A New Year.......A Longer Wait!

Happy New Year! It's been so long since I posted and a lot has happened in that time. Our dossier was completed in September. We received word that our official "Dossier To China" date was September 15, 2006. In October, we received word that our dossier was officially logged into their computer system on October 13, 2006; our "LID". Currently, the wait time from "LID" to "referral" is around 15 months. The term "referral" is when we will receive pictures and detailed information about our daughter. As of today, we have a little less than 12 months to wait. This could, however, change over the next year and either speed up or slow down even more. We are hoping it will speed up, of course!

I have heard people compare the finances involved in adoption to those of conceiving and giving birth to a baby and wonder why they should be expected to "give money" to those adopting. First of all, I must say that we don't expect anyone to "give us money". Secondly, I must point out that when a woman conceives and gives birth to a baby, her health insurance will cover most of the expenses. When a couple decides to adopt a baby, there is no insurance that will help cover the costs. When I gave birth to both of my boys, I was able to take maternity leave from work and still get paid while I was out to facilitate the bonding and attachment process with my infants. When we bring Abigail home, I will use every day of vacation available to me and then end up having to use the Family Medical Leave Act in order to facilitate the bonding and attachment process with Abigail. With FMLA time off, we will receive no financial compensation during the time I miss from work.

You are probably asking yourself, "Why is she talking about this?" I have decided to bring this up because I know that some of the people in our lives have adamantly stated that they think we should be able to afford this on our own or we shouldn't do it. Let me say first and foremost that we don't think that anyone should feel obligated to do anything at all for us where this adoption is concerned. God wants this for our family and when He wants something, it will be done no matter what opposition we face on this earth. We are confident in this fact alone.

With that being said, we also feel that the majority of people who care about us and share our joy in this process will want to support us; whether it be with kind words of encouragement, prayers (the most important thing), or , yes, financially. With the announcement of our adoption plans around Christmas of 2005, we received a card with a check in it from one of our friends who is also a member of our church, unprompted. Her comment when we thanked her was, "I was just doing what God told me to do." Talk about confirmation! We have received random cards in the mail from various family members over the past year with checks in them in support of our adoption. We are EXTREMELY grateful to this and we cannot say thank you enough. Last year at our Craft Day, we raised over $300 with just a handful of mainly friends, my mother, and my mother-in-law and niece in attendance! Every cent of what has been given to us has either been used over the past year to cover the expenses of the adoption or put into a savings account that we have opened in Abigail's name to help cover the next wave of expenses that will come our way later this year. We have had questions recently from some of the people in attendance at last year's Craft Day of when we are going to do it again and so we have another one planned for February 24th.

Please know that Todd and I love you all and greatly appreciate any and everything you all do for us. Your support definitely does not go unnoticed.