Happy New Year
We enter 2008 with hopeful hearts and many prayers that a miracle will happen and we wil be blessed with a daughter or two. We will be busy preparing a bedroom for Jessi and continuing to organize and make our home what we envision it to be. I have been involved in a couple of yahoo groups for adoptive families. One group is for those whose paperwork was logged in at CCAA Oct. 06 and the other group is a quilt making group called One-hundred good wishes quilt (OHGWQ) group. Members of that group are in various stages of Chinese Adoption and are making a quilt of 100 squares. Fabric swaps for squares are themed and usually have about 10-25 individuals per swap. A 10x10 piece of fabric and wish for the adoptee are sent. They are called "squishes" ( a square and a wish). I now have enough to start my quilt and will be hoping to complete it this year. I have so many wonderful wishes and beautiful fabric squares I may post some of them in the future.
I now have my own cross country skis and Dave and I hope to get some exercise and enjoy the beautiful northern Michigan winter. With 200 acres of conservancy land accross the street and our own 4 1/2 acres we really have no excuse to get out.
Speckman Photography is doing well and keeping Dave very busy. We have benefitted with a few very sophisticated candles from a new company he is shooting for: Black and Light( www.blackandlightco.com ). New clients are in the works for 2008 and we feel blessed that Dave is doing so well with the business after less than 2 years. Chek out his web page at www.speckmanphoto.com .
Kaitlin is happy and continuing to work at Poppycocks restaurant downtown TC and attending college at Northern Michigan college.
We hope all is well with you and your families and we wish all of you many blessing and Peace for the new year.
Dave and Kari

Today we refiled our I-600A application. This is our pre-approval for Immigration to be able to adopt a foreign child. It has an expiration of 15 months so must be renewed before January 18th.

Good News,
Our paperwork (Dossier) is officially out of review at the CCAA. We are good to go and just have to wait and keep our immigration approval current.
Blessings,
Kari

good morning,
We are enjoying a windy and potentially snowy day here in northern Michigan. Very thank-ful we all have 4-wheel drive!
I have started a timeline of our progress to China. Its a little bit confusing because it actually reads most recent first. So start at the bottom of the list and work up. I guess my brain must work backwards, after-all I do read a magazine from back to front. Oh-well.

Wow, It has been a long time since the last posting. Fourteen months and counting since our log in date (LID) to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). That means that our paperwork made it to China on October 1, 2006. At that time the wait for a referral was about 14 months. For those who received referrals this month (Dec. 07) the wait was 24 months. The CCAA has slowed to a crawl the number of days referred every month and doing the rough math, we may have another 3-4 years to wait. Meanwhile our immigration approval will expire in January and we are currently in the process of renewing that approval, officially called the I-600A. Our social worker updated our home study last month (in our new house- more on that to follow). We get one free renewel so we will get that in this month. I will update progress as it comes.

Meanwhile, much has been happening here in Michigan, We sold our house in Maple City, baught a house in Williamsburg, MI- just ease of Traverse City, Dave and I now have a shorter dirve to work and live on a sunny farm - with a big red barn! We have 4.5 acres with a beautiful countryside view and lakes on either side of us. Our new house is large enough for a growing (hopefully) family with plenty of room for visiting family and friends- so please come.
More to come...

well hello,
Its been awhile since my last posting. Time continues to tick by slowly. Our dossier was logged into the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) on Oct. 1, 2006. This is known as the log-in-date (LID). From now until referral we will not hear anything... Except that the wait may continue to lengthen-- hopefully not. Our current wait is 16- 17 months from LID for a referral. This currently puts us into Feb. 08. We will continue to be patient and pray for no further delays.

Just a quick update to let everyone know where in the adoption process we are. Our paperwork is in China. It was logged into the China center for adoption on Oct. 1, 2006. The current wait from log-in date is 14-15 months. Sadly, that is up from the 8-10 month wait estimated back in January 2006. This means we should recieve a referral by the end of next year and travel to China in February 2008. The wait continues. Please keep us in your prayers.
God bless and a Happy New Year to all.