Friday, June 29, 2007

Royally Pissed Off

I have done very well in the last year to stay far far away from the damn rumor boards and blogs that speculate about when China will speed up/slow down/etc. However, I was reading a friend's blog and she posted from a fairly good site that follows China referrals and match dates, etc. That made me go to the Rumor Queen's blog (chinaadopttalk.com) and check it out for myself. Here's the basic gist of what current "rumors" are for referrals from China. Here's an except from the RQ blog. If you don't follow this, keep in mind that this lady knows what she's talking about 99% of the time...mainly due to her connections in the China adoption community. However, as with everything, this is STILL just speculation.

  • it seems that about half of the agencies were told the wait will reach from “two to three years” and the other half were told from “two and a half to three years”. (To me, the important number here is that they are acknowledging the wait could reach three years.)
  • Many agencies are reporting that we’ll be at a two year wait when we finish 2007. Several are reporting it will happen before we finish 2007. Several report that the CCAA will be referring some of the December 2005 families in December 2007. (RQ note: All of these could mean something slightly different, but they all point to the same ballpark.) (as an aside, we are LID of June 2006...which puts us at a referral in 2008 at the soonest...)
  • One agency reports the maximum wait will be 2.5 years.
  • The CCAA is currently referring 600 to 700 babies per month.
  • Backlog figures: total dossiers received in 2006 were around 30,000. Total dossiers received January through May of 2007 were around 10,000.
So, as I keep saying, there is no end in sight...And man does it piss me off. I am not comfortable posting my true thoughts on this wiat, and what China has to do with it on a public post, but I sure do have a lot to say on this subject if you want to know, email me! Furthermore, I am more happy than ever that DH and I agreed to adopt from Vietnam. The good news? Well, Baby M will likely be years younger than our baby from Vietnam. That'll give us some time to get used to having a baby before we travel to bring home Baby M. (I'm not really pleased about this, but it might be easier on our budget and mental health in the long run!!).

On a POSITIVE NOTE: I received a wonderful package last night in the mail from my super awesome Secret Pal. I'll post pix (and a response to the letter inside!!) later this weekend. Stick around, folks. The fun is just beginning!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

interesting read

For those of you out there interested in being a "professional" working mom (note: this is not my term. It's one I adopted from this article!!), a book called Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers, is coming out soon. You should check this article out. It's really short, but made some surprising points. First and foremost it points out that "Women who have babies within five years of earning a Ph.D. are nearly 30 percent less likely than women without babies ever to snag a tenure-track position". While I wasn't surprised by this, it really pissed me off. It also hit close to home, seeing as I just one year ago finished my Ph.D., am "having kids" in the next 12 months, AND want a tenure track position in higher academia in the next 2-3 years... Anyway, just for the record, I'm not about to go out and buy the book.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Pix from wedding!

Ok, no time to blog, but I wanted to post a few pix for any one out there who might care!!! I just tossed a bunch of random shots up for fun; enjoy! The groom is my little brother, the bride is my new SIL, and I'm the reddish-blond one (on the right) in the bridesmaids dress. Oh, and guy in the tux with red hair on his chin, that's Tod, with my older brother's date Jess (the minister is the leprechaun in the "background!!).

Click on the pix to enlarge for more detail.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Weekend stuff

I spent the weekend at a friend's house in Savanna. Let's just say, wow what a different world they live in!! I'll post more and add some pix when I have time. If I don't get back sooner, just a heads up: I'm out of town for my little brother's wedding this coming weekend!! The pictures from that should be wonderful, so I'll have them up sometime next week.

Adoption update: China, still no idea!!
Vietnam: Our dossier is about 1/2 done!!!! Piece of cake after China's!! I'll try to post more on the details for this soon.

Soon, soon... I've just swamped at work, and WILL GET BACK TO BLOGGING SOON!!!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Tomorrow - ONE YEAR


Tomorrow, June 15th, we are LID to China for one full year. What can I say? When we started, we were told the WHOLE PROCESS from DTC to referral should only take about 9-10 months with travel 2 months later. No joke, friends of ours only waited 6 months to referral just 9 months before we go our DTC. In that time, the wait has grown to historical highs...with no end in sight. (Yes, I'm bitching. But hey, it's my blog!! I can do it all I want!!) However, the ONLY bright spot in this lousy situation is that it has allowed us to pursue our second adoption. We had ALWAYS discussed 2 adoptions, but we thought that we would be pursuing another China adoption AFTER we brought Baby Magic home. Unfortunately, I can not have total control over my life. As I am reminded regularly...

So, while we are distressed that we are still waiting for Baby M (who at this point isn't even born yet), we will be able to bring home our second child (who will of course, technically be our first). I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we are very happy to be adopting from Vietnam (and I'm beginning to feel less guilt over this), but we are sad to still be at least 12 months away from Baby M. Hang in there, Darlin'!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Stalking Blogs...again

I spent about an hour last night stalking other people's blogs. This time, they were all blogs from PAPs or APs (that's potential adoptive parents and adoptive parents). There is even one family in our town who brought TWINS home from Vietnam last December! It was exciting to read, since I have been meeting absolutely WONDERFUL PAPs in the China community (like Noelle's Mom and Dad!!) but I don't know any one with adopted child(ren) from VN...(I have actually met the Mom of the beautiful twins I mentioned above, but I bet she wouldn't remember me - so that doesn't really count).

I keep saying this, but I used to spend HOURS on the China adoption boards, and chatting with people on-line (I've even made lasting friends from when I used to spend hours on there!), but I just can't get involved in the Vietnam boards this time around. So much of it is for newly adopting parents...and while we haven't yet actually ADOPTED (other than a ton of pets!), I am no longer a NEW potential adoptive parent. I guess that's why blogs are so nice. I can see the beginnings, the wait, the referral, the trip, and the HOME! pictures and stories. It reminds me that it DOES happen. And it is so nice to see. I hope that one day my blog will also be a place where people can follow our journey. Our journeys, actually!! I can't wait!!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Vietnam, HERE WE COME!!!

So, I did it. I sent in our first program fee. Now, the whole process is becoming real (mainly b/c the check was a big one!! But now, our agency starts working for us, and also towards helping our future child's birth-mother stay healthy as she prepares to have our child). When I get the dossier prep- packet, I'll let you know what we're looking at for documents. I'm so excited, and a little overwhelmed, but honestly, I've done this once before. It'll be a breeze compared to China's dossier!!

I dreamed about Vietnam last night...and FYI; our baby is going to be ADORABLE!!

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Home Study

We have our home study this coming Thursday. I can't tell you how laid back I am this round. I do, of course, plan to clean the house, but no more so than I would knowing we had dinner guests coming. I just can't get worked up over it this time. Yes, I'm excited, but hey, she saw my OLD house and managed to still say we would make good parents. This house is far and away better than the old one, in so many respects, so I figure, as long as it's tidy, she won't care. I know it is natural to get worried about the social worker coming to the house for the HS, but honestly, I can now actually legitimately say, "hey Been There, Done That". We never got the "white glove test", our social worker DIDn't look in closets, she didn't say ANYTHING about our well-stocked wine rack, or the three dogs...she didn't even go INTO most of the rooms (she stood in the doorways and looked in). I've read that some social workers even turn on the faucets to make sure you have hot and cold running water, but honestly, that sounds a bit far fetched. Maybe if we lived in the boonies in some ancient farm house (sorry, Mom!), but I'd guess MOST of us do these days (have running water, that is. NOT live in the boonies!!). And if we don't? Well, I bet we could still make the case that we could raise kids just fine, thank you very much (Right, Mom?!!).

So, if you are out there in my blog land, and you haven't done your HS yet (but plan to sometime), take heart. The social worker we are working with is wonderful, and it sounds like many of them ARE wonderful!! They WANT to help us ADOPT a child(ren), not stop us from it. So DO NOT STRESS. Just be your self, and enjoy the time. It's one step closer to your baby!!

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Passion flowers

Here's the crown of my flower bed right now:
In fact, it's taking over my flower bed!!