...Got a call from our adoption agency tonight...

Our Dossier left for China today!!!!

THE AMAZING (PAPERCHASE) RACE...

The dossier is done! Shipped off yesterday to our agency for final review and submittal to China... Timely, don't you think? Sunday night's The Amazing Race episode took place in Guilin and the following day, our last document arrived... I didn't waste any time, practically following the UPS driver down our driveway, to overnight the completed dossier to WACAP, our adoption agency.

Edited AGAIN April 11, 2009, FINALLY received the completed document back from Minnesota Secretary of State!! This team still has one more leg: Chicago Consular...mailing off to a courier on Monday, April 13.

Edited April 10, 2009, third team to cross the finish line: NY document!

Edited April 7, 2009, second team to cross the finish line just this a.m.: All documents from Maryland and NC arrived back from the US State Department and Chinese Consular in Washington D.C., thanks to Laura and Steve at The Assistant Stork!!

Edited April 4, 2009, another "reject" from the Minnesota Secretary of States office. Seems they lost my original cover letter stating that the document needed the seal of verification for our international adoption from China?! So, they sent them back AGAIN asking for us to indicate what country would be receiving these documents!!! URGH!!!!! Off it went again on Monday, April 6 for the third attempt. Please say a prayer that the 3rd time will be the charm. This one little document is throwing off our LID timeline and getting me very upset.

Edited April 3, 2009, my NY document took 10 days to get processed w/ a courier that I paid very good money to. They had specific instructions on their website that had not been updated and told me they'd take care of the mistake. They didn't tell me that it would take them 10 days to do that. So, that document didn't even go to the Chinese Consulate until today, April 3...10 days after the courier received it. Hmmm...

WELCOME TO THE 4-MAN RELAY PAPERCHASE RACE

sponsored by The Ray Family

And the first document to cross the finish line

thanks to Janice at Red Tape Solutions

came from the Los Angeles Chinese Consulate

finishing the last leg of the relay strong for the

originating 3 other runners from Hawaii

(State Registrar, Clerk of the Courts and Lieutenant Governor)

Congrats!!...1 document officially completed...12 more still in the race...

C'mon papers, run, faster, faster, stronger, dig in...you can do it!

What's a mom to do while waiting for her daughter in China? Well, look at her photos and memorize each one, of course. That includes looking at the faces of the other children in the pictures. Last night, something struck me when I looked at the class photos from a year ago compared to the one from Dava's daughter, Hannah's, party in December/January --Many of the classmates have changed -- I know that several of the older children have been adopted (a few boys and a girl that I know of, but I wonder about some of the older girls that I see in so many of the pictures).


In the most recent class picture, it now appears that Meiying is one of the oldest of that group.

That thought gave my heart a little "ping" and reminded me of something I read in 2005 when I was just beginning the paperchase for Eliza. It has always stuck with me:

The Waiting Child
--Debbie Bodie

I saw you meet your child today
You kissed your baby joyfully
And as you walked away with her
I played pretend you’d chosen me.

I’m happy for the baby, yet
Inside I’m aching miserably
I want to plead as you go by
“Does no one want a child of 3?”

I saw you meet your child today
In love with her before you met
And as I watched you take her out
I knew it wasn’t my turn yet.

I recognize you from last year!
I knew I’d seen your face before!
But you came for a second babe.
Does no one want a child of four?

I saw you meet your child today
But this time there was something new
A nurse came in and took MY hand
And then she gave my hand to you.

Can this be true? I’m almost six!
And there are infants here you see?
And then you kissed me and I knew
The child you chose this time was me.

(Note the first line of the LAST paragraph...) From first reading that in 2005 to today, 2009, here we are completing a dossier for a 6 year old.

The question I still keep getting from people is why Meiying wasn't adopted as a baby? I can't answer that. I'd like to believe it's because "we" were meant to be a family. Not every baby in China gets adopted; not every baby is "paper ready" by the orphanage; and orphanages only receive permission to adopt out a certain number of babies.