The Big Wait Begins

As all of you know by now, we have started down the long road to adoption. We are adopting a baby girl from the People’s Republic of China. While we’ve been at it awhile, we have a ways to go before we bring our little girl home. Welcome to our Big Wait.

We’ve been busy collecting documents, undergoing a home study, and putting together a formal dossier (in English and in Chinese) to submit to the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs in Beijing. Over the past 8 months, every weekend and every weekday after coming home from work, there were letters to write, calls to make, papers to collate, copies copies copies, Fed Ex, Kinko’s, more copies, ooops, where’s the Fed Ex envelope, we’re out of Fed Ex envelopes, wait wait, we need another 3 copies, …where was I???... well, you get the picture.

Then there were David’s fingerprints. Too many years of driving a keyboard has left him print-less, or so the government said the first couple of times they tried to fingerprint him. Delays (that’s time delays, not Tom Delay, but don’t get us started…). Then there was the minor matter of the first World Series title in Chicago since 1917…more delays, but it was exciting nonetheless (Go Sox!).

One of the items in our dossier that was actually fun to assemble was a family photo album. This prompted a visit to the local craft store, where Kristen discovered her inner scrap-booker. We’ll post some of the photos as soon as we figure out how.

Our completed dossier, now translated into Chinese, went to Beijing in November. We received word in January that it was officially logged in at the CCAA on December 16, 2005. It’s official!

And thus our Big Wait begins…

Here’s what happens from here. Every month, the CCAA matches dossiers to waiting children. Currently, the time from log in to referral is running about 8 months, or so we are told. This can always change, but for now, we’ve been told to expect a referral in the Fall. Once we get a referral, we travel to China six to eight weeks later.

In the meantime, we are doing lots of reading, getting the house in order, catching up with family and friends, announcing our news, and finally taking that vacation we’ve been putting off for 8 months. We’re also sizing up our back bedroom for a little girl. Hmm. Pink?

We’ll use this website to keep our friends and family in the loop, as we prepare ourselves for the great adventure of parenthood. Check back in from time to time!