Adoption Wait Update

China sent the April batch of referrals for parents with log-in-dates ("LID") through 10-26-2005. Bryan and I have a LID of 6-14-2006. This means that there are approximately 8 months worth of families with LIDs who will receive their children before we do. This does not mean that we have 8 more months to wait though because China is issuing referrals at a super slow pace. China releases referrals just about once per month. In April, China only referred 2 days of LIDs (10-25-2005 and 10-26-2005). In the past 6 months, China has referred an average of 13 LIDs per month. What does that mean for us? That is the ga-zillion dollar question! It really depends on China's future "productivity" and you would have to possess a crystal ball to know this. Using a productivity of 13 LIDs per month, Bryan and I will not receive our referral until November 2008. This would represent a wait of 29 months between LID and referral date and we already have waited 10 months, so we would have 19 more months to wait.

If their productivity increases to 15 LIDs per month, Bryan and I will receive our referral in early September 2008; a productivity of 20 LIDs per month would get us a referral in April 2008. Some people believe that the China's productivity will continue to slow down before it gets better. The wait truly depends on the available number of "paper-ready" children that China's orphanages make available for international adoption.

I have included my tables and graphs below that I update every month when China releases their referrals. I am such a nerd!

Happy Birthday Chad!

Bryan and I went to Chad and Sandra's house on Saturday for Chad's birthday celebration. It was fun! Chad and Bryan enjoyed playing a guitar game on the Playstation. Attached is a humerous picture of them before they rocked out to Guns and Roses, Sweet Child of Mine. Too Cool!

Girl Scout Cookies at Work

Girl Scout cookies are here, in case you are on another planet and haven’t noticed. My favorite cookies are Thin Mints. I have experienced a recent phenomenon at work whereby people that ordered their cookies last month are now concerned about weight gain or other health issues and not wanting to eat them so they are literally giving them away! Yesterday, someone gave me their box of Samoas. Today, someone gave me their two boxes of Thin Mints. Yummo! They both insisted that I not pay for the cookies. But today, I felt guilty and payed for the Thin Mints. After all, they cost $3.50 per box. I will be on the hunt today for more cookie giveaways from desperate dieters!

It's not Broken!!!

We are so relieved that Bryan's ankle is not broken. It's just an extremely bad sprain. He needs a brace and crutches and is prohibited from driving for awhile, and of course no basketball for the next 4-6 weeks. The orthopedic doctor that's our friend played a practical joke on Bryan during our visit, showing Bryan another patient's x-ray, whose ankle was extremely injured, in place of Bryan's x-ray. Bryan laughed nervously at the joke, but I thought it was extremely humorous. :)

Junior League Event

Last night, Bryan and I attended a Junior League event that was organized by our friend Taunya. We had a blast! It was a great event full of gambling (with play money), a string quartet, an orchestra band and silent and live auctions. We got a couple small oil paintings by Norman Korpi and our friend got a UK basketball signed by UK's coach. Bryan dusted off his old tux and I must say he was very handsome. Below are pictures of our friends Taunya and Melita and her husband Lee.

Sprain or Fracture?

This morning, Bryan came home early from his Sunday basketball game hobbling into the house. He has been laying down since and his ankle is extremely big. Fortunately, on of Bryan's friends that was playing basketball with him and is an orthopedic surgeon. The friend gave him care instructions until Bryan can be seen tomorrow morning and he said there is no need for an emergency room visit. The big question is whether the injury is a sprain or fracture. Needless to say, I dusted Bryan's old crutches off. I'll keep you posted on his doctor's visit tomorrow. I uploaded a couple pictures of the patient. So far his spirits are good.

Paula Zahn is the WORST Journalist!

Paula Zahn's program on CNN last night contained a segment on China adoption. It was extremely offensive.

It started with a short segment on some of the new China adoption regulations that was incomplete. Then Paula spoke with someone who is against discrimination against people who are heavy [one of the new China adoption regulations requires parents to be under a BMI index of 40.] Then a panel went off topic from the new regulations and talked about how racist people are for adopting from China instead of from Africa or African American children in this country. Basically, the panel made presumptions and said that adoptive parents want to adopt children from China because they are smarter, cuter and not African American.

Most people choose China because the program is predictable, reliable, relatively inexpensive and the wait-time has been shorter than other programs. As for the new restrictions, it is China's program and China's children, so whether Americans like the new restrictions is irrelevant.

I just went to CNN and posted the following comment to the Paula Zahn show:

"Your show on January 6 about China adoption was the worst quality journalism I have seen in years. China adoption and all adoption for that matter is a very complex issue and your coverage of adoption was extremely shallow and ignorant. It's insulting that you and your guests made presumptions about the parents' motivations for adopting children from China, implying that their motivations for choosing the China adoption program over domestic programs are race and appearance based. Now I know why CNN is failing in the ratings and being trumped by higher quality journalism from other networks."

It's Official!

My company is now offering a $5,000 adoption reimbursement benefit! I wrote a 2-3 page proposal on January 16, 2006 to my company requesting that they equalize the benefits among the biological and adoptive parents. Since then, it has gone through the various limits of authority and got approved starting this calendar year. Bryan and I are beyond happy! I spent approximately 25 hours on the proposal, researching the names of other companies that offer benefits, including our competitors, and refining my arguments for providing benefits. I am so proud that my company is now among the other companies that provide the much needed assistance to adoptive parents.

CC@A Building Pictures

These pictures are of the new Beijing building of the China Center for Adoption Affairs ("CC@A") courtesy of Love Without Boundaries. The CC@A moved into this building during July 2006. The pictures are of the following:

1. CC@A building
2. Plaque at the front door of CC@A building
3. Dossier room
4. Matching room
5. View from CC@A building

It is interesting to see where our fate will be determined. Our papers are likely sitting in the dossier room right now, unfortunately collecting dust for the moment! The matching room is interesting. First, the CC@A matches the orphanages with agencies. For example, if the number of children from a particular agency is 10 and a particular agency has 10 parents waiting for a child, the CC@A will likely pair these two organizations together. Then the CC@A starts matching children with parents.

This is the point in the process that is mostly hearsay. This is a description of the next process from another website called chinaadopttalk.com:

"I’ve heard from several people who have had the opportunity to speak with someone who works in the matching room. The various conversations seem to all agree that they first look for something that stands out: a matching birthday, a baby who looks a lot like a parent, or a baby who likes music and a parent who teaches music. Several matching people have stated they match by bone structure of the baby’s face and the parent’s faces (this is why they need our passport photos, so they can compare our mug shot with the baby’s mug shot). Some have stated that they used Chinese astrology, also. Once they’ve matched the obvious matches they then start to look at things like age of child requested. The age requested is not a priority for them, they feel they are matching families and not filling orders."

Darth Tater

Today I purchased Mr. Potato Head, Darth Tater! It is a must have for a Star Wars fan. Since I'm visiting my nephew, I used the excuse that I was purchasing this for him...but everyone knows that it really is for me! The set comes with R2D2, Darth Tater and Spudtroopers. How cool!
May the force be with us!

Visiting Alabama!

I flew into Alabama yesterday to visit with my grandma, parents, brother and wife, and sister and newphew. Bryan couldn't travel with me so he is working while I'm visiting. I miss you Bryan if you're reading this. We ate at your favorite restaurant, the Casa~! Sorry you missed the Casa!

Today, Johnny rode on the merry-go-round and visited santa. He is constantly running and is as cute as ever! He is always introducting himself to other kids his age whenever we're in public. It's adorable. Attached to this entry are pictures from today's adventures.

Adoption Wait Time

The adoption referrals for parents with log-in dates through 9/8/2005 received their referrals today. Congratulations to those parents who are able to see their childrens' pictures for the first time. That represents a 14.9 month wait for these parents. If their wait time is indicative of our wait time, we only have 9.3 more months of waiting. However, it is probably inappropriate to predict our wait time based on the most recent parent's wait time. It may be better to consider the most recent CC@A (China Center of Adoption Affairs) productivity. If you look at their most recent productivity, our wait time is even longer. The lengthening wait time is depressing. I hope that when referrals come out next month that we can report an improvement in the statistics. We think about our baby all the time.

The following table represents the historical wait time for 2006:

Cut-off in Log-in Date	Date of Referral Release	Average Wait Time (In Months)
4/25/2005	1/5/2006	8.5
5/13/2005	1/25/2006	8.6
5/25/2005	2/27/2006	9.3
5/30/2005	3/27/2006	10.0
6/6/2005	4/27/2006	10.8
6/15/2005	5/26/2006	11.5
6/28/2005	6/26/2006	12.1
7/13/2005	7/31/2006	12.8
7/22/2005	8/24/2006	13.3
8/9/2005	9/25/2006	13.7
8/25/2005	11/2/2006	14.5
9/8/2005	11/30/2006	14.9

Window Cafe

Our window cafe is now open for business! It's hours of operation are from sunrise to sunset and we offer a wide variety of seeds. We have had repeat customers so far, and hope to attract new customers soon.

Part I of CIA Exam

I tested for Part I of the CIA exam last Wednesday. I think I did OK on the exam, but grades will not be released until January 15. I've already taken Parts III and received credit for Part IV. So, if I pass Part I, I will take Part II in May 2007. Unfortunately, the exam is only offerred twice a year. I have so much free time now that I'm not studying that I don't know what to do first! The limited number of people that actually visit our blog may have noticed the big gap in posts while I was studying!

Breeder's Cup Gala

Bryan and I went to the Breeder's Cup Charity Gala. It was fun! I even got my hair done for the event (which I haven't done since our wedding day!). Allison Krauss and Union Station http://www.alisonkrauss.com performed at the event and Wow! they were good. I didn't think I liked country music, but this was somewhere in between country and folk. I now have their CD and am a fan.

First Annual Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Carving with Sandra, Chad and Andrew.

Stack o' Lanterns by Sandra
Graveyard Ghoul by Chad
Kitty on Moon by Kristen & Bryan
Roasted pumpkin seeds by Bryan...yum!

Brown Envelope

We received the "brown envelope" from the U.S. Consulate General of Guangzhou containing documents we will use to complete our adoption in China. Everyone that adopts from China talks about this "brown envelope" because these documents always arrive in a brown envelope. This communication means that the INS has approved our adoption and therefore the U.S. Consulate of Guangzhou will approve our child's visa. This is the last formal communication we will receive until our long-awaited referral day.

New Computer Day!

Bryan and I finally received our new computer after nearly a month of having no home computer. I never realized how computer-dependent I was until our computer crashed abrubtly. I was so happy that I ran out to the car to capture its first moment that it arrived at our house. Bryan and I quickly unwrapped the computer, took the computer casing off and admired the beautiful hardware inside! Hopefully my next entry will be made from our new computer.

Malaysia

Our home computer crashed so I haven’t been posting lately. I posted this message reluctantly from my work computer since I hate to mix work files with personal files. A new Dell computer is arriving sometime in the beginning of November! Yeah!

I wanted to share a few pictures from my business trip to Malaysia. The pictures from bottom to top are as follows:

(1) Petronas twin towers. I took a tour up to the bridge. Too bad I didn’t see Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones!
(2) McArabia chicken sandwich from McDonalds in the Dubai airport. I couldn’t resist trying Dubai’s version of a McDonalds burger and it was yummy!
(3) Batu Caves Sri Subramaniam Temple. This is a beautiful Hindu shrine. I climbed all 272 steps to get to the caves!
(4) Mom monkey with baby. Malaysia has all sorts of wildlife. I took this picture for my sister Kelly since she loves monkeys!

Adoption Log-in Date

We just received our Log-in Date ("LID") to China!!!!! This isn't a major milestone, but we grasp for any milestone, no matter how minor, since we don't have our daughter yet.

Our Documents to China ("DTC") date is 6/9/06 and our LID is 6/14/06, so the CC@A is currently processing documents extremely quick. Historically, it has taken much longer to receive the LID. Assuming the current wait time stays stagnant, we will be traveling to China this time next year.

Yeah!