This and That!

I am trying to post more now that we are soooo close. So here ya go. We have been busy getting stuff ready and dealing with life. I flew all by myself(those that know me know that this is a HUGE deal) to Mississippi to visit family. My grandfather was sick and I thought it best to go see him. I am happy to say that he is much better now and he just needs to LISTEN TO HIS DOCTOR!!!yhea right.
In other news today Rusty and I met with Jaden's new doctor! He has also adopted internationally so he knows what we will be dealing with. He was great and had no problem writing prescriptions that we will need for Jaden while in Ch*na. The funny thing is that his name is the same has my pediatrician I had when I was a baby in MS! How ironic is that? And no its not a common name like Smith! So now I have everything done for Jaden regarding doctors and dentists. Now it feels real. We are preparing for our baby!
We have bought the baby gates and have all the safety stuff now I just have to get Rusty to install it all! That should be fun!

REFERRALS AND OH SO CLOSE!

Well Ch*na sent out referrals last week for those LID 3/7/2006-3/8/2006. Whoo hoo two whole days! You go CC*A. There were also a good number of people that were LID 3/9/06 who got a referral but not the whole date. Don't know what was up with that but we will take it. Now I am happy with these numbers because the 7th was HUGE. I thought they might just do that one day but they didn't. So now there are 7 days left two of which are weekend days when there are no LIDs. So really we have 5 days left!!! So we have a small chance of being in the next batch but the best chance is the 2nd batch! So we are next, next! I can deal with that. So looks like we are going to be in Ch*na in the heat of the summer. We will have a bad guess of swamp a$$!(that was for you mom) I can handle the heat, I may live in Ohio but I will always be a Mississippi girl! And it doesn't get any hotter then Mississippi!!!

Finally doing the Happy Dance!!!

I finally got our corrected I171H in the mail today! I am so happy. I emailed the US*IS yesterday and they said they had mailed it on the 17th and that if I did not have it yesterday they would mail another one. Well we didn't get it yesterday so I emailed them AGAIN. They emailed me this morning and said they would mail it to me today. Well there it was in the mail today. I looked at the postmark thinking it would say 3/17 nope it said 3/23! And they paid extra to get it in one day. My guess is they forgot again to mail it so they did it yesterday. I am so glad to have it done! This was the last thing we needed before our referral.
I called our agency to let them know we had it and would be mailing it to them. Of course I also asked when we should get our referral expecting to hear "we are not sure but it should be in the next few months". But no, I was told that they were expecting referrals next week and that we should be in the batch after that! That would mean we should see her face at the end of April or the first of May!!! I figure it will be the first of May because Rusty will be out of town and I will be alone when I see our daughter's face!!! Here is keeping our fingers crossed for next month!!!

Still no Happy Dance here!!!

Ok I know like two post ago I was singing the praises of the Co*umbus Us*is office. Well not anymore!!! I have still not gotten my corrected I171H! I emailed them last Monday and was told it was done and they had forgotten to mail it!?! It was being put in the mail that day. Well still no I171H!!! I just emailed them again and asked if it had been sent. I also asked if I needed to make an appointment to come pick it up. I guess I will get my response on Monday. This is CRAZY!!! I just want to be able to relaxe and enjoy the last weeks before my referral!

China adoption refresher!

Ok since we are getting so CLOSE to our referral I have decided to refresh everyone on how the adoption works. And because I get tired of hearing how so and so adopted from Ch*na and they did not wait this long. So here is a run down of how Ch*nese adoption works and how it doesn't work. I am just giving a very short version of the process so people will understand.
In the beginning we had to get our paperwork together, this is our dossier, it included all kinda good stuff about us. The dossier went to Ch*na and was given a log in date or LID. Our LID is 3/15/2006. EVERYONE is given an LID. Ch*na gives referrals based on your LID. In other words a person with a 5/2/2007 LID IS NOT given a referral before a person with a 3/15/2006 LID. Now the exception to this rule is if the person who is LID 5/2/2007 decides that they are going to adopt from the Special Needs list. If they decide that they want to adopt a child with a special need their adoption is faster and they can "butt" in line. There are children on a list that they can decide is the child for them. We are in the Non-special needs line. We have asked for a healthy infant so we are in a long line. (Please no one get offended that I said SN families get to butt in line, just explaining how it works!)
Now when it comes our time to be matched with Jaden, someone in Ch*na will take the files that are LID 3/15/2006 and blow three years worth of dust off of them and begin matching us with our babies. They will find the perfect baby for each family and put them together. (the babies also have their own dossiers) Then the big brown stork will fly these files to our agency where they will be translated and we will be called with the info they have on our baby. They will also email us a picture and overnight us the information.
Then we will fly to Ch*na 4-8 weeks later to meet Jaden. We will spend two weeks in Ch*na getting to know our daughter and of course doing lots of paperwork. Then we will come home!
So there it is VERY simplified.
Now here are some other facts about Ch*nese adoption.
-The babies will be at least 6 months at referral. It is required that all babies be at least 6 months at referral because they have to show that they tried to find their birth parents for 6 months or the baby would not be available for international adoption. On the rare occasion there will be a 5 1/2 month old but they will be 6 months by the time the adoption is completed.
-At least one parent MUST travel to Ch*na to pick up the baby. The babies can't be escorted to the USA! Ch*na does not allow for the babies to be escorted. You may be thinking of Korea but with Ch*na, it is not happening!
-Celebrities and millionaires can get their baby faster is another one. Nope that does not happen. Everyone is in the same line. Even a certain celebrity who did adopt from Ch*na had to wait in the same line as the rest of us.
So there you go those are the three things that I hear over and over that I needed to clear up.
So there is your refresher course in our adoption in a nutshell. Believe me things are alot more complicated then I posted but I don't want to give you an overload of info.
Who knows maybe right now that special worker could be blowing off the dust on our file!!!