Apr

29

The Brown Envelope

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Got the Brown Envelope today.  I know it’s been a while since our last posting and you probably want to know what is the significance of the Brown Envelope?  Well let me tell you.  We have been taking our time working on the house.  We still haven’t finished the deck but we’re not far from it, perhaps in a week or two then on to the sprinkler in the back.  Becky has been stocking the nursery closet with clothes, diapers, books and etc.  We purchased a great 12 cube book shelf from and unfinished wood store.  This weekend is the Disney Catalog Outlet Store tent sale so hopefully we’ll get some good deals.  About the Brown Envelope it contained the forms from US Embassy in Guangzhou.  Receiving the Brown Envelope lets us know that the US Embassy is ready for us when we get there to pick up the baby’s VISA and immigration paperwork. FACTOID thanks to a new law passed in January 2004 once the adoption papers are signed the child is considered a US citizen.  We won’t have to readopt Morgan when we get her back to the states.  As we wait for our referral we been reading articles about and talking to a lot of people that have already adopted from China.  I figure it’s going to kind of be like Survivor for Becky and I in China.  There will be exotic food, contaminated water and the reward challenge of a new baby.  I CAN’T WAIT!!!!  Oh the rumor is that we may get our referral in September or October so we may be getting our child by the end of the year.  That’s right Daddy’s little tax deduction, Yahoo!  I’ll probably start doing an update once a month unless something noteworthy happens so tune in next month.

Apr

10

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While Becky and LaWanna went shopping for more children’s stuff I bought firecrackers.  I’m ready to celebrate and disturb the neighborhood, just wait till we get our DTC date.

Apr

9

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Let the Waiting begin.  We are now looking at waiting 8 months before we get our referral.  That will give us time to get ready for the challenge of parenthood, I say bring it on.

Apr

9

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Today closes Chapter #1 The Paperwork, the next chapter will be The Waiting.  I was watching our email all day hoping to see and email from Abbi saying that our dossier is in today’s Friday mailing to China, but I never got one.  When I got home from work I called GWCA and told Abbi to tell me what I wanted to hear, she did.  GWCA needs to get some more people for better customer service I don’t understand why other people raving about GWCA their customer service SUCKS!!!  The Good News is that our dossier is on it’s way to China, can’t wait to get our DTC.

Apr

6

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Great news, we got a call from our adoption agency (GWCA or Great Wall China Adoption) saying that our dossier has been compiled and will be sent with this Friday’s mailing to China.  FYI – GWCA only mails China once a week on Friday.  I can’t tell you what a relief that is to both of us now all we have to do is wait for our DTC (Date To China) date and then we wait, and wait, and wait for about 8 months.  I am hoping that we get our referral in December, that means PICTURES, a name and possibly statistics about the child.  That would be a Great Christmas gift.

Apr

5

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Got FedEx confirmation that the remaining documents have been sent to GWCA and we got an email from Abbi saying that she will let us know when she assembles our dossier to go to China.  Right now waiting is not an issue for us it seems so far away, but we can see the end.  Today I surfed some sites that other families have posted about their china adoption experiences and found it comforting.  There is one site on our Baby Links page that I particularly like called Personal China Adoption Stories, you’ll see if you got there.

Apr

2

Our Dossier has been sent to GWCA let the Waiting stage begin.

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After what has happened the past few weeks we are not as excited about submitting our dossier.  We are just waiting for something else to go wrong or waiting to hear we missed something.  We are very stressed right now, so tomorrow I’m going to get some fireworks to shake up the neighborhood.  Late last night we printed photos, made copies and assembled 4 dossier packages.  Then we FedExed the original dossier and one copy to GWCA.  Thanks to Becky’s family for putting up with us while we took family photos for our dossier.  We reviewed everything several times so hopefully everything is right, we’ll see.  Now we can try to relax and get the house ready for Morgan, we still have a lot to accomplish.  The deck still needs to be finished and then we need to installing the sprinkler system in the backyard to get the grass soft and green for little feet.  Inside the house we have been organizing, purging, painting and constructing all for the arrival of a little girl.  I don’t know if I would be going to this much effort if this was our biological child, but we want this child to feel wanted, welcome, Loved and needed and she will be.  Now provided everything is ok we have moved on to the Waiting stage.  GWCA will forward our Dossier to CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) to be reviewed.  First we’ll get our DTC (Dossier to China) date then we’ll wait for an additional 8-10 months for our referral.  When we get our referral we’ll get a picture of our Daughter and you had better believe we’ll post that picture.  For those of you that don’t know we don’t get to pick the child, China does that for us so cross your fingers and wish us luck.