While We're Waiting (5 months)

June 30, 2013 - 5 months waiting since our LID (log in date).

The most recent update from our agency reports that China's computer update from late May is still on-going.  We have been told that this computer system conversion will be a welcome update for future paperwork processes related to our adoption.  The upgrade, which began in late May, prevented the typical shared referral release the last week of May and also prevented the late June release as well.  Any agency specific lists set to be released (our agency is expecting lists from three new orphanage partnerships) have also been delayed until the upgrade is complete.  Our agency has been given no time frame as to when the system will function normally.  They noted that some approvals through the new system began to arrive in the past couple of weeks.  Hopefully this is a great sign that the new system is functioning and shared referrals and agency specific lists will begin very soon.

From our estimations, our agency has received no referrals since early May - about 2 months now.  We are hopeful the floodgates of referrals will soon be opened. 

In June, we enjoyed a trip to the beach house and visited many tourist spots in the Charleston area.  This photo was taken at Boone Hall Plantation - a beautiful hidden treasure in Charleston. 

We enjoyed several days on the beach - we had great weather!  These photos were taken during a late evening walk to see the dolphins feeding.  We have an impressive child photographer in our family.

Happy Father's Day!

Passports Ready

Just over a year ago, Ian, Aidan and I ventured out for passport photos to get (and renew) our passports for our trip to China.

 

We visited the local AAA office for our courtesy passport photos, scheduled appointments at the passport office and completed all the needed paperwork to send for our passports.

 

Here is our little comedian preparing for his photo

 

These photos turned out nicely - in spite of the photo above - I thought we might end up with Aidan and his crazy face.

So the passports all arrived in mid July last year - mine is good for 10 years and the boys' passports are good for 5 years.  One year has passed - here's hoping we travel to China to bring Emma home before Ian and Aidan's expire in 2017!  :)

Brian had a passport already - his expires in fall 2015 - tick tock!

During the time we were acquiring our passports, our best friends announced their move to Guatemala to be full time medical missionaries.  Our boys' love their girls and have fondly referred to them over the years as their "faraway" friends since they've lived at least 1.5 hours from us.  What the boys don't quite understand is just how far away their friends really are now.  I've known her for half my life and learning that they would no longer be a short drive or domestic phone call away has been difficult.  It's the unknown - are they safe, when will we see each other again, will I be able to figure out Skype so we can "see" each other, when will they meet our Emma?  I know God called them to this mission - I knew when we met 18 years ago that God had called her to medical missions - I know He'll guide and protect them.  And the good news is - we all have passports and can plan a visit to their mission field once we have Emma home.  We're planning to rack up some stamps in these passports!!

While We're Waiting ( 4 months)

We've been logged in China for four months (May 30, 2013).  And our first anniversary of being in our adoption process was May 29, 2013 (our 14th wedding anniversary).


We celebrated Mother's Day with our families on Sunday, May 12.  We were able to capture a few family photos.

Sweet Ian

 

Smirky Grin Aidan

 

 

The McGinnis Family

 



We are trying to wait patiently.  We've been in contact with our agency to be updated about our current status.  We are the 14th family for a 0-2 year old girl with minor medical needs.  We are the 6th family for a 0-4 year old girl with minor medical needs.  We have adjusted our request from a 0-12 month girl to a 0-30 month girl.  Even knowing our "place in line", we have no frame of reference for how long our wait will be for our referral.  We have been advised that we are looking at a 12 month wait from LID to referral - that means we should expect a referral around December or January - still a number of months away. 

Our agency continues to receive additional orphanage specific partnerships and their referrals.  They are expecting a number of these over the summer.  If there are lots of younger girls with minor needs, we could be matched more quickly.  We had hoped that we would travel to China in 2013 to bring Emma home - it is less likely this will happen unless we are matched during the summer.  We know the longer we wait in this stage of the process that the next phase will be shorter as our paperwork would be translated and approved.  We are very hopeful for the possibility of being matched in the late summer and that we can still bring Emma home before Christmas.