Having a Baby

08/25/2008...this is when I originally posted this on my regular blog...
So as you can see from the front page...we have a new daughter. Not new in the sense that she just came to the world, but new to us. We first looked at her file in July and had to do some research before deciding whether or not her medical condition was something we could take on. After much angst and research we decided this baby was meant to be ours. She was born right at the time last year that we decided to begin this adoption quest...seems like it was meant to be. In the adoption of a waiting child from China things work a bit differently. We locked Keeghan's file on Wednesday July 30th (the day after her birthday) and then had 48 hours to submit a "letter of intent" (LOI) to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). As is typical in our house...we decided late in the day Wednesday to go forward with this. I had to be at work and Doug had his soccer team coming to the house to make signs for a fundraiser they were doing. So, as Doug was on the phone with our adoption agency, I was at work and we were trying to wrap our brains around what needed to be done quickly to ensure we didn't have any issues. I got home from work Wednesday night and Doug had a good start on our LOI. Basically, you put together a letter saying why you want to bring this particular child home, outlining your plan for her medical care, give an overview of what kind of medical insurance you have, and tell the CCAA that you're totally in love with your daughter and can you please, please bring her home. We got all that onto one page. Filled out another form that needed filling out and e-mailed it all back to our agency to be translated. Had a minor snafu with some information we got from the orphanage but forged ahead. Sent the photos of our family that were requested (the CCAA wanted those too) and heard back that our letter was good...all translated and would be sent off. OR...the computer systems at the CCAA were all down and the stuff wouldn't go. Our paperwork got faxed, but that's not how it's supposed to work. The owner of our agency went to the office several times over the weekend in attempts to ensure our LOI got to the CCAA. You see, after the 48 hour deadline, the baby's file becomes unlocked and she is again available for adoption to others...so I spent the weekend in a PANIC that someone else was going to have my daughter. FINALLY, Monday morning we were assured that our paperwork had made it to the CCAA and things were ok. From that point...we waited. I opted not to tell too many people that we had a baby given that there was still a chance something would get messed up. We were waiting for a "pre-approval" letter back. Knowing the Olympics were starting on 8/8 we figured that we'd be waiting a while for that letter. Well...Friday 8/15 as I was making a birthday cake, dinner, and trying to get ready for a Friday night out with the girls the phone rang. It was 5:20 which pretty much guaranteed that it wasn't anyone we really wanted to talk to so I didn't even look for a phone. Devon went to find one and yelled just as the answering machine picked up that it was our adoption agency. Doug grabbed the phone all while I was yelling answer it and got Meg to realize he'd picked up. I was close enough that I could hear that she said we got our pre-approval. This resulted in complete uncharacteristic behaviour for me...jumping up and down and yelling. I was so excited! We got an actual copy of this letter this week...it's a whole paragraph long and simply says, yeah, it's ok, we'll let this adoption go forward. Obviously, we still need to get more paperwork together...change a few things to the fact that we're bringing home a waiting child with a medical condition and wait some more. I'm sure the waiting will get harder, but for now I'm busy working a million hours for the money to go get Keeghan and trying to just get ready for having a baby in general. I did some serious cleaning two weeks ago. The kids rooms needed it and I needed to figure out how to fit a crib somewhere. Carson is still insistant that she's sharing a room with Keeghan so we'll figure that out over the next couple of weeks. I mentioned a dresser to Doug the other day and he simply responded "Do we need another dresser?" to which I said, "Where do you intend to put the baby's clothes?" and he said he'd get back to me on that. So, I'm nesting a bit...trying to get myself and the house together for a new addition. I'm looking forward to having a crib up and really feeling like a baby is coming.

Giving this a go

I already keep a blog via our regular internet server, but I'm thinking I won't be able to access that to post while I'm in China so I thought I'd give blogger a go. I know a few people who have blogger pages and I've seen plenty of folks post while on their adoption trips so hopefully I'll be able to use this page to post while I'm in China bringing Keeghan hom.