it takes 3 months from the date you sent in the I600A - which ours was at the end of November. So maybe this could be our timeframe:
March DTC
November Referral
December/January 2007 travel??

Oh what a Christmas we will have this year!! And the November referral is going along with the 8 month track that CCAA is currently on so maybe if they get back on track we could actually have our referral by September!!!! Either way I will at least know what she looks like. Happy dancing!!

Oh, and yes, it is 2006 and time for resolutions. I was going to a few resolutions but what is the point. I never keep them. So here are a few things I will strive to do this year:

1. Be kinder and speak kinder to everyone.
2. Think before I speak (yeah, right!!).
3. Let go of all grudges and hurts and really forgive the ones who hurt me.
4. Read the bible from front to back.


Just four - trying to keep things on a small scale this year.