The Brown Envelope

We received our Brown Envelope today from the American Consulate in Guanzghzou, China. This basically means that the U.S. Consulate has received our USCIS approval, and they will have our paperwork for us when we arrive. The envelope contains documents that we will need in order to complete the adoption while in China - it comes in a "brown envelope", so adoptive families refer to it as The Brown Envelope.

Another one of those little things that we can get excited about as we wait.

Death,Taxes and the Frosty...

Isn't that the quote from Benjamin Franklin...

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes, and the Frosty."

You see, we developed quite a taste for the Frosty when we were living in Arkansas about 6 1/2 years ago. First it was just once in a while, then, gradually, 8:00pm would roll around and it was like we just couldn't watch TV without that Frosty in our hands. The great thing about it was that 2 small Frosties only cost us $2.11...no matter what, we could always find $2.11 in change around the house.

Once we moved back here, we recognized our addiction and retrained ourselves to watch TV without that Frosty. Since then, we're able to maintain with a Frosty every month or two.

So, a few days ago, when we were at the Wendy's drive-thru ordering our 2 small Frosties and the man in the box said "that'll be $2.11", we realized that you can always count on the Frosty. Here we are 6 1/2 years later, and we can still scrounge up $2.11 and head to Wendy's to enjoy one of our favorite, most reliable treats.

Have a good weekend and long live the Frosty!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

The Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival) is the oldest and most celebrated holiday in China. Because the Chinese use a lunar calendar, the date of the Spring Festival changes each year. It takes place at some time during the end of January or the beginning of February. This year it falls on Sunday, February 18, 2007.

The Chinese New Year marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It is a time for families to come together and celebrate each other and all of their blessings.

The Chinese calender is based on a 12 year cycle and each year is named after an animal. The year 2007 is the Year of the Pig. People born in the Year of the Pig are said to be honest, sincere and genuine. They have a heart of gold and people admire then tremendously; the best friend anyone can have. (Wonder if our daughter will be born in the Year of the Pig??)

If you'd like to know more about what year you were born in,
click here.

Happy Chinese New Year,
Greg & Laura

By the way, "Gung Hay Fat Choy" = "May prosperity be with you"

Year of the Pig -- Times Square, Hong Kong

Another Month Down

Well, we are now five months into our wait. Timeframes for referrals have continued to creep up and are currently at about 15 1/2 months. Looking back at the past year, it seems that the wait has increased by about 2 weeks a month. We hope this begins to level off soon, but we will continue to be patient and know that it will happen in God's time.

We have added a few new items to our "Words of Inspiration" link...one that we really like by Ralph Waldo Emerson says:

Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.

Congrats to The Vaughan's!

We just wanted to give a quick shout out to Greg's sister Julie and her husband Brad who have recently announced they are expecting their second child in September. Yep, little Nathan is going to be a big brother, and it will be exciting to have another addition to the family.

Congratulations again to Brad and Julie on their wonderful news! Our prayers will be with you, Julie, for a safe and smooth pregnancy.

Love,
Greg & Laura

Long time, no blog!

Ni Hao (hello)

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately...yes, we're still alive. Between the craziness of the ice storm and Laura's grandma breaking her hip, we've been pretty busy.

Not much new in the adoption world right now, the next group of referrals should be arriving in the next week or so and we'll be able to tell if the wait time has gone up or stayed the same (or, dare I say, gone down).

Remember the cute twin girls we posted a video of a couple months ago (the ones singing "The Wheels on the Bus")? Well, here is another cute video of them, this time showing off their dance moves - a couple of them resembling Elaine from Seinfeld...





Hope this brings you a little mid-week cheer.



(love), Greg and Laura

"4" What It's Worth...

... we've been logged in four months today.

Fun Fact:
The fortune cookie actually originated in San Francisco. And if you happen to be in Springfield and find yourself dining at a little place called Tasia, don't ask for one because they'll laugh at you. Apparently they like to keep it pretty authentic. :-\

Please, Paula, just leave it alone...

Sorry for the delayed response...Laura's grandma took a spill and is in the hospital with a broken hip.

Well, Paula Zahn's second attempt wasn't much better. A clearly nervous and uncomfortable Paula began the show talking about the thousands of emails they had received from the previous show. The program started off great with David Youtz, president of the Greater New York Chapter of Families With Children From China, speaking on behalf of the adoption community. He and his wife have adopted four daughters from China, including triplets.

After David's part of the segment, two of the "stooges" from the last show once again made an appearance...this is where we wished we would have just stopped watching. One of them actually admitted he was wrong, however, Roland Martin continued to spew the same venom as the previous show and, of course, made sure he got in the last word. If you would like to read the transcripts, click here (you'll find it at the very top this time).

While at first we were glad CNN tried to re-address the fiasco that was caused last Friday, they have now dropped the ball, not once, but twice. We sent them another letter basically stating that it might be best if they just leave the topic of international and domestic adoption alone since clearly, they aren't capable of getting it right.

Unfortunately we've just heard that Paula will be airing yet another segment tonight. Here's the summary as listed on her website: She's a proud parent now, but if she wanted to do it again, she couldn't. Will strict overseas adoption standards rule you out too? Tune in Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on "Paula Zahn Now."

We've decided not to watch... we're ready to move on to better things.

Paula Zahn and the Three Stooges

Did any of you happen to watch the Paula Zahn Now show on CNN last Friday night (1/5/07)? We had heard they were going to be talking about China's new adoption guidelines, so we decided to tune in. It seemed to start off well, talking about the new regulations and how China is concerned about doing what is best for the children (as we've mentioned in previous posts).

Paula was then joined by a panel of "experts" to engage in a round table discussion about the new guidelines... or so it seemed. The discussion quickly turned ugly as the focus moved away from the changes being made by the CCAA and into the territory of "what's the big deal with Chinese children?" We couldn't believe our ears as we listened to these people arrogantly try to speculate as to why so many people choose to adopt from China. Basically what they were insinuating was that by adopting from China people think they will have children that are more lovable, like little porcelain dolls, and will be more intelligent, one day growing up to be doctors. These were their words.

Hard to believe anyone could say something so ignorant? Check it out for yourselves... Below is a clip of the part of the segment where Ms. Zahn and her "three stooges" panel weighed in on their opinions (you might have to click the play button twice). If you'd like to read the actual transcripts, click here and scroll about two-thirds of the way down.




Obviously this created quite an uproar in the Chinese adoption community. As soon as we finished watching, we started composing a letter that we ended up e-mailing to many CNN execs. along with all of the members of the panel. Click here if you would like to read what our letter said.

Fast forward to today (Monday) afternoon... we just found out through one of the online adoption forums that Paula Zahn will be doing a follow-up segment about last Friday's show tonight at 7:00pm central. Apparently CNN has received so many emails about this they've decided to re-address the issue tonight and have even been so kind as to invite an adoption professional to speak this time (Are you all picking up on the sarcasm?? Because we're laying it on pretty thick!). Hopefully there will be more accurate and appropriate information presented this time along with less racism and stereotyping. We'll see how well CNN can backpedal...

Greg & Laura

News Flash!!

The December group of referrals have arrived and according to this info box from the CCAA website, the LID cut-off for this group was September 27, 2005. For those who don't remember, our LID is September 12, 2006. So, as you can see, we're now up to about a 15 month wait.

In other news, many of you have probably heard the reports regarding the new eligibility regulations to adopt from China. We found out that these won't go into effect until May 1, 2007 and received confirmation that we will be grandfathered in since we were logged in prior to this date. Basically these new regulations are much stricter on things like the health of the adoptive parents, age of parents, length of marriage, education, finances, criminal background, and singles are now ineligilble. While this might make it harder for some people to adopt from China in the future, people should keep in mind that the CCAA is trying only to think of the children, making sure that they're placed in the best possible homes.

To end on a more positive note, we have added a new link in the sidebar called "Words of Inspiration" with some of our favorite Bible verses, poems and other writings that we've come across. We'll continue to build on this collection, so check it out from time to time.

Take care, everybody!

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a nice Christmas. While we missed Greg's dad greatly this Christmas, we were thankful for our nephew, Nathan, who always provides much needed comic relief for all of us.


We wish everyone a wonderful 2007 filled with good health, much happiness, and many blessings!

Cheers,
Greg and Laura

Hearts' Desire

We just wanted to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Joel and Misty on their recent decision to adopt! We are so happy for them and know they are going to be awesome parents. You can follow them throughout their journey at: http://desireofourheart.blogspot.com.

Here is a poem we came across recently (and love) that we would like to dedicate to them...

Not flesh of my flesh, Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously my own.
Never forget for a single minute,
You didn't grow under my heart - but in it.
--- Fleur Conkling Heylinger

Brought to you by the number 3...

Another month of waiting under our belt - we've been logged in 3 months now. Just yesterday we found out the CCAA had it's annual meeting last week and apparently will be implementing some new guidelines in 2007. Our agency told us that we shouldn't be effected since we're already logged in. One not-so-great piece of information that we heard through the grapevine is that referral times won't be shortening any time soon, in fact we've heard they are going to continue to hang around the 14-16 month timeframe. Needless to say, we are pretty disappointed by this bit of news. AAI is sending a detailed letter to their clients with all the new guidelines, so we'll know more when we receive it...but as mentioned we should be "grandfathered in". Now, if only we could make the referral times speed up...

Half the Sky

Half the Sky is a foundation that works to help children in orphanages in China. It was created in 1998 by adoptive parents of orphaned Chinese children. Half the Sky's mission is to enrich the lives and enhance the prospects for the babies and children in China who still wait to be adopted, and for those who will spend their childhoods in orphanages. They establish early childhood education, personalized learning for older children, and infant nurture programs to provide the children stimulation, individual attention, and an active learning environment. They have four specific programs that they put into the orphanages - The Baby Sisters Infant Nurture Program, The Little Sisters Preschool Program, The Big Sisters Program, and The Family Village Program.

Their website, www.halfthesky.org , is loaded with information on each of the programs as well as where and how many orphanages they are working in, etc. They also have items for sale, volunteer opportunities in China, and many different ways you can donate to help further their work.

Below is a picture we found on their website showing one of the nurture care centers (playrooms). As you can see, it's a stark contrast to the pictures in our last post.

This is such a wonderful organization, hope you get a chance to check them out. Have a good weekend...

A Closer Look - Orphanages in China

While it's hard to find too many statistics on Chinese orphanages, we've been able to compile some information for you.

We read an article by Dr. Jane Liedtke - CEO/Founder of Our Chinese Daughters Foundation - in which she states there are approximately 1,000 orphanages in China. We have also read that, of these, only 250 are permitted to adopt internationally. There is speculation that the CCAA is working to get more orphanages up to standards, eligible for international adoption.

Life in an orphanage in a developing country can be quite harsh, and while some orphanages do a better job than others, overall, orphanages in China are adequate places staffed by caring people. Guess you could say that they do the best they can with what they are given. More and more children are now being placed in foster homes by the orphanages, giving each child more attention and care in a family environment.

Here are a few pictures of some orphanages. As you can see, the conditions can vary widely. For example, some might have cribs with bedding... while others just have boards.

Below is some rare footage from inside one of the orphanages in China. This video was taken by a parent while visiting the orphanage his daughter came from, an opportunity not granted to many who are adopting in China.

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

We have heard positive things about changes being made to facilities and a lot of those changes are made possible through the donations and contributions made by parents adopting children.

Hopefully this has given you a clearer picture of what the orphanages are like in China.