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.

Photos from Dinner with China Travel Group

We had another really nice get together with the other two families in our China adoption travel group -- at Jim and Debbie's house. In addition to having a really nice dinner and comparing notes on projected referral dates, we got our first two fabric squares from Jim and Debbie and from Elaine and Scott. Here are the photos.

Update on Status of Referral

Here's a piece of the adoption update we sent last weekend to family and friends with an update on where things stand with the referral:

So far, China has issued referrals for families with log-in dates (LIDs) up to November 1, 2005. Our LID is November 7, 2006. Now the big question is how long it will take for China to process another 6 days of LIDs. The answer is: it depends. China typically issues referrals at the beginning of each month and most recently they have been issuing referrals on only a few days worth of LIDs. We are hopeful that we will get our referral in the beginning of June or July. If that’s the case, we hope to be traveling to China this coming August or September. However, the one thing that has been a constant in this process is the difficulty of predicting anything – so this anticipated timing could change.

Good news -- and everyone in our China travel group is trying to predict when the referral will happen. Here's the quote from Jim Heverin's blog:

As of May 7, 2007, the dossier date processed by China is now NOVEMBER 1, 2005!...six days away from our dossier date (Nov 7, 2005), so we expect a 90% chance of getting the referral in June 2007.

Jim has done an analysis of the probability of the various referral dates. I'm not so sure about the 90% chance thing but hopefully he's right. Believe it or not, there are a number of people who are into predicting China referral dates and other statistics and Jim was happy when I give him a link of a site that analyzes and summarizes past referral data since it does a good job of showing trend lines. The link is:

http://people.wwc.edu/staff/stirra/china/stats/statsdisplay.htm

This link has info on how referral wait time have changed over the past few years (big surprise - the wait has gotten longer).

Another interesting site with information predicting referral dates is "Rumor Queen". The link is:

http://chinaadopttalk.com/

My reaction to reading this site is: "someone has a LOT of time on their hands." But it's a good source of info if you're into that sort of thing. For example, the latest Rumor Queen post says the following:

We are also told that matching has already begun but that the batch is expected to be on schedule (i.e. not an early batch).
If you want to see what my predictions for this month were you can see them here: http://chinaadopttalk.com/2007/05/01/analysis-3/

- Scenario based on April: November 5th
- Bad (but not worse) Case Scenario: November 8th
- Good Case Scenario (recent history): November 13th
- Good Case Scenario that hasn’t happened for a while: Nov 16th
- Most Likely Scenario: Between Nov 8th and 13th

Again, this is just based on what they did last year and this year. They are capable of getting far past the 16th. Something happened in September of 2005 that literally cut their work in half from the month before to the month after. As I’ve recently explained, my theory is that this made people switch to SN and then we saw things further crumble in March of 2006 as a result of NSN families switching to the SN program. So, while it is possible for them to go farther, my predictions show what the new “norm” is and do not take into account what they are actually capable of doing.

This kind of rumor and prediction stuff goes on and on and a little bit goes a long way for me. But the bottom line is that we're all feeling good about the fact that China is now in the same month as our log-in date. So if we don't get the referral in June, hopefully we get it in July. Ok - enough for now.

Joseph

Brunch with Adoption Travel Group

Here are photos from our brunch with the other two families that will be traveling with us to China -- Jim and Debbie; and Scott and Elaine and their daughter Kiran (thanks to Jim and Debbie for sending us these photos!). We all met for Dim Sum in Roslyn, VA. It was a really nice time. Jim demonstrated that he will be a worthy food tester on the trip since he is willing to eat even the nasty looking stuff -- chicken feet and tripe! More later.

Test of Posting to Blog from email

Ok - here's a test of whether we can post to the blog from e-mail rather than going from the Blogger web UI.  If this works, all of the credit goes to Jim Heverin.  If it doesn't work, I'm probably not following his instructions correctly.  Here goes.  J.

NY Times Article on China Adoption and Bat Mitzvah

Oskie sent us this really nice article from the NY Times -- let's see if I can save the link to the blog.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/nyregion/08batmitzvah.html?ex=1174021200&en=1802454579bb3767&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Articles like this make us happy and we look forward to having future moments like this.

J.

Amsterdam Trip -- February of 2007

Here are photos from our Amsterdam trip in February of 2007. What can I say about Amsterdam? It's a beautiful city -- both modern and also old. When R suggested we go there for the President's Day long weekend, I thought it was crazy. Too much going on at work. Not enough time. Too much to do with the adoption. But as usual, R was right about going. Even though we only had a long weekend, it was enough time. The hotel was beautiful -- right overlooking the canal. We walked all over the place and did our share of museums and concerts. Not too many tourismos in any of the places we went (particularly the concerts). More on that later perhaps. J.

Cabo San Lucas, MX in December of 2006

R got the idea that she was tired of cold weather and Northern CA during rainy season wasn't going to be warm enough. So, what's warm, a direct flight, and not to far for Oskie and Thedie to go? Baja - dude! So we arranged to meet O & T in Cabo San Lucas for the Christmas holiday. Of course, I thought that was a silly idea -- too far, bad time at work, etc. Wrong again. It was amazing and well worth the trip. Here are some photos of the beautiful resort we all stayed in -- called Pueblo Bonito Pacifica. J.

Trip to Aspen, CO in August of 2006

Our friends Jim and Brigitte invited us out to Aspen, CO for part of August of 2006. It was great -- except the part about J forgetting to pack any clothes. Yep - we came straight from a few days at the beach and I forgot to pack other clothes (don't know how I did that). So R forced me to go to go clothes shopping before we showed up at J & B's house in Aspen. And the closest to a bargain store in Aspen is Ralph Lauren. So it was an expensive mistake on my part. It was an amazing time -- the best part was sitting in the hot tub overlooking Snowmass Village listening to the jazz from the festival in the valley below. We did a very tough forced march one of the days that I'm still trying to recover from. Here are some photos from the hike. J.

More Family

Now for the Firschein side -- here are some good photos of various Oskie and Thedie visits: R, Oskie, and Thedie in the dining room at 29 Stowe Lane in CA; Thedie with a baby kangaroo (when O & T were in Australia); and Thedie and R shopping in NY/Soho.

J.

Our Family

Ok - where to begin with the family. First on the Herman side. They are so friendly and like hanging out with each other. We have a great group in D.C. on the Herman side-- Etu and Eugenio (E&E); David and Elana (and Adamski and Wessica aka Sister Girlfriend), David (aka Sweetness) and Kelly (and baby Zachary and the new little ones), Uncle Alan and Aunt Naomi (Ney); and Tony and Alisa (and Talia and Arielle) in Swarthmore, PA. Here are some photos of the group, including: R with Talia, Arielle, and The Little Man as a baby; R and Arielle on a visit to Swarthmore; Elana, R and The Little Man as a baby; and R with The Little Man. J.

Visit With Michelle, Andrew, and Hannah

One of the best things about the China adoption process is the amazing good friends we have met as we go through the process together. It is amazing how close we have gotten to our fellow "waiting parents". Here are some photos of our late 2006 visit with Andrew and Michelle who adopted Hannah (check out their blog in the links section). Their blog has a really good description of the China adoption process and a definition of terms. We enjoyed reading about their journey to China through their blog -- in fact, it inspired us to create this blog. More later. J.

Photos from Aruba in September of 2005

Here are a few photos from our Aruba journey -- when was that? Some time last year. What do I remember about that trip? Oh yeah - it was the same time as Hurricane Katrina in August/Sept of 2005. It was surreal sitting there watching the news on CNN and thinking "when are the officials going to come and rescue all of those people?" J.

Visiting Chris and Des in OBX -- May of 2006

Just going through the old photos and came across this good one of R and the D-man and this funny one of me and Chris H and Baby D. when we visited them in the Outer Banks over Memorial Day last year. The caption of the photo of me and Chris can be: "do these guys look competent to be holding a baby?" We had a great time on this trip. The daily plan: wake up, make coffee, go to the bagel store and buy Washington Post. Return to house, Chris and J hang out with D-man while R and Des go running. Finally get up and go out to the beach. Get some food. Then maybe get some soft serve ice cream. Then go home and watch and move and drink a few beers. It was entirely mellow and what we needed. The drive back was long and we realized it was a longer drive than going to the Eastern Shore of Delaware.

- Joseph

J & R Portugal trip in July of 2006

Ok - now we're on a roll. Here's the second official blog posting. Here's a test to see if we can upload photos. These photos are from our Portugal trip July of 2006. Did I mention that we have been going on a lot of trips rather than sitting around D.C. and waiting to get the China referral? I think Portugal was supposed to be the last trip before we traveled to China. Then we went to Cabo San Lucas, MX with Oskie and Thedie as our last trip before China (over the Christmas/New Years vacation). Then we went to Amsterdam for the President's Day long weekend in February. Ok - that's that last pre-China trip, we hope. I'll upload photos from those trips later. J.

Getting started

Ok - this is the first official posting on our adoption journey blog. This morning R got her freak on and said I had to get the blog launched tonight. I know that tone of voice well and opted not to argue (see - after almost 9 years of marriage, I'm finally learning). So I entered the world of the blog. Bear with us as we figure this out and try not to make the blog too lame. I may have to enlist my former AOL friends to get techie on me and make this really cool -- what does a really cool blog do? Play music? Have three dimensional pictures? Make the adoption process go faster? Anyway, that's it for now. More later. Lots more.