Hi everyone...I'm not dead, just busy

I just thought I would pop in on my own blog and say hello to my friends, to my family and to my baby girl (who I will read all of these messages to some day)! It's been such a busy month...my schedule is hectic and the boys homework is sucking the life out of me. It's all I can do to survive having a 4th grader and 6th grader!

On a very happy note, we finished our application for our "free" I 600A and were approved and fingerprinted earlier this month. Seven days after our fingerprinting appointment, we received our new I 171H! This is the third time we have renewed this document and, thankfully, it will be the last!!! This one doesn't expire until March of 2010. I think it's safe to say that we are officially done with our adoption paperwork. Thats is, of course, until we land in China. It's just a waiting game now....what else is new, huh?! Thank goodness I've learned to wait, I'm good at it now (I'm also done with it)! I guess I better finish up the nursery...I think there's actually going to be a baby in it soon!!!

On a sadder, and somewhat distressing note, our agency is being forced to do some restructuring. As a result of many factors, not the least of which is the current economy, they are having to shut down all of their branch offices. The only office that will remain open is their corporate headquaters in St. Louis. All of our files of being transferred there. What this means for us personally is that we will no longer have our agent, Marianne Adams, at our side. She runs the Arizona branch and has worked for CHI for 14 years. I can't express how much Marianne has meant to me personally over the past three years. I don't think I could have made it through all the paperwork and this dreaded wait without her. I have spent countless hours with her on the phone and corresponding thru emails. She has helped to keep me strong and on track from the very begining of our journey. It brings me to tears to think that she won't be with us when we receive our referral. Her last day with CHI will be September 30th. Although I've tried to express my appreciation to her, I don't think she will ever fully understand what she has meant to me and to all the families she has helped to unite. She's truly an amazing woman (and a mother to two adoptive daughters...one of which is from China)!

I'll post again soon....hopefully with referral news!!!!

September referrals are in!!

We received the following announcement from our agency today! Reading the announcement gave me goosbumps...with this batch of referrals we are now only 29 LID days away from being matched. Finally, finally, finally there are less than 30 days ahead of us in line! There are only 19 days left to match in February and then they will start March! It feels like it's right around the corner....

Children's Hope International received 22 referrals today, September 2, 2008. There were 21 beautiful girls and one handsome little boy in this group of referrals. The families that received referrals had LID's of February 9, 2006 and there was one Chinese expedited family with a LID of January 22, 2007. The children are from Beijing and the Jiangxi , Shaanxi , and the Guangdong Provinces . These beautiful children ranged in ages of 5 months to 9 months old. In addition there was a 29 month old, a 3 year one month old, 3 year 2 month old, 3 year 11 month old, and a 4 year 1 month. The parents that received the children over 24 months fell within the range of what the families requested or the parents were with in the age guidelines for a toddler. Congratulations to all of these families!

Families waited 31 months for their referrals and the Chinese expedited families waited 19 months. The CCAA sent referrals out for families with LID's of 2/1/06 through 2/9/06. The next LID for Children's Hope families is 2/17/06.