Tick....Tick....Tick...Tick....

Well, still waiting on news....any news.. I did find out that my questions and request for current height/weight and updated pictures has been made. Now if I could convince those lovely women in the foster system in China to take anywhere from 5-600 photos of our girl...than well, that would make me a happy camper. I am kind of back to trying to get stuff done and doing the normal day to day stuff. Got to play hockey this morning which is always a great stress reliever ( any women in the Huntsville area interested in playing hockey...call me!). Tonight we are going to have a few friends over...just to get our minds off the fact that our email Inbox is missing the one email that we really want to get. Other than that, it is just a normal Saturday around here...except for the fact that I have replaced a few of the older photo's of the kids with an adorable Chinese girl who will be hopefully running around the house by Christmas!

It's Friday... One Week Down

Okay...so this counting weeks thing is going to be painful...for everyone. However, I did make a call yesterday and find out that the LOA ( letter of acceptance for those of you having trouble with the acronyms) is not dependent on the PA. The PA just happens to come first. SO... I dont feel bad that the PA didnt come this week...because even if the PA comes next week, the LOA is still in the works. Some adoption agencies don't even issue a PA...so there you go.

Still it is about 9pm or so in China which means that Molly is settling in to go to sleep....hopefully. She will have to get accustomed to an 8pm bedtime here. I have talked to so many doctors, audiologists, speech therapists, people working in Children's Rehab and in the school system that it is all running together. We have a jump on our sign language class...thought I was doing good by learning the question words and a list of verbs...then I started watching Four Weddings and a Funeral for the 8,000th time and as most of you may remember Hugh Grants brother is deaf...so I'm thinking...certainly I can pick up a few signs here....NOPE...nothing...in fact their sign for WHEN is our sign for WHERE...that's all I got. Back to the books.

So I'm off to play some hockey...much needed distraction...at least for an hour or two. This does get easier, doesn't it?

The Olympics and the CA.

So... according to the reports out of the CA, they have started to limit the number of families they will see in any one day and because there were no appointments during the Olympics, there has been a little bit of a slow down. Would it have killed everyone to have had the Olympics in Greece again? I mean, they started this whole thing...I think they should own it... I digress.

But before the depression sits in, I was told that there is a good chance that because Rob and I will either travel alone or with one other family that they may be able to squeeze us in to an existing appointment. ( see Mary...this dog is back in the hunt! Man, I really need to move away from Alabama...who says things like that?).

Still ppppaaaaaaitttently waiting for news of Molly...one picture...hopefully more...news of what she is like. I want to hear more about the obstinate part of her. She will blend in quite nicely to this family. Have found two preschools in the area that have kids with special needs...so that gives us some options. Learning sign language and it is coming along quite nicely. I cant imagine speaking in more than one or two words at a time...especially like the sign for HATE. I know that sounds bad...but HATE is a fun sign to make. The sign for LAUGH makes me feel like I belong on the Mickey Mouse club.

Hoping tomorrow brings us more information.... please oh please oh please.

Another Day - No Information

Ugh...I guess no news is good news..or maybe it is just no news. No info on PA, No info on updated height and weight, no questions answered. Even though it will probably be another week to get this info, it doesnt make this any easier. Another adoptive family found out that they couldnt get a CA until October 14. That has been the most disapointing news all day. If adoptions speed up, will CA slow down? You know, I really thought that waiting three years would be the hard part. I was wrong. Knowing that a little girl is half way around the world and could have a family if I could just get to China and bring her home. That is the frustrating part. But there is really nothing else I can do....except wait....

Another Day - More Information

We are still patiently ...or not so patiently awaiting the answers to our questions from the orphanage. I have about 800 so it was hard to boil it down to just 10. We are also expecting some current height and weight measurements as well as updated photos. Oh how great would that be to get more photos..I have stared holes in the three we have. Plus even complete strangers have asked me to stop showing them our pictures! What I did arrange is to have digital photos sent to molly with our names so that she can start looking at them. This service will put them in a little album for her. They will also send digital cameras so that when you pick her up, you will have pictures of her living day to day in the orphanage. We will also send her some candy and a blanket and a doll or toy.

Spent some time on the phone last night with a man who is married to a deaf woman, has six kids, four that are deaf and two of those kids are adopted from China. He provided some really interesting insight into language and auditory processing as well as what we can expect when we get to China. We are foolishly trying to come up with a game plan prior to getting Molly which is hard to do as everything really depends on her evaluation. But I guess arming yourself with all the information cant hurt!

Attempted to find a local preschool program for Molly...one that would include deaf kids...no luck yet. Right now it is all about early intervention and/ or therapy in the school system. There are still a few phone calls that are due back to me...but the good news is that our insurance ( which is a total nightmare...just ask Dr. Patz) covers not only hearing aids...but CI's as well. So thats good news.

I am starting sign language classes next week. The course will be an intro to ASL and will run 10 weeks. Hopefully it will give me enough of a head start in order to at least attempt some communication with Molly and get her recognizing/ understanding..dare I hope "using" some ASL to communicate. Once that course is over, the next one will be more conversational and my new friend that I spoke to last night is going to try to arrange someone that is deaf to come over to the house so that I can practice speaking in sign.

By the way, a little note to all my hearing friends. Deaf is not a bad word. Deaf is not slang. Deaf does not mean dumb. Deaf does not mean that a person doesnt have auditory processing skills ( yes, that one confused me as well). So if you are reading this and thinking that I should be saying that Molly is hearing impaired and not deaf...well, I was assured last night that would be wrong.
So there is your deaf etiquette for the day!

Off to do some laundry and get something done around the house in an attempt to not think about this every second of the day.

We made the home page!

Well our girl made the home page of my online group for our adoption agency. If I didnt feel "official" before - I do now. I was also told that I have a really good shot of having a pretty quick turn around from LOA to TA...so Im going to really be hoping for that! Dont give up yet Mary!

Pictures of Molly's Orphanage

Still attempting to find out exactly what her living situation is...but this is a picture of the Orphange where Molly is. If you look in the front of this picture you will see a curved metal gate. This is where Molly was left to be found when she was 21 months old. I cant even imagine what must have happened where the only recourse for a mother or father was to leave their almost two year old in front of a gate of an orphanage an walk away. The pain that mother or father must have experienced is unimaginable. Well, we will take care of that!