Final Travel Plans

The travel plans for our trip will begin on Tuesday, December 4. We fly to Los Angeles and then from there Hong Kong. We will stay there touring until the rest of the adoption group gets there on Thursday. We will tour Hong Kong as a group and then fly out Sunday to Guangzhou.

US Consulate Appointment

Today we received our US Consulate appointment! This means we are able to finalize our trip. We will leave on December 4 for Hong Kong. Our appointment is on December 19 and we'll take the oath on December 20. We will board the plane and come home with our beautiful bundle of joy on December 21. More to come....

How it All Got Started.....

Once we came home with our beautiful son we immediately thought about adopting a second child, a sibling for Jackson. About 6 months after we were home, around December 2005 I began the paperchase for the second adoption. Hoping the adoption would be on its way to China by the beginning of June, one year after Jackson's 'Gotcha Day' a few glitches occurred causing us to fall behind. We got all the finalization done and our dossier on its way to China  for our new daughter in August. We heard from our adoption agency that we were DTC (Dossier to China) or LID (our Log in Date) was September 12, 2006. Each month we would get emails from our agency telling us that we should plan on our adoption taking one more month. We got that email (or a very similar one) every month for about three months. I was getting so discouraged that the adoption that we thought we would already have finalized by March of 2006 was now July 2006, then September 2006, then December 2006, finally the last time I heard from the agency it would be February 2008 when we would get our 'Match Day' phone call. So as far  as I was concerned we would be traveling in around April 2008. I was prepared for that until my friend Mary emailed me and alerted me to a possible match SOON. I was kind of amazed that it would be coming 4 months early. I immediately began doing research on the internet, joined an Expedited Referral yahoo group (as advised from Mary), and kept going to the CCAI website SEVERAL times a day to see if there was any news for us. Finally I heard that several hopeful adoptive families had heard 'through the grapevine' that the September Expedited Referral families had been matched. HOWEVER, I had to wait until Monday or Tuesday, November 5 or 6, to get a confirmation from our agency. After reading the blogs again on Monday  it was CONFIRMED we were matched!!! I hadn't heard from our adoption agency but they had updated their website that alerted the families that we HAD been matched. I could hardly contain myself. Well with my bluetooth headset and cell phone all charged up I went to work fully knowing I would be getting my phone call, most likely in the morning. I had let my students know that I would be getting the phone call that day and I would be very busy while on the phone! About 10:15 AM I received the phone call I had been waiting for. I heard Jessie Y on the phone congratulating me on our new baby! I used my 3 way calling (thank God for iPhones!) and called Uly. We both listened intently and were taking notes like mad about our beautiful daughter, Ruby. Jessie sent us a picture of her as we were on the phone and as you can see from the photos she is absolutely gorgeous. She is from the province Guangdong. She's being cared for in Xuwan Social Welfare Institute. She is 10 months old, crawls, stands holding on to objects, and is healthy! I was so thankful to God for blessing us with a beautiful baby girl.








When I picked up Jackson at school I asked him what he thought about his sister, Ruby. Check out the video to see his reaction! Priceless. :)