Grandma McLeod

My grandmother passed away early this week. I will miss her dearly and wish I could have shown her Leia in person. Thanks grandma for being there for me throughout my life. I will remember the times I was home sick and having you bring ginger ale to my bedside to feel better. I will remember you reading me Pickles The Fire Cat. I will remember playing scrabble with you and grandpa on Saturday nights. Thank you so much for being a part of my life.

Jesse

Off To FedEx

Last night we officially "accepted" the referral by signing the appropriate documents. We were only able to do so once the medical translations had been done for Leia. With that done on Saturday, Nina sent off the documents via FedEx using overnight delivery to Texas. From this point it should be about 4 weeks until we get our travel approval and hopefully another two weeks for us to fly over to China to pick her up.

Attached is a map I made of the area Leia is from. There is only so much detail as Google Earth can provide.

JPBellavance

Signatures Away

This evening we officially signed the document to be sent to our agency letting them know we want Leia. According to the rules we were not able to sign this document until we received a translation of the medical records for Leia from the agency. With that out of the way we seem to be on track to go pick her up in mid April.

Today we went to Target and bought some nice outfits and looked at the daunting array of baby products for sale. Nina will be speaking with her cousin soon which will help us pick out the stuff we need.

Oh. Finger printing will be done this Thursday. Also I will be making a map of where Leia is from this week.

JPBellavance

Wheeeeeew!!!

The Department of Homeland Security just sent us our appointment letter to go in for fingerprinting. This is the third time we will have done so and we feel lucky the appointment was made since our fingerprints expire about the same time we leave for China. It is important that they remain current while we are over there.

Also had some extra passport photos done to take along with us. We are also debating whether to get the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine. After reading a few articles on the subject I think we will. Nothing like a swollen brain to turn your trip into a downer. We will also bring some long sleeve shirts and Military Issue DDT skin rub to protect us from the mosquitoes. Hopefully in another six weeks we will be in China.

Say Hello To Leia Xiang Bellavance

We are so happy! What we know about her.

Name: Gan Dong Xiang

Date of Birth: February 26th 2007

From: Guangdong Province

Today May Be The Day

I am excited. The rumor queen thinks we will get our referrals today. Fingers crossed.

Waiting for the "Call".

We are slowly getting closer to what we hope will be the day. Yesterday, Nina and I went out and did some baby shopping. We bought a new crib, bedding, chew toys (teething rings), and a few safety items that we need to place around the house. The key will be shopping for the right items once we get the referral. For that we need some information about Leia's size. We will just have to wait. In other news we have been shopping around for medical insurance. Currently I am under Anthem's Blue Cross/Shield through my company. If I decide I need to leave them to help Nina at home we will need equivalent coverage. We will probably continue with Blue Cross since they seem to have the most reliable service. It is expensive though.

Nina and I have also been reading several books on post-adoption issues. One of the key issues with adopting children is attachment. In general it seems that most of these children will have issues with attachment. Some more severe than others. One suggestion emphasized in most of the other books is a lot of one on one contact between parent and child. More so than what might be seen in other families. To others this may seem like over parenting. But for children coming from adoption this is what they need. Sort of like helping make up for what they missed out on earlier.

Other than that we are just waiting for the "call". As soon as we get it we will post pictures and some information on the blog.