February Referral update

The CCAA has done a batch of referrals just 2 WEEKS after their last batch of referrals.  I'm not sure that they have ever done this so close together.  I'm guessing it's because they were out for Chinese New Year and with Feb. being such a short month.  I really don't care the reason...just happy about it!  They did June 3-9, 2006.  Wow!  7 whole days.  I had calculated that if they did 7 days each month then we could receive our referral in 15 months.  I can't even stand to think about it....I'll go absolutely NUTS!  We've done our last update that we are eligible for under the grandfathered status.  I haven't gotten our fingerprint date back yet which is really good news.  Our update expired on Feb. 7th.  I mailed the renewal just a few days before....it just has to be in their office by Feb. 7th.  Then, the US gov't. sends us dates to get re-fingerprinted.  The fingerprint clearance goes back to the gov't. and they send us our updated I-171H form which will expire in 18 months.  Since it's taking a few weeks to get our fingerprint date we might be able to stretch this update out a few extra months.  It will expire 18 months from when we get our fingerprinting done and clearance gets back to the office.  I'm hoping to drag this process out as long as possible.  We really, really want to travel and get back before this update expires!!!!

The waiting, the waiting, the waiting....

We took M1 to see Shrek the Musical a few weeks ago.  There is a fabulous song by Fiona where she is locked in the tower waiting for her Prince to come.  In one line she's screaming ( a little "off her rocker"), "the waiting, the waiting, the waiting....." it makes me laugh because I feel like that sometimes.  There is LOTS and LOTS of speculation about adoptions in China.  The latest speculation is that China won't do more than 3 or 4 days a month now.  We've all been hoping they would speed up once Chinese New Year was over, but it doesn't look like that will be the case.  They are to June 2, 2006 and our LID (log in date) is Sept. 19, 2006.  I'm going to be generous and estimate China doing 7 days from now on....it will take them 15 more months to get to us.  15 months would be fabulous because it could POSSIBLY mean that we could travel and get home before our last update expires.  However, if we see that they only do 3 or 4 days a month that doubles our time to 30 months (2 1/2 more years).  Another speculation is that China might be phasing out of healthy adoptions and pushing their special needs route.  That makes sense with the sloooooow down of the healthy wait, but the quick adoptions of special need children.  At this point, we still want to be on the healthy list.  I had mentioned before about the possibility of adopting 2 children with one set of paperwork, one of those being special needs.  We've decided not to head in that direction.  We've decided to head down this road of healthy adoption as long as the doors are open!  I just wonder how much longer that will be.

School??

I can't believe what kind of winter we've had this year.  Doug told me awhile back that according to the Farmer's Almanac, it was supposed to be a snowy winter, with more snow in February.  I made fun of him because I didn't even know he had access to a Farmer's Almanac, let alone his sudden interest in weather prophecy.  Well, I guess I should eat my words now because it HAS been a snowy winter.  Thankfully, our school district has had enough snow days in the bank to cover us so far.  All of this being said, it has been such a blessing to us.  I've thought about homeschooling since M1 was in preschool.  I'm a certified teacher and taught school for several years before becoming a Mommy, so teaching is what I genuinely LOVE to do.  I didn't homeschool because I had just given birth to M2 and didn't want M1 to just be home caring for a baby all day.  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to give her the outside curriculum (co-op opportunities, group gatherings, field trips, etc...) that she needed.  Well, these snow days have given me the homeschool "bug" again.  We've been working on school-work these days and I LOVE it.  She is loving it as well!  More and more families seem to be joining the homeschool world so it's much easier to find a homeschool group to be part of.  There are still lots of decisions that need to be made, but I'm willing to take it a year at a time and see how it goes.  We'll see...

Gettin' down

If you read the title of this post and thought I was about to start dancing, then you are sadly mistaken.  I mean gettin' down like "I'm totally about to get into a depressed state and it ain't gonna' be pretty".  O.K., I really don't talk like that but I'm trying to talk myself into being funny, thus in a chippier mood.  Doug and I just turned in our ump-teenth update to our adoption paperwork.  We will do our updated fingerprinting soon and all of this should last for 18 more months.  The CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) made it 4 more days in January.  At this rate we are thinking it will be 28 MORE months of a wait for us, putting it at a grand total of .....(drum-roll please).....6 1/2-7 year wait.  That being said, we will eventually lose our grandfathered status (18 mo. from now) and have to continue our adoption through a process called Hague.  Long story short, it means more paperwork, classes, money, etc...  The cherry on top of my life right now was when I checked the updated cost scale for our adoption.  It looks as thought the reminder of our cost to complete the adoption is around $20,000.  Not the total....the REMAINDER of our cost.  I'm beginning to get a little overwhelmed at this whole process.  It was supposed to be a 12-15 month wait with $20K being the total cost.  Things are spiraling out of control on this process right now.  Please keep us in your prayers as we have some decisions to make before this is all completed.

Referral Update!

The CCAA sent out referrals for May 30-June 2, 2006.  4 days!  I really, really, really try to be patient with this process.  I'm actually a very patient person, however, things are beginning to get to me.  I just don't understand how things could go so slow!  If you could shout out some prayers for my sanity, it would be greatly appreciated!  By the way, I haven't posted much on submission/respect for my husband lately.  Not because I haven't been working on it....trust me, I'm a constant work in progress and will be until I take my last breath, but I've just been crazy busy lately.  Keep respecting those wonderful husbands!