Revised expectations.

The latest referrals are in and the cutoff is July 13th. That is a disappointment. I am now revising my expectations to getting our referral in late November and traveling to get our baby in January. We were really hoping to get her before the end of the year -- but we're not a Murphy's Law family for nothing! Oh well, maybe we can have a great Chinese New Year/Welcome Home party in February.

Cameron

If memory serves me correctly, today is the five-year anniversary of the day the world lost our dear friend Cameron Phelan. In some ways I find it hard to believe that it's already been five years. In other ways it seems much longer.
Cameron was a wonderful person. He had lots of loyal friends, ranging from childhood classmates to older friends first met online like Paul. Cameron was unfailingly kind and easygoing, even when others were not kind to him. Like myself, I know he wasn't all that happy with things in his life like his career, his weight, or a seeming lack of constancy from the friends he loved. (And that lack of constancy was merely seeming as evidenced from the outpouring at his funeral.) But, one thing I'll always admire about Cameron was that no matter what was going on with himself, he was dedicated to those around him and always brought forth joy and laughter. He was an extremely talented humorist and a fearlessly game performer. He was passionate about things that interested him and laughed in the face of societal conventions which did not.
Loosing Cameron was a tough lesson (not learned well enough, I fear) in not taking friends for granted. It was a supremely bittersweet time -- he died in between the short period of us finally completing our China adoption dossier and it being officially logged in to the waiting list. Because of this it seemed only natural that we honor Cameron's memory through our daughter that he never got to meet. For this reason we plan to name our little girl Edythe Cameron Parker.

Rumors

We're approaching time for the next batch of referrals from China. This is what's known as "Stork Watch" over on the site of our primary source of adoption information/rumors. The current prediction is that referrals will go through July 14. This is kind of a bummer as I was really hoping for something closer to the 21st. However, a week of LIDs is still better than average, so ... Fingers crossed! Anyhow, I expect to know something for sure by this time next week.
For anyone wanting to follow the rumors for herself, here is a link to Rumor Queen blog/forum. She provides a valuable wealth of information to our rather desperate virtual community.
. WWW.chinaadopttalk.com

I also see from her latest post another reason to feel anxious and depressed. There have, in fact, been a few instances of people being delayed and skipped and now I know why. Since we've been the Murphy's Law family of our agency, I feeling a little worried. If our dossier did, in fact, get lost, rest assured that I will fight like a Mama Grizzly to get our situation fixed.

The Wait

I always point to this article as a great summary of all the reasons why we've had to wait so long to get our baby. Keep in mind that this was written in 2008, so the numbers aren't current. However, it still paints the correct picture of why things slowed down so much and why switching to anothery agency wouldn't have helped.

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/lifestyle/article.jsp?content=20080507_77776_77776

Baby Clothes

In a flash of manic optimism yesterday, I took phone photos of most of the clothes we have for the baby so far. Half are hand-me-downs from our adorable niece, Madeleine who is a big 9-year-old now. The rest are clearence items that I "had to have." In the 1% chance we're referred a boy instead of a girl, I'll trade these with other China families for other items. Ditto if the sizing is wrong, but I'm not too worried about that. These items are all 12 or 18 months. From what I'm told, the 18 month China babies are usually small enough to still be in size 12. If anything most of this will be too big and need to be saved for later.

China adoption rumor mill states that the powers that be in China are starting the paperwork for matching the next batch of referrals to their new families.
Families are sorted by the date their dossiers are logged in with China (LID). Our LID is August 7, 2006 (8/7/6). The officials have exactly 31 days of dossiers to match before they get to ours. Of course not all of those days have many or any families, but lately the rate of referral is about six days per month. I'm hoping they'll go a little faster because rumor has it that fewer families than average were logged in for July 2006.
Anyhow I'm on pins and needles waiting to see how many days of referrals they do in this next batch. We're really, really hoping we get to see our baby's face before the end of the year.

Hello Cruel World

This is my official introductory post. First of all, Not Quite Amish? Paul didn't want a generic sounding blog - enough said. Well I should also explain that shortly after we finally bring home our baby, we'll be moving again. This time we're relocating to the Cumberland Valley section of Pennsylvania. With all of the changes in our lives, the distance from friends and family and our extreme quirkiness - I feel as unique and isolated as the famously austere religious group common to our future home.
In case you don't already know us and you're still reading, here is my personal synopsis.
I am blessed with being married to my very best friend and an astoundingly good, patient, and understanding husband, Paul. We also Have a cat, Publius, who I treat like my baby.  
As I begin this blog, we're in the process of adopting a baby from China.  We are anticipating a baby girl between 10 & 18 months old. 
It's been a ridiculously long process and wait.  I am fighting Depression -- well not so much fighting as coping. I have the Fragile X genetic pre-mutation and had a hysterectomy in 2005. 
In the summer of 2010 we moved from the Dallas area to the East coast so my husband could take a fabulous job. We don't plan to really put down roots until after we're settled with the baby. In the meantime, I get very lonely because I don't know anyone out here except my husband's work friends. 
I have a wonderful, loving family that I miss very much. I am a Libertarian.  I am a non-practicing Unitarian Universalist. My cultural heritage is Catholic, Louisiana Creole (Cajun to most people).

Babies"R"Us - Baby Registry

Babies"R"Us - Baby Registry

This is our baby registry at Babies R Us. We're going to update all three registries once we get our referral. Right now our best guess is that we'll be referred a baby girl between 10 and 14 months this winter.