Catching Up
Although I already wish that I had kept better notes during the past year, I just didn’t. I have busied myself with projects and much too much time on online adoption groups! However, I am going to try to piece together what I can regarding the process of the past year.
In August of 2002, we submitted our application to adopt to CCAI. It was accepted and we began completing the necessary paperwork and home study requirements and such. The process was tedious and seemed like it would never end, but it was do-able! Perseverance seems to be the theme in my life! My mom said that when I (finally!!) graduated from college in 2000 that she thought that that was really what college was about too. Perseverance! The paperwork (called a dossier) was completed and turned in to our agency Nov 11, 2002, the day before Rick turned 30. They translated it into Chinese and then sent it on to China.
Once in China, it just sits and sits and waits and waits…like us! Finally, it is reviewed for errors and such, then it is approved and moved to the match room where it sits some more! During this time, SARS occurred and we feared that it was all just too good to be true! Were we ever really going to get a baby?? Well it turns out that although the CCAA (China) did officially close, they were still working on our paperwork! So, as soon as they reopened, they had a BUNCH of referrals (matches) to mail to agencies here. The referral is what we are waiting for all these months! It contains photos and information about the babies that China has assigned to us. Anyhow, since they did send all those out, they really didn’t get very behind schedule, much to our relief!
All during the wait, I joined several internet groups to keep up on the latest scoop regarding China adoptions. I have learned SO much from these groups! WOW. Also, I have made some special friends on these groups. If you would have told me a year ago that I would spend so much time online, and that I would have actual friends from the internet, I would have laughed at you! But after spending so much time with them online (and some in person now too!), I can’t imagine the wait without them! They are experiencing the same things at the same times…so we could support each other fairly well. When no one else wanted to hear about the latest adoption roller coaster news flash…they always got it because they were experiencing it too! I am looking forward to traveling to China with several of these special people and experiencing one of life’s greatest moments along side of them!
Also during the wait, we have prepared her nursery and I have shopped ‘til I dropped! She has a closet full of pretty clothes (which I purchased basically guessing her size!!) Luckily, I was pretty close to right, although I did have to go out and shop for a few smaller things after we really knew her measurements). I have also worked on her 100 wishes quilt that so many of you contributed fabric for. (I am CLOSE to being done with that and hope to finish before we leave!). Her nursery is pretty and both Rick and I have done projects for it. Check out the photos of her nursery in the photo section!
September 8 was our special day! That is the day we received the call?!! We had requested that our agency not give us any information about our baby (even though I was DYING to at least have it confirmed that it was a GIRL!) so they just called and said that we could head over and get the info if we wanted! So we did! Rick had taken the day off since we had a good heads up that that would be the day, so we were ready to go! My mom tagged along for the big moment too. She said that receiving the referral information was a little like the day of birth…and that when she finally arrives home from China, that will be like coming home from the hospital. So she didn’t really want to miss that!
We were the first ones to arrive at the agency and Penny gave us the information. My friend Amii was there too and she took video of the special moment for us. Penny sat us down and opened a file folder and we got our first glimpse of our Sophie! She immediately started to tell us additional information about her, like her birth date, which we were surprised to see was the same as her dads! And she told us that Sophie is in Hubei and of course gave us her weight and height and such (which was 14 lbs fully dressed and in several layers as of May 03). Rick and I pretty much went right into shock. It is indescribable really – to be shown a picture of the child that you will love forever but have never met and who is currently on the other side of the world, well it is simply amazing!
About 2 hours later, we popped out of shock and the thrill began to set in! We had planned a referral party for that evening for family to come over and eat Chinese food and all see her picture at the same time. We were thrilled that everyone was able to make it and celebrate with us! While we know that this isn’t the way everyone probably imagined they would meet their niece/granddaughter/cousin, somehow to Rick and I it seems so magical and miraculous, that we can’t imagine it could get better then this! We loved showing her off to her new family. We hear often that she is so lucky…but we know that we are the lucky ones to be offered the opportunity to raise this child.
On Sept 12, I mailed off a package to her orphanage director in hopes of her foster family receiving the contents. We sent her a little photo album with pix of us and our home and her nursery and other family members and we sent blankets and candies and a couple of small toys and some PJs and a couple of other small gifts for the foster family. You can’t really send much since it all has to fit in a box the size of a shoebox! I hope she got it! My mom said that at the time of referral, that is when I cried, when Penny mentioned that we can send a shoebox to her. It was as if that was the first (small) thing that I could do to start taking care of my baby.
On Sept 25, we received a bit of updated information. The original info was from May, and the update was from Sept 9, so it was great to get this! Updated photos were included, which was a great surprise! She looks sad, as if she has been crying, but I know that the pix are often taken at the same time the medical exams are done, so who knows if it she might have had a shot or something, or if someone just upset her! Anyhow, it wasn’t anything too alarming, and we were thrilled to have them. Even though by our standards she does look a bit shabbily dressed, I can see that they really tried. I am sure that she does not wear that red velvet vest on a daily basis! Her new medical records looked good too and are consistent with the previous ones. She is still in the 10th percentile on the Chinese growth chart for height and about the 25th-50th for weight (she looks to be in the 50th except we know that they are weighed fully dressed and they wear more than one layer of clothes! So, her weight is probably slightly less then what we were told). Anyhow, while waiting, I worried that she was hungry and it is encouraging to me that her height is a lower percentile then her weight- meaning she is a bit chubby for her height! This was really all the info we received.
On October 7, we received additional background information, which I go into some detail about on the Sophie’s story page of this site. I am thrilled to have this information as it confirms some of my guesses about her from just staring for hours at her photos! But there was also more in there then I could have ever imagined and I guess it surprised me how detailed it was.
It is October 8 today and we are just waiting for date confirmations. We have travel approval from China and it is the US consulate in China currently holding us up! We are hopeful that tomorrow we will hear from them!
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