No TA News, ARGH!!!

It is now almost 3 weeks after we received TA and nothing, nada, nyet... No news! Part of the problem is that the CCAA was closed for Lunar New Year. For some reason this wait is harder than it was for our previous two adoptions. Those TAs came like clock work and we knew it was going to be roughly 7-8 weeks post referral for travel. ARGH!!! I just want the stork to come soon.

Last night was the end of Lunar New Year, the night of the Lantern Festival. We took the girls on a walk around the lake with their light up lanterns. They were so cute. Right now, they are sitting and watching the Wonder Pets! They love the Wonder Pets.

We sort of have travel dates...

Well our travel advisor gave us date to use when we shop for air fare. We are trying to figure out how to go this time. We will be a family of 4 going and a family of 5 when we return. Hmm... Do we spend the extra $$ for premium economy class.

A little bit more about Hefei CWI..

Annie has been living at the Hefei CWI. About 2 weeks ago, we received a video of a visit to the orphanage and Annie's foster family. This was one of the most amazing things. We got to see what Annie was like about a month before our referral for her. We think she was about 16-17 months old. Boy, she is cute. Also we learned that the orphanage is a great place. Annie has a foster family with several other siblings. She has foster parents who are very affectionate with her and her siblings. The apartment that the family lives in is very large even by US standards. The children have their own beds and the apartment has 3 bedrooms. The school at the orphanage is great. It looks like any US preschool and in fact nicer than some of the ones we looked when we were shopping for the right school here. We are so thankful that Annie has been in such a very great place. Did you notice her hair??? How nice and shiny it is? She has been very well taken care. We are so blessed.

WOW!!! We have LOA/LSC! We are going to China!

We are still in a state of shock. On 2/5/08 we received our LOA/LSC. That was incredibly fast since we thought we would have a 120 day wait. (Our agency had said a 90-150 day wait so...) Instead, we had a wait of 54 days!!!! We think we will go to China sometime during the last part of March or the first week of April. We had thought we would be traveling in late May or even as late as late June/early July. WOW! We are going to China. WOW! Now all we have to do is wait for our TA. Our agency said that it could be 2-4 weeks for TA or slightly longer. (The CCAA or Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs closed for Lunar New Year on 2/7 and they will not reopen until around the 13th or 14th of February.) And, after TA it could be 2-4 weeks for travel. We are really hoping we leave the week of March 20th because of Spring Break. So any prayers people want to say about our travel would be great.

One thing I have decided to do is try to post more. I have been a very bad blogger. I really need to get into the habit of it since we are going to be posting about our trip in China.

Officially now 32 days of waiting...

Well, we are now 32 days into our wait. Life is starting to settle down for us post holidays. We are settled in our new place so now all we need to do is wait. (And I need to find a job in the same city with the rest of my family. UGH!) The girls had a wonderful Christmas with both sets of grandparents and all were very excited about Annie. Annie had a few presents under the tree and we will holding those for her when she comes home this spring.

The wait for Annie has definitely been different than for her jiejies. This is the first time where our child to be had a birthday prior to us arriving. It was sort of bittersweet to wake up that day and know that it was her second birthday and we would not meet her for a couple of more months. We sent her a birthday cake and a small care package for her birthday.

New Stats!

LOI 8/31/07
PA 9/28/07
DTC 11/30/07
LID 12/12/07

We are DTC!!!

We are now DTC. Now we just need to wait for that LID. Woohoo!!!