Tuesday, September 26, 2006

another step

Hello again. After reading my yahoo groups, many referrals have been received today. that means that many families are going to be growing in the next 2-3 months. We completed another step today. I ran to the doctors office tot get a letter stating that Michael's health will not threaten his ability to parent. Now, we are waiting for our friends get their recommendations and send them in. After that, hopefully we will be approved and will be able to go to the next orientation!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Things are progressing

How about I mailed the application yesterday and the agency got it today? They just called.Yippee! For those on our reference list, you will be getting a letter from them shortly. PLease mail it in by OCtober 7th if possible. We also need a note saying Michaels diabetes wont affect his parenting and we will be approved. Once approved, we will get on the orientation date of October 14th... SWEET

Hows that for good news?
amy

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Application sent

YIPPEEE! The application along with a money order was sent to our agency today..This means the process has started..I had it confirmed so that I will know when they get it..Its very exciting...I will write more later!
amy

Monday, September 11, 2006

Updates or not

Still not much going on. Sending the application out before we leave on the trip and will hopefully be accepted and then get an orientation date. Michael was motivated to start with the major house cleaning tonight and I am so proud of him. If you guys know of anyone who is adopting or planning on it, please send me their emails or website links.

I wish I had more to tell you.

Amy

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Thursday 13


Thirteen Things I am scared about in the adoption process

1….It will become so overwhelming we will quit!
2. Finances.That we wont have the money at the right time
3.Paperwork will not arrive in time
4.That the house will not be ready in time
5.Friends will not be accepting of this
6.That my passion will for this will decrease
7.That I will do what I want and not listen to God. This one scares me most of all
8.That we aren't ready
9. That I will not keep in contact with the families I have met
10.That the wait time for referrals will continue to increase
I really cant come up with 13 this week. These are fears. I have given them to God, but they still stay with me..I know that it will work out according to His will. Thanks for the encouragment and prayers!


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!






Sunday, September 03, 2006

Chinese adoption

WE are so excited to begin the process. What happens now is we turn in the full application, wait for approval and an invitation to the October orientation. We are then assigned a socal work and the fun starts. The paperwork is often called "paperchasing" and you will hear that a lot.
I am going to post some info on words, symbols and traditions you may hear in the chinese adoption world. Its very exciting and I am so glad we have all of the support




New to Chinese Adoption?...The Answers To Your Questions:
These answers are based on my personal research and opinions...* Why does it take so long? The paperwork required by China is extensive and it takes a long time to prepare because they want to ensure that their children are being adopted into loving homes. After the paperwork is submitted to the Chinese government, it waits its turn to be thoroughly reviewed. They also have to confirm that the children being placed for adoption are truly orphans. * Why are all the orphans girls? Most of the orphans are girls because in the Chinese culture, boys support their parents in their old age as there is no social security. Girls support their husband's parents. With the one child per family law, most families choose for their one child to be a boy out of necessity.* How old will she be? It seems that the youngest age at the time of adoption is about 8 months. Most of the babies are between that and about 20 months old, with the majority being around 12-14 months when they first meet their forever family.

Important Jargon and Traditions Found In The Chinese Adoption Community:
The Red Thread - "An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break." - An ancient Chinese belief

.Ladybugs - Believed to be good luck by most people, this is particularly true here. One spring while everyone waited for their referrals, there was a huge infiltration of ladybugs across the nation and immediately following these sightings a flood of referrals came. Or so the story goes.

100 Good Wishes Quilt - To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or "100 Good Wishes Quilt." It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. (Wording borrowed from Original Quilts owner.) Waiting families often collect the wishes along with a sample of each fabric square into a scrapbook for their new child.DTC - Dossier to China. This is the milestone day when the Chinese government logs in the receipt of a dossier to adopt a child. This represents the end of the "paperchase" for the adoptive parents, and the beginning of "the wait" for a referral of a child by the Chinese government. Sometimes also referred to as your LID, or Log In Date.

Questions

Another great question received at work, was "Is it first come at the orphanage and how do you pick the one you want" followed by "If they get ugly, can you return them?"


uhm.....do I even bother???

Saturday, September 02, 2006

First Friday

Where do I even start? I am hoping Michael will also post his feelings towards last night..SO we went to a doctors appt and then had Carrabas for dinner (early, and there was no line). Then we headed to the Chapmans for our first First Friday..First of all, we felt out of place when we got there..Why? The homes started at 700,000 up to 3 million..It was wacked..I will never be in this kind of neighborhood again.. So, we were the first to arrive..We met Susan and Dan and Mimi, their 4 year old petite daughter adopted from China..Loved it...

Then the people started arriving. They said it was a small crowd, I'm guessing 50-60 people..I thought it was huge. Many people brought their adopted daughters..Yes, there were people all in the process. One family leaves Sept 12 for Makayla Grace. The entire group prayed over them before the night was through. The family showed pictures and was totally excited about the trip..It was contagious. We met several couples. One couple has offered to sit with us if we want to visit First Baptist Woodstock. They have been on mission trips to the Chinese orphanages and thats how they decided to adopt..Its the coolest thing! We met a couple who is waiting on a specific piece of paper and its been a long wait and they were frustrated.Very nice people and the husband gave me lots of information...
We were able to meet Mr Diets, he's the president of the Atlanta chapter of the group we will be using. All in all, it was an awesome experience..The agency we chose is being used by most of the people there and we have no doubts about them at all. We will probably go to our orientation October 14th if we can get our application this week.

We mingled, ate cookies and checked out family pics for about an hour until question and answer time..

We can not go back until November, but I hope to be there! It was far better than I ever expected.. We left so motivated to get this started. Im still fearful about the financial situation but God has laid this on our hearts for a long time and I know He will provide. We met so many people. I felt like we immediately joined a family or a club that was opened to everyone. I think all of the future moms had tears in their eyes at least once sometime last nignt.


Stay tuned to whats going on in our hearts!!!!

Friday, September 01, 2006

Tonight

Well, tonight is our first Chinese adoption support group thingy. I am pretty excited as we are going to meet a lot of people and meet some children born in China. Its called First Friday and its held the first Friday of the month. This is the first time we have been able to go. It should be fun. A nurse that works with me tore out a piece of paper that had an adoption seminar this Thursday using the group we will be using. Im not sure I will be able to go, but its nice that people are looking out for me. I am getting more focused on getting the house organized. We may board Lucy for 2 weeks in October and if we do, that will be when we get most of the organization done. Ive learned that we need to show proof of shots for the cats, so we will need to get that done as well. I am also hoping we will see the couple we met on the cruise again..

There really is a lot of things to do, but it will get done, I am sure..Its nice to have something to motivate me..