LOI to China, and a wet cat

The first of many documents has been sent to China! Our Letter Of Intent (LOI) was sent today to Beijing. This is the document in which we express that we wish to adopt Tong, specifically. One step closer to China!

We also have a wet cat in the house today... Thomas (our large Maine Coon cat) has needed to be groomed for a while - his fur has gotten really matted. But first he had to get his rabies shot. So T took him to get it at PetSmart today. Thomas hates the vet and *freaks out* in the cage and car. When T gets to the vet and lifts his cage - the handle breaks off (probably because when Thomas was weighed by the vet - he was found to now be 22 lbs.) Either due to the trip in the car, the fear of the vet, or the falling cage - Thomas has peed. Alot. So T has to get a cart and take our pee-soaked cat to the vet. She buys a new cage at PetSmart, and picks me up from work. Needless to say, I did not have a happy wife (or cat) today. I had to wash Thomas when we got home, which, again, he hates - he struggled so hard that he was actually able to turn the valve that turns the shower on with his paw, and he was actually *panting* when his bath was over - this has been the only time I've ever seen a cat pant... We'll probably have to get Thomas shaved to get the matted places out of his fur - he will probably hate that a lot too. If it comes out looking anything like that "lion cut" cat picture, I'll have to post a picture of it.

The frenzy

Ok so lets play a little game........

You want to have a baby and at this very moment the decision is all in the hands of a social worker ...................Who by the way will be coming to your home to judge your parental fitness in a week......

They are very kind and tell you there is absolutely no NEED to clean your home top to bottom.............

Do you:
A) Think wow it will be like a visit from a good friend who wants to help me have a child?
B) Clean a little here and there and pat yourselves on the back?
C) Clean like a whirling dervish and make trips to the used bookstore and the goodwill.....After prying things from your hubby who feels the need to keep every thing?!?!?

You guessed it.......C!!!

We have been cleaning and cleaning all weekend long. The one great thing that has come out of this is....I am getting my way. I hate things....Clutter things......Picture things......Well almost all things.

I love a very minimal look and N likes a more home feeling. But in the cleaning there is little time to decorate so.....I GET MY WAY!!!

Now I love and adore N and he is very good at letting me have my way but he will not usually relent when it comes to books but for Eva he is being a great sport!

First Interview

Sorry it has been awhile but N and I were out of town and then I started school on Monday so we have had a crazy few weeks.

We have been running around trying to gather all of the paperwork and sending off for our different documents.

I counted and N and I have to get a total of 7 different clearances that prove we are not sex offenders or criminals.

I truly believe this proves that most people in society feel that it is not "natural" to love someone who is not related to you by blood. I find this concept hysterical because the love of my life is not related to me by BLOOD. I personally highly suspect people who CANNOT love people who are not related by blood.

We had our first interview with the social worker today and it went well. We like her and she seemed pretty competent. I was somewhat put off by the questions about Tong's special needs. I believe N and I are as prepared as it is possible to be. I know for a fact that they do not ask women who give birth if or how they intend to take care their special needs child before they leave the hospital. Its as if because she is not our biological child's that we woke up one morning and said "Hey N I'm bored.....I know LETS HAVE A BABY" and then looked around and thought this one looks good lets get her.

N and I prayed and prayed and read and read before we called the agency about her. We emailed friends and family and strangers from message boards about her special need. We have researched as much as possible and yet we have to prove over and over again how prepared we are.

But let me say IT WILL BE WORTH IT! I have no doubt that she is our baby and so we will jump hoop after hoop of fire for her.

Our next visit is next Monday and the social worker will be coming to our home.......So N and I have been cleaning like MAD! It was a great excuse for me to get a new vacuum....Which I love!
We also changed doctors and had our exam on Friday. We love the new doctors office but didn't Like all of the holes they proceeded to poke in us!

Wow this got long LOL. If you are still reading I guess I should have warned you it was partly a rant.

Too excited to sleep!

Well I finished all of my exams just in time for our trip in the morning! N has one tonight then he is finished. We sent in our draft of the LOI( letter of intent) for Tong. The agency will let us know of any changes they want us to make and then they will translate it into Chinese then send it on its way. We are both so excited it has been hard to concentrate on finals.

The good and the bad...........

We want tong home NOW! But I need to finish school. We hope to travel at the end of December but it may be sooner or later. I go back and forth between wanting her home this second and wanting to finish my last 2 semesters. It is really hard because both finishing my degree and having children are very important for me. Both are goals that N and I have worked very hard towards.

We have faith that she will come at the right time and will have to let go of the worry. I guess now that we have seen her picture we are so in love I find myself thinking about what she is doing. She is 1 so she is probably learning to walk and I am going to miss those first steps. Its hard to know all of the things we are missing in her life.

N and I are going to learn baby sign language to help her with the transition. We have no idea how delayed her speech will be. We hope that with the baby sign she will be able to pick it up fast and learn to understand English also.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

We have been given approval from our agency to adopt Tong. She was born on May 1, 2005. We are so excited!!! We both have finals left but no idea how we are going to study!

OK. This process is going much faster for us because she is a waiting child with special needs. She has both a cleft lip and palate. We are hoping to travel between November to March! The faster the better but we still have a ton of paper work left.

If you did not get her picture and would like to see her just send me an email or give us a call.

Dossier info

Last night we got a call from the person who will help us put together our dossier. She was very helpful and gave us lots of info on how to do different things. One of the main things is the notary language that must appear on all of the documents. The other is that N and I have to now remember to use our full names on EVERY piece of paper we sign.

One little problem we are about to encounter concerns our criminal background checks. Because we lived in MA and MN for a year we have to have background checks in each of these states. LOL this is going to prove difficult because these forms have to be notarized with the exact notary language. The police station here said to get out criminal background checks we will need to bring two forms of idea so I am not sure how we are going to mange to get the ones from Ma and MN.

We will also walk our docs through the Va authentication process, the State Department and the Chinese consulate or embassy. If we walk the docs through this will save us several weeks than if we had our agency mail them back and forth. If N and I are not able to walk them ourselves we will hire a courier.

Home Study

OK we have almost finished the home study application and question forms. When we turn this in we will be able to start the 4 needed meetings with the social worker. We also got our dossier guide and so we are now getting ready to start gather all the documents we need.


We would like to thank those wonderful people who have so kindly offered to be our references! Thank you so much! We could not do this without you.

Waiting

It seems a little early to talk about waiting but I feel like N and I have already waited forever. We waited to feel what was best to do. We waited for N to turn 30. We waited for the money. And now we wait for the agency to send us the dossier information and for the interviews with the agency to start. I guess N and I feel like we need to get our DTC so we can stop feeling like we are in a hurry. LOL I know those of you who know me well are rolling on the floor laughing because patience is not a virtue that I was born with. And to be honest I never anticipate being a patient person at least not in this life. We have started filling out the mass amount of paper work. I hope we will be able to meet with the social worker before we leave for SF. I also want to get as much done in that whole week N and I have before school starts back again for summer.