Not Today

Well, it's well past noon EST and we didn't get the call, so I was definatley wrong :-(. We're still O.K. for our dates though. Maybe it will be mailed from China this Friday and we'll see something next week.

In the meantime, you lurkers out there in cyberland who haven't left a comment need to do so. That is the price of admission to this ride people! Don't make me start naming names.

Will Sunday Never End?

This is the view these days from our kitchen window. Yes, I'm totally wishing my life away this week and next. Looking out the window, waiting for that darn TA to come. It has now been 16 days since our LOA arrived in China. Remember, the shortest time someone has waited for their TA is 15 days.

So, my hope is that we get a call tomorrow (highly unlikely, but I'm hoping). If the TA arrives we will get a call before 10:00 am our time because the agency closes at 12:00 EST. Jean-Pierre says he expects to get the call Thursday, Jan. 3rd or Friday the 4th. According to my calculations those are days 20 & 21. Remember, the average wait is 27 days. So his guess is more realistic than mine, but both of us are still a little pie-in-the-sky. A more realistic prediction is that it will come the week of the 7th since day 28 is Friday, January 11th. Any later than that and we likely wouldn't make it out by the 18th.....

More Pictures!!!

Our friend who lives in Montreal (who adopted the girl in pink) just published more pictures of Samuel on her blog! It was so shocking to open up her site and see him. The pictures were taken with a disposable camera that she had mailed to the orphanage when she sent the LOI for her daughter. It is SO, SO incredibly exciting to see our son! He is so gorgeous. The orphanage looks beautiful too. The woman in the pictures was also at Kaitlynn's (girl in pink) Gottcha moment so we expect to meet her when we meet Samuel.

I was also happy to see Sam with a few other kiddies. That means that although two of his friends left, he hasn't suddenly found himself all alone.

It so amazing to think that come April, the little guy in that picture is going to be eating his third year birthday cake at our kitchen table. I wonder if he likes vanilla or chocolate cake..... Oh my little Mingjie, your life is about to drastically change one more time.

Éva Last Year & This Year

My mother-in-law was exclaiming that Éva has changed so much since last year. That gave me the idea to compare her two Santa pictures:

Yep, this year she's changed from a baby to a little girl. Ahh (sigh). The time really does fly by. Last year she was still a little wobbly on her feet, she wasn't talking and she was so shy with strangers. Now she walks, runs, jumps, somersaults, usually all at the same time. She talks to people behind us, in front of us and ten feet away from us in the grocery store. She's a lively happy little soul who's gaining more and more confidence as the weeks go by.

There's a song in the Broadway show Mama Mia that captures beautifully my feelings about my baby growing up:

Slipping through my fingers all the time

I try to capture every minute

The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Do I really see what's in her mind

Each time I think I'm close to knowing

She keeps on growing

Slipping through my fingers all the time.

A year was a lifetime while we were waiting for Éva-Lynn and it is the same waiting for Samuel. Yet, once they arrive, a year goes by in the blink of an eye and we suddenly have a totally different child on our hands. Ahh (sigh). I just don't like it.

Eva and Santa

Here's what our family has been up to over the past little while as we wait for our little man.

Éva went to see Santa. She absolutely adores him, but was a little shy once she got up to meet him. When I sat her down beside him on the chair she got a little panicky and her eyes filled with tears, but she wasn't leaving there until she had asked for the gift she wants. This year she is asking for a pink clock (a digital one, not with hands). Why? Because she needs something in her room that tells her when it is 7:00. Why? So she knows when she can get up (7:00 am) and when it's time for bed 7:30 pm). About a month ago she started coming into our room in the mornings after Jean-Pierre had left for work. We'd lie around in bed talking, playing, etc. and Éva started pointing out everytime there was a 7 on our digital clocks. That's when she decided that she need a clock with 7's in her room too. Anyway, she wouldn't look at him, but she told him nice and clearly that she wanted a 'pink clock' for Christmas. He then took her on his knee and they took this picture. She really was very brave the whole time. We were so proud of her.

Grandma, Grandpa and Mama went to the Mandarin Playgroup's Christmas party. Éva love, love, loves parties. She was especially excited to be partying with her new very, very best friend Nina. She told everyone we met (cousins, aunties, grandparents, lady standing behind us in the supermarket checkout line, the cashier, EVERYONE) that she was going to a party and that Nina would be there. The night after the party, she called out Nina's name in her sleep.

Sam's Room

Just to remind you, here's what Samuel's room used to look like.

Now here's what he'll see when he goes into his room for the first time.

Well, he may have a closet organizer and curtins by the time he steps into his room for the first time, but you get the gist.

Éva and I like to go and sit in his room sometimes. We cuddle in his chair or play with toys on the floor. She's been told that she isn't allowed to sit on Sam's bed without his permission so whenever we go in Sam's room she says, 'No sit. Ask Sam. China, China.' I wonder if he is going to say yes once she finally gets to ask him.

Start Counting People!

The countdown has offically started. Our paperwork arrived in China today, today, today! That will make December 29th (a Saturday) the 15th day of our wait for the TA. The agency is open from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm (EST) on December 31st (day 17). Please, please, please let that be the day we get the call! Any day before that would work for us too, but I think hoping for the 17th day is already pushing it.

Here's what the infamous Notice of Coming To China for Adoption (A.K.A. Travel Approval) will look like. This little paper will make Samuel's parents laugh, cry, leap for joy and then panic to get everything done before they leave! Recognize the little face on the paper? Éva was around 9 months old when her TA picture was taken. Samuel was close to 2 years old when his would have been done. I expect to see one of these two pictures on his TA form:

The Eagle Has Landed

Yes, our LOA reached the agency this morning at 8:00. Better yet, we had an
e-mail from our sponsor saying that the agency is forwarding the LOA on to China today. Since they expect it to be there by Monday, we start counting our days from Monday, December 17th. That means that New Year's day will be day 16!!! I'm absolutely praying that we have news on January 3rd when the agency reopens after the New Year break so we can move on to the next wait :) - the wait to leave.

I packed Sam's clothes, toys and shoes over the weekend. The suitcase is waiting in his closet......It's pretty full already :-0.

The Wait - Part 2

We sent the signed LOA back to the agency today. They should have it by 10:30 Wednesday morning. Who knows, maybe it will be sent back to China Wednesday afternoon. I sure hope so. Because of Chinese New Year (Feb. 7th-15th), we are now working with a very tight timeline if we want to get Sam home before March.

The latest we can fly out to get to Sam before everything closes for Chinese New Year is Friday, January 18th. This date would mean we would get him the on 21st, stay that week in the province, fly to Beijing for the 28th, do the Canadian side of things and come home Feb. 1st. In order for this senerio to work, the TA needs to take no more than 24 days to get to us.

These days the average wait between LOA and TA is 27 days. Ahhhhh... There are people who have received their TA's after only 15 days and there are people who have waited 35 days. 15 days works for us, but once we pass the 24 day mark, it won't matter if it then takes 35 days because we won't be travelling then anyway.

So, if the timeline above doesn't work, we would likely leave to get Samuel on Feb. 15th with the Gottcha Day being Feb. 18th. Although it is sickening, I believe we will be travelling under this scenerio. Nothing has moved quickly for us so far and there isn't any reason to believe that things will suddenly change. So, we will all continue to wait......

Day 152 - LOA!

Yes, it finally arrived! Our sponsor called us this evening. Jean-Pierre answered the phone. When he said that it was our sponsor I didn't believe him. I was laughing and saying, "Yeah right. Good try. Say, 'Hi' to your mom from me.' He then put the phone on speaker so I could hear too and it really was our sponsor! First, I said a few very choice words concerning about how long everything had taken. Then I felt like crying, but didn't....much. (At one point in the conversation we had to give our sponsor our postal code. I broke down a little when I said, 's, like Sam'. Somehow saying his name made everything more real). As soon as we hung up from our sponsor we hugged, laughed and then we each called our parents with the good news.

Anyway, obviously we're happy, relieved, excited and cautiously optimistic for a January travel date. We now need to wait for our TA (Travel Approval) which is the final permission to enter China and pick up our son. We expect the TA to take about a month to get here. It could come faster, but...well...we haven't been too lucky with faster, so we're counting on it taking at least a month. So, a month for the TA, a week or two to get flights, etc. organized and away we go - that puts us in mid-January. I don't mind. I just want to get there before Chinese New Year which is the beginning of February.

Day 150 - No News

While I said I wouldn't post until we got the LOA, I wanted to mark the fifth month of our wait. Tomorrow (December 4th) will be day 150 since we sent in our LOI.

Samuel's room is pretty much ready. There are a few finishing touches left to do - a closet organizer, handles for his armoire, pictures to get into frames.

And so....we continue.....to wait......

Sometimes Some News Is No News

Our agency got a message from the CCAA today. They were told that our LOA will be sent out either this month or next month. Like I said, 'Sometimes some news is no news'.

At this point, it seems impossible that we'll travel before the new year. Our sponsor was kind enough to give us prices for staying in Beijing an extra week to wait for the Canadian embassy to reopen from Christmas break. We could likely do it, but airfare for December 21st is way out of our league ($7000.00). It is likely a moot point anyway since we haven't recieved the LOA and still have to wait at least a month after that for the TA.

And so.... I need to stop posting for a while. I need to stop thinking about what we don't have and start concentrating on creating a beautiful Christmas for the precious daughter that we do have. She loved Christmas so much last year. She is totally in love with Santa and with all the pretty lights on Christmas trees. So, we'll spend one last Christmas as a family of three and start the new year as a family of four.

I will start posting again when we get our LOA.

Clarification

O.K., we now know that none of our acquaintances actually saw, talked to or touched Mingjie. The pictures we received were given to another family when they picked their child up at the Civil Affairs office in Nanjing. The orphanage is in Danyang about an hour away (about, I think). The other family wasn’t able to go to the orphanage because the road is under construction and the orphanage is moving (temporarily due to the road construction or permanently, like new digs – I don’t know). Anyway, that means that the other family didn’t have personal contact with the little man. Also, we have been questioning whether Mingjie was living in Foster Care or in the orphanage. His report was unclear on that point. Looks like he's in the orphanage, but it seems to be a good one.
I didn't sleep last night wondering about Mingjie. Is he confused about where his little friends have gone? More people that he loved have suddenly disappeared out of his life again. He looks so happy in his little life though. He's not looking at the camera in either of the pictures we got. He looks like he's on the go..... Hey, look at the shoes of the little girl that is sitting beside him. They have the greatest shoes at that orphanage.

No news from the agency today, meaning, obviously, no LOA. For the day… for the week… for the month :-0… who knows. So, day 131 passes...... The Christmas season is fast approaching which could further delay us by two weeks. While the Chinese side of things would be open during Christmas, the Canadian embassy is not. At this point we'll need lots and lots and lots of luck to travel before January first. I wonder how much it would cost to spend an extra week in Beijing waiting for the embassy to reopen. At least we'd have Mingjie a week earlier. Hmmmm....

New Picture!!! AHHH! New Picture!

LOOK AT OUR SON!! Mingjie is the child in the middle, with the Orphanage Director.

The other two children are now with their new parents. Chunmei (in red) was adopted last week and the other child (in yellow) was adopted yesterday. I wonder if Mingjie misses them? According to Chunmei they were all very good friends.

Doesn't Mingjie look great! Look at his GREAT pants and shoes! Ohh, I just want to go, go, go get him! AHHHHHH!

Reviewed

We actually got some news from the CCAA. Our agency was told that our file has passed through the 'Review Room'. This means that the CCAA has deemed our file complete and has accepted us as eligible to adopt a child from their program. That's a good thing.

I don't know if this means that they have matched our file to Mingjie's yet. I also don't know if this means that an LOA is on the way or not.

So, we wait........

A Samuel Sighting! A Samuel Sighting!

Some of you may have seen the mention of 'Mingxi' on Kaitlyn's Cafe (the site I gave you in the last post). She was talking about our Mingjie (a.k.a. Samuel)!

Stefanie has seen him, taken pictures of him and says that he is doing well!
I wish she could have just grabbed him and run him home to us, but at least we're going to get some news and a recent photo of him once they get back from China. Unfortunately, they've been unable to upload pictures from Nanjing. They head to Beijing tomorrow so we may see some pictures then, but for sure she'll send us something when they get back to Canada the week after next.

I just can't believe that someone we know has seen Mingjie in person, has maybe talked to him and has maybe even touched our sweet little man. Right now I wish with all my heart that it had been us. How can I miss a child that I've never met so much? How can news feel so wonderful and hurt so much at the same time?

Day 123 - Also Known As 'The Four Month Mark'

Yep, four months down and nothing coming this week. I talked to the agency today to ask about them doing Eva's entry Visa for China. They said they didn't have any news for us, but they were going to ask about our file. I know that they won't really get any information out of the CCAA. Our LOA will come when it comes and that's it.
Meanwhile, a family whose LOI was sent two weeks after ours (but whose file had been in China long before ours) received their daughter yesterday. She is from the same orphanage as Samuel. http://kaitlynscafe.blogspot.com/ She seems to have made the transition swimmingly. I'm both jealous of and happy for Kaitlyn's family.

And our little Samuel waits, all happy in his little world.

Halloween & Eva's Room

I wasn't too good about getting Halloween pictures. Daddy was away and Mama forgets to take pictures. Anyway, here is the gang with Eva 'the monkey'. The Monkey had an awesome time with her cousins. She said 'Trick-or-Treat' and/or 'Appy Alloween' at each house!

We got Eva a new bed. Her room is a lot smaller than Sam's room, but her bed was very big. We put her bed into Sam's room and got her a new, small scale bed. We weren't sure how she was going to take it, but she LOVES it. She kept going up to lie down in her new bed all afternoon and she couldn't wait to get into it tonight. Hope the romance lasts. She even let me cover her up...with real covers. She never wants that. I mean n.e.v.e.r.

Picking up a Toddler

I have been following the blog of another family who picked up their daughter just after we picked up Eva. The girls are from the same Social Welfare Institute in Guigang. Anyway, this other family is in China right now picking up their son who is, get this, almost exactly the same age as their daughter (just like us!). While their Gottcha Moment with their first child (their daughter) was very difficult (just like ours), their Gottcha Moment with their son seems to have gone very well. He seems to have been very well prepared for what was coming.

Check out their blog: http://www.wintercasciari.com/Blog/

Here's hoping that our Gottcha with Samuel goes as well.

Daddy is away at the moment for work. He's been away for two weeks and isn't coming home until Thursday. This is the first time that he's been away from Eva for such a long time, but, as you can see, he has been encouraging her to work for his company someday. I think she would make a great military doctor - for the first five years of her career - until she gets out of the military and starts working at a hospital that is located close to where her Mama and Papa live!

Nope

The package came. Nothing for us. Enough said.

Whoops, guess I misunderstood. No actual package, just some TA's on Monday.

Tomorrow is Tuesday....

O.K. people, tomorrow is in fact Tuesday. Will there be news? I'm not waiting by the phone for it, but I sure would love to hear the letters L.O.A. directly from my sponsor's lips either tomorrow or Wednesday. Yep, I'd take Wednesday too.

To prove that I'm not just sitting around waiting (and for those of you who like to see pictures of Eva) here are some of the things we've been up to together over the past little while.

Ahh... the poor second child. He has his own blog, but his sister has taken it over. I'll have to delete parts of this post before I save everything for posterity.

Samuel's Room - The Before

As you can see, Samuel's room is not ready for him. We have a dresser. We have a chair. We have a Memory Chest. We have alot of stuff that belongs in other rooms of the house. That's it. In the background is our change table. I don't think we'll be needing that for Sam. We don't even use it for Eva anymore. Ah well, it's not like we don't have time to get this stuff done :-).


On another note, is there anyone out there in bloggy land who would be willing to translate my future posts into French? While I speak a little French, I am truly, truly lame when it comes to writing in it. My man is so busy at work right now that he just doesn't have time to do the deed, yet his side of the family is missing out on our news. Any takers (read: Janet)?