LOA came Yesterday!

SO, or Letter of acceptance arrived at the agency on Friday. This is great news for us. It means that China has approved all of our paperwork and authorizes us to adopt Min. The next thing that we need to wait for is the TA or Travel Approval. This could take anywhere from 2 weeks to a more realistic 4-6 weeks. I don't really think we'll be traveling before the middle of February because of Chinese New Year. I don't want to travel during CNY anyways. I've done it...twice...and it's a pain in the backside. In the very large, grander scheme of things, waiting a week or so for the whole country to simmer down is going to be better than traveling during the holidays.

So that's where we stand on that! Yahoo!!! Next week I'll go get the Visas for me and Laina. I don't have to get one for Jorg--he has a seasons Pass!!

Agency Agony

I really like my agency. I think they're right on top of things and the people are really cool. I don't have any bad thing to say about them. Honestly.
So, I called and talked to one of the women who function as my caseworker. I told her my case number that the Guangzhou consulate sent me and then I asked her if there was any news about my LOA. She said that she hadn't heard anything, but based on my LID, we could get news at any time. Right. I knew that. Then I asked her how long we should wait without hearing anything before we should worry and call the CCAA and see if anything is wrong with my paperwork. Do you know what she said? SIX MONTHS!! We'd have to wait 6 months to call to China to see if something is wrong and then we could try and straighten out the problem and then proceed with the wait AGAIN. GAHHHHHH!!!!! I told her that I would wait 6 months but that when it got to be 6 months, that I would be the first one calling office when it opened the next day, on wait 6 months and one day. She laughed and I laughed and we had a jolly old giggle about that. Ha-ha- ha. I didn't tell her that I'd be calling her from the Mental Ward and the adoption was off because I had gone certifiable.

So, Now I'm going to watch Kitchen Nightmare. That show makes me feel so much better about my hygiene habits and my skill as a cook.

Brown Envelope

The cruise was GREAT!! It was a short 3 night cruise to Ensenada that was a perk from Jorg's company. They had a good year and the big boss paid for any employee and their spouse to go on this cruise. Laina had a good time with my parents and Jorg and I had some time to relax and rest. On Sunday morning, we slept in until 8:00!! Unheard of! We ate a ton of food and now I have to try and get back to my "before we moved to California" weight. Not too much, but enough to be a hassle.
I'm going to the YMCA again tonight and I've done more squats in the the past 3 days than I have in the past year. It's sad. When we lived in Portland, I would work out at least 3 times a week because I went to my karate classes. My Karate classes down here haven't worked out too well because of childcare issues and also the dojo I started at just wasn't the best match for me, so now I'm just going to the gym and doing elliptical and lifting weights. It's not fun or exciting. The YMCA we joined is under a drastic remodel and the "aerobics" gym is under construction. When the project is over, I think they'll have kickboxing again, and I'll do that. I'm not sure when I'll start Karate again. I might just do a drastic departure and try something like ballet or tap dancing. Wait...that would just be ridiculous. Although... I thought it was pretty ridiculous to start karate. We'll see...

Well, still no LOA. We did get the "Brown Envelope". The "Brown Envelope" is not so important, but it does mean one thing. I have a good excuse to call the agency. There's a case number that is on the paperwork in the "Brown Envelope" that the agency wants me to give them and so I'm going to call them and then I can ask them if they've heard anything about why it's taking so blessed long for our LOA to come through. They'll say they have no idea. I know that's what they'll say, but I'm going to ask them anyways because it makes me feel better. I can also ask them how long I have to wait before they'll call into CCAA and ask THEM what the problem is.

I'm Walter Cronkite and that's the way it is.

No Gnuuus is Good Gnus with Gary Gnu...

No news on the LOA front. So...we wait... It's sorta maddening because there is no rhyme or reason in the wait. The family that was logged in 15 days before us already got their LOA back on November 8th and they're going to be traveling over Christmas. The way it's going, we really will be sticking to our worst case scenario for travel, April or May. So, to kill a few days, we're going on a 3 day cruise to Mexico and Laina's going to spend the time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. 3 days with no baby, Maybe I'll actually read a book or something!

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments! I can't wait until we actually travel so I can write about something interesting--not just waiting for paperwork to push through.

MAINPAGE OF RUMOR QUEEN

I promised myself that I would wait until we got our LOA to post on the main page "more babies" post on Rumor Queen. I'm going to break that promise!! I'm expecting our LOA to come any day and I don't want to wait until the next "more babies" post in December, I want to post it NOW!! So, welcome to my blog, everyone from Rumor Queendom and please feel welcome to follow along as we travel, hopefully in February.

Our family is Me, my husband, Laina and we're going to go get Min. When we travel for Min, it will be my 5th trip to China. Jorg doesn't know how many times he's been to China. He has one of those season passes. Seriously, he has a season pass to China, as many entries as you want for one low price. Laina has traveled home from China and this will be her first trip back. She's traveled a lot for a 3 year old, though. She's been up and down the coast several times, to Germany-twice and then long car drives up to Sacramento to visit my sister.

Min has been matched with our family off of a waiting child list and has been living with her foster family since she was 3 months old. We have some pictures of her from when she was a baby and also very current ones, thanks to some lovely women who traveled to her SWI on a medical trip. Min goes to the SWI every day for preschool, so they got to meet her there. Min's foster family adores her and takes good care of her. I'm gearing myself up for a not-to-happy little girl when we go to pick her up.

Laina is really looking forward to having Min home and asks about her every day.

ACK!! Hang on Little Tomato! For REAL!!!

Here is little Miss 'Mato, Min clinging to her Jie Jie on the scooter ride home. Twice a day, this little one stands backwards and holds on to her sister and they go out and play the real life video game, "try to get home safely". Oh well, what 're you gonna do? I suppose I could send a helmet with my next care package, but that won't guarantee anything. I could cause a stink and ask my agency to call the SWI and tell them to not let it happen. I don't know if there's anything I could do about it at all. So--Little Tomato, hang on and don't fall off!! Jie Jie**, drive carefully!





**Jie Jie's face is blurred, your eyes don't need checked. I did that on purpose.

I had a conversation today with a Chinese woman. She thought that we should give Min a "regular" name. She said that all kids want to do is "fit in" and that a name like "Min" is too strange that Americans wouldn't accept it and that I should give her a regular American name. I then told her that "Min" was an easy name for Americans to say and spell and that would be hard for her to change her name. When she heard that we would be giving Min an English middle name, she thought that was good. Then Min could choose which name she wanted to use. So, this woman has given us her blessing to keep Min's name, not that we ever needed it, but now we have it. Now the quest begins for a middle name. We don't even have a short list right now, but we'll get one before too long.
Beautiful Min, we have to find you a good middle name!