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.

Dragonfiles and butterflies

I think I'll go with the butterfly/dragonfly theme. Here are some things I found...



I like the wall painting of the butterfly/dragonfly







This one is my favorite.

I also looked at co-sleepers today. I don't think that will work because she will be too old for one so maybe we can just put one side of the crib down and push it up against our bed. Or we could get a toddler bed and put in between our bed and the wall. I just don't know yet.

Over on APC they posted that the CCAA said the lid through April 25th were matched. Why am I telling you this? Because I'm trying to watch the trend. It's been said that it will now take 8 to 10 months to be matched with totally sucks!! If we get our dossier to China in March that means a referral in November/December and no travel until 2007!!! Hopefully CCAA will pick up some speed again next year and cut it back down to the 6 or 7 month time frame. That would been September/October referral and be back home with little one for Christmas - wouldn't that be wonderful?? Oh, I can only dream!!

Have a great weekend and Happy New Year!!!!

Corner Nursery

Our house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. One of my goals before little one comes home was to enclose our carport and convert it into the 4th bedroom. Well, after talking with T about it we decided to wait until our oldest goes to college and then little one can have her own room. Young T has decided that he wants to go to an out of state college. :( No, I'm not happy about that one bit - but it is his decision....anyway I digress - back to the nursery. I had visions of decorating a little girls nursery, painting the walls, picking the theme, buying the decorations, and putting it all together but that plan was dashed. So I walked into our bedroom and looked around and figured, yes, it can be done. I can move the computer to my oldest's room (he will be absolutley thrilled with this!) and create a "corner nursery." It will have her crib and probably a rocker. I can still paint the corner and decorate the corner. Yes, this will definitely work!! I'll post a picture in the future (far future) of the finished "corner nursery". Hmmmmm......I'm thinking dragon flies and butter flies....rolling hill scene on the wall....flowers and trees, a cloud or two, birds, and of course a ladybug.....

Paper Chase Blues

So we got our bc's back from NY last week all pretty and certified but our mc has to go to the County to be certified and then back to the state. Jeez......give me a break. I'm also going to call our social worker today and make sure we are still on for tomorrow night. As I said earlier she had a death in the family and wasn't sure if she would be able to make it or not but I haven't heard from her at all. And I still don't have the references yet.....

We are getting closer - slowly - but we are getting closer!!

It's Merry Christmas not Happy Holidays!!

Yes, I know, this is supposed to be an adoption blog but I just had to remind people why we even have the "holiday season". We got a notice today about our "Holiday Breakfast". Huh?? It should have been about our Christmas breakfast. Mark Jacobson, a car dealer here in NC, was saying the poem "The night before Christmas" with a few changes to correspond to his dealership. At the end where it is suppose to say "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night" he says "Happy holidays to all..." Why are people doing this? So they won't "offend" anyone. OK people, here's something that might just shock you.....we wouldn't have this "Holiday season" if it weren't for Christmas and the birth of Jesus!! It just amazes me how people have forgotten the real reason for the season!!

Jesus is the reason for the Season!!!

Package received!

I sent our birth and marriage certificates to Albany NY on December 13 to be certified. The package was sent "delivery confirmation receipt" and it was delivered TODAY!!! YEAH!!

Your item was delivered at 5:14 am on December 16, 2005 in ALBANY, NY 12231

When they come back I can send them on to be authenticated. One small step forward.

T went to see the sw yesterday for his one-on-one interview. Took him a total of 15 minutes. She told him afterwards that she has had a death in the family and will not be able to keep our 28th appointment. Okay, now she told him on the 15th.....why wouldn't she be able to keep the 28th's appointment I just don't know. Doesn't make much sense to me but it really doesn't matter since we can't get our fingerprints done until January 28th anyway. I'll give her a call tonight and reschedule it..AGAIN!!

Fingerprint Appointment Woes

Finally!! We got our fingerprint appointment letter. But wait, our appointment isn't until January 28th!!!! Our filing date is 11/10/05 why is our fingerprint appointment months afterwards???? I've called them to see if we could get in sooner and of course we can't. Grrrr...so much for being DTC in January!! That's not gonna happen. It takes something like 3 months to get the elusive 171H back - 3 months from the filing date. That means we should get it sometime in February and hopefully we can be DTC in March. That, my dear friends, means we won't get our dd until 2007!! ugh!!!! T goes to see the social worker this Thursday and I've yet to get his physical straightened out. I've also got to get the our references to write those letters...come on people - lets get a move on please!!

On to better things - Christmas!! I love this time of year! Watching the boys open their gifts is something I look forward to. I've done some shopping but have not finished everything - gasp - I know, there are 12 days until Christmas....but I will finish!! The boys are so hard to buy for this year - they want ipods and 4 wheelers and bb guns and new tvs and an xbox 360 - guess I better get outside and chop down that tree that has all the money it it! haha!!

Merry Christmas!!

Telling people our plans

Ok, so I've told a few people here at work of our plans to adopt from China and I've received great responses. Now I've made the official announcement....fun fun!! Why China? Why not here? What does she look like - oh, you don't know yet? That's weird...How much will she cost? Why does it take so long? You have to go to China? If they have so many girls why don't they just send them here so you don't have to travel?

I was warned - I know I was but I didn't think people would actually ask these things!

Paperchase update - ha!! Nothing to update! DH's doctor still screwed up his physical form so he has to go back AGAIN!!! My doctor will sign mine today when I go get my bp checked one more time. No fingerprint appointment yet...grrrr. I talk with the sw today for our one on one interview and dh goes next week. This sw has cancelled on me twice now...hope that isn't a bad omen.

This is a picture of Hope, a little girl I used to watch. Her mom and dad gave her, yes gave her, to a friend of mine. This friend kept Hope for just a about a year, even when the mom and dad moved away. Finally they took her back - we were all heartbroken. I still think of Hope quite often!!

Jazzy is a Hit!!

I'm sure you are wondering who Jazzy is. She is our little 5 lb pom that our sw just fell in love with. It seemed she was much more interested in her than what we had to say. Then she met our 75 lb black lab KaCee. The visit went very well. She asked her questions about religion, our marriage, how we met, what we do for discipline, etc. Everyone told me not to worry about this visit and they were right. It was very easy and she hardly looked at the house. Just a quick walk through and that was that!! In our paperwork from CCAI it states that the sw can do 3 of the 4 interviews at one time but our sw wanted nothing to do with that. So now I go and see her this Thursday and then dh goes next week and our final meeting is the week after Christmas. Ugh!!! I wanted this done before Christmas but I guess that isn't going to happen. I expressed my wish to have the final draft in my hand by the middle of January but who knows. Oh well, I'm sure God has a plan for us it is just hard for us to see it right now. Oh by the way, she didn't even eat one of those cookies!!!

My son's baptism was wonderful. Yes, I cried and dh had tears in his eyes. He was one of 3 that got baptized. When he went in the baptismal the pastor had to motion him to squat down because he was taller that him!! Everyone in the church got a laugh out of that. We are going to go out this week and celebrate with him. DH is working at the Christmas tree lot tonight and Ty has a wrestling tournament tomorrow so we'll try to do that on Wednesday.

We also talked again about names this weekend. DH said he actually likes the name Tommi and he went and got me his family tree paperwork so we can look through it for a middle name. We have a year to decide so we have plenty of time. Hmmmmm Tommi Jeanne?? NOT!!

Sunday is a big day for our family

Sunday my oldest son gets baptized and the social worker comes for her first visit!! Last weekend I cleaned the rugs and this weekend I'll scrub and mop everything else. I'm going to ask my neighbor if she'll come over around 12:30 and start making some cookies so that the house smells "homey" because I'm not sure what time we'll get home from church. We'll get the Christmas tree tonight and decorate it tomorrow after if falls. DH will put the outside lights up and clean up the yard so we should be all set. I'm kind of nervous about this because she can stop us from getting our daughter with one word!! When I've spoken to her she seemed to be very nice and we got off on the right foot so I'm probably freaking out for nothing, but I'm scared and nervous!!

Oh and I forgot about our pool. I gotta get my neighbor to fix something up so that it has a gate to keep out "little" girls. Right now it is wide open! I don't think the sw will like that one bit!!

So much to do!

What's In a Name??

Ok, I thought everyone would like how I combined my grandmother's first name, my mother's middle name, and my MIL's first name to Tianna Claire cn. My dh and ds's do NOT like this name at all. I think it's pretty and unique but they just won't have it. So I've found some other names that I'm going to run by the gang and see what they think. Here are a few:

Akia (pronounced Ah-key-ah)
Taryn Claire
Kera Faith
Skye/Skylar ?
Piper Ann
Marina ?
Kylie Faith
Lexi ?
Kennedy Faith (ha - I really like Faith as a middle name!!)
Kianna ?
Ava Claire
Kelsey Faith
Tehani Faith (pronounced te-ha-nee)
Jenna

So many choices!!!

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my BIL. It was very relaxing and we had a great time. I was a little bit down because we usually spend this day with my mom and dad. They were unable to come into town because of her triple bypass 2 months ago. She isn't ready to travel yet - but we are looking forward to Christmas!!

When we walked into their house we were greeted warmly and then congratulated about our adoption plans. Everyone asked questions and seemed to be very happy for us. T's brother and sister in-law said they would be happy to be her guardian - they are my oldest son's godparents and have 2 young children so they were a natural to ask. T's other brother and sister in-law came up to us after dinner and said that they would like to give Logan some air miles so he can go to China too!!! What a wonderful surprise. They are his godparents and are two wonderful people!

We got T's doctors form back and as I was looking it over I notice that they marked his liver as abnormal! Huh?!! I asked T about it and he said he was unaware of anything being abnormal. This doctor is something else. T is going to call today and find out what is going on. Since they marked this as abnormal we will need to get a letter of explanation from them for the homestudy and for the dossier! What a pita!! I go to the doctors this friday for my physical and next Sunday is our first visit with the social worker. We are coming along slowly but surely!!

BC's,MC, and Telling the Family

I finally got my birth certificate in the mail!! Now I've sent all 3 certificates to NY to be certified and then I can send them to NYC Chinese Consulate to be authenticated. I'm also going to the clerk of court today to get our police records going and I will be picking up the boys forms from the doctors. Dh and I decided to clean out the attic this weekend. There is junk up there from when the boys were little! I'm going to have a massive yard sale in a few weeks. If I have time I'm also going to clean out my closet and the hall closet - pretty ambitious plan for the long weekend.

We are going to J & J's for Thanksgiving. I'm not able to get time off so we can't go to NY to see mom and dad. Usually mom is down here and the day after we hit the stores and all the crowds! I'm going to make some squash and an apple pie to bring. We haven't had Thanksgiving with them in many years so this will be a nice change. Plus we'll be able to see G, K & L's new little girl!

We also told his side of the family what our plans are. We composed an email and sent it to everyone with the who, what's and whys. The response from everyone has been very supportive. Everyone is excited for us and quite happy. When I told my youngest brother he said congrats and what can I do for you. When I told my other younger brother he said "Why China when there are so many kids right here in the US?" Should have known I'd get that response from him. My sister is excited also, but thinks we are completely out of our minds!! Both sets of nana's are happy and papa is too.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!