Next week?

It won't be anytime soon that we get information or see pictures of Sarah. I'm feeling all these emotions right now that I can't stand.

Happiness - Brent and I have been married 10 years today. He is such a wonderful daddy and husband.

Sadness - I want to see her. I want to hold her. I want to be with her now.

Frustration - The Olympics are coming. We are going to struggle with the cost of airfare and hotels on this trip because the Olympics are coming. I just have to keep focused on the positive about it - Sarah.

The whole timing of this batch is stressful.
"If" referrals come out next week - at any point (we'll say Wednesday the 4th just for figuring out stuff)- then we likely will have to wait for another week (June 11) to get any information due to the nature of our agency.
They are really small and the info goes to "Adam" then to the agency, then to us. I *think* Adam does the translation fairly quickly and with only 6 families in our group I *hope* it happens fast.
Our agency should call us first with information then overnight a packet to us. (June 12) Then we need to look over the information - decide if Sarah is the child for us (duh!) and send back the information to the agency so they can get it to Adam to translate who can get it to China. (I'm thinking another week for it to get to China? June 19)
After that we have a bunch of papers to get notorized and gather together all of our things we need to take - including "new" money - yup forgot about that one! It could be as little as a 6 week wait to get our Travel approval and consulate appointment (July 31) to 8 weeks (August 14). Dandy - travel in China for the Olympics.
The other issue in here is that to get a Chinese Visa we need to have an itinerary and hotel reservations. So while all the waiting is going on we can get some things set up but not the Visa - that has to wait until we get travel approval and a consulate appointment in China so we can make reservations for air and hotel.

However, if things get pushed out (not that I want to!) until after the Olympics expenses could be dramatically reduced.

I think the stress is going to be bad in the next few weeks. At least we should have a picture of her, right?

Random thoughts about cats - from a 3 year old

Hannah is sitting at the kitchen table, the cat jumped up on the counter - not allowed! - when this conversation took place.

Hannah: Daddy, why do cats have 4 legs? (Asked in all seriousness from a little girl.)
Daddy: ummmm... (I think he was at a loss for words at the randomness of this question and the fact that he had to come up with a reasonable answer quickly!)
Mommy: Why do you have 2 legs?
H: Because that's what little girls like, 2 legs.
Brandon: No, because God made cats and you that way. (Our answer to a lot of questions with the kids has been that God did it and there isn't a need to explain further.)

ha, ha, ha!

Then she was upset because I was giggling.

H: Stop laughing at me!

I really don't like when she says this because she is truly upset that we are laughing but how do you not laugh when she is so funny? It is difficult to explain to her that we aren't laughing AT her, we are laughing because she makes us so happy.

The cat is "talking"

H: Mommy, why do cats "meow" (she imitates perfectly)
M: That is how they "talk"
H: What does she say?
M: I don't know, I don't understand cat. (Which isn't entirely true because when she is sitting outside a closed door I know she wants in and when she is sitting by her filled food dish she wants me to dump it and give her "fresher" food even though I just fed her.)
H: Well, does she understand when we talk to her?
M: Probably not.
H: Too bad. She could learn a lot.
ha, ha, ha

Matching Rumors

There is a rumor out there that matching has begun for this next month of referrals - that's us!
Here is information on how matching works from the rumor site. I didn't write this so when it says "I believe" that is the person who wrote it speaking. Our agency is very small so I don't believe they get any information prior to the package that arrives. I'm going to see if I can find some pictures.

How the Matching Room works

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.

This is more information from an agency site (not ours)










These are pictures of 1) the outside of the CCAA building 2) The Document Review Department and staff working on review and input of ALL paperwork. All the departments have the most advanced computers and software to perform their various tasks. 3) A stack of dossiers getting ready to go from the "review" room to the "matching" room.











1) Dossiers in the review room ready to be matched. 2) Inside the matching room 3) staff at work matching.

I'm not sure why the pictures are in a cascade like that. I don't want to figure it out though.
Once matching is over we watch for the "stork" or the FedEx info to come out. Again, I don't think our agency gets any information when this happens. We just have to go by what the other agencies are saying.

Happy Birthday

to my sister, my friend Linda and to me.

Global Warming?

So, whoever thinks we are having global warming -
Monday it was 110* or so here.
Today 70*

The weather here should be at least in the low 100's this time of year with no end of the 100's for months. There was supposed to be 1-2 feet of snow in the mountains last night.

I love this weather - the kids are "freezing Mommy, shut the doors!" I wish it would stay like this for a few more weeks. But it won't.

After pulling the clean sheets out of the dryer and making my bed, Hannah and I cuddled in to read when she said her tummy hurt and up came dinner all over her, me and the bed. I stripped the bed, undressed her and got in the shower to clean us both up. Rice is not easy to get out of hair.

She slept great until about 4:30 when she woke up crying because her ear hurt. Gail had her this morning so she didn't expose anyone to whatever it is she has. I called the doctor and he had an appointment right away. Luckily Gail knows where the doctor is and met me there. Dr. checked her ears again and sure enough an infection that wasn't present yesterday. Hannah was also able to give the urine sample she couldn't give yesterday so we were able to check for a UTI. The first preliminary test came out clean but he was going to culture it due to her history. So she is taking Amox. (one she likes versus one of the stronger ones)

She is asleep on the couch right now. I hope she feels better tomorrow. The movers are coming to pack the house tomorrow.

Hannah

I took Hannah to the doctor today to check for strep. Last week at the daycare/preschool we had pink eye, vomiting, diarrhea and strep. I figured strep is fairly easy to test for so we had a rapid test done and it came back negative.
She continued to throw up all day, about every hour or two. She even went for a few hours without getting sick. She slept for about 2 hours before her doctor's appointment. She even ate a bit of rice this evening after not eating for about 24 hours. She was ready to eat, her body was not. After making my bed in clean sheets and reading to Hannah she proceeded to bring everything up - all over said clean sheets. So, the bed gets stripped, we both get in the shower because (TMI) rice is gross when it is in hair, and I have to figure out what to sleep on tonight.
She is asleep now. Thank goodness. I hope she feels better tomorrow.

I've been up since 2:00 a.m.

with Hannah. (It is 4:36 a.m. right now) Every time I get to sleep she throws up. The sheets are in the laundry washing. Brent and Brandon are in the other room sleeping. Hannah is laying on the bed next to me with a crib protector under her and a bowl next to her. She isn't old enough to know when she is going to be sick and get to the bowl. I feel so bad for her. The last few times she hasn't even woken up. I hear her belly gurgle and get the bowl under as fast as I can, wipe her mouth and face and lay her back down. She is so tired. She isn't running a fever though. She must have the bug that Brandon and I had a few weeks ago. Does something like this hide for 2-3 weeks then show itself again or is this something else?
I think it is going to be a long day for me tomorrow - I'm a bit tired but I'm afraid of falling asleep lest she cover me. My poor baby!

He is in

So I forwarded the email in the previous post to the superintendent of the district on Tuesday late afternoon since I hadn't heard from the person in charge of the gifted programs. I figured I wanted to cover all bases and make sure we were heard with our concerns since the gifted person hadn't been in contact with me.

Wednesday - still haven't heard from them. Called Kim ("squeaky wheel") and she said to continue to contact them but have Brent make some contacts. She said to have Brent ask what is going on, why if our school district has the gifted program that is used as a model for self-contained gate all over the country and Brandon is in the program already do we have to "jump through the hoops" to get him placed there. So, Brent calls but gets voice mail all day and doesn't leave a message.

Today - I remind him to call so that they hear from him and this time leave a message so they get back to us. This evening he tells me he has heard from them and HE IS IN!!! yeah! I'm so relieved. He said she sounded apologetic and that the policy is that they have "their" students placed first based on the CoGat then the students from outside the district get placed. Either way he is in and he is going to be placed in his home school which is 2 miles from the house. He will be excited.

Other Brandon news is that he wants two front teeth for Christmas - lisp and all. My sister pulled out the second top tooth last night at the restaurant we went to for my dad's birthday. I think her plan is to post a video she made of him saying some things we kept having him repeat because the new lisp is pretty cute. I think most kids look quite ridiculous when they lose both their front teeth but Brandon is very cute. Check out Susie's blog in the next few days to see it (Nothing Clever to Say).

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to my favorite Dad!
Of course he is my only Dad so that makes him other things as well. We are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate. It should be fun with 12 of us!

Email I just sent to Brandon's new school district

We fought for his placement last year and I'm fighting for his placement this year. Yeah.

Ms. H,

I am just following up on our conversation this afternoon regarding our son, Brandon J.

We currently have Brandon placed in a GATE 2nd grade classroom at L Elementary School in *** School District. He comes to you with a current Psychological Evaluation done by Dr. R. M. dated April 3, 2007. In the evaluation you will note that his WISC-IV scores indicate a gifted child. His Verbal Comprehension Index is (96%ile, superior), Perceptual Reasoning Index is (99%ile, very superior), Working Memory Index is (94%ile, superior). This gives him a GAI of *** which falls in the 99%ile and classifies him as very superior in intellectual ability. Based on these scores Dr. M felt very comfortable recommending a placement in a self-contained gifted program.

I also sent his current progress report/report card when he did your testing and you will note that even in a GATE classroom all his grades either "Meets the Standard" or "Exceeds the Standard". Considering the above scores and his report card we feel Brandon has flourished in a self-contained program.

I have attached a letter written by his current GATE teacher. If you have any questions regarding the appropriate placement for our son please feel free to contact her. (The letter states Brandon's strengths and tells how he does in her classroom.)

We feel that Brandon's needs as a gifted child will not be adequately met in a regular 3rd grade classroom based on the above merits but also on the fact that he has been doing 3rd and even 4th grade work for the majority of the school year. If he were to be in a regular 3rd grade classroom he would be making no academic growth and that would be detrimental to his education. As his parents we believe it is our duty to make sure his academic needs and requirements are being met.

Similarly, based on the information you gave me today regarding the testing environment when he took the CoGAT we feel that his scores certainly do not reflect his ability. When we spoke prior to the test I informed you that he is a poor test taker - particularly in situations where he has never been before. This was a new environment for him and a stressful one. The fact that there were many students of various age levels (I believe there were students taking the test that were going into 7th grade) and the fact that they were all in the same room with one proctor taking various levels alone concerns us to the validity of his scores. Aside from the fact that you stated there were students who arrived after the appointed time and the proctor had to start and stop makes us believe that the best indicator of his ability is the evaluation from Dr. M, not the CoGAT.

Brandon's education is extremely important to us and we would be doing him a great disservice if we did not fight to get him into the program that best meets his academic needs.

Thank you,
Carolyn and Brent


I am so frustrated by the 2nd to last paragraph much less that the child has current scores that qualify him and he shouldn't have had to take the CoGAT to begin with. We will see what I hear back. Her comment today was it was "not best practice" to have a student be told they are gifted by one school and later told they were not by another. You think? I find it hard to believe that a cattle call "evaluation" is a better indicator of what our son knows versus a nationally recognized evaluation by a trained psychologist. But she had to go through the proper "protocol" for the district. My next step is to send all the information straight to the superintendent. As my friend Kim says, "squeaky wheels".

Hopefully the email doesn't come across as snotty and only as a concerned parent who wants the best for her child.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to the mom's in my life -
Especially my mom...

We had a good day, first church, then dinner at my parent's house with my sister, her family and my aunt.

Brent bought cards for me - my "gift" will come after my birthday, our anniversary and our referral because what I really want (instead of a few gifts) is a piece of jewelry with the kids birthstones and I can't pick something out until we know when Sarah was born. - hoping for a color other than blue since Brandon's is blue topaz and Hannah's is sapphire.
The one from him was sweet and loving.
The one from Hannah was sweet and a bit "older" then her.
Brandon's was typical Brandon about potty humor. I will cherish it always and remember when we were at the store and he was practically on the floor rolling with laughter at it. While I don't find it nearly as amusing a him - I love that he found it hysterical and picked it just for me. :)

On another note: Susie is planning a "referral shower" for us after we finally get our referral. I think it is an excuse for her to have a party (shhh, don't tell her!) :) She is quite excited that we are finally going to see Sarah.

airfare

I just got myself all stressed out and worried by looking at airfare for July, August, and September. Close to $2000 per ticket - I think I'm going to be ill. I hate to wait to get her but if we wait until September prices are closer to $1200 each. I don't know if we are going to have a choice and the hotels will be just as bad. I want to cry.

Pictures

I haven't posted any pictures of the kids recently so I thought I'd do the last few months on this post.

Brandon learning how to make Papa's pizza (March 22)




Brent's Birthday - the kids made the cake (April 10)
First making the cake itself...

Then decorating it the next day. You can't show off the cake without looking like a movie star yourself!

Brandon helped Papa make Daddy's birthday dinner - the pizza was the best ever (of course!) Brandon did every step from start to finish.

Mommy and Hannah on Daddy's birthday - we sure love Daddy!

Pictures of Hannah - she is so beautiful




She had her bangs trimmed a few days after this - I don't like not being able to see her beautiful eyes.

From our agency

Carolyn,

Well, you are literally next!!! Here's the email from Adam.


Janice



Dear colleague,

The cutoff date for the Month of April/May referrals is Jan. 12, 2006. Out next group is off just by 1 day (Jan., 13, 2006).

One positive sign is that CCAA has made 2 groups of referrals in April. Hopefully they can do the same in May.


Adam

Application to Date my Daughter

I thought this was pretty funny -



Application for Permission to Date My Daughter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


APPLICATION FOR PERMISSION TO DATE MY DAUGHTER

NOTE: This application will be incomplete and rejected unless
accompanied by a complete financial statement, job history, lineage,
and current medical report from your doctor.

NAME_____________________________________ DATE OF BIRTH_____________

HEIGHT___________ WEIGHT____________ IQ__________ GPA_____________

SOCIAL SECURITY #_________________ DRIVERS LICENSE #________________

BOY SCOUT RANK AND BADGES____________________________________________

HOME ADDRESS_______________________ CITY/STATE___________ ZIP______

Do you have parents? ___Yes ___No
Is one male and the other female? ___Yes ___No
If No, explain:
______________________________________________________________

Number of years they have been married ______________________________

If less than your age, explain
______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________


ACCESSORIES SECTION:

A. Do you own or have access to a van? __Yes __No

B. A truck with oversized tires? __Yes __No

C. A waterbed? __Yes __No

D. A pickup with a mattress in the back? __Yes __No

E. A tattoo? __Yes __No

F. Do you have an earring, nose ring, __Yes __No
pierced tongue, pierced cheek or a belly button ring?

(IF YOU ANSWERED "YES" TO ANY OF THE ABOVE, DISCONTINUE APPLICATION
AND LEAVE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY. I SUGGEST RUNNING.)


ESSAY SECTION:

In 50 words or less, what does "LATE" mean to you?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

In 50 words or less, what does "DON'T TOUCH MY DAUGHTER" mean to you?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

In 50 words or less, what does "ABSTINENCE" mean to you?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________


REFERENCES SECTION:

Church you attend ___________________________________________________

How often you attend ________________________________________________

When would be the best time to interview your:

father? _____________

mother? _____________

pastor? _____________


SHORT-ANSWER SECTION:

Answer by filling in the blank. Please answer freely, all answers
are confidential.

A: If I were shot, the last place I would want shot would be:

______________________________________________________________

B: If I were beaten, the last bone I would want broken is my:

______________________________________________________________

C: A woman's place is in the:

______________________________________________________________

D: The one thing I hope this application does not ask me about is:

______________________________________________________________

E. What do you want to do IF you grow up? ___________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

F. When I meet a girl, the thing I always notice about her first is:

______________________________________________________________

F. What is the current going rate of a hotel room? __________________

I SWEAR THAT ALL INFORMATION SUPPLIED ABOVE IS TRUE AND CORRECT TO
THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH, DISMEMBERMENT,
NATIVE AMERICAN ANT TORTURE, CRUCIFIXION, ELECTROCUTION, CHINESE
WATER TORTURE, RED HOT POKERS, AND HILLARY CLINTON KISS TORTURE.


_________________________________________________________
Applicant's Signature (that means sign your name)


_______________________________ ________________________________
Mother's Signature Father's Signature

_______________________________ ________________________________
Pastor/Priest/Rabbi State Representative/Congressman

Thank you for your interest, and it had better be genuine and
non-sexual. Please allow four to six years for processing.

You will be contacted in writing if you are approved. Please do
not try to call or write (since you probably can't, and it would
cause you injury). If your application is rejected, you will be
notified by two gentleman wearing white ties carrying violin cases.
(you might watch your back)