Meet our new daughter!

After 4 1/2 years of waiting, we can finally introduce everyone to Hope, our (soon to be) new daughter!

We knew that our referral was coming - we follow the adoption blogs and knew that others were receiving referrals, but based on what happened last month, we were a bit nervous.  So Friday, Jen emailed her contact Stephanie at the adoption agency, who confirmed that our referral was coming, and told us that she would call us as soon as she had information.  Stephanie called at about 11:00 PM, and gave us a few details - Our soon to be daughter will be one year old on 7/18/2010, and is currently living with a foster family in the province of Hubei, in the city of Wuhan.  She is by all accounts healthy, and Stephanie described her as very cute!

But we still didn't have pictures!  They were still processing the actual referral, so we went to bed eager for the morning.  As soon as I woke up this morning, I checked the email, and there was the referral that we had been waiting for for so long.  I brought the laptop upstairs to Jen, and together we opened the referral and saw her face for the first time.  We think that she's adorable, and it appears that the foster family is taking good care of her.  I think I see a hint of a dimple, just like daddy!     

Along with the referral, which is mostly in Chinese, we received translated details about our new daughter.  She was found at 2 am on August 11th, 2009 at the gate of the civil affair department of the city of Xiang Fan, by a policeman.  She was taken to the Social Welfare Institute the same day, and was given the name Meiqi Fan.  Meiqi means "pretty as jade", and Fan is for the city in which she was found. 

In March 2010, she was placed with a foster family in Wuhan.  Her sleep pattern and appetite are described as good, and it says that she loves to play outside, and pick flowers in the grass in the yard!  When she sees a butterfly, it says, she will open her arms and try to fly.  Too cute!

So now we await our itinerary.  We know that we will first fly to Beijing, then Wuhan, then Guangzhou, but don't know the exact dates yet.  We will post the details when we have them.  Until then!

Nothing yet

Rumor has it that members of the CCAA traveled somewhere this month, which accounts for the delay in the process this month. Supposedly, they are in the process of matching now (matching families with children). I'm guessing that we will hear something next week. I can't recall seeing referrals go past the middle of the month.

Some semi-disappointing news

Remember last month when I said that we knew for sure that we would be receiving our referral this month? Well, I was wrong.

We had originally thought that our “magic” date was April 23rd, 2006. I'll explain again, because it gets confusing, this is the login date, the date we were officially approved for adoption. As this June approached, the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) had referred children to families with login dates through April 21st, 2006.

We examined our adoption agency paperwork several weeks ago, and noticed that the paperwork showed April 26th, not April 23rd as we had thought. Not sure how the 23rd got into our brains, but it did. No big deal, though, there was still a good chance that they would reach the 26th this month.

We follow the adoption websites very closely. On Friday, word was out that the cutoff date was April 26th, which meant that, after a 4 ½ year wait, we would get to see a picture of our child’s face in just a couple of days! We were excited and nervous all weekend. On Monday, we saw posts on our favorite adoption website that families were receiving calls from their agencies, and pictures! The day went by with no calls to us. We were a little worried, but calls aren't always made that first day, so we just needed to patient, we thought. Tuesday goes by – still no calls. Tuesday night I called the agency. They had nothing for us. They called the CCAA. At 1:00 am on Wednesday, we received an email from our agency. The CCAA has our login date recorded as April 27th, 2006, not April 26th. We're not sure how or why the wires got crossed, and we may not ever know, but it is what it is.

My body must have known that something was up. I had 102 temp on Monday, and 100 on Tuesday.

Initially we were extremely let down, as you might imagine. But we came to realize that when we finally see the child that is matched with us next month, and then meet her, we will be so happy that it worked out the way that it did, and in the end wouldn't have it any other way!

Long story short, we will get a referral next month, which means travel in mid to late August.

Children placed through April 21st

Children were placed through April 21 this month, so it only advanced 4 days this month, missing us by 2 days. Although a little disappointed, we now know for sure that we will receive our referral next month!  We will get to see our child's face, and then travel to China 30 - 45 days later to pick her up!.  Bella's sister is on the way, so stay tuned!

Children placed through April 17th

Children have now been referred through April 17, 2006. Our log in date was April 23, 2006, so only 6 more referral days to go! There is a very good chance that we will receive our referral in early May! See the previous entry for more details.

Children placed through April 11th

Children have now been referred through April 11. Our log in date was April 23, so only 12 more referral days to go! What does this all mean exactly? Well, we were officially "logged in" (officially approved) with the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) on April 23, 2006. So families whose log in date was April 11, 2006 or earlier have now been referred a child. The CCAA had only been advancing about 3 referral days or so each month, but this month they advanced 6. If that trend continues, we should receive our referral sometime around the beginning of May!

Our adoption story

One of the questions that I'm (Scott) asked frequently is "Why did you decide to adopt?"  Well, in 2004, I was channel surfing as I often do, and stumbled upon a National Geographic special called "China's Lost Girls". It discussed China's one child policy, and how it has resulted in children being hidden, abandoned, aborted, and even killed. The large majority of these children are girls, as boys are deemed more valuable, for a variety of reasons. These girls end up in China's orphanges, or with foster families, if they are lucky. It also followed an adopting family from the U.S., as they traveled to China to pick up their little girl. This was the most interesting part of the program, and the most moving.  I was literally questioning my purpose in life, before the program had even finished. You can watch it for free here:  http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/chinas_lost_girls

Up until that point in our lives, Jen and I had not seriously considered having children.  I was so moved by the plight of these children, however, and the joy on the parents faces as they were united with their children, that it literally made me question my purpose in life, and I brought it up to Jen later that day. If I recall, I presented my "new purpose" as a "half-joke", as I wasn't fully convinced myself. To my surprise, Jen was open to the idea (remember, we had pretty much decided that children would not be part of our future) and stated that she would be fully supportive if it was something that I really wanted to do.

I don't recall the actual point that we said "Let's do this", but at some point we got the paperwork going, and on April 23, 2006, we were officially "logged in" with the China Center of Adoption Affairs. At the time, the typical wait from log in date to travel to pick up your child was 8-10 months, and so we fully expected to have a child in our arms sometime in the early part of 2007. But 2007 came and went, and the expected wait time grew and grew, and it soon became evident that we would have to wait years, not months, for our daughter.

At some point (again, I don't remember exactly when) the talk turned to a biological child.  We were fearful that the China Adoption program would shut down completely, as the Russian program had, and we were now determined to welcome a child into our family, one way or the other. Of course, there was always the possibility that we wouldn't be able to conceive, so we decided to simply "give it a try" and "see what happens". 

What happened - on January 24, 2009 - was Bella.  We couldn't have imagined the joy that she would bring (and continues to bring) to our lives.  It's been amazing and fascinating to watch her grow.  She is beautiful, and funny, and now that we have a little parenting under our belts, we are that much more prepared to welcome a second child into our lives.  Bella is going to get a little sister!