Maya's fairy god-parents

Jim and Jill were married on 10/21/06 on the Disney Cruise. It was the same day as our one year anniversary of the LID in China. I was an honorary bridesmaid for Jill. She and I spent the entire year coordinating their special day. It was so much fun and it truly was an honor to be part of their special day. Patrick and I had already asked Paul and Kate Fiore to be Maya's god-parents when we have her baptized. However, since we live in Florida, we thought it would great for Maya to have fairy god-parents as well. So during my toast to the bride and groom--we asked them to be Maya's honorary god-parents and they agreed!
We are blessed to have such amazing friends who have supported us in our journey to getting Maya.

Happy Halloween

Patrick has already decided that Maya Lily will be a lady bug for Halloween next year!
We know she will be bootiful!!

Today we are at 375 days since LID--and the wait continues...

Happy Halloween to all of you!

Love Aleisa and Patrick

A poem for Maya and some updates

Patrick's Mom (Maryann) found this poem that an adoptive mother wrote to her daughter more than 20 years ago.
I thought it was very appropriate for our daughter and will share this with her when she is older. One more week til we are at our one year anniversary date for our LID. Our coordinator is hopeful that we should receive our referral at 13.5 months--which for us is Dec. 6th.
Thanks for being so supportive throughout this process.
Love,
Aleisa and Patrick

Once there were two women
Who never knew each other.
One you do not remember,
The other you call mother.

The first gave you life,
The second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love,
The second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality,
The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seeds of talent,
The other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions,
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile,
The other dried your tears.

One gave you up.
It was all that she could do.
The other prayed for a child,
and God led her straight to you.

And now, you ask me throught your tears,
The age old question through the years...
Heredity or environment?
Which are you the product of?
Neither, my darling, neither,
Just two different kinds of love.

Update from agency coordinator

Hello,

We just received an email from our coordinator regarding updating our information. Our anniversary date is 10/21--so we inquired about what steps we need to take now.
We were told that our paperwork in China is still in good standing. We wil have to re-do our I171-H, which is pretty easy to do. Our coordinator did say that since the current referral time frame is 13.5 months--we could receive our referral sometime in late November or early December!!!
This is so exciting!! We could be traveling in February or early March--depending on the Chinese New Year holiday. I want so much to be excited about this news--yet I have to protect my heart and not get overly excited--anything could change--as it has so many times throughout this journey.
We will update again once we hear any more news. Thanks again for all of your love and support.
We really appreciate it!
Love always,
Aleisa and Patrick

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