Dear Sweet Lily,
Today is Thanksgiving and, although you are not here with Mommy and Daddy, we are thankful for you. We got to spend today with all of Mommy's family - your grandparents, aunts and uncle and cousin-dogs. We loved spending time with each other but we know in our hearts that you are missing. As we prepare to spend this last holiday season without you, I hope so much that you are safe and healthy and bundled up tight. I hope a nanny or foster mommy is cooing at you and giving you hugs. I hope you know deep down in your heart that you are so, so loved and your forever family is longing for the day that you will join us. Not one minute goes by when images of you don't fill my mind. I can't wait to be your Mommy. I can't wait to fix you Thanksgiving dinners, to answer your questions about pilgrims and Indians, to read you "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", to track Santa's sleigh on Norad with you, to hang your stocking with Mommy's and Daddy's, to see your beautiful face filled with joy. You, my sweet baby girl, are so wanted in this house and family. The years of dreaming of you are about to culminate with the day that you are placed in our arms. Then the dreams will be of you growing up happy, healthy and knowing forever that your Mommy and Daddy once prayed so hard for you and loved you so much before even seeing your sweet smile. You are not here with us but you are....always. I am thankful for you, for the hope that you bring me, for the future that we will have as a family and for every giggle, smile, tear that await us.

Love,

Mommy

22 Days

Referrals have been sent for this month and they covered 5 days of log in dates. This means that there are 22 log in days now before the officials in China have our paperwork in front of them to match us with Lily. Just a little reminder of how this process works:

When we finished compiling all of our paperwork for adoption in June of 2006 (which took us from Oct, 2005-June, 2006) we sent it all bundled up together in a package called our dossier. It was delivered via FedEx to the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and they stamped it with the date they processed it and put it in the stack - JUNE 14, 2006. Each month when referrals are issued, the CCAA matches the babies available with the families, in order of date processed (log in date). It's kind of like pulling a ticket at the deli counter except this ticket is our magical log in date. Referrals are issued about once 25-45 days. When they get to our ticket number/log in date then the CCAA will match us with Lily. Each month, a different number of families whose paperwork has been stamped with log in dates ahead of ours are being matched. This past month, the dates that were matched were May 19-23, 2006. That means that there were enough babies available to match the families that were logged in on those dates. These families had all waited the same length of time...from mid-May, 2006 to now. The wait for these folks was officially 54-ish months. We have waited almost 53 months. Our wait will probably end up being 56-ish months.

When we are matched, the CCAA will send our adoption agency a picture or two of Lily along with information like her date of birth, where in China she is living and some basic developmental and medical information. A lot of this info will be in Chinese and will have to be translated. Once our agency receives it, we will get "the call" and our amazing China coordinator will tell us what she knows. I believe Jeff and I will jump in the car IMMEDIATELY (hopefully our respective workplaces will be understanding) and drive to the office to see pictures and get copies of everything. Then, of course, we plan to share all of this with our friends and family.

After we formally accept the referral, we have to do some more paperwork and wait for China to send us travel approval. At that time, we will book some very important appointments and book our travel. It should be about 6 weeks after we first receive Lily's referral...which I am guessing will be a busy but rough 6 weeks since we will have seen our little one's face.

Does this make sense? I get a lot of questions about how this process works and it is pretty difficult to explain.