Dinner with China Travel Group

We had a really nice dinner tonight with the China travel group at Scott, Elaine, and Kiran's house. We were all in a good mood and comparing photos of our little ones. There's really good chemistry between all of us which has made this part of the adoption process really amazing.

The exact date of the China departure is still TBD but we a hoping for early- to mid-August or even a little before that. As much as we are all anxious to get to China, we really enjoy hanging out and comparing notes. And we are all enjoying this part of the process as well.

At the dinner tonight, Elaine and Kiran gave us a tour of the baby room (see photo next to the crib). Jim and I also played fetch with Bailey (the family dog). The dog actually brings the ball back to you which is a first for me (my past experience has always been that they get the ball and go chew on it somewhere else). But the bulk of the time was just hanging out eating great food and sharing our excitement about the upcoming trip. There was one pretty funny moment when we all were sitting around the kitchen table looking at our referral photos and Jim noticed that the photos of all of our babies were taken minutes apart (he noticed that the rain drops in the photo background were in the same spot!). I got a photo of Jim doing the photo comparison! It still cracks me up that he figured that out!

For a good description of the dinner, check out Jim and Debbie's blog posing (see link below):

http://heverin.blogspot.com/2007/06/another-family-adoption-dinner.html

Ok - have to run now. I'll post more photos later.

J.

Post-Referral Excitement

Ok - it's been a while since we updated the blog and we were starting to get some complaints from family and friends on the radio silence. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and excitement. After we got the referral, we had a few hectic days of doctor consultations. The medical checks came out fine and we signed off on the referral paperwork the Tuesday after we got the referral (June 11). The night we signed all of the paperwork accepting the referral, we had a nice informal evening with Esther and Gene (Etu and Eugenio) -- they had stopped by to drop off their passports and China Visa application forms since they will be coming to China with us and the other two families in our travel group. Etu brought over some cute baby clothes for Jennifer Rose and Rachel and Etu had a good time checking it out. Eugenio and I reviewed the Visa forms and got everything filled out. I dropped all of the forms back to Barker the next day (Wednesday, June 12) and it felt great to have everything finished on our side.

Barker sent the referral acceptance forms back to China on Friday, June 14 and also sent in our China Visa applications. We hope to get travel approval back from Chinia in early- or mid-July and then Barker will request an appoinment with the U.S. Consulate in China. Once we have that date confirmed, Barker will be able to confirm our travel dates and we can book our travel. We are currently hoping to travel in mid-August but it could come a little sooner or later than that. I had heard that this part of the wait is really difficult but so far it has not been bad at all. We have been so busy -- between the adoption-related stuff and work -- so we have not had too much time to be anxious about the wait.

So that's pretty much it for now. We'll post more later. We have plans to get together with the other two families in our travel group on Sunday at Scott & Elaine's house -- so we're looking forward to comparing notes and just being excited together. We also have more logistical items to go over -- like deciding on a joint gift to provide to the orphanage and also just figuring out what to bring with us to China. But it's somewhat fun to think about that stuff.

Ok - signing off.

J.

Here's Little Miss Firschein!

Introducing Jennifer Rose Yu Hua Firschein! We had a great meeting at Barker yesterday and a celebration with our families and a few friends last night for dinner. We have posted a few pics below -- two from our meeting at Barker and one of the star of the show. More to come!

Love,

R & J

She's Here!

Big news -- we got "the call" at 1 p.m. yesterday from our adoption agency (The Barker Foundation) and it's a girl!!! The referral is being translated into English today and we expect to go to Barker on Friday to get pictures and the medical history. The details are:

Name: Dong Fang Yu Hua
Birthdate: 9/25/06 (one day before Rachel's mother's!)
Province: Jiangxi
Here is the link for a map of the China provinces (it is in the Southeast close to Guangzhou).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:China_administrative.png

She is at the Taihe Social Welfare Institute (in the Southern part of the province).

We learned that she is in a smaller orphanage that is located in a poor farming community. We are very anxious to get the rest of the information and more importantly to see her picture! We plan to have our friend, Michelle Potter (who is a pediatrician), look over the medical information on Friday or Saturday. Then we have until the end of next week to accept the referral. When we get the pictures on Friday, we will scan them and post them so everyone can see. We are ecstatic!

Rachel & Joseph

Talking Points Say "Cautiously Optimistic" But Nothing More Definitive

The rumor sites are buzzing with activity about a possible referral this week for people with log-in dates through November 7, 2005 (our LID is November 7). We're both still treating these as rumors and nothing close to fact at this point. Even the Rumor Queen (major China rumor site) is reporting the 11/7 LID referral rumor as only an "R3" -- meaning that it is not even close to confirmed. So we're powering through and just waiting to hear from Barker Foundation.

It's is fun to see people's reactions. My favorite so far is the one that Jim Heverin posted on his blog yesterday. As noted in our previous postings, Jim and Debbie are in our China travel group and they have the same 11/7 LID as us. Jim's blog posting yesterday said the following:

Oh jeeze...oh crap.....oh man........I...uh......buh
WE HAVE A SIGHTING OF THE GREAT WHITE BEASTIE, CAP'N AHAB, SIR!
It looks like we are in for this month!!!!! We should get a referral in the next few days!!!!! From that site and related sites, it appears there are at least two confirmed referrals with dates of 11/7/05, and at least two confirmed people who said they just missed with dates of 11/8 and 11/9. This means we just BARELY made it!

That pretty much sums up the anticipation. But as we keep saying, we're "cautiously optimistic" that we'll be hearing something in June but we're leaving it at that for now. Sounds sort of Alan Greenspan-esque but that's our story and we're sticking with it. We don't want to have any irrational exuberance. By the way, to check out Jim's full set of blog postings, check out the link to "Jim and Debbie's Adoption Blog" in the links section to the right. And to see the insanity of the rumor blogs, check out the "Rumor Queen" link.

As we wait to hear news on the referral, we have been getting some wonderful letters with fabric swatches and good wishes notes for the "100 Wishes Quilt" project that we have asked friends and family to contribute to. It's fun to have so many of our closest friends and family be part of this process with us and to see what they come up with in the fabric samples and the notes. In answer to the question "are you going to sew the quilt yourselves?", the answer is a big "are you kidding?!". We don't even own a sewing machine! We are working with an artist and expert quilt maker to put the quilt together. She promises that it won't be Laura Ashley-looking -- which is a good thing in our book. So we have a box that we are putting all of the fabric samples and good wishes notes in as we save them for the quilt-maker.

Ok - that's it for now. Hopefully more to come later this week or early next week.

J.