We received our TA (travel approval) today

We got the call from our agency that our TA came back today, which means that we have 3 months to go to China to get our baby.  YAAY we are so excited.  My agency is contacting the US consulate and if they still have availability our tentative date to leave is March 9th.  WOW we cannot believe it, that is next week.  I just keep thing that in less than 2 weeks I will be holding my beautiful baby girl.

2 weeks already

WOW!  2 weeks ago today we received our referral.  I am so in love with that little face.  We got situated in the new place, I am starting her crib bedding tomorrow, and I have gotten some things together for my care package to send to her.  Does everyone send a care package?

My agency told me today that we could possibly be hearing something from China in about 2-3 weeks.  This is GREAT news.  Then my agency will make our appointment with the US Consulate and that will determine our travel dates. They will then make all of our travel arrangements and we will be China bound.

We are hoping for March, even if it is the end of March we will be happy with that.  I might be having my baby for her 1st Easter. 

Our new house

FINALLY, Today we found out that we get the keys to our new house tomorrow morning.  YAAY!!  I'm so excited.  I found some cute baby bedding online but it is custom made and of course the one I want is $500.00 for a 3 piece set (ouch)  So since I sew a lot I have decided to make it myself and only spent 1/5 on fabric.  Saved a ton of money.  So that is what I will be doing over the next few weeks.  My agency received my LOA (letter of acceptance) they have forwarded it to China so hopefully by the end of the week it will be in China's hands and they will be working on inviting us to come get our baby girl.  I am HOPING for March travel.  That would be a nice birthday present as my birthday is March 26...

New house, new baby, shopping, shopping, and more shopping

The day before yesterday, we FINALLY signed documents for our new house.  So that means the we should close by Wednesday of next week. YAAY!!  I knew this would happen, we would close on our house, and get our referral all together.  So that would give me about 6-7 weeks to get situated in our new house, pack for China, get the nursery ready and shop for a baby and new house stuff.  Obviously that is probably not going to happen, so I'm just gonna get our furniture and stuff in and worry about painting and decorating later. 

I ordered a Magnolia doll for my little Caydence. that is going with me to China.  We also found an Asian Cabbage Patch Kid a few years ago and bought that.  I am so excited to get my girl,  I get to buy and play barbies and dollies again, She is going to be so spoiled and she doesn't even know it yet.

Last night, I decided to get all the baby clothes out that we have been accumulating over the years.  Boy I had no clue how much I had. So instead of packing them away in a box, I packed them for China, today we are going to get a few more P.J's and jeans and then she will be done. That's one less thing on my mind.  If anyone has any suggestions on packing, I would LOVE to hear them.

The great paperchase

Yesterday we received our daughter's acceptance letter and a contract from the agency.  We read over her medical profile and of course signed and made copies.  This morning we overnight mailed it along with a notarized copy of our contract with our agency.  It should be there Monday morning by 10:30AM YAAY..  After that it will be forwarded to China, then HOPEFULLY in about 3 weeks we will get our invite to come back, then off to China we go to bring our little sweetheart home. 

Today I'm still on cloud nine

I slept pretty good considering I was non-functional all day yesterday.  We got Caydence's social story this morning by e-mail and it turns out she was found on June 14, 2010 outside the social affairs institute.  We were hoping it wasn't a bad story and it wasn't, we now know we are in for the best  time of our lives.

Of course that is after reading that she likes to take her neighbors comforters from them, gets excited to play with toys, play outside, do new actions, learn new things, loves to laugh, loves being held, friendly and outgoing, smiles often and will respond to her name and she will observe strangers cautiously.


We should be receiving her social story by mail this afternoon (February 3, 2011), we will be excepting and mailing the acceptance form right back to our agency. The process is moving right along, stay tuned......

We got our referral

We just got the call about an hour ago, We got our referral.  Her name is Song Xiao Zhi.  Her Birthdate June 13, 2010 she is from Guangdong province I'm over the moon obviously.  I don't think today is going to be very productive, as I cant even think straight. LOL

The Beginning

We first decided to adopt in September of 2005.  We can have children, but decided we didn't want to have any more because they come early.  We had a daughter named Carlie Mae on July 5, 1997. She was born at 25 weeks and weighed 1lb 11oz.  Sadly she passed away at the age of 5 weeks old.  The hardest day of our lives.  10 months later on April 29, 1998 we had a son Nathan Andrew born at 27 weeks and weighing 1lb 13 oz.  He is 12 now and healthy.

I looked into international adoption because California is not the best state to adopt from because they give the parent too many rights to come back.  Myself and my husband didn't want to adopt a child and turn around and have to give him/her back after a few years because the parents decided they wanted the baby back. I looked into Kazakhstan, Russia, and China. We chose China because overall they are the healthiest babies and girls are mostly given up.  At the time I could just picture myself, my husband, and son with a little Chinese girl.  I still can.

On October 3, 2005 we received our package from Living Hope Adoption Agency and that began our loooooong journey.  This week after 4.5 years of waiting I am expecting a call form our agency telling us our referral is in.