Heather at GWCA called today to tell us that our LOA arrived!!! She has overnighted it to us via FedEx, so we'll have it in our hands tomorrow morning!!! :)
Woo hoo!!!!!!
C'mon TA!!!!!!
-Dianne
Monday, July 30, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
Aunt Jo's Artwork!
Ellie's Aunt Jo is nearly finished with mural painting in Ellie's room and it is gorgeous! She has painted tiny sprigs of vines in a few places near the letters on Ellie's wall, and a lovely combination of vines and partially-done ladybugs (Brooks is calling them "BNLB = Bare Naked LadyBugs) just over the top of Ellie's bookcase. Next, she'll add some dragonflies to the mix. We'll post photos when it's completed!
Dianne
Dianne
Understanding Chinese Names
Thanks to a recent APC post, I finally understand how a Chinese name is created! The order is: Family Name, Generation Name, Personal Name. This means that our daughter's Chinese name is as follows:
Family Name = Hong (This last name is given to all children at this SWI)
Generation Name = Xiao (This means that there are likely many other Xiaos at this SWI)
Personal Name = Ying
We have, therefore, named her correctly! We could have gone with either XiaoYing or just Ying. And it's very likely that her nanny has nicknamed her YingYing. :)
Dianne
Family Name = Hong (This last name is given to all children at this SWI)
Generation Name = Xiao (This means that there are likely many other Xiaos at this SWI)
Personal Name = Ying
We have, therefore, named her correctly! We could have gone with either XiaoYing or just Ying. And it's very likely that her nanny has nicknamed her YingYing. :)
Dianne
Friday, July 6, 2007
The CCAA Review Room is a' Rockin'!
We found out yesterday that June '06 LIDs are in the Review Room now! The CCAA has posted that they've finished the review of the May '06 LIDs. They did this in a record 13 days (it took 106 days for them to get through the April '06 LIDs)! What this means for us is that *someone* must have our dossier on their desk!
Bring on that LOA!
Dianne
Bring on that LOA!
Dianne
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
First Post!
Welcome to our Journey to Ellie blog!
Our adoption story has become a complicated one. We started off in the NSN program with Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA) - a wonderful agency! We had indicated in our home study that we are interested in adopting a SN or NSN child, but were not looking at Waiting Child Lists until one day I received an email from IAAP about their latest WC List. After letting this email sit in my inbox for a few days, I looked at the list - mostly just to see the sweet little faces. As I scanned the long list of names, birth dates, and special needs, I kept returning over and over to one little girl - a little girl whose online information had been viewed over 2,000 times, and who still did not have a home! Further investigation showed that in addition to repaired cleft lip and palate, her medical report showed a positive result to her first Hepatitis B surface antigen test. I figured this must be what was scaring potential parents away.
For a couple of days, I returned over and over to look at her sweet face. I didn't even tell Brooks that I had fallen in love with this child! On Thursday, March 1st, I called Brooks at work and asked, "Can we adopt a Hepatitis B positive child?" His answer: "Yeah, why not?"!!! After seeing her photos, he said, "I want to be this little girl's Daddy." I called Cheryl at IAAP and told her that we knew Hong Xiao Ying was our daughter. Unfortunately, Cheryl had to report to me that the CCAA would no longer allow agencies to work together to bring SN children home, so we'd have to withdraw our dossier, quit GWCA, lose all the money we'd already paid to GWCA, and start all over again with IAAP. It took us all of an hour to decide that we had no choice but to do it! Xiao Ying is definitely our child! GWCA agreed that this was the only way we could do this, so they wrote a letter in support of our decision and forwarded that to the CCAA, along with our letter requesting the withdrawal of our dossier in order to pursue this adoption. At the same time, IAAP translated and submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt Xiao Ying. We received Pre-Approval (PA) through IAAP on 4/9/07 - just days after finding out that the CCAA preferred that instead of withdrawing our dossier, IAAP should release Xiao Ying's file to GWCA, so that we could continue to pursue her adoption through GWCA.
On 6/1, GWCA received our daughter's file. That same day, we re-wrote our Letter of Intent (LOI), and then it was again translated and reached the CCAA on 6/5/07. Two days later, they granted us our second PA!
Now we're waiting for our LOA - Letter of Acceptance - otherwise known as the Letter Seeking Confirmation. This is a letter from the CCAA which we sign to indicate that we do indeed intend to adopt Xiao Ying. A couple of weeks after this, we should receive Travel Approval (TA), and the hectic travel arrangements will begin!
-Dianne
Our adoption story has become a complicated one. We started off in the NSN program with Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA) - a wonderful agency! We had indicated in our home study that we are interested in adopting a SN or NSN child, but were not looking at Waiting Child Lists until one day I received an email from IAAP about their latest WC List. After letting this email sit in my inbox for a few days, I looked at the list - mostly just to see the sweet little faces. As I scanned the long list of names, birth dates, and special needs, I kept returning over and over to one little girl - a little girl whose online information had been viewed over 2,000 times, and who still did not have a home! Further investigation showed that in addition to repaired cleft lip and palate, her medical report showed a positive result to her first Hepatitis B surface antigen test. I figured this must be what was scaring potential parents away.
For a couple of days, I returned over and over to look at her sweet face. I didn't even tell Brooks that I had fallen in love with this child! On Thursday, March 1st, I called Brooks at work and asked, "Can we adopt a Hepatitis B positive child?" His answer: "Yeah, why not?"!!! After seeing her photos, he said, "I want to be this little girl's Daddy." I called Cheryl at IAAP and told her that we knew Hong Xiao Ying was our daughter. Unfortunately, Cheryl had to report to me that the CCAA would no longer allow agencies to work together to bring SN children home, so we'd have to withdraw our dossier, quit GWCA, lose all the money we'd already paid to GWCA, and start all over again with IAAP. It took us all of an hour to decide that we had no choice but to do it! Xiao Ying is definitely our child! GWCA agreed that this was the only way we could do this, so they wrote a letter in support of our decision and forwarded that to the CCAA, along with our letter requesting the withdrawal of our dossier in order to pursue this adoption. At the same time, IAAP translated and submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt Xiao Ying. We received Pre-Approval (PA) through IAAP on 4/9/07 - just days after finding out that the CCAA preferred that instead of withdrawing our dossier, IAAP should release Xiao Ying's file to GWCA, so that we could continue to pursue her adoption through GWCA.
On 6/1, GWCA received our daughter's file. That same day, we re-wrote our Letter of Intent (LOI), and then it was again translated and reached the CCAA on 6/5/07. Two days later, they granted us our second PA!
Now we're waiting for our LOA - Letter of Acceptance - otherwise known as the Letter Seeking Confirmation. This is a letter from the CCAA which we sign to indicate that we do indeed intend to adopt Xiao Ying. A couple of weeks after this, we should receive Travel Approval (TA), and the hectic travel arrangements will begin!
-Dianne
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