Happy New Year!

We are wishing all our friends and family a Happy New Year! May God richly bless you in 2009!

To update, the shared list of waiting children was predicted to come out on Dec 18th, however, it still has not come out. We are hopeful that it will come out this week. As for non special needs placements, the CCAA has now matched families that were logged in through February 28th, 2006. There are also rumors that they will sneak another batch out before they break for Chinese New Year. Hopefully they will get out a couple of waiting children lists too!

I love this video by Third Day. My prayer for Miah is that someone will hug her daily...I pray for God to send someone to show her the love of Christ this Christmas. Last year we bought a Christmas ornament to hang on our tree to remind us of our daughter yet to come and this year we bought another ornament in anticipation of her arrival. We are hopeful that next Christmas she will be home to hang her own ornaments on the tree. May God bless all of you who are waiting to be united with your children

17 Months!

Today marks the 17th month since our paperwork was logged in with China! Currently it looks promising that we will receive a referral for a girl under the age of 24 months with a minor or correctable special need in the next year???next few months???your guess is as good as ours at this point in time. We did hear from a family this morning that their agency told them that infant adoption from Taiwan may be stopping as of May 2009....so it looks like Taiwan may not be the country where our daughter is. The one thing that is certain about international adoption is that it is changing all the time!

Good News!

We spoke with our agency today and found out that we are the fifth in line for a female child under the age of 24 months with a mild or correctable special need. We are very encouraged, but at the same time guarded as they still cannot predict how long we will be waiting. The new online shared system to just too new for them to make any sort of guess. We did find out that the list seems to be coming out the 3rd Thursday of every month, and they also told us that children (especially girls under 24 months) are matched within seconds. Older girls remain available a little longer and boys the longest. Hopefully we will hear of some more matches on or around December 18th.

Update

We are back from Disneyland! We had a very enjoyable time playing with our girls, it is amazing how different of a trip it is each time as the girls get older. This trip there was less time visiting with the princess's and more time riding the faster rides. Mackenzie now says that Space Mountain is her favorite ride. I bought the above ladybug blankie for Miah's hope chest at the Anne Geddes store in Downtown Disney. They had so many lady bug outfits...if only I knew what size she might be when we travel to China....

The new SN shared list came out yesterday and we heard that our agency was able to pull off 8 boys and 1 girl. They stated that they are finding the other agencies very aggressive. Every time they would start to type in a name to grab a file, it would be snatched up by another agency within seconds. I am not sure if I agree with this new way of matching as I don't think it is a very fair or orderly way to go about it. I think the old way of each agency getting their own list sounded much more organized and controlled. With this new shared list there is really no way to predict how long we will be waiting. Basically, the agency who has the fastest computer gets to lock the child's file first. Keep praying...I am starting to feel very discouraged with this whole process.

We're off to see the Mouse!

Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland for a week of playtime with our girls! We will post photos when we get back! Talk with you next week!

16 months!

Yes...16 months since our paperwork went to China. That seems like a really long time. I feel for all those families who have been waiting over 32 months for their referral, they were told only about 6 months way back then. We are still one of 8 families waiting for a child with a SN through our agency. No matches were made in the SN program this month....maybe we will hear of a couple next month....

Our daughter has a number!

Today we received confirmation from Immigration Canada that our daughter's application for Canadian citizenship is being processed. Since we still do not know who our daughter is or where she currently resides, she has been given an ID number, which will remain valid for two years. We are currently one of 8 families waiting for a female child under 24 months through our Canadian agency. A new list of children available for adoption is expected out any day now. As for our Taiwan application, our agency received a referral for 2 female siblings, moving us up to number 8 on their list.

waiting patiently as always....

15 Months!

Today marks our 15th month since our paper work went to China. Referrals came out yesterday for the NSN (non special needs) program and they made it through January 15th, 2006. A 6 day batch this month. Gone are the days of 30 day batches. We did receive encouraging news from our agency in Ottawa in regards to our special needs application. We are one of 8 families waiting to be matched with a female under the age of 24 months with a minor or correctable need...most likely a heart or orthopedic condition. We were pleasantly surprised to hear that there were only 8 families. They couldn't guess at how long a referral might take as they are now using a new online shared list...but I am thinking that if they could match one family a month or even if some months got missed, that we just might see a referral within a year! That would be great news. As for our Taiwan application, we are still number 9, however it looks like one family may be receiving a referral this coming week. Keep praying for us...we need God's strength to get us through this wait....at least I do anyway!

Dear Sweet Daughter

I came across this poem today. What volume it speaks to my heart.
Author: Gayle Leubecker

Dear Sweet Daughter,

As a girl I had a common dream, to be a mom someday.
My baby would have eyes of blue and hair the hue of hay.
But now my dreams have been transformed. New visions fill my head.
Now the tresses that I long to stroke are raven black instead.

And in my dreams those eyes are not so big or blue or round.
Now in my dreams they're almond shaped and colored cocoa brown.
And in my dreams my arms can stretch across enormous seas.
They reach half-way around the world and hold you close to me.

As you grow in your mother's womb, carefully knit together,
you're also growing in my heart, where you will stay forever.
And in my dreams the moment that your mother says good-bye,
I'll be right there to comfort you and hold you as you cry.

Our features may not look alike; we're different as can be.
But still I know the Father has created you for me.
And though I've not yet seen your face, or held your tiny hands,
and though we're half a world apart in very different lands.

I'll be right there to get you just as soon as God allows.
But til He says the time is right I give to you this vow.
I'll pray for your protection every night on bended knee.
For God will hold you in His arms, until you're here with me.

Update & A Prayer Request

A family who has just travelled to China to pick up their daughter has arrived only to find their daughter in the hospital and fighting for her life. They request prayer for healing for this little girl and that all the red tape will come down so that they can bring her home to the US where she can be looked at by specialists. You can check out their journey by going to http://www.roomforatleastonemore.blogspot.com/

As for our update, we received notification yesterday that our provincial approval letter dated September 11, 2008 (this date will now become important to us)has been forwarded to FOI, the agency in Ontario that will hopefully match us with our daughter from their waiting child list. It appears that there are at least 10 families in front of us requesting a girl under the age of 24 months with minor or correctable Special Needs. I heard today that the list of waiting children came out in the US (apparently had 70 kids on it, with half being boys). Canada and Sweden (I think) will receive a different list of children from the US. I heard that this list usually arrives in Canada about the second week of each month. As for how long we will wait, God only knows for certain. We are trying to be open to his timing, knowing that he knows who our daughter is and because is leading us on this journey, will unite us at the perfect time.

Because Every Child Needs a Blankie!

Blankies are very special in our house. Both Mackenzie and Madison still sleep with the blankets they received as infants. These blankets have travelled many places including Disneyland, doctors offices, the beach, church, and have often 'waited in the car' for the girls to be finished school. Mackenzie's has had to have a few sewing jobs over the years and all I can say is thank goodness Madison's is white so it can be bleached. Having experience the attachment that can occur between blankie and child, I have decided to try to make as many blankies as I can before we travel to China, where I plan to give them to our daughter's orphanage. I finished my first one this week. It was a very simple knot blanket...no sewing involved. I plan to start another tonight and have bought some very cute fabric to start sewing some more patchwork style ones. Enjoy this photo of Madison and her blankie I found while looking through old photos.

1st Day of School

Today was the first day of Grade 3. Mackenzie is in Mrs. Loewen's class. She ended up in the same classroom, desk and coat cubbie as last year. She was a litle dissapointed that she didn't get a new classromm, but I am sure all will be good!

1st Day of School

Today was the first day of Grade 3. Mackenzie is in Mrs. Loewen's class. She ended up in the same classroom, desk and coat cubbie as last year. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get a new classroom, but I am sure all will be good!

This look is the 'Mother you can leave now' look.

14 Months

Wow...so much to report on in one day. Today is the 14th month anniversary of our LID. Referrals came out today as well. The CCAA has now matched through February 9th 2006 (Remember our LID is July 2, 2007). We are in the process of putting our application in the SN line as well. This past weekend we met with our Social Worker to go over our SN requests and had a home inspection. Our house was deemed to be 'safe for children." Good thing since we already have children living in the home....

Lazy Days of Summer

It is hard to believe that summer is almost at an end. Although we stayed close to home, the girls enjoyed the beach, water slides, 2 weeks of Power Lab, a visit from Grandma & Grandpa Denis, summer skating school, basketball camp, a Hannah Montanna party and swimming lessons. They even spent a weekend at Grandma and PaPa's visiting the Science Center. Both girls have excelled in their swimming with Madison progressing to Crocodile and Mackenzie in level 6 (she is the smallest and youngest in her class.)

Extreme Makeover BLOG addition

Thank you Judi for helping us with our Blog Makeover...now we have something that is unique and personal! Judi volunteers to do blog designs for an organization called Blogovers with Love. They do fundraising for orphanages in China and Taiwan. Designs done this month will benefit The Starfish Foster Home in China. This is a home that cares for young orphaned children in China with severe special needs. You can see the work they do there by going to http://www.chinesestarfish.org/

Thanks again Judi! We Love it!

6

6 Days!

6 days were referred this month, finishing up January 2006. Yeah! I love it when a month finally finishes up! I think that is pretty good considering most Beijing businesses are currently closed because of the Olympic Games. It does however look like the CCAA was closed from January 28- Feb 5th, 2006 due to Chinese New Year, so in reality this batch really only covers 2 days worth of LID's, but I will happily check 6 days off the calendar. For anyone else who is tracking 'the wait', it took 3 years and 1 month to go from Jan 31st 2005 to Jan 31st 2006. Yikes...we still have a long way to go. We are however exploring our options and have updated our homestudy this past month to reflect a few special needs we have the resources to support, including Club foot, Cleft lip, and some other minor correctable orthopedic conditions. This will allow us to enter a 'second line' while still maintaining our current position. We are hoping to send our updated homestudy to an agency in Ottawa once we have Provincial approval to do so. Maybe in the next 4 months or so this will occur. As for our adoption from Taiwan, we are still number 9 on our agency's list. There have been no recent referrals from Taiwan to our agency for a few months now.

The above photo shows all the files of adoptive parents that have been sent to the CCAA. Apparently each agency has a different colored folder. I wonder what stack our dossier is in?

13 Months!

13 months today our dossier was logged into the Chinese system. No news about referrals this month. Perhaps we will see a batch mailed out before the Olympics start, or maybe we will have to wait until they are over....once again, only time will tell. We are exploring a few more options, and hopefully we will know more by the end of next week. We will post an update as soon as we have news to share.

More Paperwork!

Last night we met with our Social Worker assigned to us through Sunrise. She is going to be doing our homestudy update to make it more Taiwan friendly. This experience was a lot more enjoyable than the last time we were interviewed and we should have the draft as early as Monday. I remember about 18 months ago when we thought all the paper work was done...

5 Days Closer!

Last night we enjoyed the company of friends, Chinese food and a ladybug cake to mark our one year waiting point. This morning we received this letter from our agency:

Dear waiting families,

We heard that CCAA has just matched children with families with LID up to January 25/06. Expedited files (due to Chinese origin) with LID December/06 have been matched as well. Congratulations to the families who are included in this batch.

So, 5 days closer to a referral than last month....

12 Months!

Wow...it is hard to believe that 1 year has past since our papers were logged in with the China Centre for Adoption Affairs. Taking into consideration the 6 months worth of paper work prior to our LID, we have now been 'waiting' for about 18 months. Rumors are starting to come out regarding this month's referral cut off date...it looks like it will be either Jan 25th or 26th, 2006. Another small batch. Anyway, we are planning a day of celebration with a ladybug cake and a Chinese meal to mark this date. One year down.... ? to go

Happy Canada Day

Enjoy some photos from the day. Mackenzie had her friend Nicole stay over night with us and then we all went to waterfront park to join in on the Canada Day festivities. Mackenzie also performed with Chloe & Kyle. She even got to wear the Ogopogo head for the last number.

Happy Canada Day!

Today was a very warm day...we spent most of the day down at waterfront park for their Canada Day celebration.

10 Days!

We found out that the CCAA referred 10 days worth of Log in Dates this month. So...that moves us up to 'only' 526 LIDs before us. The word 'only' is a bit of sarcasm on my part. However, this is the first batch of double digits that we have seen in over a year, so we are being optimistic that things will continue to pick up. As for our Taiwan application we are still number 9.

11 Months!

It is hard to believe that we have been logged in with China for 11 months now...nearly one year. We'll have to plan some kind of celebration next month to celebrate 1 year worth of waiting! Maybe some other sort of lady bug cake might have to be created...I am not sure yet. I did read today that someone said that their facilitator met with the CCAA in May and the CCAA apparently said that:

- The CCAA will remain open during Olympic Games
- The CCAA will continue to revise dossiers
- That for referrals received in June and July (Hooray!) that parents should be understanding about the Olympic Games and that they should wait until September to travel because it will be easier and cheaper
- To help parents achieve this, travel approvals will be valid for 5 months instead of 3 for referrals received in June and July.

All good news...we were worried that all adoptions would be put on hold during this period, thus increasing the waiting times.

However, this is the time of month that referrals begin arriving...it is eerily quiet on the rumor front, no agencies are reporting that any packages are on the way, nor have they even confirmed that matching has begun. I wonder if all the latest earthquakes in China will affect this month's referral....I will update on the next batch when I hear anything...here's hoping for a really BIG batch!

Secret Sister Gift

Yesterday I received the cutest book and duck puppet from my secret sister. The book is entitled "Someday" and reminded me of all the 'somedays' that are yet to come. Thank you so much for this thoughtful gift!

"The Memory Book" Dance Recital

This weekend was the big year end dance recital for Mackenzie. She had a couple of really late nights and lots of fun with her friends. The show was called "The Memory Book" and Mackenzie was a Flapper for Tap and a Lemonade Girl for Ballet. It was such a joy to watch all the smiles from the young girls. They had so much fun. This year I helped backstage during the evening show...allows for lots of photo opportunities...I wonder how many more years I will have until it is not cool to have your mom help out...well I will enjoy it while it lasts!

We are moving up!

We spoke with our Taiwan representative today and we were told that we are now number 9 in the NSN (Non-Special needs) line. We are number 6 in a stack waiting to be sent to Taiwan and there are currently 3 applications in Taiwan. Over the next few weeks we will be having a different social worker come and speak with us about revising our homestudy to make it Taiwan specific. As it is now, it is very China specific. We also found out today that our homestudy will not be translated until it is in Taiwan. We will continue to look at children with special needs as their profiles become available, but for now our application will stay in the NSN line. Keep praying for us, specifically in this period of waiting...some days it is really hard to wait.

Taiwan Update

Today we spoke with our agency who will be handling our Taiwan adoption. Apparently Chung Yi is now allowing them to submit more applications for those families who are requesting a child between the ages of 2 & 5....so this week they will be sending 2-3 applications to Taiwan for this specific age group (Almost like a separate line to wait in.) Good news for us as it moves us up to #7 (I think) in the line of applications waiting to be sent requesting an infant girl up to the age of 24 months. *Above is a photo of the entrance to the Chung Yi Orphanage* For more photos check out my link on the bottom right side of this Blog.

Here's is some math/predictions I read online today regarding our adoption through China...

"China has 536 days of dossiers to be processed before they get to your dossier. China currently processes about 5.7 days of dossiers each month.

Our best guess: 2015-05-11

Since China generally sends out referrals in a batch about once per month, your referral date could easily vary +/- one month depending on whether you just get included or just get missed in a particular batch."

YIKES! Lets hope that this isn't what happens. We are still holding out hope that things will drastically speed up after the Olympics! OK...now I think I need some ice cream and a lot of chocolate!

10 months closer to our referral...with no idea of how many more months of waiting there will be. Referrals began to arrive today and it appears that no one with a Log In Date later than January 12th, 2006 received a referral (Remember our Log in Date is July 2, 2007). So, if January 12th is the cut off, then the CCAA only matched 3 days worth of applications. That is a very horrible case scenario. At this rate it may be YEARS before we travel to China. On the Taiwan front, a Social Worker from our agency called today and left a message stating that she wants to touch base regarding their list of waiting children (Children with special needs and/or are over the age of 3). We have told her to let us know if any girls under the age of 2 come available on this list. I guess we will have to wait until Monday to call her back.

Today we celebrate our ninth year of marriage. As I reflect back on the last nine years, we are now at our third address, have 2 beautiful daughters

Today we celebrate our ninth year of marriage. As I reflect back on the last nine years, we are now at our third address, been blessed with 2 beautiful daughters and are still madly in love. Sometimes it seems like we have been married for much longer, but at times it seems like we were just planning our wedding. For those of you who didn't know us before we were married we held our ceremony on a rainy May morning at Blue Mountain Baptist Church in Coquitlam followed by a luncheon at the Pitt Meadows Golf Club. We had 3 groomsmen & 3 brides maids and two flower girls. The color theme was periwinkle and all us girls carried white roses. We had a gift opening the next day and on Monday May 3, we left for our Honeymoon at Walt Disney World in Orlando. We spent 10 days at the All Star Music resort in the hotel with the huge Cowboy Boot next to it. Drew was a good sport, even letting me give out cowboy hat shaped party favors at the reception. He had married a country girl at heart!

We are number 12!

Well it is official...one of the families from our agency accepted a referral for a 4 year old boy from Taiwan...so that means we move up the list to number 12!

Spring Break 2008

We spent Spring Break down in Squamish and Vancouver. While we were there we had a family movie night and went to see the new Hannah Montana 3D movie. Yes...Daddy saw it too! It was actually quite well done. Drew and I were pleasantly surprised.

My first digital scrapbook page!

Well...not bad for a first attempt. It was actually quite fun. I used the program Foto Fusion and gave it a whirl. These photos were taken last weekend at Madi's ballet recital. She was a grape princess. They were so cute!

Month 9

Yikes! Are those labor pains I feel? Nope...false alarm. It has been 9 months since we have been logged in with China. In any typical pregnancy this should mark the end of our waiting period, but with this atypical pregnancy, I think I am still in my 1st trimester! I wonder how elephants do it? There is a rumor that referrals are "in the air" but no cut off date has been announced yet. Rumor has it that they have only matched through January 9th, 2006. If this is true then this is the smallest batch in recent history, only 5 days! And I think 2 of those fell on a weekend! As for an update on our application with Taiwan, we are still number 13. No one from Sunrise has received a referral from Chung Yi that we know of. Maybe we will have better news next month!

April 2, 2008

8 Month

March 2, 2008 We have now been logged in with China for 8 months. Currently families who are receiving proposals this month have been waiting 26 months and that is predicted to rise to at least 36 months. Hmmm... 36-8=29 more months! That seems like a really long time! And that even looks like a best case scenario. Hopefully things will pick up after the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. Because "the box" is no longer shown on the CCAA's website, we have only heard rumors of this months cut off. It appears that the cut off may be Jan 4, 2006. Another 8 day batch. What happened to the promised 15 day batches? At least 2005 is finally finished! This month also marks 1 year since our home study was done. We got a home study update form, that thankfully didn't come with another bill. I guess we will have to update our home study annually until we receive our child. This years update was easy...no, we do not have a cat anymore and yes, our fence is now completed around our yard! Everything else is still the same!

7 Months

February 2, 2008 Wow, I can't believe we have been logged in for 7 months now. The "box" that used to on the CCAA's website that updated how far they got with referrals has now been removed....why? I am not sure. Anyway, now we have to rely on our agency to tell us when they get this information. As far as we can tell, this month's referral batch got as far as December 27, 2005. ( 8 days) Hopefully they will finish off 2005 in March. It will be so great to finally see people with a LID of 2006 start to get their referrals. As for us, this month also marks our start date for our waiting period for an adoption through Taiwan. Will it be quicker than China? Theoretically it should be, but one never knows.

A new beginning?

Wow ...a whole year has gone by since we started this journey.

This January we found ourselves back at the adoption agency talking about other options for us to explore. The wait time in China was been getting longer and longer over this past year and it appears that it will only continue to increase, leaving us thinking it may be 3 or 4 more years until we get a referral from China. In the meantime we have decided to submit an application to Taiwan. It is another growing international program with wait times increasing as well, but it looks promising that the wait will not be as long as China.

We have filled out all the application forms and are sending them to an adoption agency in North Vancouver tomorrow. We are happy to announce that we do not have to do another home study. As ours is less than one year old, we are able to transfer it to another agency. With some minor tweaking it should ready to go soon.

Taiwan works a little differently than China. We will be sending our application directly to an orphanage, where either the orphanage director or birth mother chooses/matches us with an infant. With the agency we have signed up with, there are currently 3 families that have their dossiers in Taiwan and 10 who are waiting for theirs to be sent. (The agency is only allowed to have 3 applications in Taiwan at a time). We will be number 10 in the line of applications waiting to be sent. How long will it take? Only God knows for sure...so we will continue to watch our position in both China and Taiwan.

6 Months

January 2, 2008 HAPPY NEW YEAR! We have now been logged in for 6 months! When we first made the decision last January to adopt, we thought that this would mark our halfway point to our daughter, now we are thinking that will not be the case. This month, only 5 days of LIDs were referred, two of which were a weekend, so realistically, this batch only covers 3 days. This basically brings us to a snail's pace. I am really trying to not get discouraged, but it is hard. I long to have a baby in my arms....

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008! Well, my New Years resolution is to finally figure out how to use this Blog site!