Adoption Diary - Sally

Page 1 - includes referral!

This is the full story of Sally's adoption written in diary form. We have left out the diary entries during the long wait prior to her adoption and focused on the entries from the time of referral. This page (page 1) concentrates on the days from a few weeks prior to referral to travel.

For the impatient: Go straight to referral entry!

Page 2 (Travel Story) contains the diary from our trip to China. Enjoy!

18 March 2002 - We're in the Next Batch

Good news!! I finally got hold of Marianne from our agency. She confirmed that we ought to be in the next batch. Her guess is that within about a month they’ll receive the next batch of referrals. It’s getting very exciting!

21 March 2002 - Still Optimistic

I know now that the January 01 DTC group has got their referrals on March 11 – together with the December 00 group. Our agency is still optimistic that we’ll be in the next batch.

26 March 2002 - Still Waiting

Spoke to our agency today. No papers yet. The acceptance letters from the previous group have been dispatched, so now it’s just a matter of the time between the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) receiving them and them sending out the next referrals.

3 April 2002 - Getting Impatient

Spoke to our agency again! No referrals yet. They got mail from China today, but no ”children”. They still think we’ll be in the next batch! She promised me again that they’ll call me as soon as they have news. Dorthe (from a family we think and hope will be in our travel group) has got the same message. She says she won’t contact the agency again until next Monday (April 8).

4 April 2002 - Referrals on the Way Confirmed

Dorthe couldn’t help herself anyway – and called the agency today. They said that “referrals were now on the way, but hadn’t reached their desks yet…”  What does that mean??? Does “on the way” mean that they have now been dispatched from China? And we still don’t know whose referrals they are….

8 April 2002 - the Day Before Referral

I’ve seen on APC (the Adoptive Families from China Yahoo group) that referrals have reached the USA, Canada, Ireland and Belgium. More must surely be on their way to Europe! Suddenly I no longer count on being in the next batch. The “youngest” DTC I’ve seen among the referrals have been March 12, and we’re March 15. Oh, my kingdom for certainty!! I jump every time the phone rings.

    I couldn’t resist. I called the agency. Still the same message: referrals are on the way. Referrals for 5 children were supposedly dispatched last week. Hey, where are they then?! Have they never heard of tracking numbers???! But the referrals surely MUST be here soon.

    I’m in absolute agony!  I have a pain in my stomach as I go to bed - I’m literally feeling sick.

9 April 2002 - REFERRAL!!

REFERRAL!!!!! PAPERS HAVE ARRIVED!!! REFERRAL!!!

Dorit rang at 9 this morning. I had JUST told my boss that if I was acting a bit strange and distracted these days, it was because we were waiting for that call…. And then my phone rang! It registered with me that it was Dorit from our agency and that she said that she’d received our referral – and I frantically gestured to my boss to get the #X#X# out of my office!  J

    Dorit had the following information, which I scribbled down with a shaking hand…. (see a copy of my note)

    It’s a girl, 15 months old. Born 10 January 2001 in the Hunan Province (Qi Dong Social Welfare Institute). She was found and brought there on 19 January, weighed 2,8 kg and was 50 cm. The papers stated a later measurement of 10 kg (that’s probably with a lot of clothes on!). Her name is Qi Mei.

    The papers are now being sent to the paediatrician, but Dorit said everything looks fine. She said there were photos too (I forgot to ask how many).

    Dorit also told me that we would be in a group of 3 families. We now have to wait up to two weeks for the papers to come back from the paediatrician. We shouldn’t expect to travel until the end of June.

    I tried to call Frank who was in class. I was going to a meeting at 10 a.m. and it was on my way there that he phoned me back – I was still in the car. So I told him the good news, then rang my parents and my brother. I then sat through the meeting – don’t ask me what it was about! Do you think I could concentrate even for a minute?!  J  Got back after the meeting, told my boss the good news and then e-mailed my referral post to the APC (at last it was my turn!!) and the Feb 01 and March 01 DTC groups.

Go to 16 April entry to see the referral photos!

10 April 2002 - Getting Info on Hunan and Qi Dong

Now just about everybody in our families have heard the good news. And we’ve revealed that our new daughter’s name will be Sally. I’ve checked the internet and our Lonely Planet about the Hunan Province. I had some difficulty locating Qi Dong but found it in the big Times Atlas at work. I’ve joined a Yahoo group for adoptive families with children from Qi Dong, so I’ll hopefully learn more real soon. I have already learned that girls from Hunan are called “chili babies” or “spicy babies” because food in Hunan is often spicy. And Hunan girls are supposed to be particularly pretty!

15 April 2002 - Referral Package Sent from Agency

Frank rang me at work at 4 p.m. Our agency just rang him and said that the papers are back from the paediatrician. It’s too late to get them today – we should receive them in the mail tomorrow!!

16 April 2002 - Referral Package Received!

Our referral package has arrived!!!!! Yeah! I drove home from work around 11 a.m. and my hands were shaking like a leaf as I opened the post-box. At first, I didn’t think the envelope was there – I was expecting a thick, brown envelope and I was nearly going go yell with disappointment when I saw the envelope with our agency’s stamp on it. I rushed inside while desperately tearing the envelope open.

Oh, wow! My eyes fell on 3 photos – one small passport-like photo and two updated photos where she is in a walker. She looks healthy (even quite chunky!). The medical report is from December.

    I drove down to Frank’s school and met him in the road. He was on his bike, coming from the swimming pool where he’d had a class. We had arranged that I’d only come by if I had got the papers, so when he saw me he swerved over, in danger to himself and the rest of the traffic! He had a quick look and then had to get back to work. I rang my parents to check if they were at home. They weren’t but when they heard the news they quickly drove home and I went there to show them the pictures too. Drove back into work, scanned the photos and sent them just about every where in the world…. To family and friends and Ireland and elsewhere, and to APC and the DTC groups, of course.

    Now we have to send back two acceptance forms (“YES, we would like to accept our referral”!), one for the agency and one for CCAA.

    Tonight we’re going to drink champagne!

    Go to the Referral Page and see all Sally's referral photos.

17 April 2002 - Referral Accepted

We’ve looked at all the papers in detail. Everything looks fine. Molly has got a copy of the photos of her little sister. She’s very excited about it – bringing the photos and showing them to everyone in her kindergarten.

    I have found out that ”Mei” means plum.

Qi Mei

13 May 2002 - Travel Permission

So much has happened since I last wrote… I was in the USA on a business trip last week. While I was away, the agency rang Frank to inform him that we have permission to travel, everything was now in place with Civil Affairs appointments etc. and would we please organize visa and tickets etc. But I knew nothing of this. On my way home to the airport in Syracuse, I was able to borrow my colleagues’ cell phone and call him. Frank was delighted to get the opportunity to tell me the good news:

    We’re leaving for China on 24 May – that’s only a little over a month after receiving the referral package! – and we’re scheduled to get Sally on Monday May 27 at Civil Affairs in Changsha. We’re ready!

CCAA Invitation Letter ("Notice of Coming to China").

Click to see full size.

23 May 2002 - We're Off Tomorrow!

Got our immunizations yesterday. Now we just have to pack the last bits and pieces. Tomorrow, China here we come!