OK. As anyone who is here on this sight knows, we have been long awaiting the arrival of our daughter, Mei Mei (which means Little Sister in Chinese; this is not her actual name), from China. After 3 long years of waiting, we are expecting our "referral", or letter with her picture in it, any day now.

I thought now might be a good time to sort of explain the Chinese adoption process, as so many people have inquired, or heard me talk about it at different times. So, here goes, the Executive Summary of a long and complicated process, along with a few milestones in our own journey. And, I of course, have a different name for it...

The Chinese Baby Torture...

The first step in the process is to gather an obscene amount of personal information on both myself and my husband Dave, including an income statement, fingerprints from 3 different organizations and medical records saying we are safe and sane (well, almost in my case), and letters of employment, etc. (completed in December of 2005)

Second we have a "homestudy", in which an American social worker comes to our home, interviews everyone who lives there, watches us interact with our child, checks out our marriage, etc.

Next, all those doucments get notarized, blessed and otherwise officiated, and sent off in a big bundle, or Dossier, to China. (Jan 1, 2006)

Once they get to China, they are offically LOGGED IN at the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). This is a VERY important date, becuase our life from then on hangs in the balance of this date. For us, the Log in Date, or LID, as we adoption officianados know it, is March 1, 2006

After that, the docs are translated and gone over, then, I imagine, put in a pile in the Matching Room of the CCAA , as you see to the right of this post. God and the commies only know how long we languished in one of those stacks, while back home we were painting the nursery, buying bedding and preparing our then year old for the arrival of his little sister.

Then we waited...
...and waited...
...and waited...

And did a ton of our paperwork and fingerprints over again, just in case we had decided to lead a life of crime while we awaited the arrival of our child...

...and waited...
...and waited...
...You get the idea...

Every month the CCAA releases a statement on how many dossiers they "matched" that month, along with a date to which they have moved up. For instance, we learned at the beginning of January that they had matched all the dossiers up to the date Feb, 28, 2006. OMG- one day from my dossier! The month before that they had gotten to within 6 days of my dossier! The process is painstaking and nerve racking!

So, anyway, they are offically one day away from my dossier. They average 6 days of dossiers a month, Chinese New Years not withstanding, so we are pretty sure we are IN! We are now finally getting ready to go to China. Cuyler is now nearly 5 years old and cannot wait to meet his little sister.

I am feeling 9 months pregnant, and am nesting and re-folding onesies and going over the very detailed, 3 page packing list I recieved from our wonderful adoption agency. At the bottom of this list they posted a reminder to "pack light" hmmm... in three pages?!?!?

Anyway, that is the update. I hope that my next posting will include a picture of our daughter and our flight plan!

Thank you all for your unending patience and support through out this long process of completing our little family!