CCAA, throw us a bone, will ya?

It's March and we keep wondering if our child has been born yet. This is when the wait begins to get tough for us. All along, we've been busy remodeling, working, and planning. Now that we feel as though we have a lot accomplished, we now keep thinking about "starting" our family.

Our frustration continues to grow since CCAA announced the latest round of referrals. If you haven't heard or seen, they matched families with orphans through LIDs of October 24, 2005. The prior round of matches ended on October 13, 2005 -- which means CCAA only got through 11 days of referrals. The reason why our frustration is growing is because referrals typically only happen once a month. October 2005 will take three months to complete. Our LID is April 24, 2006 -- which is six months from October 2005. If you have already done the math, you'll know that would be another 18 months until we get our referral. UGH! UGH! UGH!

We hate to keep bringing this up, but when we began this process we were told the wait was six months from LID -- which means we would have had our referral in October 2006; and traveled in November or December 2006. But, we completely understand that this is not Lifelink's fault as that was the expected wait at the time of application. As the demand/popularity grew for China adoptions, so did the wait. Of course, it also didn't help that there aren't enough children to be adopted at this present time.

So, what's our best guess for referral/travel? We absolutely have no idea. We have been told that this is a cyclical process and should (emphasis, should) speed up. We are still hopeful that our referral will come this year. We're still hoping for the Fall. But, you never know. If things speed up enough, it could be summer. You just never know.

But we do wonder if our child has been born or conceived.

Not the best of news, but since the wait has gotten as long as it has, our fingerprints with Immigration expire on May 11, 2007. Which means, we have to request for an invitation to get re-fingerprinted. This request also includes a cashiers check of $140. Additionally, our I600A expires September 24, 2007. This form allows us to bring our child home -- into the United States of America. If we do not travel by the end of July, we will have to renew this form. Which means, we have to send a cashiers check for $545 to the Department of Homeland Security -- thank you President Bush! Let's hope when Hillary gets into the Oval Office, this will change! I'm sure it will as she is all about the people... not the money.

Now that I've got that out of my system... we have been busy purchasing furniture for her room. We did buy the crib and bedding a few months back as they were on clearance (bargain shoppers extraordinaire!). We have recently purchased a bookcase and dresser from the Land of Nod.

The flooring in our family room will be installed on Friday, April 6 -- that is if the floor is not on backorder any more. We are extending the kitchen wood laminate flooring. We found an almost perfect match, so we're thrilled.

We thought we'd leave you with two images... we have talked about the turkeys that roam our neighborhood. Thanks to cellular technology, we were able to snap a couple of photos, proving that there are a flock of turkeys in our neighborhood...