I have pictures!!

 Check out the towel! So Cute!! I just love the bikini!

 Here is how my gifts were wrapped! Love the paper!

I am sneaking this post in at work, shhhh!  I still don’t have my laptop up and running and now my new digital camera #%$@ the bed!!! UGH!!!

SP you are very thoughtful! I love, love the monogramed towel for Hazel!! I want to hang it in my bathroom so I can look at it very day. The bathing suit, OMG, I can’t wait to play on the beach with my baby. I am going to turn her into a beach baby!! I will post a picture as soon as I get that @#$%&* camera fixed or replaced.

I really can’t afford another technical malfunction in my life…

 THANK YOU!!!

 Traveled the world??? Hummmm????

I really like my adoption agency. Our China Adoption Specialist sends the waiting families a monthly update. Here is an excerpt from the June update.

CCAA continues to reiterate the large backlog of dossiers currently logged in, and the fact that they can only make referrals based on the number of “paper ready” babies it has available from the Social Welfare Institutes each referral cycle. They have recently stated that any orphanage in China can now submit babies dossiers to CCAA for international adoption. Previously only designated orphanages were allowed to submit paperwork.  This may help some in the future but it could be some time before any effect is seen. There are procedures which must be followed in the provinces so that the paperwork submitted to CCAA is accurate and to assure that the children made available for international adoption have gone through all of the legal channels to declare them “orphans” and that no family member has come forward to claim the child. This takes time and money, something that is usually in short supply at any orphanage so the impact will most likely not be seen very quickly.

I have an idea.

What if:

1. We find out exactly what the cost is per baby to get them”paper ready”
2. Work directly with the wonderful groups that are in China working with the orphanages (Love Without Boundaries, Half the Sky, etc)
3. All the waiting LID families are asked to voluntarily donate the monies required to paper ready a baby.

I know I am squeaking by to afford this adoption as are many families. However, if I knew that an extra $500 to $1000 would bring home my baby sooner. I would send the money right now.  I would eat ramen noodles and forgo paying the lights, cable and phone bills for a month or two. Heck I have done it before so that I could buy a great new handbag. (that was in my less responsible days, like going through my divorce). I sure as H.E. Double Hockey Sticks would do if for my baby!

Just a thought!

If you agree … Pay it forward!!!!

P.S. I know I have over simplfied the answer. I work for a huge international financial institution and getting even the smallest change made is like turning the Titantic with teaspoons. However, I do know that when a small group of committed individuals decide they want to make something happen … nothing is impossible.

There are a few days when I really allow myself to think, and I mean really think about the fact that I am actually adopting a baby girl from China .  Part of my brain hasn’t fully absorbed this idea.

I have a terrific adoption agency and my social worker assures me that at the end of this wait I will have a baby. I read others blogs and they all seem so sure of it as well.

Why does a part of me feel like this is a surreal experience? As I type this I feel like I am having an out of body experience.

I definitely know it’s not because of the wait. I have felt this way from the moment I began to pursue the idea of adopting. Back then (December 2005) it felt even more surreal. As each month passed and I got deeper in to the process the feeling has lessen but hasn’t gone away.

Maybe it won’t. Maybe this is the reason I have never felt more I live then I do right now.

Maybe I still need to think this one through…