Here are some of the latest pictures of Jamie's room. As I keep saying, I haven't made it out of the closet yet. However, the closet is now done and I will start painting the characters in the main room. Her closet is filled with all the beautiful presents that we have received for her so far. From all the books we have, I think she is going to grow up to be a librarian!

I still have lots of new pics to post of all the lovely presents we have received in the last month and I promise to get back on the ball and do better with my Jamie updates!

Happy New Year!!!!

Here it is folks..........

I will come back and add more later!

China Center for Adoption Affairs

Like a "watched pot not boiling" apparently you need to stop watching the CCAA website for it to change.

When I wasn't looking they updated the site again!!!

The newest update has to do with the "Review Room" and not the "Matching Room".

They have reviewed the documents registered (logged in) before January 31, 2006.

*************************

What does this mean?????????

Well, first I need to say that when the CCAA says registered before a date they, (in the past) have always included that date. So for us it translates to On or Before!

When the dossiers (all our paperwork) is received in China the CCAA logs it in and sends us this date. This date is like the numbered ticket you receive at the Deli Counter. When your number comes up you get your order.......When our date comes up we get matched with a beautiful (maybe two) baby('s).

The next thing that happens is we get color coded by our Adoption Agency and put in a stack. When the person who works with our agency gets to our stack the first thing they do is review all of our paperwork to make sure that it meets their standards. If they have any questions or issues they get in touch with us through our agency. If everything is in order then we continue along in the process till we get matched.

They have completed a review of dossiers received through January. So that means they are now working on February and possibly a little of March. Our little fingers are crossed until the website says they have completed through April 30th 2006. That would mean that they had no questions for us and we can move along in the process.

Thanks for all of your questions on this process! It is so wonderful to know that you are all involved in this process with us.

FINALLY!!!!!

I was beginning to wonder if it would ever change again. I haven't had a chance to process this information.....so I am not sure if I am happy about the dates or not but here is the latest update from the CCAA. (China Center of Adoption Affairs)


The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before December 31, 2005.


The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before August 25, 2005.

Thank you Secret Pal!!!!!

I promise to send you a photo of Jamie in this adorable jacket the first time she wears it!

You really out did yourself this month and we love everything!
I was so surprised when I saw the front of this jacket and noticed the Pooh character. The little zipper pull with her name on it and the Tigger barrette. Oh my goodness!

Let's not forget that amazingly cute little card that you sent. It was fuzzy and everything!

You are incredibly generous, and we just really appreciate everything that you send!

Thank you again for a very special package of goodies!

Where have I been?????

We were on vacation for a week and spent most of it doing errands but we did do a couple of very important things.......

Jamie's nursery now has a floor!!!!! Yeah, we put down a wood laminate and once we pick out all her other furnishings I will pick out some type of center rug for us to sit and play on. I'm thinking about one of those rubber mat jig saw puzzle things. They have some with numbers and letters on them.

We did a 3.5 mile walk for Juvenile Diabetes!

Thank you so much to everyone who donated, our little team of walkers raised about $7,000.00 for research!

Where are my Manners?!

It has taken me forever to post this picture of my September books. Thank you so much to Kristen Flores for all of my summer books. I truly loved all of the books and appreciated the thought that went into every months selections!

Here are this months books!

Happy (6th month) Anniversary!

We are logged in for 6 months now.

Old Rules Vs. New Rules

Old rules would have said that any day now a referral would be coming our way........

New rules say -------No one knows anything!

Thank goodness for a little thing called patience, a lot of things to get done before Jamie (and maybe a sister for her) gets here, and great new friends to keep us busy!

Now, let's all cross our fingers and hope for a speed up in referrals!

Winnie the Pooh Nursery Characters

Who knew painting these characters on Jamie's walls would be so much fun! Here is what I have done so far:

Sun Yat Fai Lok!

(Cantonese for Happy Birthday)

U
Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday dear (xxxxxxx) Happy Birthday to you!

(I don't know if you want the world to know it is your birthday.)


I hope you are having a good day! We will have some funnel cake on the boardwalk tonight in your honor! (Wish you were here)

September Secret Pal Exchange
Baby Bed Time!

Well, I couldn't wait any longer and I made Barry go and get my September present out from it's hiding place. (Don't worry secret pal, I still have no clue where October's present is hidden!)

The first thing I saw were these adorable little baby slippers. The little duckies are just too cute!

Then I saw the Lullaby CD.......It will be on our CD player this evening! The CD is even purple, I love purple!!!! But you already knew that didn't you!!

The books are just way too cool. I love the Boynton series and I don't have any yet. I read both books to Barry as if I was reading him to sleep. We had a good laugh over that!

Thank you so much secret pal. Your gifts are always so thoughtful and special. I love each and everyone of them!

Hay Rides and Pumpkin Picking!!!!!

I cannot think of a better way to spend a Fall Saturday!

We spent the day with family (including our 3yr old Great Nephew) visiting a farm.

Picking pumpkins, taking a hay ride and buying lots of good fresh apples, peaches and pears!

I enjoyed this visit so much, I am still smiling!

Isn't he just the cutest??? He loved his little pumpkin. He kept picking it up and putting it down for the rest of the day!

Labor Day Weekend

So, my cousins came to visit for Labor Day Weekend and it has taken forever for me to finally put these photos together. After much delay here they are........

My cousins flew in late Thursday night / early Friday morning so Friday we spent mostly sitting around the house catching up with each other. Hurricane Ernesto was also visiting that weekend so it was another great reason to spend the day in the house.

Saturday we decided to follow Ernesto up the Northeastern coast and we went to see the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island museum. The weather was miserable but the history and the stories of the people were just amazing! The Ellis Island museum could almost be a whole day trip in and of itself!!!! It was so fascinating to see some of what the immigrants went through and read their stories.

Sunday was the annual Oktoberfest at the local German Club, (The Cannstatter). We had such a nice time and the sun even came out to shine on us for a while!!!! Lots of Ooompah band music, lots of good German food, lots of German pastries, and lots of German linens to buy. We shopped and ate and shopped some more! Barry and I bought a beautiful round tablecloth for our table. They always have the most beautiful linens imported from Germany. My cousin also gave us these adorable little angels made out of small round linens. I have to figure out how they make them because they are just so pretty and I would love to re-create them for Christmas presents this year.

It was so much fun to share this festival with my cousins and I cannot wait to take Jamie and teach her some of the German dances!

Monday the visit was over and we dropped them back off at the airport for a safe flight home.

Arlene, Heidi, and Brenda.......Thanks for making the trip and making more fantastic memories to last a lifetime!

The CCAA Website has been updated!

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before December 31, 2005.


The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before August 9, 2005.

______________________________________________

Again, for those of you not in the adoption community........these updates are like a lifeline. This is our only real way of knowing what is going on and how close we are to our referral. Everything else we read or hear is really just rumor!

I am not going to analyze this information or even extrapilate it out to a date that we can expect our referral. There is just too much unknown to go through all those exercises. I will say that this month they covered 18 days in this referral so that is almost two months time to process every month of dossiers.

Congratulations to all of the families who are about to receive a picture of their beautiful child, and may you have safe travels!

Oh, how fun!!!!!

Y

Michele and Chuck sent a couple of the pictures that they had taken of Barry and I, and well.......they are just too funny not to share!

This first one of course is us having dinner at the Lobster House in Cape May. Gee, who had the lobster. Maybe we should have an adult bib swap!

This next shot is us on the boardwalk in Ocean City. If I would have known that Barry's flip flop had a present from a seagull I would have picked another set of flip flops for us......Ooops. I guess you could say it adds character!

Thanks for sending the pictures Chuck and Michele! They made me smile even before my first cup of coffee!!

More things for Jamie's Nursery! My secret pal did another wonderful job with our August present.

We received a Winnie the Pooh musical picture frame and the most adorable little hangers with pictures of the Winnie the Pooh characters on both sides of the hanger. Way too cute!!!! I cannot wait to have Jamie's referral picture to put in the little frame, and I cannot wait to have her closet finished so that I can start to put some of her things in there!!!!!

Thank you Secret Pal, Awsome Job!!!!!

One book, Two books, Three books, and More!
(like that cute little LadyBug chocolate candy!)

My July and August books are here!!!!! Well ok, they have been here for a week or two but I haven't been feeling well enough to get on here and post. Thank you so much to my Summer Secret Book Pal! I love all the books and I am sorry that we had so much trouble this summer with the postal service.

July's theme was China (including Chinese Adoption) and we received:
I was already planning to buy Jamie this Chinese Lullaby CD so that she might have some familiar sounds in her room. Thank you so very much for your thoughtfulness.

************************

August’s theme was ABC’s and 123’s, and Jamie received her very first Dr. Seuss books!!!!! We just love them and cannot wait to share them with our daughter.

Thank you so very much to our summer secret book pal, and now that I have finally posted these pictures.......we get to eat that cute little Lady Bug Chocolate!!!!! Barry has had his eyes on that for days now!

Well, I said that I had a special visitor coming this weekend and to look for pictures. I am trying out some new software to show the pictures so that may change but here they are. (Ok, they aren't really here, they are in my side bar. Blogspot won't let me put the pictures in my message but it will let me show them on the side of my page. I will add some here too, but not till tomorrow.) My special visitor is one of my adoption buddies and her husband. For those of you in my April DTC group, Michele came to visit!!!! We had such a great time. It was wonderful to have a friend that I could have coffee with and talk openly about the CCAA, the slow down, our agency (we are using the same agency and have the same LID!) and all our hopes and dreams.

Friday night we went to Philly to stroll "South Street" and eat real Philly Cheesesteaks. (Whiz with!)

Saturday we went to Cape May for the day and browsed all the cute little shops, dinner was at the Lobster House just inside Cape May and then on to Ocean City to walk the boardwalk for the evening.

Sunday morning we had brunch at a great local restaurant and then back to the house to gab as much as we could before they finally had to leave.

Michele and Chuck, thanks again for coming down! We truly enjoyed your visit!!!!!

This coming weekend my Cousins are flying in for a visit. Please keep them in your thoughts that they might have a smooth, uneventful flight in both directions!

The CCAA Website has been updated:


The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before October 31, 2005.


The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before July 22, 2005.

_______________
For those of you not in the adoption community......The CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) releases the matches of parents to children once a month. In the past they were matching a whole month at a time. This meant, for our agency, that referrals (matches) were received every month. Lately the CCAA has slowed this process down to a pace that they are more comfortable with. This pace is changing every month so for us, it is a little unpredictable. We hold on to the edge of our seats every month looking to see how many days have been matched this month. Knowing all the time that they have to get through August, September........January '06, February 06 and March of 2006 before we even get to our month April 3, 2006! With the pace changing every month, (meaning that they are not consistently matching the same number of days, 20 days vs 14 days vs 9 days) we have no real way of predicting when our time might come. It is again, a lesson in patience. For those of you who have children.....this may be a very good lesson for us to learn!!!! Anyway, I am rambling now but you will see a post every month with the updates from the CCAA website. Everything will happen in it's time, and Barry and I will be referred a truly amazing soul that we will cherish. It will just be taking a little more time than we had hoped.

Painting the Nursery!

Two weeks ago we spent the weekend clearing out the nursery, (much to the chagrin of our cat Tigger who mistakenly thought that room was his!).

Now, after much deliberation......paint colors have been selected and we spent the weekend painting the nursery!!!! The walls are Wild Honey, most appropriate since it will be a Winnie the Pooh themed room, and the ceiling is sky blue. I will be hand painting Winnie the Pooh characters on the walls, and as soon as I figure out how, there will be clouds on the ceiling!

You can see from the pictures that Tigger was most helpful acting as a supervisor for the paint job. I have a practice Winnie the Pooh character hanging on the wall now, and I must say Tigger is not overly thrilled with it. Every morning now I see him go into the room and just sit and stare at Pooh like he is real or something. It is quite funny!

I have more quilt square pictures to post on Jamie's 100 good wishes quilt site, and this weekend we are having a special visitor.......look for some great pictures next week.

Ok, So I was tagged by Stacy and I just haven't had a chance to respond. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to play along, but finally here is my list. These are fun!

4 jobs I have had in my life...
1. File Clerk in a dental office
2. Cash Cage manager at K-mart
3. Branch Manager of Paychex (Payroll processor)
4. Tax Specialist at H & R Block

4 movies I would watch over and over...
1. The Birdcage (Just watched it again this evening)
2. The In Laws (The original with Alan Arkin and Peter Faulk)
3. Moonstruck (with Cher and Nicholas Cage)
4. Steel Magnolia's

4 places I have lived...
1. West Deptford, NJ
2. Fairfax, VA
3. Charlotte, NC
4. Williamstown, NJ

4 TV shows I love to watch....
1. The West Wing (Thank goodness for re-runs on Bravo)
2. Charmed (I even watch the re-runs on TNT)
3. Monk
4. Grey’s Anatomy

4 places I have been on vacation...
1. Grand Canyon & Lake Powell
2. Acadia National Park, Maine
3. Carribbean Islands (Cruises)
4. Fulda, Germany

4 websites I visit daily...
1. http://victoria-grace.blogspot.com/
2. http://theonehouseadventures.blogspot.com/
3. http://www.china-ccaa.org (yes, I really do go there almost every day!)
4. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-aA_nHdQheK4PPquw4J6c

4 of my favorite foods...
1. Coffee (Nothing fancy, just plain old coffee!)
2. Italian Rum Cake
3. Macaroni and Cheese
4. Filet Mignon

4 places I would like to be right now...
1. In China with Jaime
2. Upstairs watching Jaime sleep in her nursery
3. Visiting my sister in Washington State
4. Visiting my friends in the DC area

Michele, you don't have a blog yet but you should still consider yourself tagged and you can send it to me in an email! Donna, I know you are very busy right now but please consider yourself tagged as soon as you get home! Let me know when you get your tag posted.

Adoption is definitely a lesson in patience, but we finally have our Log In Date (LID)

April 3, 2006!

Now all we need is for China to speed up the referrals again!!!

June's theme was Pamper the Parents

Our secret pal took that one step

further and she did........

Purple the Parents!!!!!!

Oh Secret Pal, Thank you so very very much!!!!!

I loved everything!!! Purple of course is my favorite color, but I love paper!!!! I love stationary and note pads, cute cards etc! Thanks for helping me to make my "stash" even prettier with Monogrammed purple note cards!!!!!

A winnie the pooh book mark with a purple butterfly! I am reading The Lost Daughters of China right now and using a tissue for a book mark!

Jamie's room is going to get morning sunshine so I think I might just have to share the purple stained glass butterfly with her, but in the mean time it will be beautiful in my sewing room which also gets glorious morning sunshine.

Thank you so very much for all of your thoughtfullness! I truly appreciate all the time it took to pick out these presents.

May's them was Baby Bath Time!

Thank you my Secret Pal!!!!!

How absolutely lovely! The Penguin giggles and laughs when you squeeze his tummy, he is so absolutely adorable. I love penguins! Great job, and the little washcloths are really sweet.
Your gift was very sweet and I really appreciate the thought that you put into it!

Looking forward to next month..........

Forgive me please!

Until I bring everything up to date I will probably be jumping back and forth in my time line but I don't want to wait to start showing you some of the fun things we are receiving!

For those of you that we do not get to speak with on a regular basis, here is a little background:

We have joined a Yahoo group of people that sent their paperwork to China roughly around the same time as us, give or take 45 days. This means that hopefully all of us will receive our referrals roughly around the same time. To keep us from going crazy in the mean time, and to help us get to know each other so we have some common ground if we are in China at the same time.........We are having a multitude of gift exchanges. There is a secret pal exchange, a book exchange and a post card exchange. Not to mention the Quilt swap, but that has it's own page!

For the secret pal exchange we are not revealing who we are to our pal until the very end of the exchanges. So, every month I get these beautiful things for Jamie from some kind soul, and I don't know who she is. Every month has a theme so we all send the same type of presents and then we have our own blog so that we can all see what everyone is receiving. It is a lot of fun!

My July Secret Pal Gift is in the picture! I received a beautiful box with a lady bug and flowers on it. I can use that to store some of these fun things and cards until I create a scrap book for Jamie! An insulated sippy cup and some really nice snack cups that have a slide opening so that I can just pour out a few cheerios at a time!

Thank you secret pal!!!!! I always love the things you pick!

Our Adoption Timeline

· 08/11/05 Attended a China Informational meeting with
Adoptions From the Heart

· 08/12/05 Filed Application with Adoptions From the Heart
Here we go!!!
Also made a Charitable Donation for the orphanages in China

· 08/24/05 First meeting with our social worker Victoria and payment of first set of adoption fees

· 08/31/05 Went to Philadelphia and ordered Lisa’s birth certificate, picked up Barry’s birth certificate in Woodbury on the way home.

· 09/02/05 First Paperwork meeting with the Social Worker, Victoria. She color coded the folders! How great is that!!!!!

· 09/13/05 Lisa goes to Cherry Hill for Fingerprinting (local background check and child abuse clearance.)

· 09/14/05 Barry goes for the same fingerprinting in Turnersville

· 09/15/05 Sent Lisa’s Birth Certificate off to Harrisburg to be “State Sealed”

· 09/19/05 Picked up marriage license in Medford NJ

09/26/05 Barry and Lisa, blood work drawn for visit to the doctor.

09/27/05 Barry and Lisa receive “No Criminal Background” letters from the local police department

· 09/27/05 First adoption home study group meeting

· 09/27/05 Ok, so the marriage license and Barry’s birth certificate came from local municipalities……NJ won’t state seal those. Drove to Trenton to request expedited turnaround on copies that they will seal.

· 09/28/05 Back to Trenton to pick up the new Marriage license and Birth cert for Barry

· 09/30/05 Lisa’s “State Sealed” Birth Certificate is back….ooooh, what a pretty gold seal!

· 10/03/05 Barry and Lisa Physical with the doctor…..clean bill of health and all the paperwork is completed accurately per China’s standards!

10/20/05 Barry and Lisa complete the drafts of their Personal Biographies, and all of the agency questionnaires. This was more than we ever wanted to know about ourselves!

10/24/05 Submitted I-600A to US Citizenship and Immigration Services Newark, NJ
(Submitted prior to completion of home study, letter included)

· 10/26/05 Adoption Education Course

· 12/02/05 Home visit with Social Worker, gave all documents, (Employment Verification, Application letter to P R of China, Health Exam Cert, Police Good Conduct letters, etc), to our Social Worker for review.

· 12/08/05 Received approved home study from our social worker and we received all our notarized documents back after her review. Everything is in good order we are set to jump our last big hurdle. Immigration approval!!!

12/08/05 Sent completed home study to US Citizenship and Immigration Services Newark, NJ

· 12/13/05 Received notification of USCIS fingerprinting appointments for both Barry and Lisa

· 12/27/05 Barry and Lisa go to Newark for an 8am fingerprinting appointment, this is our last big hurdle! Whew, almost done.

· 02/09/06 Received Immigration approval to bring two orphans into the US. Yeah, our I-171h!!!!!!

· 02/10/06 Delivered I-171h to our agency and received a signed, notarized affidavit which then needs to be state sealed by NJ

02/13/06 Sent all papers that need to be state sealed to the NJ Div. of Revenue to be sealed and returned with a 1 day expedited turnaround time requested.

· 02/15/06 Received all state sealed documents back from NJ Div of Revenue

· 02/15/06 Barry and Lisa reviewed all documents, and put package together to go to our agency contact in NY.

· 02/16/06 Our “Dossier” has been received in NY, our agency will have everything processed and authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in NY and then send everything to Beijing.

· 03/21/06 Spoke with our Social Worker, our NY contact could not find our passport photos in our paperwork, duplicate copies faxed directly to NY

· 04/17/06 Received a letter from the China Coordinator of our Agency, our paperwork has been received in Beijing as of 4/8/06. She will contact us in “a month or so” with our official “Log in Date”

· 05/15/06 Received our “Brown Envelope” It is addressed incorrectly to James Fellman and we are a little worried. Hoping to hear an answer from our Social worker today.

· 05/17/06 Our social worker says the “Brown Envelope” is just fine, but still no word on our Log in Date.

· 06/03/06 We have a new Social Worker!

· 06/19/06 I hear a rumor that we have a log in date of 4/3/06 and that our paper work was received in Beijing earlier than 4/8/06.

· 06/21/06 Spoke with new social worker, she cannot confirm the log in date but is aware of the mix up in dates for our group. She also tells me not to be concerned about the “Brown Envelope” having the wrong name.

• 08/16/06 It is finally official! We spoke with our social worker again this afternoon and

Our Log In Date (LID) is 4/3/06!!!!!!!!!

___________________________________________

So, now we wait. The obvious question is how long, but unfortunately the only answer is.........

For as long as is takes!

Thanks for going on the journey with us! Stay tuned for updates and to see what we are doing while we wait.

Well, We received a letter that our paperwork was received in Beijing on April 8th 2006, but someone else from my group has been told that our Logged in Date (LID) is April 3, 2006. I am hoping that the April 3rd date is correct because next year this time that could make a 1 - 2 month difference in when we receive our referral.

If you are reading this line......I'm not done yet.

In fact I am so just getting started and trying to figure out how to do this. It may take me a little while before I even have something worth looking at.

Thanks for looking and check back later!

Lisa and Barry

Dossier sent to agency for authentication and then to China on 2/16/06.

Dossier received in Beijing on 4/08/06.

Log in Date (still waiting)

_______Update 8/8/06 __________________

Ok, I'm done now! We have started with our timeline of the Paper chase, and then we plan to keep you entertained with our antics while we wait to go and get our daughter (s). I also have a blog started to keep track of the fabric squares I am receiving to make her quilt. The link for that blog is in my links section on the right hand side of my page. Feel free to look around and leave a comment or two!

Thanks for checking us out!