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.