Friday, June 24, 2005

Not Quite Close Enough!

The 6:30 pm update:
We received word from our agency today that they received medical records for 9 little girls via email today. It appears that this is the same group that the agency is waiting on paperwork for (package that was sent to the wrong distribution center). There were 9 families that missed the last batch of referrals so, it appears that they are the ones that will receive their referrals this month. As far as I can tell on the message boards, it seems that December 21st was the cut-off date. We were two days short!!! We are thankful to have some sort of answers and can pretty much guarantee that we will be in the next batch. If that holds true, we will most likely travel to China in September. Well, that is the latest update -- What a week!

So Close!

Today was suppose to be the day of answers...Well, here is the letter we got from our agency this morning (after several sleepless nights):

"Good morning. I don't have the news you all want to hear. I've been tracking the package and just got off the phone after seeing that the "shipment arrived at the wrong facility destination" . After arriving it the USA in San Francisco, it went to Wilmington instead of Cincinnati. It will be leaving Wilmington shortly, but will not get to L. until Monday now. They told me that they will "hot cart" it for priority delivery on Monday morning...."

It is going to be a very long weekend!!

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Stork Alert

When just received word that a package is on it's way to our agency from Beijing. It is most likely referrals. The question that now remains is: Will it contain referrals through December 23rd? Package is due to arrive on Friday. So, check back as we will post whether we are one of the lucky June families or not.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Whee!

Well, this week has been quite a roller coaser ride and it is only Tuesday! Yesterday, we received an email that two packages were on their way from China. They were not sure, however, if it would be travel letters for another group, special needs adoption pre-approvals, special needs travel letters, or referrals. The packages arrived today and they were not referrals. I had begun to assume that as none of the message boards were buzzing with referral information. I checked the boards this morning and someone from Spain posted that their agency told them that the cut off date for referrals was Dec. 20th. Our date is Dec. 23rd - only three days away from the 20th!!! Another individual is saying that their agency has told them to expect the whole month of December. Now, the message boards are all fired up again and again no one is exactly sure when to expect news and when that cut off date will be for the US!! These sites can be so helpful and yet so frustrating! Hopefully, there will be news from our agency by the end of the week!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Twiddling Our Thumbs

I promised that our next post would be about the adoption. So here goes.. Absolutely no news! The message boards are outrageous right now -- people arguing with one another about political correctness, people still speculating when referrals will come and which dates will be in the batch, people talking about ladybug sightings (ladybugs are considered in the Chinese adoption community as a symbol of luck)...Anyways, the boards are making me crazy! If you want to see something amazing, look at this picture I found on the internet. This is a picture of the Matching Room (place at the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs where families are matched with a child) taken in May/June 2002. Each of those files on the shelf is a family's paperwork waiting to be matched with a child. WOW! If I am correct, I think the number of families adopting from China has increased since that time.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

So far, there has been no news on the adoption front this week. People on the one message board are giving input and sharing baby names. Depending on which Reagle you ask, you will get a different answer on whether or not we have a name. We are waiting to see what her given name is before we officially decide on her name. So, for now we call her by Morgan's name of choice "Jelly Bean" (only joking).

Friday, June 3, 2005

Any Guesses?

Our main link to information and rumors on adopting from China is the yahoo message boards. We have found boards for traveling to China with carry on luggage ONLY (yeah, right), to scrapbooking your adoptive child's album, to boards focused on an individual month that a family submitted their paperwork to the Chinese government... The list goes on and on and on....Anyways, we belong to two or three of these boards. One of these boards is for families that submitted their paperwork in December. The main topic of discussion now is when we should expect to receive our referrals. I am going stir crazy at this point as everyone is analyzing, speculating, and dwelling on the topic. Some people have credible (or so they say) resources and others not so credible.

I thought it might be fun to make the blog a little more interactive and allow you all to guess the date of referral. I guess you could consider this like one of those pools where people guess the due date of an expectant mother or father. You can submit your date by clicking the "comment" link under this posting. We are pretty sure that we can expect a referral in June or July. We will even throw in a little something to the person(s) or family that comes closest to guessing correctly.

Wednesday, June 1, 2005

I Never Imagined!

While "surfing the net", I ran into another family's adoption journal and found this picture. I found this a day or two ago and am still shocked at the number of precious, little faces in this newspaper!
This is the "finding ad", the ad placed in the newspaper by Chinese authorities within a given geographic area, seeking the birth parents of these children. From my understanding, this is merely a formality. If no one comes forward, the children are then placed in either foster homes or orphanages. The person who posted this stated that this ad consists of children born within a three month period. I never imagined that this number of children within one geographic area would be waiting for families!