What's taking so long?

It's coming up on two years (two years) since our all-important LID. So what's the holdup?

The simple answer is that the line got longer. The reason it got longer is that the Chinese began to refer fewer babies every month. And so a backlog grew. And grew. (And there are lots of theories as to why China began to refer fewer babies.)

Besides this, China changed the rules for adoption, and people hurried to get their paperwork in so they could be included under the old rules. This added to the people in line.


If you want to know more, here's a web site called Rumor Queen (a.k.a RQ). She does all kinds of projections, she has adopted two little girls from China and she is really into this stuff (though no one knows her true identity. Kind of like the Lone Ranger of Chinese adoption.)

Anyways, here's the link: http://chinaadopttalk.com/

This is serious

It happened just a couple days ago. We officially became Bloggers.

It's a big job, and we take it seriously. We are new at this, but we are up to the task (I think). Good bloggers post with some regularity -- at least once a week, and we intend to be good bloggers (GBs).

People who keep blogs about adoption like timelines, and for us --- adopting from China -- the big date is the LID. (Pronounced "El Aye DEEE.")

This means Log In Date. It is the official date that your approved and notarized documents are logged in with the Chinese government. This is when the wait officially begins. Our LID is April 29, 2006.

This may be the official date of the official wait, but for all the families who have LIDs, the wait has been much longer. Gathering documents, having physicals, getting letters from three reliable sources who will attest to your abilities as potential parents. Hunting for photos that make you look good, like reliable parent material. Procuring letters from your employers stating that they are, in fact, your employer. You write a letter, too, telling the Chinese that you would like to be a parent and would love a Chinese daughter or son as if she were your own, and would never abandon her (or him as the case may be).

There is a lot of mailing involved. Things are approved and notarized by the state in which you live, and then the Chinese government.

We thought that our referral would come about 8 months after our LID, but wouldn't you know, once we were logged in, the wait times greewwwww. And grew. And grew.

We have gone through Christmases and birthdays that we thought, certainly, had to be the last without our daughter.

But we waited and continue to wait. We have gotten used to it.

On our way

Greetings and welcome to our story.
This is the first post in this journal about our long, long journey to becoming parents.
There's lots to tell, and we'll get to it.

All good stories go back to family, so I've decided to start with this photograph of my mother, Kitty, and her father (my grandfather) Charles Westerlund.

Milwaukee, circa 1924.

The little boy is her brother Westy (he was named Helge, but when you're a little boy named Helge, well, that doesn't last long. Probably somewhere in the background is Willie (he died when he was 12) and my aunt Florence.

More later. In the mean time, meet these sweet people. My family.