WE ARE LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Thursday we received word from our agency that our paperwork was logged-in by the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) on 2/9/07. So we are 1 week into our official wait, and China actually knows that we exist now! Yay!!! All that’s left to do is sit and wait until they match us with our baby. :) If the wait time sticks to around 15 or 16 months, we might even be in Beijing during the 2008 Beijing Olympics!

Last night was a momentous occasion. We went to our first FCC-LI (Families With Children From China- Long Island Chapter) Waiting Families meeting. It was great. First of all, this chapter serves all of Long Island and get this…..they hold their meetings at OUR church right here in Sayville! How convenient is that?!?! We were so excited when we first found that out. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I was really nervous at first, meeting all of these new people….especially when, after we got there, they asked everybody to stand up with a microphone and introduce ourselves. But we survived…and guess what- it was really nice. We got to hear stories from a few couples who just returned from China with their new babies. They were all so beautiful. We also met a lot of couples who are going through the process for the first time, like us. We also spent some time talking with a woman and her husband, who just received pictures of their daughter in China. When the woman (Carmen) got up to speak at the microphone, she started to cry, because she and her husband were so happy about receiving their referral. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place when she was speaking. She showed everyone the baby’s pictures. Of course, the baby was absolutely gorgeous and perfect with these cute little chubby cheeks and big brown eyes. Mike and I also spent a good amount of time speaking with a woman who adopted two girls, one from Viet Nam and one from China. Emily got to meet a few new friends too. This one girl, Jillian, who is 3 and was adopted from China as an infant, invited Emily over to the table to color with her and her friends. It was really sweet. Now we really can’t wait to go to the FCC-LI Chinese New Year Party and see everyone again!

And so we wait. Not much news to report. Actually, there’s no news to report on the adoption homefront. It looks like we’ll be waiting for quite a while (1 ½ years or so), as this is how long it is currently taking China to match babies with prospective parents. The next step is for us to receive our LID, or Log-In Date. This usually takes about a month from DTC, so we should be logged in within the next week or so. In the meantime, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy- like that’s ever a problem with a 3 year old in the house :).Work’s been crazy lately (especially mine), so we’ve decided to take a much-needed break, and will be going on a Disney World vacation in February. Emily is so excited. She can’t wait to meet Cinderella. And Mike and I are excited to have some quality family time, just the three of us.