Multiple Log In Dates

I had a recent blog visitor ask why we have two LIDs at the bottom of our blog. Good question. Technically speaking we should have 3 LIDs posted at the bottom of our blog. Lots of families have had three LIDs... of course many of those people actually have adopted at least one child if not three. We, on the other hand, have completed and logged in 3 separate dossiers and have yet to adopt. But I guess the ways times are in International Adoption we are in good company.

Back in the summer of 2006 when started this journey, we were gathering all of our documents for China. The agency we worked with before sent their dossiers over to China in batches so we got ours done and waited. We anticipated a December 2006 LID so I dutifully joined the December 2006 DTC/LID Yah**! group. It was great! The group even had its own logo :)

Due to a mishap with our agency our dossier was delayed a month. In hindsight it was a sign of things to come. But no biggie, we just joined the January 2007 DTC/LID yah**! group. Look how cute this logo is!

Then long story short, we went to Vietnam. If you have been following international adoptions for the past few years I don't have to tell you what happened there.

After two unfinished adoptions we wondered what to do. Do we dig a little deeper? Do we take a leap of faith? Or do we turn on some B*rry White, crack open a bottle of wine and do things the old fashioned way? ; ) Well, we thought if we really believe our daughter is out there then we will do what we need to do bring her home. So we did. We tried one more time with fingers crossed that the third time would be the charm. We collected all the documents again and got fingerprinted again and sent it all in again and got our third LID. We logged into China's SN program.

It has been quite a ride but deep down I believe that this is the path we needed to go down to bring home our daughter. I have faith that at some point all the stars will align and we will meet our daughter and we will be so thankful for the delays and re-directions that brought us to "our child", the child we were always meant to have. We will tell her all about how we were all journeying toward each other from around the world and the miracle of how we found each other. How we all became a family. Every good love story deserves a happy ending.

Easter Egg Decorating

Word On The Street

I picked up an email from the director of our agency while we were away on vacation for spring break. Yes, I can no longer help myself from checking email even when on vacation. I even sent our director an email saying "hey, we are going on vacation so here is all of our contact info incase you want to get in touch with us with a referral" :) Of course, she never responded. And of course, I told myself she was just too busy trying to find ours and other families children to respond. These are the things I have to tell myself to remain moderately sane in this process :)

Anyway back to the email from our agency director. The word on the street is that our agency was "invited to place a large number of little ones from Shanghai Orphanage". As usual, I am cautiously optimistic. I even popped over to the library where we were vacationing and picked up a China travel book so I could read up a bit on Shanghai. Shanghai seems very ooh-la-la :) Actually all of China seems very ooh-la-la to me. I have never been to any asian country and I am asian so I am thrilled with the prospect of going, let alone going to bring home our daughter. But we won't have more details till one of the other directors goes to Shanghai in mid-May. Our director said once they are back from this trip the matching can begin which puts us around the beginning of June for a potential match. So the official word on the street is "soon" ... and as usual "maybe". Fingers crossed XX

Expecting a visit from the Tooth Fairy tonight!

Calling All Angels

Last friday was an amazing day for many families within our agency. They got "the call". I too got a call from an out of town area code on my cell phone but it was from my friend calling to say "go home now incase you get called too!" I happened to be pulling into my driveway at the time and gunned it down my driveway to my house, ran inside, called my husband to be on high alert and then sat there and stared at the phone. The phone rang twice, each time nearly giving me a heart attack. It wasn't our agency. It was my husband and friend both calling to see if we had been "called". I waited and waited for that call until I had to leave the house to pick my children up from school and reluctantly and grudgingly got into my car realizing that this was not our day. On the short drive to school I heard a song that I had heard many times before but never really listened to the words and when I listened that day I balled my eyes out. It was Calling All Angles by Train. These are the lyrics:


Calling All Angels by Train

I need a sign to let me know you're here
All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere
I need to know that things are gonna look up
'Cause I feel us drowning in a sea spilled from a cup

When there is no place safe and no safe place to put my head
When you feel the world shake from the words that are said

[Chorus:]
And I'm calling all angels
I'm calling all you angels

I won't give up if you dont give up [Reapeat x4]

I need a sign to let me know you're here
'Cause my TV set just keeps it all from being clear
I want a reason for the way things have to be
I need a hand to help build up some kind of hope inside of me

By the time I got to school I was a visible mess. I pulled up my Jackie O like sunglasses tight across my face and went in to school feigning a bad day of allergies. Its been nearly three years of trying to adopt. I think most people don't get why we are still trying, let alone crying my eyes out in the middle of the day about it.

But I guess it was a bittersweet afternoon because we did get the sign, referrals have come to our agency two month in a row so things are moving in the right direction. It just wasn't our day. Hoping its soon.