Still waiting!!!

O.K. well, I have come to terms with the fact that we will NOT be DTC this month either, so now what do we do?We desperately hope, pray, cross our fingers, and wiggle our noses ( and whatever else you can possibly do ) to be able to get our Dossier To China in March! By Golly! I have been rushing to the mail box all this week, but NOTHING. No magical little piece of paper that says we are now approved by this country to adopt a baby from China, in other words, we still don't have our I 171 H form. I was hoping it would come today so we could get every thing done, and be DCT by March 10th. But looking at the calendar that won't happen unless it comes tomorrow! If it doesn't come until next week then that will push us to March 17th. What else can I say, except I am not the happiest camper today. On a good note, we received an email from our agency with a stork alert! Every time that referral's are on there way to the U.S. from China, our agency sends out what they call stork alerts. Supposedly there are 90 referrals in this batch, but we will see.So any way, I had previously posted the fact that I like to shop! And I have taken some pictures of some of the things that I have found along the way. So for a little fun, and actually just to make my blog more exciting, I will post some pictures for ya'll.

O.K. this one was a gift from my sister. This pretty baby is a Lee Middleton Doll, she was a new release in July 05, there were only 400 of these dolls made. Her name is "Beautiful." And she lives up to her name! Just too precious. 

This I found at a specialty gift shop in Wisconsin, while on vacation. It is a glass blown, heart shaped ornament, that is painted and has 160 Swarovski Crystals on it. These ornaments are made by a company called Expressions from the Heart, Inc. They make all kinds, for all kinds of occasions. Each one is numbered, and comes with a keepsake box and card. This one is called "Born in the Heart." If any one is interested in finding out more about these beautiful hearts, go to www.collecthearts.com , they show all of the collections. They are really pretty in person too! I will probably keep this, and give it to her many years from now.  

LADYBUGS! More "had to get them" items. The stuffed Ladybugs, I actually got at Toys R Us LAST year after Valentine's day, they were left over and on clearance. They have magnets in their faces, and when they touch noses, they make a kissing noise and their cheeks light up, and they say "I Love You, I Love You." The Book I just saw recently, don't remember where, but it is so cute. You can't tell from the picture, but there is a hole in the book all the way through, and you stick your finger in it (like a finger pupet) and it moves the ladybug's face around. Can't ya tell I like to shop!  

More toys! I have been on the lookout for anything with Ladybugs or Panda Bears, I think Fisher Price just came out with these not too long ago, they have several cute things with both Panda's and Ladybugs on them. One of these can hook onto a stroller or car seat, and it plays a couple of different classical songs, and the smaller one is a soft book. LOVE THEM!  

Another cute tiny little doll I just had to get. She is made by Fisher Price, and so cute! 

I found these two cute little dolls on Ebay! They are a set, one boy and one girl. They are called Rice Patty Babies. They were made back in the early eighties, when cabbage patch kids first became popular. I guess they are the Chinese version. They are made of a soft silky fabric, even the faces are hand stitched. They come with a cute little Hong Kong Passport with their name and picture inside. I just thought these were too cute, unfortunately, they are not going to be play dolls though. Because of their age, and the fabric, I want to protect them from being torn apart. I could not pass these up!  

One step closer!

Today we received a call from our social worker, saying that the state has approved our home study, and now they have forwarded it to the USCIS office. I was very happy to hear this great news, Our social worker told us that it may take up to 4-6 weeks, but it has only been 18 days! Now I am crossing both fingers and toes, hoping that we get our I171H soon enough to send it in to be certified and authenticated, in time so we can be DTC (date to China) this month.
I have heard some rumors today, that concerns me a little bit. There are people saying that they have heard, that now the CCAA wants you to at least ask for a baby up to 18 months old. On our application letter we asked for a baby from 0-9 months. Our agency has already looked at this form and they did not say anything to us about this, so I am gonna just trust that it will be fine. But, if this IS the case, we will also have to get our social worker to make an adjustment in our home study, because she only approved us for a baby up to 12 months old.
I have heard so many rumors, and some of them end up being true, but the majority are just that, RUMORS!
I have worked myself up so much over some of these, but there really is nothing I can do, but hope!

Update on our timeline

Hello every one, well I realized that I have not posted on our progress much lately so here is an update on our timeline.

1-11-06 Received Matt's Employment Letter from the State of Pennsylvania
1-12-06 Sent Matt's Emp. Letter to the Chinese Consulate in New York for Authentication
1-24-06 Received Home Study and All Dossier attachments (social worker's License, Home study agency License, and letter of non for profit status, post placement agreement, and agency agreement)
1-24-06 Sent out our first batch of documents to the Chinese consulate in Houston (Angela's Birth Certificate, our Marriage License, Angela's letter of unemployment, and both Matt and Angela's Police Letters)
1-26-06 Sent out our Home study, our updated Financial Statement, and Application Letter (the one that the county messed up, and had to fix) to the State of Alabama for state Certification
1-30-06 Received documents back from Sec. of State
1-31-06 Sent out second batch of documents to the Chinese Consulate in Houston (home study, Financial Statement, Application letter, and both Matt and Angela's Doctor's letters
2-07-06 Received first batch back from Houston
2-07-06 Checked Fed Ex account to see if our second batch was on it's way, I was fully expecting it to not be yet, but to my great surprise, it is indeed on it's way, and will be delivered tomorrow morning! WooHoo!!!
Hipp Hipp Hoorray!!!

So NOW the ONLY thing we are waiting on is our I 171H form from the USCIS (United States Center of Immigration Services) once we get that I have to make a copy of it and get the copy Notorized, County certified, State certified, and once again send something to the Houston Consulate for Authentication, but this time I am gonna use a courier to walk it through, so I will get it back within a couple of days instead of waiting 2 weeks.
Then, our full Dossier will be ready to send to our agency, so they can send it to China, and then we wait, and wait, and wait, AND WAIT! (who knows how long, anywhere from 6-12months) for our referral. For those of you who are clueless as to what a referral is, it is basically when we get to see our baby for the very first time (in pictures) it is all of the information on the baby that the CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs) has picked out for us!
Well that's all I have for you now, Take care, and thanks for keeping up with our blog!