Tessie loves her new toys.

Trying to walk already.

Tess finally drinks a bottle.

At the CCAA with Tess' orphanage nanny.

We got Tess around 7:30 this morning. She cried on and off (mostly on) till about 1:30 in the afternoon. At times it was heartbreaking. She would scream so hard and long that she couldn't catch her breath and she would not be comforted during those times. She also refused a bottle even though it was way past feeding time. After we left to go fill out paperwork at the CCAA office, she started to calm down. She didn't cry at all when we were at the CCAA office and we were there till 4:30 with lots of other crying babies. She took her first bottle since we got her during the middle of the adoption ceremony around 3:30. After we brought her home, we put her on the floor and played with her. Slowly, she started to play back and eventually started cooing and trying to stand up. She doesn't know how to crawl because she has spent a lot of time in a crib. But she is already pulling herself up and standing. I think she might just skip crawling and go straight to walking. After awhile her personalty started showing and she had us all laughing with her silly antics. We were also delighted to see her smile and eventually laugh. At bedtime she was a trooper. We put her in her crib and she played with her toes for awhile then fell asleep without a tear. As you can probably tell, Mike, Momma and I are already so in love with this baby we can barely stand it. Tomorrow we will spend the morning with Tess in our suite then everyone is going on a tour of an ancient Chinese village in the afternoon. No paperwork just fun time and bonding.

We have our beautiful baby! Our lives have changed and we will never be the same. We are filled was such love for the precious child.

Disappointing news. We went to the CCAA to pick up our babies and waited and waited and waited. No babies. They finally called and got in touch with the orphanage. The van carrying the babies broke down on their way here. So looks like it will be tomorrow before we can get our baby. We have hopes that she will be here in the morning. In the meantime, we are trying to stay optimistic (me more than Mike). We plan to go out to dinner then call it a night.

We are going to get our daughter in a few hours and we are so excited we can barely stand it. We spent the morning buying groceries and walking around the area. It is quite overwhelming the numbers of people everywhere. We had computer problems again this morning so hopefully I will be able to post later on after we get her. We will try and post pictures as soon as we can. This is by far the most exciting thing I have ever done in my life. Wish us luck and hopefully everyone will see Tess' pictures soon.

We are in Chongqing and just a day away from getting the baby. We are staying in a fabulous hotel overlooking a city of 10 million people. We are meeting with our guide, Jane this evening and going over paperwork. Then she is taking us to the grocery store to buy supplies for the baby. I will post more later.

We are in Shanghai! Our first day here has been a great cultural experience. We walked down the famous Nanjing road and on the Bund. It was overcast and chilly but never really rained. Julie and Mackenzie joined us. Julie is from Utah and her baby is from the same orphanage as Tess. She will be getting her baby on Monday too. Her older daughter, Mackenzie is eight years-old and has blond hair. When we got on the Bund many of the China people stopped us and asked if they could have their picture made with Mackenzie. Her blond hair makes her very popular and unique here. Everyone is so friendly. We had to ask for directions alot but everyone we stopped was more than happy to try and help us even though they didn't speak English.
After a great lunch on the Bund which included hamburgers for everyone, we walked through part of "Old Town" Shanghai and got to see the real China. There were lots of old Chinese store fronts with homes upstairs. We felt completely safe walking around except for the many scooters, bikes, cars and buses that almost ran us over. The traffic is crazy here. Pedestrians do not have the right of way and people just drive wherever they want which includes sidewalks. We had a couple of close calls especially since we were so preoccupied with all the new and interesting sights. Tonight we are going to dinner at the Crystal Garden which serves Japanese, Chinese and Thai food. Although there are tons of restaurants here we have to eat at places that cater to foreigners. Otherwise we can't read the menus or communicate what we want.
Tomorrow we fly to Chongqing. Only two days till we get Tess!

We are leaving in two days! Mike and I feel like we are walking on clouds. I can't believe after all these years we are finally this close to getting our baby. Here is our itinerary:
Thurs., Feb. 26- Fly to Shanghai
Fri., Feb. 27-Arrive in Shanghai
Sun., Mar. 1- Fly to Chonqing
Mon., Mar. 2 - Get Tess!!!!
Sat., Mar. 7-Fly to Guangzhou
Thurs., Mar. 12-Fly home.

We received wonderful and useful gifts. Mike can't wait to use his gift.

Family and special friends helped us celebrate.

Our famous Betty Crocker served up the most delicious dishes.

Here's our very first baby shower. It was hosted by Jennifer and Mom. Everything was so beautiful. The food was delicious and everyone had a great time.

Here's us getting our referral paperwork! Boy, are we excited!

Here she is!

We got it!!!!!! We actually got our referral around 5:00 pm on Tuesday, December 30th. It has been a whirlwind of excitement since then and I am just now finding the time to sit down and post. We are both over the moon in love with our baby girl. We feel like the luckiest parents in the world. Xiu Hua Yue is from Xiushan in the Sichuan Province. Her birthdate is 3/25/08. We have decided to name her Tess Sawyer Hyde. Here are her beautiful pictures. It was so worth the wait!

We are on pins and needles. We have heard from the Rumor Queen that referrals through February 28th were sent out Friday. Many people have started posting that they have their referral already. We called our agency earlier today to make sure they had Mike's cell phone number. No word yet and it is 7:00 pm (5:00 pm in Idaho). I tried to call CASI several times earlier but no one is answering the phone. The wait is killing us!

We are finally starting to hear some good rumors. Rumor Queen is reporting that the CCAA has matched babies with couples that have LID's February 24-28, 2006. We are both trying to stay calm since we still don't know when referrals will go out. Also, our agency is closed December 31-January 4. So, we could still have a couple of weeks to wait. But we are starting to get very excited. Hopefully, we will hear something soon.

I am thrilled to report that the CCAA has sent out referrals through February 15th. We are getting close! My best guess is that we will get our referral the first part of December. If we are lucky we will get it the end of November. If we do, then we will most likely travel the middle of January. If we don't get it till December, then we may not travel till February because we will run into Chinese New Year which is at the end of January. Usually agencies don't send you to China during Chinese New Year because government agencies will be closed. We are starting to get very excited. We are also getting ready to start renewing our paperwork for the third time. Oh joy!

And here are some pictures of me with the daughters of one of the guest speakers at our conference. The guest speaker, Jeanne Laskas is an author who has written several books on her life as an adoptive mother.

Yay! The CCAA is finally done with 2005 LID's and on to 2006. They have now matched babies up to January 4, 2006. We are February 27, 2006. So, hopefully we will see our baby by this Fall.
Here are some pictures of the "East Meets West Adoption Conference." Dad, Mike and I went to this great adoption conference back in November. We flew to Tampa and spent the weekend at the Hilton with other families adopting from China. The conference was very informative. Dad, Mike and I went to different classes and shared what we learned over dinner. We also enjoyed talking with others families who are going through the same things we are. The best part though was seeing all the little Chinese American girls and babies. They were everywhere! Dad and I went to a class where families talked about their experiences during their trip to China. They all had their babies with them. They were so precious!!! I think this trip was very worthwhile and it was especially meaningful because Dad went with us.

It has been a long frustrating summer but we finally got our updated I171-H form which allows us to bring our baby into the United States. We have been struggling since early June to get this form. When we hadn't heard anything by late June, I made some phone calls and found out that they had lost our paperwork. Once our paperwork was found they assured us it was sent to Homeland Security. By mid-July we still hadn't heard anything so I called again and found out that they had not sent off our paperwork. The promised to send it off again. They did send it off but sent a faxed copy of my homestudy which is a no-no. I then had them send the correct copy. On August 8th we received a letter from Homeland Security saying that 6 things were missing from our renewal information and if it was not sent by September 8, we would be denied (which would mean we couldn't adopt). We immediately took the next day off work and went to our agency. We spent the whole morning going over the 6 things they were asking for with our agency and making sure we got each of those things in. We had our agency Fed-Ex the information to DSS that afternoon. We also asked DSS to Fed-Ex the information once it was approved to Homeland Security and we would pay for it. We waited a week and called Homeland Security. They told us that they had a package but it was not what they asked for.
No one could find our Fed-Ex package. So Mike and I took another day off work frantically trying to find the package. It turns out DSS did not send it Fed-Ex. They sent it regular mail so it was still in transit. The package finally got there and another week went by. The form was adjucated and arrived in our mailbox August 31st. Unfortunately, they did not put my middle name on the form. Homeland Security said that since my middle name was handwritten on my birth certificate, legally they can not put it on the form. I will be calling CASI next week to see if this is going to be another issue. Hopefully, they will have pity on us and say no, it's fine. We are both so happy to finally have the form but are completely worn out by the battle to get it.

Referrals are still creeping slowly along. Right now they have referred up to November 21, 2005. They will be doing another batch next week and we pray that they get through the rest of November.

Finally! We are through the Review Room and on to the Matching Room. It may be many more months until we are matched but just knowing we are moving forward is huge. It's so nice to finally have some good news. It is also nice to know that the CCAA thinks we qualify to be parents.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of our DTC (Documents to China). We are also still in the Review Room (3 months and counting). My whole life seems to be on pause right now. We are now hoping to have our referral by next Fall. The waiting is sooooo hard!

Caught you!

Caught you!
Originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

Lucy thinks she's the baby.

New crib

New crib
Originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

A lot of work but worth it.

A lot of work but worth it.
Originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

All the stained pieces.

All the stained pieces.
Originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

Finally ready to put all the pieces together.

Mike staining the crib.

Mike staining the crib.
Originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

This was harder than it looks.

Toychest, originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

I love rick-rack!

Ginger's childhood dresser, originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

Can you believe this dresser use to be white with gold trim?

Masterpiece, originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

Aren't I lucky to have such a creative Mom.

Hutch, originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

After many long hours and lots of patience, the hutch is done.

Hutch, originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

My husband, the handyman.

Artist , originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

Mom spent many hours on this dresser.

Precision, originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

Mom has worked very hard to make the nursery special.

china3

china3, originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

And this is the place where our daughter is now.

china5

china5
Originally uploaded by gingersawyersadie.

Here's our flight path for that magic day.

At almost two months later, we are still in the Review Room. We will know that we are out of the Review Room when the CCAA post that they have finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with their office before February 28th. Wait times for referrals have slowed down even more. We are now thinking that we will not receive our referral till August 2007. That's 10 months past what we were originally told when we first started this process in August 2005. It is all we can do to stay positive right now. Every month it seems we take two steps backward instead of forward. We try to stay busy with projects. The nursery is almost done. We are expecting the crib around Christmas. We just need to stain it and put it together. Then we will start doing some baby-proofing on the house. In the meantime, we will try to keep our chin up and daydream about the day we are holding our little one.