Thoughtful friends

Today I had two wonderful surprises. The first was from my friend Heather who works in a winery in Michigan. She sent me two bottles of wine (one for now, one for 2015) and a note "from Amelie". It made me a little teary it was so sweet!

I also got a card in the mail from a friend's parents who I had never met. They sent me the most beautiful message in the card.

My Shower and Last Hurrah

I had the most amazing shower this weekend, organized by the most amazing friends. It was very cherry blossom themed (as that is what her room will be like) with a wine tasting theme because why not! Everyone had a ball. Thank you all for coming!

Newest Pics of Amelie

Ok...clearly I am not computer savvy. I scanned the newest pics and they saved in PDF format. So, as per the instructions of a fellow RQ'er I saved them as a jpeg through Paint. Well, it worked....kind of. I had to do a print screen which literally printed everything, including the toolbar....but here is all of her...in 15 layers of clothing as the Chinese love to bundle them up even in mid-summer!

The stork does not always have feathers....

He came today and arrived with a few extra pics and her medical info. Sending it off to a prominant IA doc to review. I am confident that it will all be well!

November 19, 2009

The day my precious little gal was born. She is a Scorpio and also Year of the Ox...just like her mama.

I have been keeping a journal the last several years so I could look back and see what I was doing the day she was born. Not all that exciting...or so I thought! "Went to Barbara's to work on the newsletter, took Annie to the dog park. Almost went to Bar Louie to meet the gals but too upset at the rumors on RQ to leave home. Watched The Office and made banana bread instead."

Funny I was too upset by adoption rumors to go have fun...little did I know, halfway across the world, my little love was born.

The SWI in Fuzhou City-Jiangxi Province

We are so very blessed that our little angel is in a Half the Sky supported orphanage. Children in these orphanages have higher caregiver to children ration, more stimulation for the children, ac/heat, more toys for development, ect. We are so blessed that our little girl is being taken good care of. I can sleep a little better at night knowing she is in good hands.

www.halfthesky.org

May I introduce....

Fu Jiu Gzhang....born November 19, 2009. She is a good sleeper, loves to nap (hey me too!), loves the water and to have baths, wakes at 6 am (yikes), she loves to laugh, is active and restless. Weighs a teeny 12 pounds!!!!!!!

In a Little While

Listening to my favorite U2 song over and over this morning as I anxiously await the call....

In a little while Surely you'll be mine In a little while I'll be there In a little while This hurt will hurt no more I'll be home, love!

When the night takes a deep breath And the daylight has no air If I crawl, if I come crawling home Will you be there

In a little while I won't be blown by every breeze Friday night running To Sunday on my knees

That girl, that girl She's mine And I've know her since Since she was a little girl With Spanish eyes Oh, when I saw her In a pram they pushed her by

My, how you've grown Well it's been, yeah It's been a little while

Slow down my beating heart Man dreams one day to fly A man takes a rocketship into the skies He lives on a star that's dying in the night And follows in the trail The scatter of light

Slow down my beating heart Slowly, slowly love Slow down my beating heart Slowly, slowly love Slow down my beating heart

If the phone doesn't ring...it's me (or my agency)

Ok...so no news of calls being made in Europe, so maybe they didn't land today. Ugh. GETMEOFFTHISROLLERCOASTERNOW!!

Red Thread

"The Red Thread" is a symbolic saying very popular among families adopting from China. The Red Thread is an old Chinese saying that means when babies are born they are already connected to the important people in his/her life by a red thread. This thread can be twisted or stretched, but notbroken.

How the Matching Room Works

As stolen from RQ:

First, they review the baby dossiers and make sure there are no issues with them. We are told that they then count up all of the baby dossiers that are eligible for matching that month and then look to see how far this stack will go in the parent dossiers without sending out a partial day, and they pull all of those parent files. That is the likely cut-off date. Sometimes something happens and they don’t get this far. Sometimes something happens and they get farther.
Next they match orphanages up with agencies. This orphanage has six babies, this agency has six families. These two orphanages are in the same province and have a total of 12 babies, this agency has 12 families. When they are through with this is when (I believe) some agencies start to get information about the cut-off date. Or at least it is when they used to start getting information.

And then they start matching individual babies to individual families. At some point during this part of the process most agencies used to hear from their person in the matching room to let them know how many referrals they will be receiving and from what province(s). Some agencies shared this information with their clients. Some chose not to. Recently I’ve gotten the feeling that many agencies are still getting this information but they are being given orders by the CCAA to not share this information with the families.

Just as in the review room, each matcher is assigned certain agencies and is responsible for communicating with their agencies. Some matchers tell their agency the cut-off date, some matchers tell their agency “you have X number of referrals arriving”, some matchers give their agency a list of that agency’s families that will be receiving a referral. And some matchers don’t say anything at all to their agencies.

The next question that comes up is generally how the matchers match families and babies. I’ve heard from several people who have had the opportunity to speak with someone who works in the matching room. The various conversations seem to all agree that they first look for something that stands out: a matching birthday, a baby who looks a lot like a parent, or a baby who likes music and a parent who teaches music. Several matching people have stated they match by bone structure of the baby’s face and the parent’s faces (this is why they need our passport photos, so they can compare our mug shot with the baby’s mug shot). Some have stated that they used Chinese astrology, also. Once they’ve matched the obvious matches they then start to look at things like age of child requested. The age requested is not a priority for them, they feel they are matching families and not filling orders.

We are being matched!

Ok, breathe, breathe, breathe......I know I have been bad about posting but there hasn't been much interesting going on with the wait until now. The CCAA is matching right now. Matching our child to our file. And then in a few short days...I hope...they will wrap up all the files for this batch and send them on a FedEx plane to the adoption agencies all over the world. And then we will get "the call". Let's just say my production level at work ain't all that great. I can't do anything but think about my kid!

This picture is of the matching room over in China. All the colored files are for a different agency. I wonder what color CCAI is? Ah...who cares....I want to see what is in the file!