Happy Birthday Patrick

Today is Patrick's 31st birthday...I remember last year we couldn't wait for him to turn 30 so we could send our dossier to China...time flies.

Our dossier was mailed on 9/23/05--one year and five days ago. It was officially logged in at the CCAA on 10/21/05--again almost one year ago...and still no Maya.

I keep telling myself that they are waiting to give us the perfect baby--I just wish they would hurry up.

Happy Birthday to my dear sweet husband. I love you so much and am grateful for the life we share together.

You are the best!

Love always,
Aleisa

CCAA referrals now complete up through 8/9/05

The CCAA website has been updated to show that they have referred babies to families through Aug. 9, 2005. That is 18 days worth of LID's completed in approximately a 60 day time frame.
This is 9 days further than originally predicted. I am still not sure what this means for us in terms of the time frame--but it will certainly move things along a bit more quickly.

There are still 72 days worth of LID's before ours.

Hope to know more information soon.

Love,
Aleisa and Patrick Dunn

11 months today!

We've made it to 11 months since our log-in-date. We celebrated by going to Epcot's China Pavillion and ate at Nine Dragons. We've done this every month on the 21st. Patrick's fortune cookie said "a small gift will arrive soon." Maybe this is what the recent rumor boards are referring too...the latest is that October LID families should expect to receive their referral sometime in December.
I try not to read too much into the rumors--but this is one I wish would become a reality.
Waiting patiently for our little one to arrive.

Love,
The Dunns

December is out of the review room!

The CCAA website has been updated to report the they have reviewed dossiers up through Dec. 31, 2005. This means that these families are now in the matching room with all of the families from August, September, October (our group) and November.
It's getting pretty crowded in the matching room...so hopefully this means that referrals will start coming and we get to see Ms. Maya Lily's face soon!!
Let's keep our fingers crossed and pray that the CCAA is starting to move us on to the referral phase of this long journey.

Love always,
Aleisa and Patrick

New rumors and other thoughts

Ok--I have been pretty good about not believing everything that is written about the wait times in China. However, the latest buzz seems to have some credibility...

The lastest rumors have stated that families with a December LID would most likely receive a referral in June 2007. For us this means a possible April 2007 referral. This will be 18 months after our LID and two years and two months since we began paperchasing for the homestudy.

I guess I have started to accept the fact that we will go through another holiday season without Maya Lily. I've been thinking about her mother a lot lately. I know how sad I am right now waiting for Maya to come home--then I think about what her mother must be going through--knowing she is giving up her child--my sadness will end the moment she is placed in my arms--her mother's pain will last a lifetime. I know that Patrick and I will forever be grateful to Maya's birth parents--for they will have given us the most precious gift of all.

We will keep you posted.

Love,
The Dunns

November is out of the review room

The CCAA website was recently updated to announce that dossier's with a November LID have all been reviewed. This means this group is now in the matching room--it is starting to get a bit crowded in there!!

The CCAA still has to match the remaining July dates (22-31) for a total of 9 days, all of August (31 days), all of September (30 days) and finlly our month--October (31 days). This adds up to 101 days worth of referrals that still need to be completed. It has been taking an average of 40 days to complete 9 days of dossier referrals. If this trend continues--we should not expect to receive our referral until August 2008. It is our hope that the CCAA increases its referral days from the current trend to at least 15 days of referrals every 30 days. This will certainly ensure that we receive our referral sometime this spring and could travel in late May/early June.

We will keep you posted as things can change at anytime!

Love,
The Dunns

CCAA has sent referrals up through July 22nd

It has not been officially updated on the CCAA website--but families are reporting referrals up through July 22. This means that they only did 9 days worth of referrals since the last update. I do not want to even begin to guess when our referral will arrive. I keep hoping November--but it could be as late as February/March. Unbelievable!
Please keep your fingers crossed. We are praying that the referrals will increase so that we can atleast have her picture by Christmas.

Love,
The Dunns

Ten months and counting

I can't believe that our paperwork has been over in China for 10 months! Hopefully we will get our referral in the next few months--maybe before Christmas--WOW!
We have waited so long--this would be the best Christmas present ever!

Stay tuned for new updates...

Love,
Maya's parents (Ihave to practice saying it...might as well practice writing it!) :) :) :)

Latest rumors regarding our referral

I read today that if the CCAA places at least 24 days worth of referrals at time for the next few weeks--we could potentially receive our referral in November. If they place at least 16 to 18 days worth of referral--it would be January. If they continue to place only 12 days of referrals like they have for the past few months--we would not receive our referral until March--which would be 25 months since we began the process. It would certainly mean that we would have to update our I 171-H with the USCIS.
I am not sure what to make of all of this--my head is spinning. I just want us to be able to get our baby very soon. Please keep your fingers crossed that the CCAA will now be able to speed things up now that they officially moved into their new office space.

Thanks again for all of your support!
Patrick and Aleisa

CCAA has sent referrals up through July 13th

It was so nice to see so many beautiful babies in the referral photos!! If things continue to "speed-up" we could be four to five batches away from getting our referral! Hopefully the CCAA will match the rest of July within the next two weeks, do all of August within the month of August and do the same for September and October!! This would keep the wait time to 12 months--which is long enough!! We'd really love to be able to travel at Christmas--here's to wishful thinking!!

Love, Aleisa and Patrick

Please write to your state representatives...

Hi Everyone,
We are asking everyone we know to write their state representative to get the following bill passed regarding international adoption. If our I171-H expires on January 13, 2007 and we do not have Maya Lily--we will basically be back to square one. You all know how much Patrick and I have gone through to become parents. We really need the United States government to extend the timeframe from 18 months to atleast 24 months. This will make it that much easier for us and many other waiting families from having to re-do paperwork and pay fees for something we have already completed.

We all need to get our Representatives behind this. You can email your representatives from this link: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Here is an example of what you can include in your letter:

We have contacted you before with our concerns about the expiration date of the I-171H and the burden this will place on our family as well as an extra burden on the USCIS. Heather Wilson has introduced legislation that will give us relief. It is called the Helping Families Adopt Orphans Act. Can you see what you can do to help this bill make it through the house? You can read about it at the following link: http://wilson.house.gov/NewsAction.asp?FormMode=Releases&ID=1284
Thank you for your help getting this important piece of legislation passed. It will help tens of thousands of families as well as keep the already backlogged USCIS offices from having to renew the paperwork for tens of thousands of families.


The more letters our representatives receive the more likely they will act on this very important issue.
We thank you for your continued love and support.
Love,
Aleisa and Patrick

This is the most recent update from the CCAA!

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before October 31, 2005.

This means that our dossier has been reviewed and hopefully we will be matched with our baby very soon.

Love,
The Dunns

9 months and counting!

Yesterday officially marked 9 months since we were LID in China! I think I am starting to have "labor pains".
It is still uncertain when we will receive our referral. Some sites are sticking with the 12 month timeframe, which for us would be October. Other sights are predicting 14 months, which is December. Finally there were some sites that predicted 18 months--yikes!

We are prepared for the worst case scenerio but are praying for the best case scenerio which means we would be going to China in late December.

We will certainly keep you posted.

Love Aleisa and Patrick

Viva Italia!

Congratulations to team Italy for winning the World Cup!!
As many of you know, Rome is our home away from home during Christmas--so we were very excited to see them win!!

Ciao!

Patrick and Aleisa

Happy 4th of July

Today we celebrated the 4th by marching in the town's annual parade. We carried the banner for the Sons of Italy Lodge. It was a lot of fun.
We cooked hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and enjoyed the day.

Hopefully this time next year--Maya Lily will be celebrating with us.

Here's to a Happy 4th of July to all of our friends and family. Happy 3rd Birthday Jack!!

Love always,
Aleisa and Patrick Dunn

We are in the matching room!!

The CCAA website was officially updated this evening and announced they have finished the review of all dossiers logged in before Oct. 31, 2005--which means we have officially been moved into the matching room.
This is where they will actually go through our photos and personal information and do their best to match us with a baby who has similar characteristics.

While this is very exciting news--we still have quite a wait ahead of us--it will hopefully go by quickly and we will finally be able to say we have our baby girl.

Stay tuned for more updates...

Love,
Aleisa and Patrick

First day of summer

We have officially made it to summer!!!

Today marks eight months since our log-in-date with the CCAA. Hopefully we only have four more months to go until we receive our referral for Maya Lily.

Updates:
Last week we did our fingerprints for Immigration and received an updated I171-H (favorable determination to adopt!)

We are in the process of updating our homestudy which will expire on June 30--hopefully we will not have to worry about re-doing any other documents.

Four more months til Jim and Jill say "I do" on the Disney Cruise--we can't wait to celebrate with you!!

The countdown continues...

Aleisa and Patrick Dunn
DTC: 9/23/05
LID: 10/21/05
Waiting for Maya Lily

Happy Father's Day

To my dear husband Patrick,
I want to take this moment to wish you a Happy Father's Day!! I know you are going to be the best Daddy in world to our daughter. You are patient, kind and loving. You will teach her so many amazing things. She will be so lucky to have you as her forever father.
I love you,
Aleisa

Official wait time

We received information from our local adoption agency that the current wait time for a referral is 12 months from the Log-in-Date.

This is longer than the original wait time of 7.5 to 8.5 months--however it is not as long as the rumored 18-24 months!

Our LID is 10/21/05--so we can expect to receive a referral anytime on or around 10/21/06. We could possibly be traveling to China at Christmas time, which would be awesome.

Stay tuned for more details...

Aleisa and Patrick

Preparing for parenthood

This extended waiting period has given Patrick and I an opportunity to become better prepared as parents. I have spent some time reading about international adoption and was amazed at the amount of information there is out there!! At first it was pretty overwhelming--but now that we have some time on our hands--it has been very informative.

We recently read about attachment issues that most adopted children go through. I never really gave this much thought--now that I have a better understanding of what it is all about and why it happens--I am so grateful to the other families who shared their experiences and offered plans and solutions.

This will certainly be a learning curve for Patrick and I. We are quickly realizing that ultimately our daughter's needs and well-being are our first priority.

Thanks again to all of you for your love and support. We are grateful to all of our family and friends for helping get through the waiting period and helping us get ready to be parents!!