Olympic Fever

Tonight was the opening ceremony for the olympics hosted in Beijing China. Let me just tell you it was FANTASTIC!!!!!! The way they incorporated their culture into a beautiful show was breathtaking. We enjoyed watching and again just felt this indescribable connection to it all. Joe and I got Chinese food and watched the opening ceremonies together. Tears filled my eyes as I watched just thinking how much I long to visit this amazing country and to be entrusted to raise one of their children. Joe was also impressed with what he saw. He was amazed that there were actually people under the blocks that made up the Great Wall. China certainly outdid themselves.

Definately Progress

Well, our dossier made it to our agency and they emailed and said everything looks great!! We are also now on the monthly update list and they sent us last months update and newsletter. As I read it I began to feel very nervous and excited (I think for the first time) and alittle less guarded. This is starting to feel so right. The other night Joe, with all his wisdom, said that he thinks this is the way it was always supposed to be. This is truly our lives path and we're so glad we opened our hearts and minds to listen, because if we hadn't I think we would have missed out on something wonderful.
Yes, we dropped an email to our social worker and gave her the lowdown. She responded with this "Thanks for the update" thats it? Well, we've made peace with this attitude and accept that she's going to write it at her own pace. Oh well, this will give Joe and I more time to spend as a family of 2 before our lives get turned upside down. We received another update that we are preapporved from Holt for Joe's little medical thing (he takes meds for thyroid) Yeah us!!! Any little news like that we'll take.

On another note China has not released any referrals this month as of yet. The Olympics will begin on Friday and the entire community is holding their breath that referrals still come out. We'll see.
As we go through the summer we continue to dream of a summer when we watch two little ones play in the backyard and at the beach. Yes, we can see it in our heads. Someday it will be our reality.

Maybe some progress....Maybe

So.......... since our homevisit Joe and I have kicked it into high gear and have called numerous people at our agency to ask many questions about why this process is taking so long. As many of you know both Joe and I are pretty laid back, trusting people. We just assumed (apparently incorrectly again) that everything was going according to planned. Well, this laid back attitude bit us in the butt once again. You would have thought we'd have learned with China (heck, it only took us 10 months to kick it into high gear) and see the writing on the wall. After our last visit something didn't feel right so we called some people and got some very interesting answers. Apparently, we don't have to wait for a new immigration form and for new fingerprints, we can just use the approval from China. Oh yeah, that will save months!!!! Also we can submit our dossier to the Korea team now (pictures and forms) and not wait for the homestudy Double yay!!!!! So, are you telling me that all we're waiting for is for our turtle social worker to write the homestudy???? It appears that way. Oh my, but remember she said it would take like 5 weeks to do a first draft. Well, our rears are in gear and we're dropping her alittle email tonight to explain our findings and beg (nicely of course) that she gets her rear in gear and just writes in quick. Thats all we can hope for.
Oh, and by the way. You know all the reading, classes, and studying we've been doing. I guess we didn't have to because if we use our China immigration forms we won't have to be Hague compliant. You have got to be kidding!!! Well, we tried to look at the bright side and when the adoption in China finally happens, we'll have to be Hague compliant if we use the immigration stuff for Korea so maybe she just saved us time in the long run. We'll keep telling ourselves this.
Next step. Contact social worker and start begging. Of course she's on vacation this week so we won't hear until next week. Wish us luck

Home Visit Completed

Our social worker visited this Monday for our homevisit, which is the last step before she writes the homestudy. She thought the house was "lovely" and we talked more about stuff we've talked about before and things went well....well, until the end when she dropped the bomb that she would be away next week and then had others to write so the homstudy won't be done for around 5 weeks!!!!! What is going on here? Why is this so difficult? From start to finish with China it took 3 months-that's it, just 3 months!!! We begun this officially in May and Korea is actually easier than the China paperwork and at this rate it will be lucky to make it to Korea by Christmas!!!! I just wanted to cry! For the whole month of July we just sat around and waited for the homevisit and now for the whole month of August we'll just sit around and wait for what? our turn so she can write it. As you can I'm feeling really beaten down. The wait for Korea has increased in this amount of time our social worker drags her feet. She really doesn't understand our sense of URGENCY!!! We need to officially get on a list HURRY UP
Oh, and another little glitch. Our immigratiion and fingerprints expire for China soon and the original plan was to just do a change of country to Korea. But.... without the darn homstudy we can't apply with Korea yet. So, we put a call into someone and maybe they can help.(we aren't holding our breath) Our social worker didn't appear to concerned, I think she thinks its our problem not hers.
Just had to vent!!! What do I keep telling myself? All these little obstacles will bring us to the child thats meant to be ours. We're just so ready now. It really shouldn't have to be this hard!!!

Secret Revealed!!!!

Tonight we had our parents over for dinner and revealed the big secret WE ARE PURSUING A KOREAN ADOPTION!!! We told them in the same way that we had told them about China. They seemed excited but we refused to talk about timeframe and such. We asked them to keep it a secret until our homestudy goes to Korea. We have our home visit scheduled for Mon 7/21 then we'll see what happens. It felt great to get it off our chests. We continue to feel a bit guarded, but the excitement is definately building. We are dreaming of two babies. That's right, TWO BABIES. We have always had a picture of Ava in our minds and a new picture of her brother or sister began to appear tonight. I have a strange feeling all of our dreams will come true!!!!!

4th of July, Camping, Birthdays

This year we celebrated the 4th of July in Maine camping. We had a great time-the weather was good and so was the company!!!!
Our quest for our homestudy to be complete is moving at a snails pace. We have an appt for a home visit on 7/21 but other than that nothing. Joe's been alittle panicky lately saying that he guesses our social worker isn't feeling the same sense of urgency as we are. Hopefully this visit will put a little fire under her and she'll write it quickly. We keep asking her questions of what we should be doing in the meantime and she keeps saying she'll let us know. I'm trying to remember that all of these little stalls will lead us to OUR baby and we'll know why when we see them. Well, that's what I keep telling myself anyway.
In the world of China adoption the CCAA matched children with families logged in up to 1/25/06. Another month of extreme disappointment!!!!! There were early rumors they had made it to Feb, but just rumors. I continue to tell myself that it is not our right to raise these children from China, but rather our priveledge. Our time will come (maybe when we're 80, but it will come nonetheless). We have a small plate with a ladybug on our fireplace that says Keep the faith. That just about sums it up.
My birthday was this weekend. I handled it pretty well considering and had a nice day with family. As I blew out my candles Joe reminded me to make a wish. I looked at him and told him I already did. Hopefully this will be the year it comes true!!!!!!

Pre-adopt group

Today we attended our pre-adopt group at WHFC office. It was a small group, including us there were only 4 other couples. 4 families are adopting from Korea and one found a waiting child in Columbia. It was interesting to talk to them, each came with a different story. One couple is also in line with China and using CAWLI as well. It really put that process into perspective as they have a 6/06 LID and are persuing Korea in the meantime. That's right I said 6/06!!!!!! and they think they'll have plenty of time between the two adoptions as well. That definately put everything into perspective and solidified our decision of our continued adoption with China with a stop along the way to pick up a little brother or sister.
This weekend we did our online courses. They were very informative and we got lots of great info. Things are moving along. Our social worker led the group today and we connected with her and she wants us to call on Thurs. to schedule the home visit. I think thats the last step before she writes the homestudy (well, I think anyway.)
Joe's having his physical tonight. Fingers crossed that his doctor thinks he'll be a great parent!!
This weekend we also put cabinets in our mudroom (we did many projects) and they look great. I told Joe that someday we can hang little hooks from the bottom for little jackets, low enough for them to reach. He got this huge grin on his face and giggled. We love our babies already!!!