Sad Day

I should have never posted that last post. All I can say is the Jayhawks had a great season! We enjoyed watching them play ball and we are proud of our team! It won't be long and October 15 will be here and it will all start again! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Alicia

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

This time of year is like a holiday at our house! Greg woke up on March 15 unable to sleep as he knew March Madness had finally begun! We are so excited that the Jayhawks will be playing in the Elite 8 today! This will also be the first game we will be able to watch on our big screen TV and not on our little computer monitor. This year Texas and Texas A&M played the same time we did. Being that we live in Texas showing Kansas play was not a priority! So Greg and I watched our Jayhawks play on a slightly delayed computer screen. As Greg kept saying, at least we were able to watch the game. So cheer loud and root the Jayhawks on to the Final Four!!!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU!!!

Sonogram

We have been Paper Pregnant for six months! It is hard to believe it has already been that long. We wanted to share with you our sonogram. It brings us great joy to share this and hope you enjoy seeing it as much as we do!

What happens with our Dossier?

Each week we get an update from our adoption agency, Christian World Adoption. This week Virginia explained the process that we are in right now. She also explained why the wait to get Mari is taking so long. Here is the information that we received. CWA has been excellent to work with. They are always very upfront and honest and the doors of communication are always open. We would recommend them! I hope you are enjoying reading about our journey!

CWA mails the dossiers to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). When a dossier arrives at the CCAA, the worker enters the family's information into the CCAA computer system. The date on which this happens becomes the family's LOG-IN date. The CCAA receives hundreds of dossiers every week, so it may take 3-4 weeks for them to log-in a dossier after it is received. (CWA will let you know what your log-in date is.)

All of the dossiers with that log-in date are kept together in a group. The group of dossiers moves from department to department over a period of many months. First the dossiers are translated, then they are reviewed, and then they are moved to the matching room where they will wait until the CCAA is ready to make a referral.

The "referral" includes 2-3 photos of the child, medical information about the child, and a brief developmental report. Most of the information is in both Chinese and English. The CCAA makes referrals according to the log-in dates on the dossiers,taking them in chronological order. To date, they have made referrals for families with log-in dates through October 24, 2005. Back in the"good old days" the CCAA used to mail referrals covering the log-in dates for an entire month at a time. Now they are only able to send referrals covering periods of one or two weeks.

So why is the process so slow? The process is exceptionally slow right now because adoption from China became SO popular that the CCAA received many, many more dossiers than they have children available. They are moving as quickly as they can to get through the backlog, but they have THOUSANDS of dossiers waiting and there are only so many children in the international adoption program. So we need to expect that the process will continue to be very slow for several more months. It is most likely that the wait will get worse before it gets better.

I hope this finds you all having a great Monday. We went to San Antonio over the weekend and went to the Riverwalk. It was great seeing my sister and nieces! Greg's vacation ends tomorrow. What a bummer. It was so nice having him home even though we missed our cruise! Love, Alicia

Different Trips to the Same Place

We received this at an adoption seminar and it just seemed so perfect. I wanted to share it with everyone.

Different Trips to the Same Place

Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You’ve heard it’s a wonderful place. You’ve read many guidebooks and feel certain you’re ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip.

So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you’ll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait-and wait- and wait.

Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, “Relax. You’ll get on a flight soon.” Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, “It’s not fair”.

After a long time the ticket agent tells you, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat.”

“By Boat!” you say, “Going by boat will take a very long time and costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane.” So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat.

It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three times, marveling about each trip.

Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite that you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air.

People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, “Oh be glad you didn’t fly. My flight was horrible, traveling by sea is so easy.”

You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.

Author unknown

No Cruise for you!

As many of you have known Greg and I were to take our first Cruise today! We were to leave out of Galveston for a five day cruise. Well Thursday night the flu came to our house and hit me hard. Needless to say the trip had to be canceled and we are at home rather than boarding our beautiful ship. It seems we just don't have much luck here lately. Greg had too much vacation and was at a use it or lose it point so now we will be staring at each other for a week! Greg has been a real trooper though, catering to my every need. Not sure I have ever told you all this but I truly do have the best husband! Please pray for a speedy recovery!

Alicia