Journey to Isabella Nicole

Stork Alert

2006-11-01T15:42:00.000-08:00

11/1/06 STORK ALERT...STORK ALERT...STORK ALERT

Info. is flying all over the egroups that CCAA has sent referrals!!! Families who were LID between August 9th-August 24th, 2005 should be receiving referrals in the next few days. Many agencies are telling families that a package was sent from China on Monday and it should arrive in the US tomorrow. Here's hoping that August, 2005 families will see their baby's beautiful face for the 1st time by the weekend. These families have been waiting just over 14 1/2 months since their LID. Keeping my fingers crossed for all of you. Could this be really true???

11/2/o6 HOT NEWS....HOT NEWS...HOT NEWS!!!

CCAA finally updated their website!!! Families who were logged in between August 9th-August 25th are receiving referrals. CCAA sent one extra day of referrals than what was expected. This is wonderful news as CCAA is showing signs of a slight "speed up" in the waiting process. Every extra day that is referred now, will bring us one day closer to our 2nd daughter and one less day of waiting. The new baby faces are starting to be be posted all over the egroups sites...what a wonderful weekend it will be for all these August, 2005 families. Congratulations on your new bundle of joy.

October Cyber Shower

2006-10-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

10/17/06 Today, I received another Cyber Shower Gift from the July DTC yahoo group that I am part of. Every other month, this yahoo group does a cyber shower. A cyber shower is like a baby shower online. The theme for this month's cyber shower is "No Tricks; just Treats for the Baby." From Marcia Chapman my cyber shower friend, I received a flower splat mat, 2 insulated sippy cups and 2 pink spit-up towels. Thank you very much Marcia for your generosity and I can't wait to use the items when Bella finally arrives home.

Brown Envelope from US Consulate in Guangzhou Has Arrived!!!

2006-10-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

10/10/06 Just to let everyone know...we have reached another milestone in the adoption process. Today, we received our "famous" brown envelope from the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. This envelope is sent to adoptive families once the Consulate has been notified of the family's intent to adopt. In the brown envelope are important documents that we will complete when we are in Guangzhou regarding our daughter's visa and US Citizenship. Also, in the envelope is an important number called a GUZ number. It identifies our family to the US Consulate. This GUZ number will be used to confirm our travel approval (when the time comes) and it is used to confirm our consulate appointment. This is all part of the the adoption process.

Now we can cross another thing off of our list while we wait for our referral. It took 3 1/2 months to get this brown envelope and it arrived one day short of our current wait time which is 2 months since our LID (Log In Date).

Most Recent Stork Alert and Updates!!!

2006-10-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

10/1/06 For those of you that are wondering...here is the most recent update from CCAA's website. Congratulations to all the families who received referrals last week. Also, to those of you who have made it through the review room...you are one step closer to being match with a beautiful baby!!! Families who received referrals last week were logged in between July 23-August 9th, 2005. CCAA finished reviewing dossiers who were logged in through December 31, 2005. As you can see, the review room (where a family's dossier is carefully reviewed) is ahead of the matching room by about 5 1/2 months. It is ashame that the matching room can't get caught up. But at least some families are on cloud 9...they deserve to smile as they have pictures of their daughters in their hands. Happiness, Love and Joy are being shared across the world!!!!

As of today, we have been waiting 1 month, 2 weeks and 6 days since our LID!!! Let's hope CCAA's matching room can speed up the wait a bit in the next few months!!!

Our August Birthday Celebration~Happy Birthday to Mom, Grandma and Jackie!

2006-09-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

A Disney Princess bike from Auntie Kathy.
Wow, what a special birthday gift!!! Jackie loves riding it
and the training wheels sure help a lot!!! Pink and
Purple are her favorite Princess Colors.

Yummy, Yummy Birthday Cake!
The chocolate part is my favorite!!!

Happiness is being a family~
Mom, Dad & Jackie

Grandma, Mom, Auntie Kathy and Jackie
enjoying the birthday party together!

July 2006 DTC 1st CyberShower

2006-09-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

The July 2006 DTC group that Mary Ellen belongs to held their 1st CyberShower on August 27th. The theme for this shower was "It's A Party!" Every other month, a new theme and CyberShower will occur. The next one will be in October. Mary Ellen received these gifts from her cybershower pal. The Lee family from New York sent Bella these Disney gifts...aren't the shoes just too cute!!! I am sure that both Bella and Jackie will enjoy the DVD, too.

CCAA Website Updated

2006-08-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

8/31/06 CCAA updated their website today. As you can see, CCAA is done reviewing dossiers LID until the end of November. Also, referrals arrived in the US at the end of last week. Families who were LID through July 22, 2005 received referrals and now have seen their beautiful baby faces...Congratulations to all those families who now have a new little one to love!!!

LID...Logged In Date

2006-08-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

WE ARE PAPER PREGNANT...ISN'T OUR ULTRASOUND PICTURE TOO CUTE!!!

Hip, Hip, Hooray...We have our LID! We were officially Logged Into CCAA system for our 2nd adoption on August 11, 2006. LID stands for Logged In Date! This is when the "official" wait begins...it is from this date that we start counting the number of days and months to referral!

When will we hear about Baby Lederer #2?

Mary Ellen's guess for when we will get a referral is December, 2007
Mike's guess for when we will get a referral is November, 2007

***Go ahead and take a guess...Post your guess in the comments section, please!!! Just click on the comments link below and you can post your guess.

Below is a Waiting Ticker to track how long we have been waiting since our LID of August 11, 2006.

Stork Alert!

2006-07-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

Referrals are coming...Referrals are coming...It is time to Celebrate!

Families who had their paperwork logged into CCAA between June 28th-July 13th, 2005 will be seeing faces of their precious new daughters in the next few days. CCAA (the chinese govt. that matches families with babies) has posted an update on their website. Congratulations to all these families who will soon be able to bring their new children home and be forever families!!!

Important Adoption News!

2006-07-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hot news will develop over the next year...keep checking back for updates.

What level on the Homeland Security Referral Chart, do you think we are at?

Hot Links:

http://www.adoptionguides.org
(This is our adoption agency, Cyndi is our China Coordinator)

http://www.china-ccaa.org
(Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs...this is the govt. organization in China that will match us with a child)

http://chinaadopttalk.com
(Rumor Queen)

http://www.ocdf.org
(OCDF...Jane Liedtke)

http://www.morepickles.com/fireflieshome.html
(This is the website for the July 2006 DTC group)

Sesame Place Vacation in Langhorne, PA

2006-07-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

Pictures from our most recent family vacation to Sesame Place at the beginning of July. Guess who loves Sesame Street more????

Jackie's 1st Ballet Recital~June 10, 2006

2006-07-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

This is what your Big Sister has been up to while she waits to see your beautiful face!!! Jackie is so ready and wants to play with you. She wants to go to China to get you now! Bella...isn't your sister a pretty Ballerina!!!!

Can't you tell that your Daddy thinks your big sister is such a doll!!!

Adoption Poem

2006-07-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Legacy of an Adopted Child

Once there were two women

Who never knew each other

One you do not remember

The other you call your mother.

Two different lives shaped to make yours one

One became your guiding star

The other became your sun.

The first gave you life

And the second taught you to live it

The first gave you a need for love

And the second was there to give it.

One gave you emotions

The other calmed your fears

One saw your first sweet smile

The other dried your tears.

One gave you up; it was all that she could do.

The other prayed for a child,

And God let her straight to you.

And now you ask me through your tears,

The age-old questions through the years;

Heredity or environment, which are you the product of?

Neither my darling, neither

Just two different kinds of love.

~Author Unknown

2006-07-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet; regardless of time, place or circumstance. The red thread may stretch or tangle but it will never break."
~Chinese Legend

Journey to Isabella Nicole

2006-07-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

Journey to Isabella Nicole

2/23/06 We signed papers with both our local agency and our international agency to start the adoption process.

3/7/06 We met with our local agency, Special Children in Elm Grove Wisconsin to begin the paperchase. This was the day we met our social worker, Beth Peters for the 1st time. Lots of papers and forms are needed to meet the state of Wisconsin requirements for adoption. At this same time, we began to compile the necessary documents for our international agency, Adoption Guides. When these documents are compiled together, they make up a dossier and this is what is sent to China for the adoption. Cyndi Peck from Adoption Guides in our China Coordinator here in the US. She has been wonderful to work with thus far and is very supportive and knowledgeable about the China Adoption Program.

3/9/06 We received clearance from the state of WI. This background clearance involves having no traffic violations, open warrants and no child neglect or abuse on your record. Both Mike and I cleared without any problems.

3/25/06 We attended a workshop required by our local agency regarding international adoption, attachment issues and transracial adoption.

4/2/06 We picked up our letters from the City of Milwaukee Sheriff. Families that are planning to adopt need to obtain clearance at the city, state and federal level. Most documents for a dossier need to be notarized. This step can be time consuming as families need to sign all documents in front of a notary. The notary needs to sign the document too and stamp a seal on the documents that he/she is notarizing.

4/3/06 We began our homestudy. Beth, our social worker from Special Children spent the afternoon at our house gather information for the homestudy.

4/10/06 We met with our social worker again. China requires 4 visits for the adoption and homestudy process. Also, we had our physicals done today.

4/13/06 We finished paperchasing and getting all of our documents necessary for the dossier with the exception of the homestudy that was being finished and our I-600A form that is required by the INS. The I-600A form is a form that tells INS that we want to adopt internationally. The INS is part of the Department of Homeland Security. The INS is also know as USCIS.

4/17/06 Our homestudy was completed and sent to INS for approval.

5/11/06 We were fingerprinted by INS and our fingerprints cleared the next day on 5/12/06.

6/11/06 Exactly one month later...We received our I-171H approval from the INS. This form tells us that the Federal Govt. has approved us to adopt internationally. Our fingerprints are only good for 15 months and our I-171H is good for only 18 months. We are hoping that our adoption is completed before they expire or we will need to re-do our fingerprints and obtain a new I-171H prior to travelling to China.

6/12/06 Cyndi, our China coordinator, sent for our state seals from WI. These state seals are required for all our documents in our dossier.

6/26/06 All of our state seals have come and now our dossier was sent to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for authentication.

7/5/06 Our dossier was complete with all state seals and authentication. It was FED EX to Cyndi for one final check.

7/10/06 Our dossier was sent to Adam in Canada to be translated. The translation should be completed by the end of the week and our dossier will then be sent to China. When a dossier is sent to China it is said to be DTC (this stands for Dossier to China).

7/14/06 We got an email from Cyndi at Adoption Guides today telling us that, "We are officially DTC!!!" Our dossier was mailed to China today. Now we just wait to hear about our LID (Logged In Date)...that tells us when our dossier has been registered with CCAA and we are logged into their system. The LID is a very important date for Adoptive Families as that is when their wait officially begins. We should have a LID in about 2 weeks.

7/17/06 While we begin our loooooooonnngggg wait...Mary Ellen took on a new job. She is now an assistant to our China Coordinator, Cyndi Peck. She will be doing tele-conference classes for Adoption Guides on a monthly basis with other families that are in the process of adopting, too. This evening, both Mary Ellen and I did a tele-class called, "Adopting the 2nd time around and the Daddy's Perspective to Adoption." We talked about our adoption experience the first time and what we hope to experience this time.

8/21/06 Just received an email from Cyndi at Adoption Guides that our LID is August 11, 2006. Let the count down begin to our referral for Baby Lederer #2!