Our last night in Nanchang

..guest post by hubbie....

Tonight is our last night here in Nanchang. Tomorrow, we fly to Guangzhou. It will be baby's first flight on an airplane, and we hope that everything works out okay. She is becoming more talkative with her baby babble, and she surprises us and makes us laugh everyday. She is very good at communicating her needs: when she is hungry, she will start sucking on her thumb vigorously. When she needs a diaper change, she will become upset when you sit her down but calm down right away when you pick her up...when she is upset and wants to be left alone, she will give you the mean eye and flail her arms and kick with her legs. She seems to be getting stronger and was even able to hold up her own bottle for a short period of time today. Teething is still a problem but her cold seems to be clearing up. She seems to have a good memory, because she now becomes clearly agitated when she sees either one of us with a q-tip, nose spray, or kleenex coming her way to clean her nose. Living out of a hotel room and taking care of baby has been very challenging, but we are still alive (barely).

Our guides (Karen and her mom) have been very helpful during our stay in Nanchang. Our visit to this city to meet baby will be one that we never forget (the picture of baby is from the first time that we met her at the civil affairs office).

The latest in Nanchang.

It's been quite a journey so far. "Hubbie" & I thought we were about to pass the bend with "baby's" cold improving. However, today she started to have some teething pain. She's got 2-3 teeth cutting in on the top. She started screaming because the pain was so bad in the afternoon. We did calm her down eventually but it was difficult to hear her cry for so long. Before today, she had only cried for short periods at a time. Overall, she is usually happy as long as she is fed.

We need reinforcements! Hubbie's gone crazy already!

This is the 2nd day we have our baby girl. She's been a challenge for the both of us as new parents of an infant. We definitely know that as long as you feed her on time, change her daiper, entertain her, and allow her to sleep, she is in the best of moods. Our baby definitely is a deep sleeper. She can sleep through anything.

Our little girl has some nasal congestion and coughing right now because the orphanage said she caught a cold last week. She's improving. She's even got her 1st "poopie" this afternoon. That was a first for mommy & daddy. Afterward, she's so talkative and such a happy baby.

However, "Hubbie" has to go take a trip to Walmart to purchase some things. Because we're first time parents, we're more cautious and so we've used more wipes, daipers, and formula than we should have.

Gotta go help "Hubbie" now with baby.

Pre-Baby Day!

We are here in Nanchang in the Jiangxi Province. Today is the day we'll meet our daughter. It's exciting but we're also nervous, first-time parents to be. We hope that we'll be able to take care of her and respond to her needs.

But, let me go back a couple of days.... "Hubbie" & I flew to Hong Kong on Monday. It was the longest flight. We boarded our flight early Monday afternoon, and with the time change, we arrived in Hong Kong Tuesday evening. "Hubbie" counted down each hour. We arrived safely and stayed overnight at the Regal Airport Hotel. It was a very nice room Due to the overcast sky and forecast of rain, we decided to stay on the airport grounds and didn't venture into the city.

On Wednesday afternoon, we boarded another flight from Hong Kong to Nanchang. This flight was much shorter (only an hour and 40 minutes long). Nanchang is quite different from Hong Kong. It's harder to get around without knowing Mandarin and "Hubbie" was able to use what little he knows. Our guide, Karen, was very helpful in making sure that we got to the hotel okay.

Well, we'll soon be meeting baby for the 1st time later this morning. We'll try to provide an update if we have a chance.

Leaving for China

We attended the travel meeting at HAI earlier this week and will be leaving for China on October 29. It has been quite a week....everything is happening so fast. We obtained our travel visas and are now trying to get everything packed. Baby day (the day that we meet our daughter) will be November 1.

We have Travel Approval!

We were informed by Maggie at HAI yesterday morning that "Hubbie" & I have travel approval from China to bring baby home. The next wave of "waiting" will be for Chris, the HAI coordinator in China, to schedule our Civil Affairs appointment in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province and then an appointment with the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. We'll be finding out more information in a week or two about appointments scheduled. Maggie made it very clear that we cannot book any flights or hotels until we have the appointments scheduled. And so...We're waiting and preparing for our trip and for baby's arrival...But it just seems that things are rolling along in the right track.

This week was pretty exciting. Everyday we have heard from our agency on one thing or another. We have an update on baby's weight, height, head circumference, chest circumference, and foot length. She has gained 3 lbs since July. But...We won't really know exactly how much she weighs until we see her because the physicians weigh her with clothes on. Who knows how many layers of clothes she had that day she was weighed?

Maggie called to say that they'll be trying to schedule our Travel Meeting for next week. We'll be going over exactly what is to be expected of us (i.e. documents, gifts, $$$, etc.) next week sometime. At least "Hubbie" & I know that during the 1st leg of our trip to Jiangxi Province, we'll be traveling with one other HAI family from No. CA. The other 2 families will remain in the Guangdong Province the entire trip. It's getting closer to the day we'll meet our "baby girl!"

Introducing Our Daughter

"Hubbie" & I would like to introduce our daughter! She was born on March 6, 2007 (a "Golden Piggy"). She is currently being cared for in the Guixi Social Welfare Institute in Jiangxi Province, China. We are looking forward to being united with her soon.

These pictures of her are from July of this year.

We have a DAUGHTER!

"Hubbie" & I got the news yesterday afternoon at about 1:50pm. It was a surprise for me. My co-workers & I went to lunch and were shopping at Party City for a Halloween costume for my co-worker's little boy. When we were waiting in line, I received a phone call from "Hubbie" who said that some families were receiving referrals. I informed him that I hadn't heard from HAI yet....and so my co-workers & I rushed back to our office so that I could view what "Hubbie" was talking about on the "net." When I got back, the computer network was down, but I got the call from Maggie, the China Adoption Director at HAI, who said..."I have good news for you...." "Hubbie" couldn't get in on the phone call with me and since I was still in a bit of shock, I asked my supervisor/co-worker to listen in on the referral call. The rest of the afternoon and evening was a bit of a blur. I know that I was still trying to do some work.

Our little girl's DOB is 3/6/2007. She is from the Jiangxi Province (Southern part of China).



We will find out more tomorrow afternoon when "Hubbie" & I meet with Maggie at HAI to go over the referral package.

It's September Already! Another month has gone by.

September is here and we're still waiting to be matched with baby. During the last 1.5 months, "Hubbie" & I have been reading more parenting books. We really enjoyed reading "On Becoming Baby Wise: Book Two" parenting pretoddlers 5 to 15 months written by Gary Ezzo, MA & Robert Bucknam, MD. The book emphasizes that the patterns children develop today will forever impact his/her life. Book Two stresses the belief that the duty of every parent is to raise a morally responsible child who will grow up to be a morally responsible adult.

I've borrowed and started reading a couple of baby food cookbooks from a friend. Both books are good references. The "Super Baby Food' book written by Ruth Yaron is a bit overwhelming for me because I'm not a connoisseur in the kitchen in the first place. No colorful pictures of the recommended recipes to include in baby's diet. I would recommend "First Meals" by Annabel Karmel to be included in the parenting library of books. There are a lot of colorful pictures of "mouth watering" foods to cook for the baby and family too.

"Hubbie" & I are learning to sign so that we can teach baby to communicate basic needs prior to being able to verbalize in words. We have two "Baby Signing Time" DVDs that we're learning from. I hope that signing will decrease the communication frustrations on both ends (baby & us). We will still verbalize the words as we sign so that she can associated the words to the signing gestures.

I really did not hear any news of expedited families receiving their referrals at the beginning of September, referral time. I'm hoping that we'll hear some good news at the begiining of October for expedited families. It's just a couple of weeks away. We're waiting on "pins & needles" guessing when we'll receive our referral. Due to CCAA's more stricter interpretations of the expedited criteria, some families have been denied and are waiting longer than they originally anticipated. We hope that the CCAA workers have included "Hubbie" and I in the expedited pile.

Referrals have arrived again!

It looks like CCAA has included CER families who were logged in June 2006. What does that mean for "hubbie" & me? We can finally say "we're next!" How exciting and a bit scary. I don't know how much longer the wait will be but we're next for CER families.

No New News.

July was a disappointing month for CERs because there wasn't any. However, August is almost here. I'm hoping the CCAA will at least cover the entire June 2006 LID for CER families.

In the meanwhile: (1)"Hubbie" & I narrowed our list of 25 baby names to only 5 names. We made a deal last month. I am to narrow the list to only 5 potential names. "Hubbie" would choose one of the 5 names as our daughter's official first name. At this point, he's still deciding. He's told me that he won't choose the name until he sees the photo of our daughter. (2) I've made a list of things we'll need to prep for our China trip. "Hubbie" requested that I make a spreadsheet checklist. And so...I've made the spreadsheet and started buying items. (3) We've been blessed with friends who have generously donated to the baby's room and needs. Most recently, we've included a glider in the baby's room.

Our Wait is Moving Along. . . .

News of referrals for this month are arriving and families are being informed of their little ones. It looks like CCAA has referred all of May 2006 CER families. It's great news! Now...I'm wondering if CCAA will be splitting the CER families who logged in June 2006 into 1/2 months referral batches again. Since "hubbie" & I are logged July 10, 2006, we've got to figure out how we're going to proceed with projects at work for the rest of 2007.

May is here. No new CER progress : (

Initially when referrals came in at the beginning of May, mixed news of CER were reported. I didn't know what to think. But as the referrals were reported towards the end of the week, the positive CER news of referrals received for families logged in during the first half of May 2006 were misreported after all. And so...We're left to wonder about how CCAA will progress for CER families next month at referral time. We can only hope that they'll catch up to the speed that has been for this year so far. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping they'll do all of May 2006 next month. But...This is only wishful thinking.

Over the weekend, Hubbie & I went shopping at Crate & Barrel. We can say that we not only have a new furniture piece but also have added a new prospective girl name to our list. The sales girl who sold us the furniture piece has this name and I thought it is a pretty name. Also, this name isn't on the baby name book we have at home. It could be a combination of different names we have thought of in the past. We'll see if this one will stand the test of time.

9 Months since LID

As of today, Hubbie & I have been logged in 9 months. The wait is longer and growing. I know, eventually, our daughter will be with us. Since the wait is long, we have laid off from purchasing anything more for the baby. I've only inquired with other parents about pediatricians and day care centers for future consideration.

Now that we've waited a while now, Hubbie & I wonder every so often what our daily lives will be with a young child. Hubbie will say, "What kind of parents will we be?" and "How do we handle..." There are parenting books/magazines to read but I don't think we'll know until we're actually parents. I think we've been more conscientious that she grows up to be a "good person" (In Cantonese: "ho yen"). What is a "ho yen?" I envision, generally, it's a person who cares about their community, respectful to others, a person who looks at life with "the glass 1/2 full." What else? I'm sure there's more. I hope that our daughter will look back and say that overall she had a positive childhood with us. Anyways, these are some of the things we've been considering off and on.

As far as referral news, there really is not very much. There will be more news about which dates were covered in this April's referal batch in the upcoming days. So far, one agency has informed that they received C.E.R. for the end of April of last year. Familes who were logged in but had been called for updated or more information in CCAA's review room process were delayed in the "matching" process.

On to the next month!

Yes...March is finally here.

February seemed like the longest month of the year. There were too many things happening. My office site moved in mid-February, a few days prior to Chinese New Year. My co-workers and I didn't realize how complicated moving from one site to another would be until we were in the midst of it all. A lot of the time, we literally felt like "chickens running with no heads." Once we were moved in, there were other technical problems. We were without internet coverage for 2 weeks. We didn't realize how much we rely on computers until then. Meanwhile, my own office wasn't ready until the 1st week of March. I was sharing an office space with one of my co-workers. It was nice but a bit cramped. After moving into my own office 2 days ago, I feel productive again. I'm catching up with what was held up in the "adjustment phase." The light is finally shining through the clouds.

Hubbie & I have been debating whether our daughter a dog or a "golden piggie." I certainly think that we'll be receiving our referral earlier than what he thinks it will be. Only time will tell. I have been following when other Chinese families have received their referrals closely. It looks like the CCAA is doing something different than last year's expedited referral time line. Another blogger's agency just informed them of CCAA's current expedited referral pattern.

"It is getting very difficult to guess when our Chinese descent families might be matched as it has not been very consistent with the CCAA. Right now, ...they continue to match at least two weeks of Chinese descent LIDs every month. We just received matches for Chinese descent families who were logged into the CCAA between April 1 and April 15, 2006."

Hubbie & I will just have to wait a little longer. Friends have said that they are frustrated for us but I don't feel as emotional about waiting a bit longer because I know "the person up there" has matched us to the daughter that's meant to be with us. The waiting is testing our patience but, also, giving us more time to get ready for our little girl. We're enjoying whatever last months of being a couple. Although we haven't had much time to go on trips/vacation this year, just spending the together time and knowing that sometime in 2007 we'll be united with our daughter is a comfort to me (at least for now).

February Update

January passed by so quickly. Hubbie & I have been busy with work and getting our home ready for an addition to the family. We've been "nesting." And so, we've been spending our weekends cleaning and getting certain home maintenance projects completed.

Heartsent hosted a China adoption information meeting this weekend. The adoption agency wanted to keep their families informed about the changes that will happen effective May 1st. Hubbie & I mainly attended to find out first hand from our agency of the changes in person. It is pretty much the same as their letter that had been sent out in December to all of the China adoptive parents. It was nice to hear from the Heartsent staff in person. The Heartsent's CEO/Director came down from No. CA. to speak with us on what she anticipates for the future of China adoption and where she wants to expand with other international adoption avenues for singles now that China has closed it for singles. I finally was able to speak with her this morning after the meeting. I felt that she is truly passionate about making us, adoptive families, feel well-supported. She had started this adoption agency after her negative adoption experiences years ago. She, also, gave us her "ideas" in regards to why China has slowed down with referral times.

On the expedited referral front: There's news of some families who logged in at the end of March 2006 who received their referrals on February 1st. Let's hope CCAA will move onto LIDs of April 2006 next month. I was hoping that CCAA would've been able to move onto April in this month's expedited referrals but they did not. With Chinese New Year coming up in a couple of weeks, I'm not sure how long we'll have to wait until the news of the next referrals.

Hubbie had gotten his "ladybug sighting" finally while he was outside observing the window contractors. He noticed a ladybug on the back of his hand on Thursday, January 25th.

News of Referrals

Happy New Year! It's 2007. This is just an update on the expedited referral front. News of March 2006 LID families are arriving. However, I'm wondering how long April LID expedited families will wait until their referrals will arrive for them. In the past, CCAA has done expedited referrals with a 2 month span (i.e. January & February expedited families referrals arrive at the same time). I'm just wondering what the pattern is or if there will be any pattern at all now. Hubbie hopes that we'll be united with our baby by the end of 2007. I'm more of the optimist of the two of us. I hope that it'll be earlier than that.
Lately, Hubbie & I have started list of baby names posted on our refrigerator door. We have about 12-13 names written down. However, I don't think we'll settle on a definite name until we receive our picture and initial information about our baby. We want to feel that the name we choose "fits" the baby and so it is an ever evolving list of names for now. I'm thinking that baby will have a Chinese name which the family will call her but, however, will not be included in her official name documents. (Just a little rambling about what we've been thinking about while waiting amongst other things to think about.)

Is this a "sign"?

This morning, while walking back from running an errand, I discovered a little "pink binkie" (aka: pacifier) in front of the walkway leading to our house. I thought...Is this a "sign" (refering to one my favorite movies, "Fool's Rush In") that our daughter will be with us soon? I hope. Who knows? I thought I'll just note this on my blog just in case it is truly a sign that our baby's coming and not to be so anxious about our wait.

China Adoption Criteria Changes

Our adoption agency sent us a letter informing us about the changes for families wishing to adopt from China. Since "hubbie" & I are already logged in at the CCAA, we think it will not affect us and that we would have qualified with the new guidelines anyways.

For anyone else wishing to know what the new criteria for China adoption is, this is a summary of what was stated:

"We wanted to take a moment to inform you of changes and let you know that we will keep you updated as we receive confirmed information form the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and our China coordinator.

The following guidelines will be in effect (still to be confirmed by CCAA) for dossiers received by CCAA on or after May 1, 2007:

• Married couples only; no singles allowed.
• Married couples must be married for at least 2 years if there are no previous marriages. If there are previous marriages then the present marriage must be over 5 years. However, no more than 2 previous marriages will be allowed (it is unclear if this is per person or per couple).
• Each parent must be 30 to 50 years old. No parent can be outside of this range.
• Healthy parents - no infectious disease, no mental disease (including depression or anxiety), no blindness, and no serious disease or disability. Each adoptive parent must also have a BMI (Body Mass Index) under 40. BMI calculator
• At least one parent must have a stable job. Income requirements is $10,000 per family member including the child to be adopted.
• Family's net worth must be over $80,000.
• Each parent must have a high school education or higher.
• No more than 5 children in the home including the child to be adopted. The youngest child in the home must be over 1 year old.
• No criminal record.

We will be holding an information meeting this winter, on a to be determined Saturday. The meeting will be open to families in the paperwork process as well as families currently waiting for a referral. We encourage ALL CHINA FAMILIES to attend this meeting to familarize yourselves with changes and how they might affect you."

There has been news coverage of these changes and the following is a link from China Daily about the upcoming changes to China adoptions:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/25/content_766420.htm

There has been talk about who would now qualify as "expedited" status in my Yahoo! China expedited referral group. Some couples who normally would be qualified for "expedited" status due to at least one parent being of Chinese descent is now being informed that they are not "expedited." What can we anticipate in the new year? I do not know. Only time will tell.

Christmas 2006

No Christmas tree this year because it is just the two of us. Our Christmas spirit is small but present. The stocking in the middle is for our little one.

We hope that our little one will be with us by Christmas 2007.

Adoption status: waiting. waiting. waiting. I have a feeling that we will be in the review room at the CCAA fairly soon. I'm hoping that our review process will go smoothly.

An update:
Our little girl's room is filling up with so many colorful toys and books. Some of the items will have to go into the play room downstairs later. We added a couple of pieces of furnishings to accent the room.

We will see what the new year will bring us.