we got DTC !!

Woe. Huge news in our world. We received an email today from our agency that our dossier was sent to China this past Friday. This means that it will be received there some time in the next 5 days, at which time they will log us in their system... thus our log in date is coming. Why such a big deal?? Because then our adoption clock starts ticking. Yes, we have been waiting and working for 4 months so far, but the real wait comes after LID. We will have a new counter at the top of the page when that date comes. Congrats to us!!

What a weekend!

It's funny how some weekends you search for something to do. The weekend that seems to last a week for the lack of entertainment. This was not one of those weekends.

Friday started off like any typical Friday. Sun shining, crows screeching in the window at 5:30am, anger building by the second.. then I realized that this was going to be the calmest part of the upcoming weekend. 3 graduation parties (we went to 1), RPO concert, dinner with friends and Grandma staying with us for the weekend. Yeah.

Grad party for my cousin was good. Good to see the extended fam again. It has been some time, actually, since the funeral for their mom a year and a half ago. Beautiful house, beautiful setting. Their house backs up to the Erie Canal. I should visit them way more often. So, glad we went... but the timing was crazy. I hate having to rush thru a party because you have another event lined up. The other event is just ticking in your head.

The other event that evening was the outdoor concert performed by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. We try make it every year. They have these outdoor concerts for 4 weekends in a row thru July/August, each with its own theme. This was the 1812 overture weekend. We were met on site with a steady downpouring rain. There goes sitting on the hill. Fortunatly, I made some arrangement for Jeremy, a co-worker and fellow adoptee, to save us seats under the shell.
Here is a shot of the three generations of Williams women.. Tonya, her mom and grandma.. a little wet from the walk up there. The concert, which was amazing, was proceded by canon blasts and 5 minutes of fireworks. I have placed a couple of the pics I took of them in this post.

It's a party, din-ner party. We were invited to the Shipe's house Sunday for a dinner party. We have always liked that young couple... but so much more so now that they have 2 little girls. I have pictured here their youngest. Her name is Kaylin. She is nine months old, which is about the same age we anticipate Lucy being. So, I was all over her; watching her play, making note of what appealed to her and what did not, squeezing her chunky legs. She was too much. She is so cute, you could just take her and not feel bad.

I looked forward to today. I am able to find a calm at work. In a few days, I will be able to say that it was a great weekend. It's a little early for that yet.

Yippeeee! Dossier looks great!

That is what Jen at CCAI said. It has now gone in for translation and should be out to China sometime next week. We are so relieved that we did not have to redo anything, that would have been a pain.

I personally celebrated by buying Lucy a cute little pink dress, that will probably be the wrong season when it would actually fit her but oh well, it is the thought that counts!

I am not sure what John has done to enjoy this moment, he is too crabby from being hot all the time. I was hoping he would buy me flowers or something but no go. I only put that in here because maybe he will read it and do something about it!

We get to find out tomorrow if lucy will have a new boy or girl cousin. This should be fun!

Ok thanks for sharing. One more week and our life story will be off to China-hope they like us!

you got some 'splainin to do..

We were buying some chocolate goodies at Rocky Mountain, and I saw these 'I Love Lucy' candy bars. These things are great! This could be our non-smokers alternative to a welcoming cigar when we get our little one. Who doesn't enjoy chocolate? You know you do... so, good chance that if you are involved in our life at all, you will be getting some chocolate. As long as you don't mind waiting a year for it. But it's good. Or maybe you'll get a pin.

Did you know that there is a whole thing for Lucille Ball stuff not too far from Rochester? Someones got some 'splainin to do.

Jamestown, NY has Lucille madness. A little wierd but great for us. I will be able to stock up on some 'love Lucy' goods. Of course, I cannot have anything with Lucille's picture on it, since our Lucy will bear zero resemblance to her. Nonetheless, we got some shopping to do. Check out their site listed to the left. Feel free to purchase anything you want and send it to us. jk

No news.... Is good news?

So...........Our dossier has been at our agency since July 14th and we are anxious for some news! We wrote them today and hope to hear back tomorrow just for some reassurance that everything is moving along. That is all I wanted to post. A lot of people have asked what the latest is and that is basically it, we are waiting and will be for quite some time!

It has been hard to think of a creative way to tell people that the news will be the same for the next year and a half.. it is nice to have friends interested in our quest for Lucy but the wait will be hard esp, when we sound like a broken record.

So for the next two weeks or three we will have no news. The next big thing will be our Log In Date with China and that is it. After that we will be decorating her room, learning about how to take care of a baby of our own and brushing up on some Chinese. Saving money and getting vaccinated is the not so fun part.

We have the rest of the summer to enjoy together and with our family and hopefully get a way for a night or two somewhere local. Before we go LOCO! Our next "outing" will be in August. It is a huge CCAI reunion that is hosted locally this year. We hope to talk with a lot of different families and hear all about their children and adoption experiences. We will take some pictures to share with everyone and see all the cute little kids. It should be fun.

Ok, it is late and the rambling has begun so GOOD NIGHT!

Lucy's Cousins

In looking at Tonya's post below, I got to thinking that it was time to introduce the other cousins that Lucy will be growing up with. I think that she will have a good time growing up with these characters. Tell us what you think...

This is Mia. She is 3 years old and a lil' wild thing. She is a load of fun, and her battery never ends. We were out walking in our tract a while ago and our neighbors' flowering crab apple tree left pink 'snow' everywhere. Unable to help herself, she was out making flower angels. Such a smart kid, she has a wild imagination. Taking her out is hilarious. Everyone is her 'friend'. She will walk up to any kid, grab their hand and say 'hi friend, lets go play'. I think it is a Dora the explorer thing.




Then we got Lauren and Olivia. The Banger sisters. Ya-Ya sisterhood. Nut jobs. Absolutely hilarious and too smart for their age. Two drama queens that run the show....but in a good way. Always laughing and posing for the camera. Lauren is on the left in this picture. Olivia was in a talent show, and this is who she had for support. Us. Poor kid.


I cannot stop laughing each time I see Lauren's 'big fat laughing' fit picture. She kills me.


Olivia tries to be the quieter one, but she has the mischief gene. She lets Lauren take the attention because of her huge personality. Olivia has the sweet girl look, is the deep thinker, but her sense of humor is insane. We love these girls.


2 more cousins to go. We finally have some boys in the mix, and these 2 boys bring that boy factor. Joey and Matthew.
Matthew is the good, shy, sweet boy, afraid of the camera. That is why my only recent picture of him is when he was not looking and lost in the crowd. That's his little head in front of my dad.

Not so much the case with Joey. Joey is way too much like his dad, which is scary since I take after him as well. Very out there, run - before-thinking extrovert. As you can tell, he got a hold of my camera... and had some fun. I have some very similar pictures of myself, actually.

So, here are the ones spending time with Lucy and influencing her. We are pretty lucky. She sure will be. Now, if she will just get here....

Sweet Penelope!

Look at those cheeks. She is the newest addition to our expanding family. Congratulations J and Doug! She is beautiful and we love her so much! Lucy's newest cousin. xoxoxo

best gift to date

I am blaming my in-laws for this heat wave. They just returned from California.. and it has been in the 90's if you're not in the area. But, the trip was well worth it. For us. While they were Segway'ing around San Francisco, they strolled into Chinatown...where else?? They stopped by a little china man shop who was painting little signs. They got Lucy a little something.


Check it out. We love it.

Well, it is hot!

ok so I just watched a video of another couple's adoption and it was so touching. I cried, a lot. I will make John watch it when he gets home. It is worth every 25 minutes of it. I do not think that anyone else appreciates the videos of others as much as me. I can see myself in all the videos and wonder if our experience will be the same or completely different.

We have some pictures to update and I am sure John will be putting them in tonight. It is too hot to do anything else but play on the computer, anyways. So until then, stay cool. Of course, if you are on our blog you are cool anyways, right?!

Anxious.. to Wait

I am not a a patient man. For these past three month of paperchasing, I have been pacing, grunting, complaining and calling whoever had our docs besides us. But today, I was very happy to get rid of our dossier. Thats because we sent it to CCAI for CRITICAL REVIEW!! Our final authentication was completed, and we received them today.

As a matter of fact, this is the very nice mail lady
who delivered our docs to us. She mentioned that this was the first time anybody had taken a picture of her while delivering mail. Last time she delivered our docs from Albany, Tonya told her our story. She is real excited for us. She even said something about knitting Lucy some red slippers. She went into the red/China connection. Yeah.

So, frantic activity ensued from the time we saw her. Run to the copier, photocopy the Consulate's authentication page and attach it to the rest of our dossier copies to send with the originals to our agency. I was a little excited to get to work. The rush was on to get it all done by the afternoon mail run. Overnight mailing cost is $14.40. That.... on top of the amount required to proceed with this adoption. Yikes.

So, now we wait. Excitedly. Wait. We are looking for an LID of first week August. That will mean that we have more... you guessed, waiting. This is a good wait. At least at the end of this waiting period there is our little girl. I will let Lucy know, when she is old enough to comprehend, how we waited for her. Then waited some more. A daunting task for an impatient guy.





This what we waited 2 weeks for. This is one of the authenticated cover sheets we got from the NY Chinese Consulate. It is a $20 signature. We got 13 of them, each attached to one of our docs.

A little video montage of us

Check us out here. This is a little photo album of us in some our recent activities. Let us know what you think.

Why China?
Why not! We have been asked that question by a lot of people that have heard about our effort to adopt. As our close friends and family know, it has always been China. We have planned on someday adopting a Chinese baby and now to know that we have taken action about a dream of our's is pretty amazing. John and I are usually pretty good at making up our mind and that's it. It is as good as done.

The wait has just begun and it seems like the reality will be a lifetime away. As the biggest pessimist there is, it is hard not to doubt that it will really happen. I think my sweet husband must be sick of answering my question.." Is this really going to happen?!" He always says yes. So that always makes me feel better. :) We hope to keep up with this blogging thing. And update the posts with what we have done so far, timelines etc.

Ok, so here is making time fly...by having fun right?

We may consider using one of these pictures for our dossier. These are from our recent trip to Orlando in June '06.

OUR TRIP TO BUFFALO HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE ALL FINGERPRINTED AND SUBMITTED OU APPLICATION TO ADOPT AN ORPHAN-WE WERE I171-H BOUND!

Last home study visit!

After several visits with our social worker, including her visiting our home and asking LOTS of questions, we were approved to adopt with a great home study review. We had to write an autobiography, take several parenting classes, pay some hefty fees and make sure our home was "child proof". I wanted to include John's picture as well but he protested due to what he thought was the unphotographic nature of the photo.

Lots and Lots of Paperwork to fill out. 3 months actually to get all that we needed together. From April to the end of June. FINALLY WE HAVE OUR "DOSSIER NOTARIZED, CERTIFIED,CERTIFIED AGAIN PAPERWORK" It is at the Chinese Consulate now. Should be getting that back tomorrow. YIPEEEEEE!!

welcome to our blog!

we will be updating all soon on our current timeline to bring lucy home!