What’s in a Name?

So I think we have narrowed down the middle name choices. So far we have three in the running that we keep going back and forth on. We still have a few months before we have to fill out the rest of the paperwork, so it is still anyone’s guess which name we will ultimately end up picking.

If you are interested, the names we are currently contemplating are as follows:
Kiori
Naomi
Jane

Of course, her first name is still going to be Saiya. Go ahead and leave us a comment with your vote! At my work, the tally is:
0 Kiori
3 Naomi
1 Jane

We hope to hear from CAWLI about our Log-In-Date very soon! It doesn’t really mean much, other than our paperwork is now in the works in China, but at least its something. And it means we are moving forward in the process. The next step after the LID is the Letter of Acceptance which means that we have been approved by the Chinese government and are ready to apply for our Visa.

Until Later!

One week Post DTC....

I know its horrible of me to be counting already, but it has been one week since we DTC. If we are basing our schedule on the average time frame, then we have 7 more before we hear anything from the Chinese government on the LID and 2 months and 3 weeks on the LOA.

On Thursday, we had my sister’s children and that whole overnight stay was awesome! It gave us a little practice and a dose of what to expect when we have our own little girl. I made lunches for the kids to take to school and we dropped them off at school for the day, it was so sad to see them get out of the car and head to class. I can only imagine what its going to be like with little Saiya.

We went to a birthday party over the weekend. My sister was paintballing with her oldest, so we had her little girl for the day. OMG did we have a blast with her! We took her kayaking and she had so much fun! It is definitely going to be a long wait!

I’m ready for warmer weather and our trip to CHINA!

We are Officially DTC!!

Our dossier went to China yesterday! We now have up to 8 weeks before we get a log in date (LID) and up to 90 days before we get our Letter of Acceptance!

In the mean time, we are filling out paperwork needed for the US government after we receive our LOA and trying to come up with a middle name for our daughter.

At the same time, we are working on travel plans and I think we have narrowed it down to us traveling directly to Hong Kong and then to Ningxia to pick up our daughter and then after the American Consolate in Guangzhou, we travel by boat back to Hong Kong and leave from there. It makes things much easier for us and we cut out a plane trip entirely, which I'm very sure Chris is thrilled about!

YAY!!! We are so excited!!

USCIS Approval and a Party!

We received our USCIS approval in the mail on Thursday! I express mailed it to Meg to put with our dossier. She told me that she would send our dossier to China today!! The Chinese government can take up to 90 days to send us our letter of acceptance, so we have another LONG wait ahead of us.

In the mean time, my mother and sister and mother-in-law are planning an adoption party for Chris and I (and of course for Saiya). I made some suggestions and narrowed down the invitation list to about 25 people. My sister and I also zoomed around target making a gift registry so that people will have an easier time figuring out what we need. The party is scheduled for February 28 (which is Saiya’s birthday!).

We are still up in the air about a middle name for her. Chris is having a hard time pronouncing You Ai, so I think we are going to try to give her an American middle name. We are not even close to a decision. We keep throwing names at each other, but so far, we cannot agree on any one in particular. I still like Jojo! Oh well, at least we have some time.