"14 is considered to be one of the unluckiest numbers in Chinese culture. Although 14 is usually said as "shi si," which sounds like "ten die", it can also be said as "yi si" or "yao si", literally "one four". Thus, 14 can also be said as "yao si," literally "one four," but it also means "want to die" (要死 pinyin yào sǐ). In Cantonese, 14 sounds like "sap6 sei3", which sounds like "sat6 sei2" meaning "certainly die" (實死)."
Well, we don't believe in that kinda thing, and although it is a few days early, thought I would post about the 14th month since LID.
Wanted to take this post to reply to some of the replies to posts made here...so here we go...
Anita- we had for supper General Tso Chicken Balls, rice, sweet and sour pork, and a beef stir fry mix. We went out shopping to find "fortune" cookies, but didn't find any at the store :(.
Charlotte- Thanks for your constant prayers and encouragements from the Word! AND thanks for clarifying about the wedding shower story, folks could have started thinking I am alot weirder than I already am! Even though I think I have great legs ;)
Janet- Paul Brandt is awesome! Thanks for following along our journey, we are enjoying following yours, we have to find some way as families to connect, I think we would have a hoot together! We can't wait for you to be out of the Review Room either!
Carala and Terence- We need to connect,summer is insane for us with bible camp, but we will look forward to connecting after that!
We appreciate each person who lurks and who posts and I have enjoyed being able to express stuff on this blog, I enjoy writing, never get enough time to do it, or do it as well as I would like, so this is a fun way to connect and express.
14 down, who knows how many to go, but we celebrate 14 months CLOSER to holding our Julia!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Friday, July 06, 2007
How we celebrated getting out of the Review Room
Upon passing this milestone, we decided to celebrate. So we prepared a Chinese food feast, sat down in front of the tv at a small, lower table, pulled out the chopsticks, and ate while watching Lost Girls of China again, the documentary done(and reviewed early on after I started this blog) on the process of Gotcha day.
It is wonderful to know we are no longer under review in this area of our life, that our file has been accepted, and now the only barrier to our gotcha day is time.
Matching room
Okay, we moved out of room two and into room three, the final room. We still have a tremendous wait ahead, but here is the process that will eventually happen(you really want me to try to predict a time line? 'Tis nearly impossible, at least 9 months from now, hopefully no longer than a year from now), this is snagged from another site...
How the Matching Room works(snagged form the Rumor Queen site)
First, they review the baby dossiers and make sure there are no issues with them. We are told that they then count up all of the baby dossiers that are eligible for matching that month and then look to see how far this stack will go in the parent dossiers without sending out a partial day, and they pull all of those parent files. That is the likely cut-off date. Sometimes something happens and they don’t get this far. Sometimes something happens and they get farther.
Next they match orphanages up with agencies. This orphanage has six babies, this agency has six families. These two orphanages are in the same province and have a total of 12 babies, this agency has 12 families. When they are through with this is when (I believe) some agencies start to get information about the cut-off date. Or at least it is when they used to start getting information.
And then they start matching individual babies to individual families. At some point during this part of the process most agencies used to hear from their person in the matching room to let them know how many referrals they will be receiving and from what province(s). Some agencies shared this information with their clients. Some chose not to. Recently I’ve gotten the feeling that many agencies are still getting this information but they are being given orders by the CCAA to not share this information with the families.
Just as in the review room, each matcher is assigned certain agencies and is responsible for communicating with their agencies. Some matchers tell their agency the cut-off date, some matchers tell their agency “you have X number of referrals arriving”, some matchers give their agency a list of that agency’s families that will be receiving a referral. And some matchers don’t say anything at all to their agencies.
The next question that comes up is generally how the matchers match families and babies. I’ve heard from several people who have had the opportunity to speak with someone who works in the matching room. The various conversations seem to all agree that they first look for something that stands out: a matching birthday, a baby who looks a lot like a parent, or a baby who likes music and a parent who teaches music. Several matching people have stated they match by bone structure of the baby’s face and the parent’s faces (this is why they need our passport photos, so they can compare our mug shot with the baby’s mug shot). Some have stated that they used Chinese astrology, also. Once they’ve matched the obvious matches they then start to look at things like age of child requested. The age requested is not a priority for them, they feel they are matching families and not filling orders.
How the Matching Room works(snagged form the Rumor Queen site)
First, they review the baby dossiers and make sure there are no issues with them. We are told that they then count up all of the baby dossiers that are eligible for matching that month and then look to see how far this stack will go in the parent dossiers without sending out a partial day, and they pull all of those parent files. That is the likely cut-off date. Sometimes something happens and they don’t get this far. Sometimes something happens and they get farther.
Next they match orphanages up with agencies. This orphanage has six babies, this agency has six families. These two orphanages are in the same province and have a total of 12 babies, this agency has 12 families. When they are through with this is when (I believe) some agencies start to get information about the cut-off date. Or at least it is when they used to start getting information.
And then they start matching individual babies to individual families. At some point during this part of the process most agencies used to hear from their person in the matching room to let them know how many referrals they will be receiving and from what province(s). Some agencies shared this information with their clients. Some chose not to. Recently I’ve gotten the feeling that many agencies are still getting this information but they are being given orders by the CCAA to not share this information with the families.
Just as in the review room, each matcher is assigned certain agencies and is responsible for communicating with their agencies. Some matchers tell their agency the cut-off date, some matchers tell their agency “you have X number of referrals arriving”, some matchers give their agency a list of that agency’s families that will be receiving a referral. And some matchers don’t say anything at all to their agencies.
The next question that comes up is generally how the matchers match families and babies. I’ve heard from several people who have had the opportunity to speak with someone who works in the matching room. The various conversations seem to all agree that they first look for something that stands out: a matching birthday, a baby who looks a lot like a parent, or a baby who likes music and a parent who teaches music. Several matching people have stated they match by bone structure of the baby’s face and the parent’s faces (this is why they need our passport photos, so they can compare our mug shot with the baby’s mug shot). Some have stated that they used Chinese astrology, also. Once they’ve matched the obvious matches they then start to look at things like age of child requested. The age requested is not a priority for them, they feel they are matching families and not filling orders.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
We are out of the review room!!!!!!!
The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before May 31, 2006.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 7, 2005.
PTL,this means there are no problems with our file, nothing we need to update and that we have moved into the matching room.
Matching room is still taking tons of time, no new news there, rumors have it that they have done up to November 14 of 2005, we are May 19 2006. November and March(2006) are huge months, with the other months being average(whatever that means).
What does this mean timeline wise... again, hard to say, 2008 is as accurate as I can be, then you have the Olympics in the summer of 2008, and who knows how that will impact stuff, but the good news is, it is for sure gonna happen, THAT is worth celebrating, and is news that can't help but brighten the day!
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 7, 2005.
PTL,this means there are no problems with our file, nothing we need to update and that we have moved into the matching room.
Matching room is still taking tons of time, no new news there, rumors have it that they have done up to November 14 of 2005, we are May 19 2006. November and March(2006) are huge months, with the other months being average(whatever that means).
What does this mean timeline wise... again, hard to say, 2008 is as accurate as I can be, then you have the Olympics in the summer of 2008, and who knows how that will impact stuff, but the good news is, it is for sure gonna happen, THAT is worth celebrating, and is news that can't help but brighten the day!
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Dust
shot gun everybody getting for the long run
dont know where we're going
but the out come comes with a little bit of trust
lets go following whatever where the wind blows
flying with our hands out of the window
we didnt even see the dust
see how far we get
driving straight ahead
getting lost
didnt seem to matter much
all we had was time
and a yellow line
looking back we didnt even see the dust
chorus: shot gun everybody getting for the long run
dont know where we're going
but the out come comes with a little bit of trust
lets go following whatever where the wind blows
flying with our hands out of the window
we didnt even see the dust
ohhhh yeah
didnt even see it
we had ups and downs
we got spun around
we held on when the going got a little tough
it took love and faith
and some give and take
and grace
no we didnt even see the dust
shot gun everybody getting for the
chorus: shot gun everybody getting for the long run
dont know where we're going
but the out come comes with a little bit of trust (ohhhhh)
lets go following whatever where the wind blows
flying with our hands out of the window
we didnt even see the dust
come on now!
lets go following whatever where the wind blows
flying with our hands out of the window
we didnt even see the dust
Paul Brandt Video Dust
I love Paul Brandts music, this is his new song/video.He is a Christian, and although this song/video focusses on a human relationship, it is speaking to a current situation we are experiencing. I will blog a bit more about it in time...until then just going with the direction the wind blows and trusting...
dont know where we're going
but the out come comes with a little bit of trust
lets go following whatever where the wind blows
flying with our hands out of the window
we didnt even see the dust
see how far we get
driving straight ahead
getting lost
didnt seem to matter much
all we had was time
and a yellow line
looking back we didnt even see the dust
chorus: shot gun everybody getting for the long run
dont know where we're going
but the out come comes with a little bit of trust
lets go following whatever where the wind blows
flying with our hands out of the window
we didnt even see the dust
ohhhh yeah
didnt even see it
we had ups and downs
we got spun around
we held on when the going got a little tough
it took love and faith
and some give and take
and grace
no we didnt even see the dust
shot gun everybody getting for the
chorus: shot gun everybody getting for the long run
dont know where we're going
but the out come comes with a little bit of trust (ohhhhh)
lets go following whatever where the wind blows
flying with our hands out of the window
we didnt even see the dust
come on now!
lets go following whatever where the wind blows
flying with our hands out of the window
we didnt even see the dust
Paul Brandt Video Dust
I love Paul Brandts music, this is his new song/video.He is a Christian, and although this song/video focusses on a human relationship, it is speaking to a current situation we are experiencing. I will blog a bit more about it in time...until then just going with the direction the wind blows and trusting...
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