An Online Journal of Our Adoption Journey

Time Forward

Spring moved into summer, and summer changed to fall.  Six months have gone by.  The wait time from dossier to referral has crept up a couple more weeks.  They now predict 13-14 months.  Which means we should receive ours sometime between Christmas and the Chinese New Year, assuming all goes well.  That will put us traveling to China at the end of February or sometime in March.  Our INS I-171H will expire in the middle of April.  That's cutting it close.

Autumn's Room

We've been working on the kid's room.  It was Lise's study, but in August we rented an office downtown for her to work in.  She graduated law school back in May (Summa Cum Laude!) and took the bar at the end of July.  Since then she's been working as a law clerk for an appellate defense lawyer.  She should have her bar exam results by end of November.  

For Autumn's room we chose a blue/gold color scheme, with red trim.  Ailene helped pick out the colors, and it has come out wonderful!  Chris and Rachel helped paint the walls, and on the second day, Annette, Susan, and Ailene helped hand-paint the leaf-embossed trim.

Stuff

We've been picking up more things.  I found a nice stroller at a garage sale, it collapses down and the seat has several settings -- from laid out flat to upright.  Also, for the bathroom, we got an over-the-toilet cabinet to put all the stuff that's currently under the sink -- and up out of little Autumn's questing hands.  

Lise been to the library as well, checking out books on child development.  So far, I've been relying on all the classes I took while working towards my teaching certificate.  I'm sure neither will make us totally prepared for what we've gotten ourselves into.  

Work

I've discussed our adoption plans with my work.  They are very supportive of it, and are willing to be very flexible.  By the new year I'll have six weeks of sick leave available, as well as some vacation time accrued.  I'm planning on taking two months off, then start back part-time.  Gradually, I'd work back up to full time over the following six months or so.  Lise wants to do about the same.  She should be sworn in as a lawyer by the new year as well (fingers crossed!) and can be working on her own by the time the kid's here.

Immunizations

Next week we'll be getting our third and final Hep B vaccine shot at Planned Parenthood.  Lise got a flu shot, I'll get one here over the next month or so.  

Our latest spend list is Here.