Four months til school is out!

I realized today that in four months the school year will be over. We could be traveling to China then--or just getting back--either way--we will finally be parents!!
I am getting butterflies in my stomach! I've been dreaming about Maya a lot lately. I can see everything except her face. I picture her to be very little--healthy and happy.
I just can't wait to see her face!

Four months equals 20 weeks or 120 days give or take a day...we are so close!!!

Hopefully the CCAA will post the next batch of referrals before the end of this month--which could mean that they could post our batch before Chinese New Year (Feb. 18th) I am still holding onto the belief that we will receive our referral in the beginning of March.

The countdown continues...
The Dunns

Unreal-Pats lose 38-34

Better luck next year! However a big congratulations to Raheem Brock--#79 for the Colts. He is my best friend's nephew and I wish him all the best as he makes his first trip to the Superbowl.

Beat the Bears!

15 months today

We have been LID for 457 days...WOW!
There is a slight chance we may be in the next referral batch. I think we will most likely be in the early March batch based on the number of referrals that still need to be made for the end of September. We are so close and very excited.
We will celebrate today with family and friends watching the Patriots game and eating Chinese food.
The countdown continues...
Love,
The Dunns

Happy 10th Birthday Caroline

Today my cousin and God-child Caroline is 10 years old. I had the incredible honor of bringing Caroline home from China back in September 1998. She was 20 months old at the time. We bonded immediately and have been very close ever since. She started calling me "Ba" as soon as she started talking--which ironically means father in Chinese! It was during this trip to China that I met a little girl named Lili who was 4 at the time. She and her parents were in China to adopt their second daughter--who was from the same province as Caroline. Their new baby's name was Maya. I always loved the name Lily and liked how the two names sounded together--that is how we decided to name our baby Maya Lily!
It is my hope that our daughter will have a special relationship with her cousins--Caroline and Katie (also adopted from China).
Both girls cannot wait to meet the baby.

Happy 10th Birthday Sweet Caroline--we love you and miss you.

Love,
Ba and Pancake!

Patriots do it again!

Coming from a 3-14 behind--the New England Patriots proved once again why they are a three-peat Superbowl team!

They will now face the Colts in Indiana on Sunday. I predict a Patriots/Bears Superbowl--a repeat of 1986--however--this time the Pats will be doing the Superbowl Shuffle across the field for their fourth Superbowl win since 2000!

Go Pats!

Original I 171-H expires today

Wow-I remember when we received our original I 171-H back in 2005 and thought for sure we would not have to worry about re-doing any paperwork since it was valid for 18 months! Well 18 months has come and gone! We are truly hopeful that our referral will be here within the next two months. We could actually be traveling to China this May.

This has been quite a long journey--but very much worth the wait.
We have become very patient over the past few months--which will serve us well as new parents!

Stay tuned for more details...

The Dunns

CNN controversy and our opinion.

As former newspaper reporters, Patrick and I have seen, heard and read our fair share of poor journalism stories. Recently on the Paula Zahn CNN show there was a segment about Chinese adoptions and the new restrictions in place.
As an American I believe in the First-Amendment--Freedom of Speech--however, as a journalist, I would have appreciated a more balanced story. For instance, why did they not include families who have adopted from China--or families who are in the process of adopting from China. I honestly believe that adoption is a very personal decision. In our situation, I have the honor of having two cousins that were adopted from China--they are beautiful, they are smart--but more importantly--they are loved.
My advice is always to be a critical observer of the news being presented--there are three sides to every story--the he said/she said and the truth somewhere in the middle.

Sincerely,
Aleisa and Patrick Dunn

Latest update

This information is from a company that predicts when families might get their referrals based on the current track.
Families with LID's up through 9/27/05 have received their referrals--even though the CCAA has not updated their website recently.
Here is what the forecasters predict for us!!!
"Our prediction for LID 2005-10-2:

Our best guess - a weighted average of recent CCAA velocities, guessing that CCAA will perform about as well in the future as they are performing now, but might return to previous trends: 2007-02-16

That's our best guess for when you might receive your referral. For completeness, we can also show the largest likely range for your referral, based on the CCAA either going as fast as it has ever gone, or as slow as it has ever gone. The CCAA probably won't do either of these things (go as fast or as slow as it has ever gone before, and stay at that speed), so your referral is very likely to come somewhere in between these dates: 2007-01-24 to 2007-05-16.

Since China generally sends out referrals in a batch about once per month, your referral date could easily vary +/- one month depending on whether you just get included or just get missed in a particular batch."

Historical CCAA referral information:

It took 462 days for families with 9/27/05 LID's to get their referrals.

We have been logged in to the CCAA for 439 days--almost 15 months. We are getting close. Our coordinator Bonnie emailed to say she too thinks we will receive our referral at the end of February--let's hope these predictions come true.

We are becoming fairy god-parents!!

We are pleased to announce that our dear friends Kate and Paul are expecting their second child this July. Paul and I have been friends since 1975. We lived next door to each other in Hyde Park, MA and attended elementary school together.
Kate and Paul will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary this April and have a beautiful two-year-old daughter-Gianna Angelina.

We have asked Kate and Paul to be Maya's god-parents. Since we live in Florida with Disney in our backyard-we've offered to be the new baby's fairy god-parents! We told them that we would also be Gianna's fairy god-parents too!

We wish Kate a healthy pregnancy. I am personally rooting for a July 16th delivery--my birthday--but as long as the both the baby and Kate are safe--we'll be glad for any arrival date!

Love,
The Dunns

Happy New Year-Buon Anno!

We wish all you a very happy and healthy 2007.

We hope that 2007 will finally be the year that we become parents. We will continue to post updates on our journey.

We will be at 15 months on Jan. 21--let's hope there will be some insight as to when we will get our referral.

Love and blessing to all of you.

Aleisa and Patrick

Roma 2006

We enjoyed our 6th annual Christmas trip to Rome, Italy.
We went to Babbington's English Tea Room near the Spanish Steps-it is absolutely incredible.
We hope to continue this tradition with Maya.

Eating like the Romans

Here is just a sample of what we feasted on this week. With all of the walking we did-neither of gained more than a pound!!
Food in Rome is so good-we tend to eat our way through the city!
Manga!

Holy Roma!

These are just some of the beautiful religious sights from Roma. We've enjoyed spending our Christmas vacation there for the past six years. We lit candles and prayed in every single church we visited-hope God was listening :)