New Pictures of Jake!

We received new pictures of Jake a few weeks ago but I'm just getting around to posting them. It was nice to get such great pictures, since our referral photos were just short of a thumbnail photo. We met with the specialist and have a tentative surgery date set to repair the palate. We decided to go with Dr. Court Cutting at NYU. I did so much research about cleft repairs and doctors, that Jim said I could probably do the surgery myself. I think he's just happy to get a chance to use the computer again. After meeting with Dr. Cutting, we felt great about the choice we had made. Not looking forward to 3-weeks with a 3 year old on a liquid diet, but I guess that's a small price to pay. We are still hoping to get our LOA anytime between now and the beginning of December, which should put our travel dates in January. Right now we are putting together a care package of small toys and a photo album of our family.

LID Finally

We finally got our LID! Not that it took China long to give us a log in date, but this second time around really took us a long time to get to this point. Our LID is 9-7-07, which means our LOA might come anytime between the end of November to beginning of December based on current waiting trends. I really wish we could travel before the end of the year but that seems unlikely. I've had a good time buying more cute boy things. Emily has even started to tell me about all the toys her brother is going to need. I'm hoping that we get a PA soon so we can send Jake a care package with a photo album of our family.

One of our next priorities is to decide upon a cleft team for treatment upon our return. We have an appointment with Dr. Cutter at NYU early next month. I was really happy with his office and learned a great deal of information just from talking with his staff when I made our appointment.

I started taking Chinese language classes this week. My goal is to be able to speak some very basic words to help make Jake's transition a bit easier. I also want to be able to thank his caregiver in a language they understand. This is something I deeply regret not being able to do when we traveled for Emily. I felt so horrible that her nannies couldn't understand what I was saying. I've carried that guilt and promised myself that I wouldn't be in that situation for our second adoption. So maybe his nannies won't understand "My Chinese" but at least I'll feel better for trying!

No news

So we know our dossier was sent out to China on August 31st, but we still don't have a LID. I'm anxious to get the LID so we can officially start counting down our wait. Our agency is saying that it look like a January travel date, but I'm still holding out hope for a Christmas surprise.

Our most recent update on Jake has him weighing about 22lbs. That puts him in 18-24 months clothing, so he's a peanut like Emily.

Paperwork Update

I love these adoption ultrasounds. We're down to our last document for certification. I am hoping to have our final documents ready to submit to the Chinese Consulate on Tuesday. We are trying to have a DTC prior to September 12th to avoid a problem with our home study being outdated. I can't believe we've been working on this 2nd adoption for so long. It's had its ups and downs, but we finally seem ready to move into the next phase of the wait. I looked at the calendar today and tried to figure out travel dates based on families that are currently traveling. I'm predicting the end of December. I'd be perfectly happy to celebrate Christmas in China with our son.

Here we go...

We knew we would be back in China to add to our family the day we met Emily. After much thought we decided to go the waiting child route for child #2. The experience has been much different, as waiting child is a more emotional route. For me, it's really hard because I want to help everyone of these children find a loving family. We are working with Small World Adoptions, which is a wonderful agency for those of you searching for an agency. We are finalizing the last few papers to complete our dossier. Small World believes there is a very good chance we will travel this year to receive our son.

We're really excited about receiving our son and having the opportunity to take our daughter with us. We really wanted Emily to experience the adoption process, but knew traveling with 2 toddlers was a little crazy. Lucky for us we have parents that are coming along to experience all the fun and excitement.