Well, those of you who know me well will not be surprised to hear that I have been a major procrastinator. So much has happened over the last month and a half that I need to spend a moment playing catch-up before I can vent about what is really going on.
First, on my last visit to the blogosphere, we were anxiously awaiting our log-in date. Well...that happened! Wouldn't it have been terrible if I'd say we were still waiting? Thank goodness that's not what happened. We received our "LID" on May 12, 2010. This was just in time for the May waiting child list update as we'd hoped.
A few days prior to May 19th I got word from Yu Ping that the list would be updated. Boy were we excited that we didn't have to wait another full month before the search could begin. The update to the list would occur started at 8:00AM China's time on the 19th. That meant that starting at 8:00PM the 18th we would wait! My thoughts ran wild! If China is updating from 8-5pm their time, what if the match is made in the middle of the night for me? Will I get a call? Will they email? Should I wait up and sit in front of the computer? How many families will they be looking for? Etc, etc, etc! Here is Yu Ping's response: "It depends on what time the match happens. The CCAA will keep uploading new files from 5pm to 2am our time. If the match happens early in the evening then I will give your family a call and share briefly with you the child’s info; If let’s say, we get you matched at 9 or after then I will call you first thing next day morning. I will have to wait until the next day before I can email you the child’s profile though because my home Internet connection will take forever to download the entire file and be emailed to you." Okay, now keep in mind that we are dealing with THREE time zones. This response only made matters worse. 9 or after? 9 or after whose time? 9 her time? 12 our time? Okay, that solves it! We'll stay up until midnight!
Cut to referral day...
I was going bonkers! I tried to stay as preoccupied as possible. I even had Jason watching the bottom of the pile, trashiest TV. We watched The Hills and The City on MTV before finally retiring to the bedroom to watch more junk. Anything was better then what was going through my head! Finally, just after midnight I laid my head down, closed my eyes, and drifted off. Who knows what I would have dreamed about if the phone hadn't rung thirty minutes later. YES, I said, THE PHONE RUNG! And YES, it was Yu Ping! As I mustered half asleep to grab the phone (pretending all the while that I hadn't been woken) I could not believe what was happening. I was about to become a mom! As I answered I heard the most calm and soothing voice state "I made a match. Her name is Pan Ying, and she is from Inner Mongolia. She is 18 months. Her birthday is November 23, 2008 (my birthday!). She has post-operative CHD with TOF. Of course I'm writing down these acronyms, hoping that I'm getting them right. Really, I couldn't stop thinking about what I was being told. A match! A match! A match for us? Yes!
Jason and I immediately raced to the study to begin the phone and email trees put into place. Mom got her text message. Then the phone rang. I got to tell my mom she was going to be a grandma. Crazy!!!
Jason and I then began every bit of research we could. Where is Inner Mongolia? Where is Baotou (her city)? What the heck is CHD and TOF. Jason ended up diagnosing our daughter with some weird hernia of the diaphragm. WRONG! Oops! We then emailed all of the referral info, the info we didn't expect to get until the next day, to the International Adoption doctor in Minnesota. Honestly, it all happened so fast that the rest feels like a blur. All I can say is that it was very hard to sleep at all that night. I think I woke up with MAYBE 2 hours sleep clocked. Maybe!
The next day was filled with a ton of research. We needed to make sure that we were going to be able to accommodate and feel comfortable with her needs. We received a promising report from the Minnesota doctor, but she also mentioned she was going to refer to her pediatric cardiologist. We then began making contact with whoever we could. Patti was wonderful! She knows a lot of folks in the medical profession and began to put her feelers out. Soon we heard from a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic as well as the specialist from Minnesota. Everyone was saying to move forward. Things look great! We may need to consider other surgeries down the road but it's likely that we will not.
Here is our baby at I believe 12 months.
Now that she has been introduced to the world, let me tell you what happened next.
We then had to write our Letter of Intent (LOI) to China stating our plans to adopt Pan Ying and how we'd be able to care for her in the United States. We only had 36 hours to do this. This letter was composed and sent to China on May 21st.
Once LOI is sent, we then wait for our pre-approval. For us, this happened VERY quickly. We received our PA on the following Monday, May 24th.
From pre-approval comes the hardest part, we wait for our Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) A.K.A Letter of Approval (LOA). This letter can take anywhere from 2-4 months...or so we were told.
A couple of weeks ago our weekly email update from WACAP stated that they are happy to report that something in the adoption world is actually taking less time than usual and that is the LOA. They stated that LOA has been reported in as little as one month from log in date (LID). That was great news.
This catches you up for now! I'm sure I missed plenty of details but I'll come back to those later. I have to get to the venting I mentioned earlier. That might have to come tomorrow and may be much more severe by then! Hopefully good news will come and I'll be able to forget all about the need to vent!
Today, 7/11/10, marks the 12 year anniversary of Jason and I being a couple. I actually didn't think of it until we were coming back from picking blueberries. Now that I have though, it has me thinking. First, it has me thinking how terribly happy I am to be married to Jason. He's such a caring person, even when he's trying to be "tough." It also has me thinking that maybe tomorrow really will be our lucky day. Wouldn't that be a great anniversary present? The part I wish I wasn't thinking about is that eleven years into our relationship and we are the only people in our immediate family. That part hurts a little. I just have to remind myself that it is only temporary. With each passing day a little bit of the pain goes away. We're making through. We're still together. Still strong. No matter what anyone thought would happen through the devastation that was our life, we've made it! We are SOOOO looking forward to being parents to Sophie. 
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