Beginning To Prepare

You know, after almost 3 and a half years of waiting. You would think we would be more than ready or prepared to bring a new little one home. When we started this process back in Dec 2005, it was all I could think about. It was on my mind 24/7, I was consumed with figuring out when it was going to happen.

As we were paperchasing, things started to really slow down in China and I was clinging to every bit of information that I could get my hands on. I was addicted to yahoo groups and RQ(a site where the latest China Adoption rumors are posted almost daily).

A couple months after we were logged in, around summer of 2006, I realized that things were not going to get better. Pat and I both decided it was time to stop letting the adoption run our lives and begin living for the here and now, which is exactly what we did. We let ourselves plan vacations, we even decided that summer that we were going to move and began plans to build the house we now live in.

Even though I knew it was something that was going to take a lot longer than we anticipated, I often picked up little "baby items" while shopping and would stash them in our spare closet for the day our dream came true.

With every passing month, things got worse and worse on the adoption front......things were moving so slowly in China, it felt like time was standing still.

During fall of 2006, I was really starting to doubt the program and really wondered if we would ever make it to China. Our Log In Date seemed so far away. I have to admit, I looked at a couple other programs that had popped up with our agency, and wondered if maybe we had made a mistake in choosing China. Each time I did this and presented Pat with the info, he would say, "No, I think we are just where we need to be. It might take longer than we anticipated, but it will happen. Our daughter is in China. We were drawn to that country for a reason, let's not second guess ourselves" So that is exactly what we did, we stayed put!!

My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy that fall, he was and is, a gorgeous little boy. I was so excited for her, but at the same time a little piece of my heart was crushed because I thought we would have had some news from China by then, and how much fun would it have been to have the cousins growing up together!!

A couple weeks went by, and then we got a very SHOCKING phone call, that turned our lives literally upside down. It was only about three weeks after we got that call, that Sarah was placed in our arms for the first time. She was a day old and we were head over heals in love with her. There was no looking back.......we knew we had made the right choice and that someday we would go to China to bring home our China baby, but for now, it was time to focus on Nicolas, and this new little bundle of joy who needed our love and support.


Well, here we are approaching Sarah's 3rd Birthday and we are still waiting on our China Dream. I think that subconciously, I have kind of been in denial that it was even going to happen for us and these last few months, I am realizing that we are really starting to get close. At the current rate of the program, I am thinking we will see her face in spring of 2010, maybe summer at latest.

So, with all this being said, I think it is time we really start preparing for this baby. I have not let myself do the things that waiting parents usually do, like decide on a name, decorate a nursery, etc, etc. But the first thing on my list, is to really start to prepare a certain little girl that she is no longer going to be the baby of this family.......


Call me crazy, and maybe a tad skeptical, but we have never really talked to Sarah about becoming a "BIG SISTER" for fear that we would be lying to her.

We broke the news to her about two weeks ago and it went fairly well, although I am not too sure what is really going through that little head of hers. She has come out with some really funny stuff......and it comes out at the most bizarre times!! I will share some of what she has been saying another day, I have already "talked too much" for one post!!

More on this later.......In addition to preparing Sarah, we have also started to play the name game!! It has been a long time since we have done this......almost three years to be exact!!