Too Much

We have wonderful friends and family. Over the past six years, they have collected quilt squares and stories. Jenn turned them into a wonderful baby quilt and story for us! A sample of each square is in a scrapbook along with a personal note about why it is meaningful. Thanks to all who contributed and to Jenn for creating such a lovely thing for Morgan. We adore it!

 

Gearing up!

We leave for China on 1/31! 

Beijing: 2/1 – 2/5 for a cultural tour

Nanchang: 2/5 – 2/10 meet Morgan and do paperwork

Guangzhou: 2/10 – 2/16 meet two other families working with our agency and complete the US paperwork.

Home: 2/16

We have spent the past several days shopping for big things and little things. We as ready as I think we are going to be. Car seats, stroller, bottles, food, clothes, meds….. I am sure we are forgetting somethings. But, I am told we can buy it all there. Family and friends have been wonderful. The support and enthusiasm is overwhelming.

 

Lists, Lists, Lists

Travel Authorization — Done! We are offically allowed to enter the country.

Visa — In Process, we should have that on Monday.

We are getting used to the idea of being parents…. the past few weeks have been blur. Prague before the holidays for work, a week in St Martin and now China. It has been funny to hear how our language has changed. From “the baby” to “our daughter” to “Morgan”.

I am awash in lists… what she needs, what we need, what to pack, what to buy, what to finish up for work. It appears that we will travel 2/1. We should hear more this week.

 

 

Meet Morgan Jia

We have a little girl — Morgan Jia Oliver was born on 3/30/2011. Her chinese names is Du Xiao Wen and she is in the Jiangxi Province. More to come after everything is translated. We are….

Stunned

Beaming

Happy

Shocked

Thanks to all your well wishes, support, hugs and then even more support after five years of waiting.

 

So Close

It is hard to imagine… but we are next!  It has been a tough road, but we know if was worth it and more. Now, we hold our breath.

 

The Good, The Bad and The Same

The Bad — It is been a tough few months. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It has been a surreal journey over the past 12 months. It manifests itself with fast and sever dementia and issues with balance, walking. She had been at an assisted Living Community and was recently hospitalized and moved to a nursing facility. We are hoping that she recovers enough to return to assisted living.

And… our adoption agency is closing. That was a heartbreaking. The Director is retiring. All of thier files have been moved to ASIA. The references came back positive. So we are hoping for the best.

The Same — Adoption paperwork marches on… it is that time of year. All of our renewals are due.

The Good – This might be the last time for paperwork! China has referred babies through June 30, 2006. We are on deck and it could be late this year that we get pictures for our baby.

 

April 2012?

So…. China Adoption Forecast Calculator is tell us that we will get our referral in April 2012. Anyone interested in guessing the date?

http://chinaadoptionforecast.com/ 

Our prediction for LID 2006-08-03

China has 55 days of dossiers to be processed before they get to your dossier. China currently processes about 5.2 days of dossiers each month.

Our best guess: 2012-04-24

Since China generally sends out referrals in a batch about once per month, your referral date could easily vary +/- one month depending on whether you just get included or just get missed in a particular batch.

(There is some discussion of the math behind these estimates on another page.)

 

It has been awhile…

It is hard to belive that I haven’t posted anything since August! The short version of the story is that the adoption process is plodding along. My sister-in-law pointed out to us yesterday that babies have been referred through June 9, 2006…. it is a little surreal that we might actually be parents sometime soon.

Congrats to the new parents!

http://chinaadopttalk.com/2011/02/24/babies-40/

 

Babies – Through May 15, 2006

80 days and counting…

There are 80 days worth of referrals ahead of us in line. Doing some quick math — that means we have 16 to 18 more months of waiting (~ Dec 2011).

Congrats to the new parents — http://chinaadopttalk.com/2010/08/17/babies-36/

 

New Chapter

 

After two years of hard work, my husband has finished a master’s degree in education and has been offered a teaching position at our local high school. Starting in August, he will be teaching algebra and geometry.  There is amazing amount of paper work associate with become a teacher (almost as much as adoption). I am proud of him persevering through it.

It is nice when a plan comes together.