I find naming another human being to be very difficult. Is the name unique enough, but not odd or strange? Will it fit their personality? Is it suitable as a child's name but adult enough for when they are grown?
If you ask Len, I poured over baby name books by the dozen each time I was pregnant and could only come up with a few names each time. So when it came to naming yet another baby I left that to Len, who in a matter of seconds, said William and that was the end of that.
WILLIAM (Irish/Scottish/English) - Determined Protector
JOSEPH (Hebrew) - God will Increase
XIAOHU (Chinese) - Little Tiger
Why William: Because of it's ethnic background (and my love of Mel Gibson-think Braveheart)
Why Joseph: That's for his Pop Pop
Why Xiaohu: That will forever be a part of who he is
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
The TA Countdown and ticker timing
Now we wait, again...(waiting is a very familiar theme with adoption). The countdown for our Travel Approval (TA) began on Friday, July 24 as that is the date GWCA sent out our signed LSC. The word is that is can take anywhere from 2-5 weeks for our approval to travel, with "WC" kids getting a TA turnaround on the quicker end. Here's hoping that to be true.
One of the questions we were asked involved our little countdown ticker on this page and why the length of time reads only 2.5 years. We started the ticker based on the date our dossier was officially logged in China (2/5/2007) not when we began the paperwork collection to form the dossier. While we were working on everything from June 2006, until you received your LID from CCAA with your completed dossier, your not eligible for a possible match with a child so we used that date to begin the official count down to baby Clark.
One of the questions we were asked involved our little countdown ticker on this page and why the length of time reads only 2.5 years. We started the ticker based on the date our dossier was officially logged in China (2/5/2007) not when we began the paperwork collection to form the dossier. While we were working on everything from June 2006, until you received your LID from CCAA with your completed dossier, your not eligible for a possible match with a child so we used that date to begin the official count down to baby Clark.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
LSC in Austin...
We were able to get our signed LSC and the other required documents completed and copied in time for a 6pm pick-up by Fed-ex last night. To be specific, it was a 6:02pm pick-up. How do I know this? I stalked the Fed-ex man. Ok, there I said it. I waited in the car until he came and picked up all the packages from the box. Just call me Glenn Close.
Received an e-mail alert from Fed-ex that the package has already been delivered and signed for by GWCA this morning at 9:23am (8:23am in Austin) so we are off and running.
It looks like it will go to CCAA tomorrow (Friday) with a bunch of other lucky families who received their LSC's too.
(This is one of Will's first photo's that we know of - we don't know exactly from what date/age.)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Fed-ex has arrived...
The Fed-ex man dropped off the package with our LSC at 9:36am EST. It was stamped in China as approved on 7/17/2009 so it got here pretty quickly. We will sign and return it tonight for delivery to GWCA in Austin who will send it back to CCAA on Friday.
Now we wait for our TA. If all goes smoothly, we could be departing in mid September.
Now we wait for our TA. If all goes smoothly, we could be departing in mid September.
This is what it looks like. A simple, single piece of paper makes all the difference!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
THE LSC IS COMING, THE LSC IS COMING...
WOW - You won't believe the call that I got on my cell at 4:33pm EST today. Well maybe you can by the title of this message. Stephanie from GWCA called and asked me "if I would like a son". You can imagine what my answer was! CCAA has approved us as Xiaohu's family!
Day 38 must be our lucky day. Tomorrow we should receive a Fed-ex to my office with the official LSC document to sign and return. If we can get it signed and anything else that is required to go with it back to Stephanie by Friday, it will be sent back to CCAA then. At that point CCAA will work on our TA and after that GWCA will secure our Consulate appointment.
2-4 weeks is the average time to get your TA back (we've been told the waiting child track is usually on the shorter side, so fingers crossed) and then another 6 or so weeks after that to travel to pick up the newest Clark. With any luck we'll be in Beijing September.
The kids are excited and we are just thrilled that it's all coming together. Talk about a loooonnnngggg labor. I'm only used to labor lasting from 6 hours at the longest to 20 minutes at the shortest. ;)
More on the LSC tomorrow once I know what it actually is.
Day 38 must be our lucky day. Tomorrow we should receive a Fed-ex to my office with the official LSC document to sign and return. If we can get it signed and anything else that is required to go with it back to Stephanie by Friday, it will be sent back to CCAA then. At that point CCAA will work on our TA and after that GWCA will secure our Consulate appointment.
2-4 weeks is the average time to get your TA back (we've been told the waiting child track is usually on the shorter side, so fingers crossed) and then another 6 or so weeks after that to travel to pick up the newest Clark. With any luck we'll be in Beijing September.
The kids are excited and we are just thrilled that it's all coming together. Talk about a loooonnnngggg labor. I'm only used to labor lasting from 6 hours at the longest to 20 minutes at the shortest. ;)
More on the LSC tomorrow once I know what it actually is.
Homestudy Update...
Last night we received our 2nd homestudy update since we began the process. The need for this update was to determine if our social worker felt we would be capable to parent a child with a special need. We are happy to report that we got a positive update and they approved us for a special needs child as well as a healthy child of either gender, up to the age of 36 months.
Our special needs, gender and age approved status has paved the way for us to now forward our homestudy to USCIS for their consideration and an update to our I-171 to include a child with special needs so we can continue on with Will's adoption and get through the US Consulate in China without delay.
Now we continue to wait for our LSC and TA! Hopefully we'll have some new information on that this week as we are at day 38 on the LSC countdown.
Our special needs, gender and age approved status has paved the way for us to now forward our homestudy to USCIS for their consideration and an update to our I-171 to include a child with special needs so we can continue on with Will's adoption and get through the US Consulate in China without delay.
Now we continue to wait for our LSC and TA! Hopefully we'll have some new information on that this week as we are at day 38 on the LSC countdown.
Friday, July 17, 2009
From the Beginning...
Back in 2000 we attended our first inter-country adoption seminar. We didn't have children at the time and thought this might be the way we wanted to grow our family. Not too long after that I became pregnant and had our first child, a son in May of 2001. Griffin was followed two years later by our first daughter, Elena Grace.
A few years went by and in early 2006 we started talking about adoption again. Talk became action and by June 2006 we found our adoption agency, Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA) and started the process.
I use the term process versus journey, as that is exactly what it is, a full blown, long drawn, intrusive process. Not to scare any prospective adoptive parents away, but it's work. I would say this is the "labor pains" portion of adopting.
There are fees, and government forms, and finger prints and background checks, social worker interviews, home studies, birth certificates, references, etc. that have to be obtained, collected, authenticated, notarized, arranged, reviewed and so on.
We managed to accomplish all this by December and GWCA sent our dossier to China on the 22nd. A couple months later we received our official log-in date (LID) of 2/5/2007 from the China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). As of this date, the time frames for adopting a healthy baby girl (approximately 10 months old) was about a year and a half, give or take so we figured by the summer of 2008 we should be matched with our daughter.
The summer of 2008 did bring us a beautiful baby girl, Jocelyn, but she came the old fashioned way(and very much by surprise!).
The wait times were growing and were looking more like three to four year now, so we continued to wait. I'd like to say patiently, but that wouldn't be true.
In April of 2009 we attended the East Meets West conference held by our agency, GWCA and I attended a seminar I wasn't even signed up for called "The Waiting Child".
A "Waiting Child" in the terms of Chinese adoption is a child with some level of disability, some mild, some not. GWCA staff had just flown back from Beijing after hosting a three day "rodeo" at an event called Hope Camp at the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute (BCWI) and they had photos of some of the children they had the opportunity to meet.
While watching the slide show I saw this beautiful little baby and even commented to the person sitting next to me how pretty he/she was, but didn't think more about it.
We did however, come home that night and submit a "waiting child" application with our agency just in case this was the way we were to find our child.
In Mid-May GWCA held a webinar with information on the Hope Camp Kids so I decided to attend. Well...there "HE" was again, that beautiful child with the pouty lips that I saw the month before. Staff from our agency met with, held and played with him and offered such sweet descriptions that we asked to see his file.
Needless to say, this is where our journey finally begins, with a few pictures, a brief medical history and hearts filled with love for a boy we've yet to meet, our William Joseph Xiaohu.
A few years went by and in early 2006 we started talking about adoption again. Talk became action and by June 2006 we found our adoption agency, Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA) and started the process.
I use the term process versus journey, as that is exactly what it is, a full blown, long drawn, intrusive process. Not to scare any prospective adoptive parents away, but it's work. I would say this is the "labor pains" portion of adopting.
There are fees, and government forms, and finger prints and background checks, social worker interviews, home studies, birth certificates, references, etc. that have to be obtained, collected, authenticated, notarized, arranged, reviewed and so on.
We managed to accomplish all this by December and GWCA sent our dossier to China on the 22nd. A couple months later we received our official log-in date (LID) of 2/5/2007 from the China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). As of this date, the time frames for adopting a healthy baby girl (approximately 10 months old) was about a year and a half, give or take so we figured by the summer of 2008 we should be matched with our daughter.
The summer of 2008 did bring us a beautiful baby girl, Jocelyn, but she came the old fashioned way(and very much by surprise!).
The wait times were growing and were looking more like three to four year now, so we continued to wait. I'd like to say patiently, but that wouldn't be true.
In April of 2009 we attended the East Meets West conference held by our agency, GWCA and I attended a seminar I wasn't even signed up for called "The Waiting Child".
A "Waiting Child" in the terms of Chinese adoption is a child with some level of disability, some mild, some not. GWCA staff had just flown back from Beijing after hosting a three day "rodeo" at an event called Hope Camp at the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute (BCWI) and they had photos of some of the children they had the opportunity to meet.
While watching the slide show I saw this beautiful little baby and even commented to the person sitting next to me how pretty he/she was, but didn't think more about it.
We did however, come home that night and submit a "waiting child" application with our agency just in case this was the way we were to find our child.
In Mid-May GWCA held a webinar with information on the Hope Camp Kids so I decided to attend. Well...there "HE" was again, that beautiful child with the pouty lips that I saw the month before. Staff from our agency met with, held and played with him and offered such sweet descriptions that we asked to see his file.
Needless to say, this is where our journey finally begins, with a few pictures, a brief medical history and hearts filled with love for a boy we've yet to meet, our William Joseph Xiaohu.
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