Adoption Updates

[monami7]

Grace is what my mother always called me. Even though it is not my name! She said my DD named me. Anyway so that has always been what I wanted to use for a name, was never sure of first or middle. It has gotten really popular in the past 5 years but we have always wanted to use it so oh well.
Actually we asked for twins from China and well you never know. If we do get twins one will be Aurora Kathleen and one will be Grace Elizabeth. 2 more months and we will know!
Heidi

 

[JadenLayne]

Heidi when are you logged in? We are logged in January 17, 2006 and are expecting referral possibly in late August or September with the slow down. To know in two months I'm guessing you are logged in in late November?

 

[monami7]

We are actually LID Nov. 9, 2005. We could be next month but with the way things have been going, I am not getting my hopes up! My guess for April cutoff is Nov. 7-8, 2005. Just by the way it has been for us. So I want to be preparred to wait 2 months. You should be going in the fall. One would hope at least. It has been a really hard road. We started in March of 05' Thinking we would be LID in Oct or Nov. 05'. Which we were. I had to wait until I turned 30 Sept. 30, 2005. So Everything was as planned and we were told then that we would have our baby by summer 06' (not the agency's fault) So we started to prepare for Rory to come home. Then the slowdown started. It has been three times as long as we ever thought in 05'. i am happy that things worked out the way they did. We probably wouldn't have Lilly if they had been any different. She was kind of a surprise! As my husband says "Everyone should have a Lilly, but we got her!" She really is a joy to have in our lives.
Heidi

 

[JadenLayne]

Oh wow, you "could" possibly be next!!!! How exciting!!!!!

Yes we are betting on the August-October time frame for our referral.

We started in February 2005.....finally got logged in in Januray 2006 and thought our baby would be home in 8 months. Of course you know all this, lol. I'm just so ready to bring her home.

On another subject, when traveling did you and are you going to try to go Carry on only???? We are looking at that possibility right now. Also did you buy Lily her own seat coming back?

 

[monami7]

Lilly is from Haiti. No we checked a ton of stuff both ways. Going to Haiti we brought A lot of donations for her orphanage and I was in Haiti a month so e needed stuff for that. And coming we brought a lot of art in Haiti so we had to get that home. Oh yeah and the RUM! LOL . She is very tiny so I only carried her home. I used a baby carrier thing that hooks onto me. It is the best thing ever. She was never even fussy. We won't be bringing Lilly to China (not sure how China would do with the fact that we have her) But depending on Rory's age we may get her a seat. It really depends on if we both go or if it is just one of us, and how old she is.
Heidi

 

[JadenLayne]

We may try to do Carry On Only going and of course check things coming back as I'm sure we will buy loads of things in China as well.

I bought one of the snuggle things for Ariel but like you said it depends on her age. I was looking at blogs for babies just referred and saw anywhere from about 10 months - 18 months.

Good luck with twins too! I think it was last month that I read on one of the blogs about twins being referred. How awesome that will be!!!!

How long was your flight from Haiti? I have never flown and am scared to death about flying. Of course I'll do it for Ariel but I'm terrified!

 

[monami7]

We had 2 conections. It was 2 hours to Ft. Lauderdale. 2 hours to Atlants and 41/2 to SLC. It was a long day but overall not terrible.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

Guess what? I got my fingerprinting appointment!! March 17! USCIS only got my homestudy yesterday and I got the letter with my appointment today!

 

[ZPT1022]

I just wanted to add that Lillian was Walt's wifes name! And yes we thought of that before naming her. We already had the name Aurora set for DD from China, so I did not want Lilly to be left out!

PD My middle name is Kathleen and DS is Katherine so there is a good chance that Kathleen will be our naxt daughters middle name. That is if we adopt again.

Don't worry about the HS I was so worried when we did ours and it was really easy.
Heidi

We actually did realize that that was his wife, so that was pretty cool. I'm pretty sure that DH would not be up for a very in your face Disney name, like Mickey or Minnie (LOL, who would do that?) but Lillian was a nice little connection and not too obvious to anyone who is not a true Disney fan

 

[ZPT1022]

Kim I thought of that. How cool would it be to introduce our Chinese daughter as Mulan. Of course add that to our van tag that says Disney5, DH and my Mickey and Minnie tattoo, and that everyone in town knows we are nuts for Disney it would make sense.

Honestly I just don't care for the name Mulan, lol. I like Jasmine though (although not for a boy ) I don't think it sounds like a stripper!

I love the name Micah for a boy, love it!!!!

The more I look at blogs and adopted baby names the more I see Grace being the middle name more and more. Wonder if there is a sight with the #1 middle name! Bet Grace would be up there.

When we picked Grace for a middle name I found out that it had been one of my grandmother's sisters' names. I vaguely recalled that and it wasn't the reason behind the choice, but it was nice nonetheless. I know for us we are trying to steer clear of the common three middle names- Marie, Lynn, Leigh or Lee. Mine is Lee and I so many people have one of those three for a middle name. So we have Kayleigh Elizabeth, Lillian Grace, and Lucian Robert Blaise. Robert after my FIL who died while I was about 19 weeks pregnant with the twins and Blaise for my father who died when I was 11.

 

[ZPT1022]

Grace is what my mother always called me. Even though it is not my name! She said my DD named me. Anyway so that has always been what I wanted to use for a name, was never sure of first or middle. It has gotten really popular in the past 5 years but we have always wanted to use it so oh well.
Actually we asked for twins from China and well you never know. If we do get twins one will be Aurora Kathleen and one will be Grace Elizabeth. 2 more months and we will know!
Heidi

I have a friend who named her daughter Grace Elizabeth. We thought it was funny because it's the middle names of both our girls put together. I hope you get your twins, being a twin mom is fun!!! When will you find out?

 

[ZPT1022]

We are actually LID Nov. 9, 2005. We could be next month but with the way things have been going, I am not getting my hopes up! My guess for April cutoff is Nov. 7-8, 2005. Just by the way it has been for us. So I want to be preparred to wait 2 months. You should be going in the fall. One would hope at least. It has been a really hard road. We started in March of 05' Thinking we would be LID in Oct or Nov. 05'. Which we were. I had to wait until I turned 30 Sept. 30, 2005. So Everything was as planned and we were told then that we would have our baby by summer 06' (not the agency's fault) So we started to prepare for Rory to come home. Then the slowdown started. It has been three times as long as we ever thought in 05'. i am happy that things worked out the way they did. We probably wouldn't have Lilly if they had been any different. She was kind of a surprise! As my husband says "Everyone should have a Lilly, but we got her!" She really is a joy to have in our lives.
Heidi

Just curious how you were able to proceed with another adoption while the first one was pending. I got the impression from my research that was a big no-no? Again, not judging, just wondering. I think it's awesome!

 

[monami7]

Lilly was very very sick. We were actually told that she was going to pass away and we should not proceed. Both agencies at that point agreed that if we really wanted to do this we should. And so China does not know that we have Lilly and we waited so long for China that it really didn't matter anyway.
Heidi

 

[scarlett873]

Fingers crossed that our 171 will be sitting in our mailbox when we get home tonight!! Some friends that we met through our agency were fingerprinted the day before we were and got theirs yesterday...I am on pins and needles!!!! And with a little bit of luck, we'll be able to submit our completed dossier to our agency tomorrow!! Holy cow...this is really happening!!! And soon..we'll have our place reserved for us in line! WaHoo!!!!!!

 

[Tink561]

We may try to do Carry On Only going and of course check things coming back as I'm sure we will buy loads of things in China as well.

How long was your flight from Haiti? I have never flown and am scared to death about flying. Of course I'll do it for Ariel but I'm terrified!

I was overweight on luggage going TO China!

 

[Tink561]

Fingers crossed that our 171 will be sitting in our mailbox when we get home tonight!! Some friends that we met through our agency were fingerprinted the day before we were and got theirs yesterday...I am on pins and needles!!!! And with a little bit of luck, we'll be able to submit our completed dossier to our agency tomorrow!! Holy cow...this is really happening!!! And soon..we'll have our place reserved for us in line! WaHoo!!!!!!

Congratulations! It feels so good when you finally get that dossier off to the agency.

 

[ZPT1022]

Lilly was very very sick. We were actually told that she was going to pass away and we should not proceed. Both agencies at that point agreed that if we really wanted to do this we should. And so China does not know that we have Lilly and we waited so long for China that it really didn't matter anyway.
Heidi

Wow that is so scary. I hope things are better now that you have her back here and are getting her better care. What had happened to make them think that?

Fingers crossed that our 171 will be sitting in our mailbox when we get home tonight!! Some friends that we met through our agency were fingerprinted the day before we were and got theirs yesterday...I am on pins and needles!!!! And with a little bit of luck, we'll be able to submit our completed dossier to our agency tomorrow!! Holy cow...this is really happening!!! And soon..we'll have our place reserved for us in line! WaHoo!!!!!!

I hope it's there waiting for you!

 

[Tink561]

Lilly was very very sick. We were actually told that she was going to pass away and we should not proceed. Both agencies at that point agreed that if we really wanted to do this we should. And so China does not know that we have Lilly and we waited so long for China that it really didn't matter anyway.
Heidi

I'm so glad you have Lilly! There was a family in our travel group that had a child during the long wait with China. The agency didn't know about their 7 month old baby at home. Their kids will be very close in age and good friends as they grow up.

 

[monami7]

Lilly was in the hospital for 6 to 7 months after being brought to the orphanage. She had chronic Diarea and vomiting. She could not keep food in and had a high fever. They really did not think she would make it. We took her to primary childrens here in Utah last week and should get her test results back in another week or two. She appears fine now. She is only 14 pounds and she is over 16 months old. Very tiny. But she is getting there. She eats constantly now. Feel free to read my blog. i talk about a lot of it there too.

 

[scarlett873]

Please join me in doing a happy dance... ...our 171H arrived today!! I will run that downtown and state seal the last few documents and turn in our dossier to our agency! They'll have to authenticate it and whatever else it is they do it...and it will then find it's way to China! Here's hoping we beat that May 1st deadline for the new regulations...

WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!