One last gentle nudge

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, but it is also December 31 - the last day of 2007.

Everyone has one more day to give one more gift.

Find your favorite charitable organization and send a donation.

You can donate through the organization's website; some will accept checks that are postmarked by midnight Monday.

If you give your help before the official end of the year, you should be able to receive a tax deduction for 2007.

And it is possible that your company participates in an employee giving match program. If you've missed this year's program, put it on your calendar for 2008.

m

Paper Chase - Part Deux

My new I-171H arrived today. The latest set of fingerprints is good until February 2009; the I-171H is valid until May 2009.

(I applauded the local USCIS office, they process documents fast. I've heard horror stories from other states, where the process can take months.)

m

2 years ago

I spent Saturday morning traipsing downtown to have my fingerprints redone. I needed those, along with a homestudy update and a new I-600A application, to renew my I-171H.

That excursion reminded me that it's been over two years since I began the adoption process.

Two years!

m

I'm no better than those annoying retailers

It isn't even Thanksgiving yet, and I'm already talking Christmas!

I found this ornament at T*rget today. Ten percent of the sale is donated to St. Jude Hospital. It reminded me that I want to get holiday cards from someplace like the Half the Sky foundation.

If I can't have my little one home for this Christmas, I'd like to know that I'm somehow contributing to the care of all the little children who won't be home with their families either.

So, do you see where this is going? Is the hint broad enough? Okay, I'll be blunt. Make this holiday about caring for those who don't have the good things that we have. Those who won't spend a Thanksgiving eating too much food, or have a Christmas morning awash with presents. Participate in Toys for Tots, donate a scarf and hat to a giving tree, or send a donation to a small charity.

Do it or I'll have to speak to Santa about you.

m

We're through the Review Room!

Wow that was fast!

It took over nine months to move from 'Pending Review' status to 'In Review'. It took only two weeks to get through the Review Room!

Okay, it's likely my dossier had been looked at well before this month but they finally finished all of the August 2006 dossier reviews.




PROGRESS!

Therapy (Retail, that is)

As I've stated before, I occasionally need to use retail therapy to get through the tough, slow, 'it's never gonna happen' days. My rule is that the item cannot cost over $15.

This weekend's therapeutic purchase was some pyjamas from b@byG*p. I ended up with two pair and an intriguing question -

Will Beach Baby be a cutesy, fairy-princess jammie wearing kind of girl . . .


Or a wild child, skull-and-crossbones jammie wearing kind of girl?


Something to ponder.

m

Lifebooks and Life's Little Coincidences

In the adoption community today, parents are encouraged to create a "Lifebook" for their child. It is not supposed to be about the adoption, but about your child's life before joining your family; the idea is to create a book from your child's POV.

I was adopted, and I hope to have a bond with my little one about our shared experience. So, I had an idea - I should create a lifebook for myself. I have some of the paperwork from back then, but I don't have any pictures of the infant home, hospital or city where I spent the first months of my life.

I didn't think I could just call up the agency and ask for those items without someone assuming I'm fishing for information about my birth, which I am not. So, techo-weenie that I am, I started cruising the 'net for images. I didn't have any luck until tonight, when I across a small treasure trove!

It turns out the Infant & Mothers home is still standing (surprise!) and its surrounding campus is being turned into a senior community. The restoration group has collected a series of historical photos as art for the hallways. And with a donation, they will put a plaque on one of the photos with your name on it. There are a few hundred pictures of the hospital, staff and surrounding community, and yes, there are a few that are from my time there!

I'm looking for pictures and there are pictures available because of the renovation - it's one of those weird coincidences! (Insert spooky music here) Hopefully I can get copies of a few to include in my lifebook.

Of course, some of those shots might scare Beach Baby when she reads it; they kind of scare me.

One year later . . .

. . . still no Beach Baby.

Some Progress

It looks like another month of dossiers have made it through the Review Room! So that means June 2006 and maybe even July dossiers are under review now. It's a step in the right direction. Here is the latest from the CCAA website.


I'm waiting for the CCAA to begin the 2006 referrals before I start on her nursery.

I'm still hoping for Beach Baby to be home in 2008.

The wonders of YouTube

Some days, the wait is harder than others. As those who know me say, I don't wait well. I sit in my office at home and stare at the binders on the shelf: Paper Chase, Referral, and Travel. They are inactive, gathering dust.

On those days when the pity party is cranked up to 11, I sit down and pull up YouTube.com.

What a wonderful thing. I type "Gotcha Day" in the Search field and up pops pages and pages of videos of parents meeting their babies for the first time.

Stories of travel. Rooms full of new families. Babies cradled in their parents' arms for the first time.

Lots and lots of babies; screaming, happy, sad, goofy, sleeping and playing.

I watch and forget about the wait and wonder about the moment when it will be our turn.

m

There can always be more Paperwork

This month, it's 1 year since my Homestudy was completed. Update required. In July the first of my U.S. documentation, my fingerprints, expire. Update required. In September, my I-171H joins the expiration party. Yup, update required.

The Homestudy is only good for 2 years; you needed an updated Homestudy to renew the other Federal paperwork. The big question, how much closer to the adoption will I be in May, 2008? I could end up repeating most of the Paperchase again.


On another paperwork front, the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption added a certification requirement on all international adoption agencies. What that means for me is that families in the process need to complete some classes on international and transracial adoption. I'd actually already taken most of the classes but I might need to take them again.

Hey, did I mention that I start grad school next month? I LOVE Paperwork!

Bring it on; my little Beach Baby is worth every page.

m

The Pig was a sign, not an impulse buy

I'll admit I was in the store (Itsy Bitsy World @ Polaris) because I needed a baby fix. I'd already been to Baby Gap and Gymboree looking for a baby "pick-me-up" with no purchases made.


But I swear, the Pig literally threw itself off the shelf at me. I had to buy her.


She's been named NO because she is 'Not Olivia' the Pig, though she bares quite the resemblance. She is now in charge; in the house for 1 day and already forcing me to do things. I respond well to guilty looks, even from inanimate objects.


In the photo, NO is sitting atop the newly altered toy chest. I added wheels and safety hinges to a box I found at the antique mall. All work was done under the watchful eye of the Pig. The next project is the emptying of the guest room so it can become the nursery. I think NO is preparing a project list for me.


m

Beach Baby's got a Patron Saint

It's March. It's been 6 and 1/2 months since LID and well over a year since I began this journey. And with every passing month it seems like the day I'll be bringing home my little Beach Baby gets farther and farther away.

Will it be 2007? 2008? 2009?

A while back I decided the little one's patron saint is St. Jude. For those without a Catholic upbringing, St. Jude is the patron saint of impossible causes and desparate cases.

Shortening this long wait is an impossible cause, don't you think?

I wear a St. Jude medal around my neck every day. I've started giving St. Jude medals to my family and friends.

I may be a lapsed Catholic but I will take any help I can get.

m

Happy Chinese New Year

It is the year of the Fire Pig.

According to Chinese astrology, Water is my lucky element.

2007 is the begininning of the Water cycle.

The predictions are that the next three years will be very lucky for me. I really like hearing that.

If you'd like to check out your Chinese astrology, follow this link:

http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/CFTCal2.htm

m

The latest stats

The China Center of Adoption Affairs posted their update this week.

Slowly,


Slowly,


Slowly,



the dates crawl closer to my August 10, 2006 LID.

m

The Beach Baby family

all_four_fla
Originally uploaded by molly_connelly.

Mom, Dad, big brother Dennis and me.

Note that while I am a true Beach Baby, I was also a pasty child.

And I'm now I'm a very freckled, yet still pasty girl.

m

The original beach baby

mom_2
Originally uploaded by molly_connelly.

This is my Mom, the first Beach Baby!

I think this is her first trip to Florida.

I wish I looked that good in a bathing suit.

m

What I've been doing for the last year . . .

I'm terrible. I never keep in touch. I get caught up in work and school and every other little thing. One day goes by, then a week, then a year.

But change is inevitable. And now I have something important to share. Something wonderful and amazing.

I've begun this blog to record my latest journey - the creation of a family. This is the story of my adoption of a daughter from China.

molly

P.S. You can get up off the floor now. It's true; I am going to be a mom.

Beach Baby?

I named this blog 'Beach Baby' for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, this little one is joining a family of beach lovers. The beach is my sanctuary and I hope it will be hers.

It seems like all of my best-loved family photos were taken at the beach. I will post some of these pictures when I get them scanned to the PC.

Finally, on my last trip to the beach, sitting by the ocean, was where and when this idea of becoming a mom moved into reality. I knew that I wanted to share that place and everything else with my daughter.

m

Adoption Timeline

~~> My adoption timeline <~~

November 26 2005 – Applied to Great Wall China adoption agency.

December 23 2005 - I’ve been accepted by GWCA! Merry Christmas!

February 1 2006 - Begin Paperchase.

February 15 2006 - Birth Certificate arrives from New York.

March 2006 - Medical Exams, background checks and notary visits. Oh now I know why they call it a chase!

April 18 2006 - Fingerprinted by the nice folks at Citizenship and Immigrations Services.

April 2006 - Begin Homestudy with Pam from Adoption Circle.
Parenting class, Infant CPR, and fire inspection for Homestudy.

April 2006 - Final home visits for Homestudy.

April 23 2006 - Fingerprints, I-600A and Homestudy off to CIS.

May 11 2006 - I-171H received!

June 23 2006 - Getting my documents notarized, certified by State of Ohio.

July 7 2006 - Documents off to Chinese Consulate in New York for authentication.

July 14 2006 - Finishing off my dossier with pictures, and my letter to the China Center for Adoption Affairs.

July 23 2006 - Copies, copies and more copies of my dossier.

July 24 2006 - Dossier to GWCA.

July 28 2006 - DTC! Dossier sent to China.

August 4 2006 – Received ‘brown envelope’ from U.S. Consulate, Guangzhou.

August 10 2006 - LID! Dossier logged in at CCAA.

August 2006 – waiting.

September 2006 – waiting.

October 2006 – waiting.

November 2006 – waiting.

December 2006 – waiting.

January 2007 – waiting.

February 2007 – waiting.

March 2007 – waiting.

April 2007 - waiting.

May 2007 - still waiting.

June 2007 - waiting.

July 2007 - waiting.

August 2007 - waiting (for 1 whole year!).

September 2007 – Through the Review Room!

October 2007 - waiting.

November 2007 - Renewed Homestudy & I-171H.
December 2007 - waiting.
January 2008 – waiting.

February 2008 – waiting.

March 2008 - waiting.

April 2008 - waiting.

May 2008 - Homestudy expired after 2 years. Another round of paperwork.

June 2008 - waiting.
July 2008 - waiting.

August 2008 - 2nd year anniversary of my LID.
September 2008 - waiting.
October 2008 - waiting.

November 2008 - waiting.
December 2008 - waiting.

January 2009 - waiting.

February 2009 - waiting.

March 2009 - waiting.

April 2009 - Round three of U.S. paperwork, homestudy update, fingerprints.

May 2009 - received new I-171H.

June 2009 - May 2010 - waiting.

August 2010 - 4 year anniversary of LID.

September - November 2010 - working on renewal of I-171 and homestudy.

November 2010 - New job!

December 2010 - February 2011 - waiting some more.


November 2011 - Cutoff was August 7.  Three days of LIDs left.


December 17, 2011 - Rumors of the next group including August 10.


December 20, 2011 - She's here!