Saturday, September 29, 2007

We got PA!


Our agency called yesterday and guess, what??? We got PA!

Here is our referral info for Annie V.:

Name: Lu FangHua
Location: Hefei, Anhui

She is about 18 months old right now.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

And so the wait continues...

Well... I spoke to our agency and those families who were not DTC yet and submitted their LOIs the same week we did have not received PAs yet. We are now thinking like this: If the PA comes before 4-6 weeks, we will be pleasantly surprised. But, we are still on pins and needles!

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Well, several of our other parents in our agency waiting child program received their PAs after one week of waiting. Our agency seems to think we might hear something on Monday or Tuesday! Wow! We are still sort of shock since we were thinking 4-6 weeks.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Wow! The beginning of our story...

We have two beautiful daughters from China and decided about a year ago to add a third child to our family. So we thought we would start the process again, be logged in and wait and wait and wait. We had decided that we were for sure going to go the special needs route but we would either ask China to match us with a little one or wait for another 6 months or so before we ask our agency to match us with a little one.

Well... you know how plans change, right? On Friday, August 24th, our lives were going to change forever. We had gotten a call and an email from our agency earlier in the week that sounded like they wanted to just confirm some things. So, we scheduled a phone conference for 3 days later. While sitting in the Ikea parking lot, we got a call that went something like this:

Agency: So, we have been reviewing your Waiting Child Application and we have a few questions for you.

Husband puts the phone on mute and says what application? I say back, you know the one I told you about about 3 weeks ago that the person at the agency said to just go ahead and fill it out but we will not do anything with it. Oh, that one he says.

Us: Uh, ok.

Agency: So, we see you are hoping for a child around 3 years of age.

Us: Uh, yes. We just finished potty training our youngest child and we have given away all baby items. Woohoo! No more high chairs for us.

Agency: And you have a variety of needs listed here, can we confirm them?


Us: Uh, yes.

Agency: We also see you have a request of where you would like your child to come from based on your other two children.


Us: Uh, yes.

Agency: Well... We know this is the worst possible time with everything going on in your lives, but, we have a child for you. She is younger than you had listed on your application and from a different area. Here are some details. Why don't you think it over and call us back if you would like to see her file.


Us: Uh, uh, OK?

An hour later after both of us saying to each other that we are completely insane to even been thinking about this...

Us: Send us the file please.

Agency: Great. She is beautiful. You have two weeks to review her paperwork and make a decision.

Us: Uh, uh... OK.

Two hours later while sitting in front of the computer after having looked at the medical and developmental reports and NO PICTURES...

Us: Well... she is perfect!

Opened the first head shot of this little one....

Us: said through tears...She is definitely one of us! We have a baby again.

On Friday, August 31, our LOI was sent to China. Now we sit and wait for our Pre-Approval to come from China. So, we are in the first trimester. The time when you know in your heart about this child but you are not quite ready to share her information with friends and family because you are worried that something dreadfully will go wrong...