The Adoption Road so far…

Here is our story in the readers digest form. In April of 2003 we decided to adopt a girl from China. In May 2003 we traveled to Austin and met with Great Wall China Adoption and attended an all day workshop. Once there it was confirmed to us that both parents would have to be 30 before we could even apply for a child. Snow (the director) told us that we could start our paperwork in May 2005. Fast-forward 2 years….. In May 2005 we started collecting the massive amount of paperwork required for this adoption journey.

We celebrated my 30th birthday and on October 15th our 171H (a wonderful piece of paper from the US government saying that we could adopt) arrived. WOO HOO our paperwork was complete! Our dossier traveled by Fed Ex to China on Oct 21, 2005 and we were Logged in on November 5th, 2005. And so the wait began – the wait was running 6-8 months at that time. But as we waited, the time extended because so many people applied to China in 2005. The current wait is 16-18 months.

11/5/05 is our Log In Date and it’s the date that means everything in the wait. People are matched with children in order of their LID. Currently the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) has matched through October 13th, 2005. We are anticipating being referred our daughter in April 2007 and traveling in May or June 2007.

The babies room and bathroom are decorated and ready. There are clothes and diapers in the closet. There are toys and LOADS of books on the bookshelves. The excitement is building and we are ready to see the face of our child.

Gestation Periods of Animals

My uncle asked me today if we had been “pregnant” for our baby as long as an elephant. I told him we had long since passed that, but I was wrong. We are actually the same as an elephant if you include paperchasing which takes about 5 months. Hee hee.

We will hit 16 months since our paperwork was logged in to China on March 5th.

For your education entertainment here are some average gestation times of various animals:
1) Donkey 12 months
2) Camel 14 months
3) Elephant 21.50 months
4) Gorilla 8.5 months
5) Sperm Whale 16.5 months
6) Sea Lion 11 months
7) Leopard 3 months
8} Cat 3 months