Thanks Everyone!

We have received such lovely and kind responses on our receiving our referral. We really appreciate the love and support!

So what are we doing now? and So what is next? Well, we are working on getting everything we need--at least what we can do now. Basically, I am in list mode--I have a packing list that I add to everyday (and need to be more realistic with, but that will come later when I realize we are over our luggage weight limit-lol), I have a list of what kinds of things we want to buy on our trip (jade, pearls, cloisonne items, porceline, silk outfits...to name a few); and, of course, the To Do list that we check off items and add items to simultaneously so that it looks like nothing ever gets done--sigh. But we are busily happy, so that is all that matters:)

We are also in research mode--I joined a yahoo group that consists of families who have adopted from RuiJin SWI and have gotten great advice and have been amazed at how all of the babies look so similar to Gracie--lots of thick black hair and big, pudgy cheeks--too cute! Steve and I are both reading about attachment and institutionalized children. Some children are fostered, but Gracie has not been fostered, which makes things harder because fostered children often can transfer their attachment from one caregiver to another. Gracie doesn't have one caregiver, so she may not have much attachment to any one person. She won't know what mother, father, and family mean. We know in time and with lots of development work and our love she will come to understand she can trust us and learn all about family.

We have also been learning more about Rui Jin City, RuiJin SWI, and Jiangxi Province. You can find some info. here--come see our links (side of this page) and the maps! We will probably stay in Nanchang while in Jiangxi Province and it is a 7 hour ride from Rui Jin to Nanchang. Gracie and all the other babies will be worn out on Family Day!

So what is next? Our referral package was received the day after the call-on 9/5--but, it was all in Mandarin. We found a doctor who translated it for us. We know she likes to eat rice, soup-beef and vegi, and fruit. They don't feed them what we think of as baby food-from a jar. They eat mashed regular food. The other component that we accomplished is to send a gift box to Gracie. We can't send a big box (SWI would have to pay fees to collect), but we did send a little picture book, 2 blankets that we had slept with, 8 bibs (for all of the children), candies for the nannies, a little teddy bear, a teether, two disposable cameras, and a list of questions in English and Mandarin for the nannies to answer. Hopefully Gracie will get these items, we will get them back, and there will be answers on her sheet and pictures on the cameras. Some families get these back and others don't. It is worth a try, though.

Now we are waiting for another packet from our agency, and then off to our pediatrician who will give us some meds to take on the trip. Many babies get quite sick or are sick, so being prepared is necessary.

Probably in the next 2 weeks we will receive our TA and CA--travel approval and consulate appt. TA comes from China saying when we are allowed to come to the country and CA is when we have to be at the US Consulate in Guangzhou to get Gracie's paperwork completed. Once we have those dates, we can then make our travel plans. If we have to guess, we will travel around Oct. 25th-give or take a few days. This date comes from the fact that our agency said they sent LOA's (Letter of Approval) on 9/13 and we would travel about 6 weeks after that.

So we are in a hurry up and wait mode, which we are used to. The good news is that I think we will have our girl for her birthday and for Thanksgiving and Christmas. What a special year!