WHEN ARE YOU BRINGING THAT LITTLE GIRL (OR BOY FOR SOME FAMILIES) HOME?

Yep, that's the million dollar question for all of us in the China adoption program. I forget that some of my readers aren't in the adoption program and have no idea about how or why things are taking so long. This post is for them.

We started in August, 2005 with what is known as the paperchase. We had physicals, fingerprints, meetings with our social worker to complete a home study, wrote essays, obtained police clearance letters, income verification, reference letters from friends, ordered birth certificates & marriage license, had passport photos taken and waited patiently (BWAHAHAHAHA) for our immigration approval. We then had all of our documents notarized and authenticated and our precious dossier was complete. Our paperchase took a total of 6 months to complete and our paperwork headed off to China on February 10, 2006. We waited patiently (BWAHAHAHAHA) until we were notified of our LID (log in date) . Our LID is March 8, 2006. When we started the process it was taking about 6 months after your LID to receive "the call" (or your referral) with your child's information and picture. I remember hoping that we would be home BEFORE the kids returned to school in September, 2006. Sigh. Things started to REALLY slow down with the China program (Ummm, the month we started our paperchase) and the wait has been growing each and every month. Why? Don't know. I can only speculate, so I won't.

As of last month, they gave referrals to families that were logged in between November 21, 2005 and November 25, 2005.....4 days. As someone that frequents a site called RQ (Rumor Queen), I know that based on RQ's polls there were quite a few families logged in during that 4 day period. I also know that things should start to speed up a little bit when we reach the smaller months (months that less families are logged in). As you can see from the poll, November was a much larger month and that's probably is the reason it's taking so long to get through. We have had quite a few large months behind us and are looking forward to finally getting into the smaller ones and hoping the pace picks up a little bit. When I say speed up, I'm thinking they might be able to process 15-18 days each month. I hope. Thank goodness, we're logged in at the beginning of March. If you will notice from the poll, they expect March to be a rather large month and therefore, take quite awhile to get through.

As of right now, 102 days separate us from the cut off from this month's batch of referrals (November 25, 2005). How long will it take for the CCAA to process 102 days? Don't know. We can look back at the history of the last 18 months to get an average. I'm not going to use the average number of days over the last 6 months because I know that those were larger months (more families logged in during that time). If we use an average of the last 12 months that we get 10.5. If you divide 102 by 10.5 you get: 9.7142857 or about July, 2008 before we will receive our referral. Like I said previously, I'm REALLY hoping that they can start doing about 15 days worth per month (when we get into the smaller months) and we can receive our referral in about May, 2008. Really hoping.



This adoption has truly been one of the hardest things I've ever been through in my life...... It's also been one the most amazing experiences I've ever been through. If it wasn't for this loooooooong wait, I might never have met all the wonderful people that are on this same journey. I honestly don't know what I would have done if our family was traveling on this path alone. For that, I'm grateful for the wait. I also know that someday when I look in Ava's eyes for the first time, I'll be thinking......THANK GOODNESS the wait took as long as it did because it gave me her. For that, I'm also grateful.

THE TUBE OF DOOM

See that yellow tube that Hope and her friend are sitting on? That is what I call the tube of doom.........

We (or I guess I should say I) purchased this fun looking tube in July when we were getting together with some good friends of ours. The three boys (Griffin and my friend's two boys) had a hard time staying on the new tube when they first started out. After they got going for awhile it seemed like all was good (and I didn't waste $185) up until they took their first real fall. They all clunked heads and swore they NEVER wanted to ride the tube again. I was thinking my friend's kids must be just wimps (KIDDING!) and thought I wouldn't give up hope that they would learn to LOVE my new purchase!!!

Hope and Bells really wanted to try the new tube out a few weeks later. I was AMAZED at how well these girls handled the tube. Bells was even jumping from one tube to the other and they were having a BLAST. I thought that as long as they only rode two at a time that everything would be okay. All was good with the world until..................... Griffin and Hope climbed on the tube. Griffin was sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him and THAT is what did it. When it happened we weren't going very fast and were driving straight ahead. The kids leaned the opposite way when they were coming out of the wake and the tube tipped over. It was the WORST thing in the world to see Jeff haul Griffin out of the water and lay him on the back of the boat with a broken leg. The. Worst.

We knew that there was NO WAY that we could get him into the back of our car without help. We were SO lucky as one of the other seasonal campers just happens to be a paramedic and just happened to be at the boat dock when we pulled up. We're so grateful for him and for our friend Ranger Steve for stopping all traffic so that we could exit the water right away. Then, a nurse just happened to walk up and offer her help. We made the decision to call a ambulance instead of trying to load Griffin into the back of our car. We weren't even certain that Griffin's leg was broken because he wasn't showing the normal signs of a fracture, but there was NO WAY I was going to watch him be lifted off the back of the boat without a board. We definitely knew we made the right decision after viewing his x-rays and seeing what a NASTY break it was.

What was "kinda" funny about the whole thing..... Hope and Bells were talking before we went tubing that they wanted to go "extreme tubing" that day.....They said they wouldn't be happy unless they had battle scars. Yep, they talk a good game. Griffin was the one that didn't even care if we went tubing that day and never mentioned wanting any battle scars. Jeff had responded to the girls, "It's all fun and games until the ambulance pulls up" before the accident happened. Griffin will always be able to remember their day of "extreme tubing" when he looks at his battle scars. The girls say they're ready for round 2.

Thank you to Bells for the use of the photo's for this post.

POOL UPDATE AND OTHER RAMBLING...

I had Peaches call the pool company this morning as I really couldn't deal with it anymore. We have also been having problems with our new salt filter and all these error codes keep showing up on it...Some of the codes aren't even listed in the manual and the experts at the pool company are totally clueless. The large crack pretty much pushed me over the edge and that is when it all was put in the lap of Peaches. They're sending a "fiberglass expert" over on Wednesday and said that we need not halt our landscaping, new sprinklers and fence and that it can all be fixed. Let's. Hope. So. We have had SO many problems with this pool installation. They destroyed so much more of the lawn than they said they would, they cracked up the driveway because one of the water guys was too lazy to hook up a hose and leave his truck on the street (like the other water guy did), the cement dudes dug up the pool pipe and there was a fountain going in my backyard (then patched it and put the cement on top of it) and I REALLY hope that it doesn't burst again AND now the crack. Thank goodness for the cute guy in the green shirt or the whole experience would have been a nightmare...A little eye candy always helps a bad situation!! I'm sure they will get it all fixed just in time for us to cover it up for the winter....Won't be too long as it's FREEZING here today!

Griffin just started his physical therapy today and did really well. That boy just amazes me with his high pain tolerance! The therapist just kept looking at me in amazement that he was able to move his leg as well as he did. As soon as he is healed then they will do another surgery to remove the plate. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will be able to remove it before 2008. Last year I had the insurance company raise our deductible (because we NEVER use it!) to $5,000...Dumb move. Soooooo it sure would be nice if they could do the surgery before the new deductible begins in January. In my line of work I hear patients complaining all the time over their $100 deductibles....They have NO idea how much insurance costs for the self employed. GRRRRR.

I'm getting some pictures together and will do my next post about how Griffin broke his leg tubing....Be watching for it in my next quarterly post! =)

18

- Get Your Own


Today is our 18 month LID anniversary....Hard to believe. In case you're wondering why my cute little puppy is surrounded in bubbles....I just noticed that my brand new fiberglass pool has a huge crack in the bottom. They will fix it, right????

YEP, YOUR BLOGLINES IS WORKING PROPERLY....I'VE UPDATED MY BLOG!

Alright, I decided to make sea star happy and pull my last post down one....Anything, to make sea star happy!!! I was reading my comments (via my email, so I couldn't see her icon) and thinking....Who the hell is sea star? Too funny. Anyhoo, I hope you don't mind but I'm going to do bullet points with this post.....Probably not appropriate for some of the subject matter, but really I've got a lot to say and it's just going to make it easier. I'll follow-up with some pictures, so don't complain.

Where have I been you ask? Maybe, you haven't even noticed I've been away, but if you were wondering.....LOTS have been going on as some of you may know. Read next point.

First, we were having a little (Ummm, that's really kind of a understatement) stress with a close family member. I really would rather not go into detail about this, but I will say that he is doing MUCH better and we're all VERY happy about that! And no, it's not my Peaches that I'm talking about and no, he is not having an affair if that is where your minds went. Some of you even suspected that we decided to stop our adoption. Ahhhh, NOT gonna happen. You aren't gonna get this family out of line!!! Sorry you didn't get much out of me with this bullet point.

Next, my mother had a scare with breast cancer. Thank God, she just got her results back and it wasn't cancer! All I can say is.....Ladies, get your mammograms done. Also, don't freak out if something shows up on it....It's not always cancer! Thank. God.

Jeff's grandmother died at the end of June. I was blessed to have had her in my life for 18 years. I was SO close to my grandmother (I grew up right next door to her and she passed away when I was 14) that when I first met Jeff's grandmother I thought I would never call her Grandma, just Carlotta. I thought that if I called her Grandma that I would somehow hurt my own Grandma's feelings(when she was looking over me) and I didn't want her to ever feel she was or could ever be replaced. Well...... Let me just say that it wasn't very long before I was calling Carlotta, Grandma and I know for a fact that my Grandma would have approved. It was so nice to have had a Grandma again. I'm hoping that my two Grandma's have now met each other and are baking pies together up in heaven. That would make me happy.

Griffin broke his leg while we were tubing last weekend. The poor kid had to have surgery and a plate & 7 screws were added to his body. He never cried one tear....His Mom and Dad cried quite a few. He is getting along pretty well and headed off today for the first day of school. Watching him with his back pack and crutches, making his way up the side walk at school was hard to watch. Of course, he didn't want any help from his mother. I would have gladly carried his books all day long and protected him from harm from other children in the hallway, but NOOOOOOOO.....He wanted to do it all himself.


And just when you were thinking.....Oh my gawd, her summer totally sucked....I'll leave you with a few pictures. It wasn't all bad.

What happened to my bullets?