CELEBRATIONS!!!

Just an update.... Duck Duck, and Goose are having a house warming and Lucy, and Rusty are having a baby shower. Lucy and Rusty gave birth to what looks to be twin puppies on March 29th. Rusty paced the cage and passed out carrots. We don't know how much they weighed, however they are big. Duck Duck , and Goose , moved into their new home April, 2. They are very happy, but are just trying to get used to the nosey neighbors (Bella & Babydog). Pictures below.....

Why China?

I don't remember when I first thought about China. When I worked at Scafidi's, I waited on a couple who had adopted from China. I remember having really good feelings about it. The first time it was mentioned to Joe and I, was when we first met with Helen Irvin of Children's home society. Helen, really did not tell us what we wanted to hear about domestic adoption (From the idea of having to be chosen by the birth mother to the fact that the father can come back and claim custody, or the Mother changing her mind at the last minute.) From the beginning she suggested international. That was not even an option for Joe. I don't think that he could conceive the idea, he had never been exposed to different race families. For the next year we talked about infertility treatments and even surrogacy. We knew that we did not want to be the type of people that were always consumed with having a baby. We just wanted it to not be so emotional.

We met with Helen again a year or so later, and she again mentioned international. Joe, had said NO from the beginning. He worked with someone who had very successful Domestic adoptions, and was sure we could do the same. He reluctantly agreed to go to a meeting with Chinese Children Adoption International Agency. The meeting was on a Saturday, and Sandra, went with us. They talked in great lengths about the process, how it was strenuous but rewarding. Joe didn't get involved with the conversation much. Then, they put on this DVD, about the problem in China and the orphanages. All of a sudden Joe started using the word WHEN instead of IF. That was it!!! Sandra and I for months had tried to change his mind and all it took was the picture of a baby girl in a crib. So, my reasons were that it may be a lengthy and hard process, but it is not so emotionally hard. As for Joe, It was just seeing a baby. There you have it. Why China.

Spring Time!!!!!

It's spring time.... Yeah!!! We planted our first garden today. It will be trial and error I am sure. We named the ducks. The light colored one is Duck Duck, and the brown one is Goose. (hehe) Today was their first day outside. They will have a permanent home next week. The garden just wore us out this weekend. Lucy, the rabbit is pregnant and Rusty is not happy about it. I don't have much to say about the adoption today. Just waiting and waiting. I just wanted to post some pics of spring at our home. This week I am going to post on why we chose China. Hope your week is good.

Love,

Denise

QUACK! QUACK!

We must be crazy..... We went to ACE Hardware last night, and I completely fell in love with these babies. Now they are living in the bath tub having a fabulous time. Joe is going to speed up my chicken coop that I have been asking for for 3 years and slap a kiddie pool in it and good to go. I don't know if the dogs want to eat them or play with them. I'm not willing to find out, so it has been a challenge keeping them at bay..... enjoy the pic.

Denise

Today we received a package from our Secret Pal..... We belong to a Yahoo Group for families that are around the same time as us. We do a Secret Pal exchange, and it is soooo much fun. It's mostly for the women though.... We got some goodies.... I am putting a picture of Hannah's second Dress from our Secret Pal and the bag she sent..... I am so ready to do some shopping myself. I think we have a crib picked out. I'll post a pic when we actually decide. It's a short post tonite..... I lost an hour yesterday and if anybody finds it I'd sure like to have it back...hehehe

The Wait........

When Joe and I first began this process, we were told that the wait was between 8-10 mos after LID. However, as we got closer to finishing our dossier, it slowly crept up to 10-13 mos. We are now told that it will take 15-18 mos. We already are down 4. Hannah may not even be born yet......If you don't already know the politics about Chinese baby girls, I'll try to explain. Three big factors play into why China has so many baby girls for adoption. The first is Communism, the Second is population, and the third is culture. It starts with China becoming so overpopulated. In one year there were as many babies born as there are people in the United States. (wow) Because of the poverty and the population the Peoples Republic of China starts a tax of sorts. The specifics are different for each region. Some regions, reward for not having more than one or two children. Some families are required to pay economic penalties, and might be denied bonuses at their workplace, if they have more than one child, unless the first is a girl or disabled. China is a Country whos culture in the past has put more value in boys than girls, so once you have had a girl and your second is a girl, they feel they have no other choice except to abandon the second girl.

You are probably wondering why such a wait with so many babies? Well, China, is hosting the 2008 summer Olympics. With the whole world watching they don't want to look like they are peddling their babies. At least that is the theory........ Anyways, Joe and I are quite alright with the wait. We have plenty of bills that we would love to get paid off before we have the baby expense. :-) But, hopefully it will speed up just a little..... Well I think that's about it for the wait...... The picture below is a picture of Hannah Joe's first teddy bear.... I took his portrait but we haven't named him yet......

Hannah's Room

We have slowly began putting together Hannah's Room. We have paint picked out (thanks to my fabulous Stepmama) and we have bedding ( again thanks to Sandra and Daddy). We have converted our over sized Laundry Room into the spare bedroom the house plans intended it to be. I don't want to go too fast, I just don't want to be staring at an empty room for a year. I have included some pictures of the bedding with this post please remember that you can leave comments or questions at the bottom of each post.

Love ya,

Denise

P.S. Joe says hey.......

Short version of a long journey

Well this is our first post. I am excited about having a place everyone can see our progress. I will start with a little bit about our adoption journey thus far. It all started with a meeting at Children's Home Society about adopting. We met a wonderful lady named Helen Irvin. After several conversations with Helen about the frustrations of domestic adoption we chose China. I think we knew instantly that it was the choice we were destined to make all along. We applied with Chinese Children Adoption Agency (CCAI) in April of 2006. On May 5th we were approved. We then started our paper chase.... And what a chase it was. It was 5 months of collecting every piece of paper that had anything to do with our lives. We had to have a Home Study, we hired Children's Home Society to do the Home Study, which is more paper chasing and several meetings with Helen at her office and our home. I remember never being more nervous than the day she first came to our home. I drove Joe nuts.... hehe

Now once you have everything together, you have to get approval from the department of immigration to make a foreign in child a U.S. citizen. That is so stressful. They pick you apart. Let me tell you that it is like watching your life flash before you and answering to all the bad things you have ever done. When they finally approved us we received our most important piece of paper called the I600A. This is Hannah's ticket to become a citizen. Now when all that was done we had to get all of the paper work together and that is called a Dossier (daw-see-ey). We then sent our Dossier to our adoption agency on 10/05/2006 exactly 5 months from approval. Then our Dossier went through critical review then it was translated into Chinese and mailed to China on 10/11/2006. China logged us in for our wait to start on 11/08/2006 YEAH!!!!! This was a huge day for us. Well, I hope that sort of gets you to where we are now.......... I will post about the wait later... :-(