the jamaicans strike again!!
I swear the Jamaica people as a whole are out to sabotage our adoption... first we have problems getting our marriage license and THEN when our agency send the darn thing to the embassy to have it certified - their certification machine EATS it!!!
Its a good thing they sent us 6 copies!!
people are freaking out
Folks on the chinese adoption newsgroups I belong to are freaking out all over the internet - there has been messages posted that the CCAA is going to be closed until June 6. I understand their freaked-out-ness, but as Henry Rollins has said (forgive me, I paraphrase) "Your choice is fish, man.... just mellow and be drinkable". Translation: dont get so upset, there is nothing that can be done if they decide to close for a month... everything will be fine in the long run!!
she'll never know her Grandpa...
I'm very disappointed that Aubree will never get to know her Grandpa Cleveland - its just too sad for words. They picked out a little bouquet of flowers to put in his casket to represent the grandkids - 5 yellow carnations for the boys and 2 pink ones for the girls... one for L and one for Aubree...
Not even born part #2
Lor was napping one later afternoon and I sat down and came up with a list of things I would like to experience or do with our future daughter. Heres what I have so far:
she's not even born yet...
Our potental baby probably isnt even born yet, but I still think of her daily.... I have for quite a while now. I can see her playing in the backyard with Dana on a warm sunny day like we had yesterday. I can tell you in minute detail how she will look with her lunch smeared all over her head. I can picture her standing in the bathroom when she's 4 - being caught red-handed with all of Mama's cosmetics adorning her beautiful face.
Her name is going to be Aubree... her middle name is being debated at this time. I like Marie, but Dana has asked that we consider other options... I still like Marie ;) If she has a decent chinese name, we could use that as her first name or middle name BUT there is no way I'm going to let my daughter stay saddled with a something like Hong Dong Ding for the rest of her life. I'm sure its a perfectly lovely name, but how much teasing from well... me... should she have to endure :)
I bought her a few little things yesterday - a butterfly rattle and a classic pooh brush/comb set. Trying not to go hog wild just yet on supplies, but I feel the need to honor her with a few things right now.
Homestudy visits are done!!
Our homestudy visits are over!! Yay!! China requires 4 homestudy visits - and you know what, they werent bad at all! We have a really good social worker working on our homestudy - she has been just a joy to work with! She's got 6 kids of her own - 1 adopted internationally and 2 domestically - so she knows what we're going through and how the various systems work.
The questions werent even that bad. I guess we were expecting really hard questions and there just were any... or at least we seemed to know what to answer at the time :)
K said that she would have the complete report finished by the end of this month and a copy sent to us to review... thats going to be interesting to see!!
Update in marriage license adventure: Dana called down to Jamaica this morning - they've received payment but they havent printed the copies yet. The lady said that we would probably have them in our hand on Wednesday or Thursday next week... I'm not going to hold my breath cuz I'm afraid I'm going to be a very interesting shade of purple... :D
Welcome Welcome Welcome!
Good morning and welcome to the start of Dana and Laurie's adoption journey to China!!! We are in Month 2 of our paperchase adventure, have just a few more documents to gather, have had 2 homestudy visits so far, 2 more homestudy visits left to go, and then we will go play in the ink at INS to have our fingerprints done! Its been interesting so far as to how insane the slowness of the paperchase has made me, but as we get more and more information gathered.. the gleam of madness slowly fades from my eyes :)
The paperchase is very frustrating - China requires fresh copies of everything and it has to be notarized. Doesnt matter that we were married just 2 years ago, we have had to jump through hoops to get a new copy of our marriage license from Jamaica even though I've got two really nice, crisp copies. At this point, I consider it the labor I would have gone through if we had gone the traditional way of building a family :D
We're adopting from China for several reasons:
1. I've got some medical problems that I dont want to be made worse through having my own baby - all are of the female kind...
2. We DO NOT want to go through the same horror that my brother and sis-in-law have gone through with domestic adoption. We dont want to have to deal with a system that drags their feet on everything while the children waste away in foster care.
3. We want a little girl - China has an over abundance of little girls desperately needing families
4. China's got a solid program. Children from China do not have as many physical and emotional problems as children adopted from other countries tend to have.
5. China requires you to make one 2 week long trip over to pick up your child - some other countries require you to come over, meet your child, go home without your child, and then come back after a period of time and take your child home. There would be no way I could leave my child over there!!
Dana and I will post more in the coming year as we progress on our journey!! Thanks for visiting us!! :)