Sunday, June 01, 2008
Come out come out where ever you are!
Now that the new blog is up and running, I'm really not posting here anymore. I'll send the new URL with our referral announcement (hopefully this week!) so if you're on our email distribution, you'll get it then. If you are a regular reader, but you think you might not be on our distribution list (or if you know you're on the email list but want to get to the new blog pre-referral), please email me at journeytonora1@yahoo.com so that I can get you the new URL and password.
If I don't know who you are, I'm sorry, but I will probably not send the URL/password. We are really wanting to be responsible and not post Nora's personal information on the internet for anyone to see. Someday, when she's older, that's a choice that she can make for herself. I hope that you will understand and support our decision. We have gotten so much encouragement and support from our online friends and we're so appreciative! Right now, though, we need to do what's best for our daughter.
Thank you for following our journey to Nora!
Love,
R & J
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Nope, still haven't heard anything...
So far there have been two rumors: (1) matching has begun and (2) LIDs 1/23/06 and beyond are not included. Neither of these is too surprising.
Rob & I still think that we'll be included this month, but we know now that we won't receive our referral until next week (our agency would have had to have received referrals today for us to get a call tomorrow).
It's going to be another long weekend. Mostly we're trying to stay busy and distracted.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Questions for "The Call"
I've been working on my list of questions to ask/things to write down when we get "The Call". Here's what I've got so far:
- Date and time of call.
- Name of person calling.
- Baby's full Chinese name.
- Translation of baby's name.
- Full name of baby's orphanage.
- City and province of orphanage.
- Foster care?
- Date of birth.
- Height, weight and date taken.
- Other information about the baby - likes/dislikes, appearance, etc.
- Abandonment information (finding location, date found, note, etc).
- Travel group #.
- Other families in our travel group.
- Can we get a care package to the baby's orphanage?
- What does the orphanage need most?
- Can we request updated information on the baby?
- What is our estimated date of travel?
- Please email a picture and baby's information to
- When will you send the full referral packet? Can I have the tracking number?
- Is there anything else I need to know?
- What should I do next?
I know that sounds like a lot, but I practiced asking them out loud and they went really quickly. Is there anything else that I should ask? Is this an inappropriate time to ask about her abandonment?
Thanks!!!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Just about ready
The RQ site/forum has been down most of the weekend and of course our agency is closed for the holiday, so I don't know anything new about the status of this month's matching, how many days might be included or when referrals are expected to arrive in the US. I would love for it to be this week, but it's probably more likely that it will be next week. Not necessarily a bad thing, because I've got a squidzillion things to do!
Have a great Memorial Day! Hope it's as sunny and beautiful where you are as it is here!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Pardon the mess...
I'm in the process of moving this blog so that we can better secure it once we receive our referral. I've explored a few options and have decided on the approach, but it's going to take a few days because of all the moving-around that needs to happen.
I think that the first thing you'll notice will probably be some flakiness here. Some of the graphics that I've used on this blog (most notably the background pattern) have been saved on the server that is hosting our family website. Since that site is moving to a new server, I fully expect that the file for the blog background will be deleted within the next 24-48 hours. I'll try to get it back, but if that becomes too big a hassle I'll change it to a solid color and leave you with this memory of the polka dots.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The matching room
We think that the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) will be matching the next batch within the next few days and - unless there's an unprecedentedly small batch - we think that we'll be "in"! That means that, in the next few days, someone at the CCAA will be matching us with our Nora.
The RQ has written about the matching process here (click on the word "here") and some LWB photos of the matching room are available on this page (click on the word "page").
I get all tingle-y just thinking about it. At this very moment, someone could be looking at our file and thinking that we are the right family for Nora. It is overwhelming.
Please send your thoughts, prayers, and positive energy to the CCAA!
Secret pal revealed -- thank you Corrie L!!
Thank you so much Corrie L. for being such an amazing secret pal to us! Your packages really kept us going each month! This month's gift (above) was perfect -- we just started refreshing our sign language, need to learn all the kids' songs and can take the panda beach ball to China with us!
I hope that you get your TA soon and are able to travel in June! Please stay in touch! We would love to see your baby!!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Preparing for our referral
The only thing left to do is add Nora's picture to the template and print!
I'm also working on an email announcement and our email
distribution list. I guess I could probably start addressing the envelopes for the paper announcements as well.
In other news, today we went to have visa photos taken - we need one photo each for our visas and two each for the adoption registration in China. I also checked our passports to be sure that we have at least 6 months validity and 2 blank visa pages. Rob would have been close, but for some reason he has two passports (one must have been lost at a time when he needed to travel) and the second has plenty of room left.
Here's a rough transcript of my conversation with the photo guy at the UPS store:
UPS guy: Smile less
Me: (smile less)
UPS guy: Less
Me: (smile less)
UPS guy: You know, you aren't supposed to smile at all
Me: How will they recognize me if I'm not smiling?
UPS guy: After a 20 hour flight and standing in line at customs, you won't be smiling.
Rob: (laughs)
Me: (thinking ... I'll be in China to get my baby, no chance I won't be smiling)
I did come away with pictures where I'm smiling a little (no teeth though- the UPS guy wasn't going to push the button if he saw teeth). Thanks to my Dad, I always smile with teeth; it looks better that way, right Dad??