Comparing The Years - April Edition

So another month of referrals has come and gone and it was another disappointing number of days referred. The CCAA referred up to January 9th, so only five days were referred this month. Two of those days were on a weekend with very few people logged in so that makes the batch appear larger than it is. The average number of days referred per month for the past year is still hovering around 6 days. See the chart below for the number of days referred per month back to May 2006.

If we overlay the above chart by year (see below) the similar yearly trend continues to present itself. Most glaring is the month of April which has had a lower number of days referred for the past 2 years. In April 2007 we saw 2 days referred and in April 2006 we saw 5 days referred. So this year appears better than last year but if you factor in the weekend probably not much better. The good news is that the number of days referred in the past has seemed to pick up a little bit after April. According to the online polls the next couple days are pretty big so most waiting parents are expecting another small batch. More potential good news to look forward to is that the end of January 2006 has a span of 9 days with no or very few families logged in. So when the CCAA gets to referring those days we should see a larger batch than we have seen in a very long time. Possibly 10 or more days.

The Best Day Ever - Part 2

So after getting the call Jen called me at work. She started her conversation with "Hi Daddy". I kept it together pretty well and tried to write down the info she was giving me. The most surprising part was her age. She is just over six months old. All of the babies in our group are very young, which seems opposite of the recent trends. And we just love her Chinese name...Lu Hu....So cute. We also found out that she is from Jiangxi Province which is in southern China.

We had our appointment at 3:30 so I had about an hour left at work to get a couple things done. I tried to eat lunch but didn't really have an appetite. Jen met me at work around 1:30. She greeted me with tears, a big hug and a kiss and we headed into town. Friday was a really rainy and dreary day in Boston but it didn't matter much to us. We felt like the sun was shining on us all day.

We got to our agency about a half an hour early so we expected to have to wait. One of the employees brought us into an office, told us to sit down and handed us a package. And there she was. Our daughter. We immediately thought she was the most beautiful baby we had ever seen. We have a few minutes to look at the pictures and some of the paperwork and then Lillian the director called us into her office and gave us a little more of the translated information. We will be getting updates in about a week and she told us we hope to travel on May 22nd!!!

We both left the office with the biggest smiles on our faces. The other people on the T must have been wondering what was wrong with us. I felt like showing everybody our referral picture but I refrained. On the way home we stopped at our friends Biren and Kristen's. They have been one of our biggest supporters through this whole process so it was nice to see how happy they were for us. We then headed over to Jen's parents to show them pictures of their 12th grandchild. They were so excited and agreed that she is their cutest grandchild yet....just kidding. Then we were off to our last stop at my Mom's where she, my sister and cousin James were waiting anxiously to see Grace's picture. They fell in love instantly just like everybody else.

At this point we were exhausted and also hungry so we stopped off at a nice restaurant and had quiet dinner and a couple glasses of wine to relax and reflect on our day. When we got home we were overwhelmed by all of the blog comments and emails we had from everyone, and they hadn't even seen her picture yet. We would like to thank everyone for their kind words of congratulations. At present count we have over 50 emails and almost 100 blog comments. We just can't get out an email to everyone so please know that we have read and cherished every wish. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

The only thing left to do was update the blog with Grace's picture and make a few more phone calls. By 11:30 Jen and I were just wiped and ready for bed but at the same time we didn't want the day to end. It really was the best day ever!!!

What a weekend it was. Jen and I keep wondering if this is just a dream. Everything seems to have worked out so perfectly. We are so used to waiting we expect to wake up and still have another month to go. We took a trip to Babies R US today to get some of the age appropriate stuff that we couldn't buy before since we didn't know her age. And, of course now we have dresses.....lots of little dresses with flowers and bows......Jen is in absolute heaven.

The Best Day Ever - Part 1

The only way I can describe the last few days is by comparing it to being a kid and waiting for Christmas. Yesterday morning was just like Christmas morning when your parents made you wait to open your presents. But what a wonderful present she is.

So our day started very early as I had to work. Jen took the day off since as the week wore on she was getting more and more frantic. By Friday she was just about ready to drop so she wouldn't have done anyone any good in front of a classroom.

I got to work pretty early but right away there were some rumblings that referrals might be arriving. Around 9am I saw that someone had reported that referrals were arriving in Spain. I immediately called Jen to wake her up to tell her to be ready, the call may be coming today.

About an hour later I checked one of the boards and saw that someone in the US had gotten the call, on second look I noticed that that someone was Kristin from our agency who shares our Log In Date. My heart almost jumped out of my chest. About a million things ran though my head....We are going to get the call.....I need to call Jen, no, I can't she may be getting the call right now....I am going to be a dad. I waited a few minutes and called her. She picked up the phone and said "Kristin got the call!" I said "I know, OK Bye."

Jen called me about ten minutes later. I expected to hear Congratulations Daddy or something. Nope, she asked if I had gotten the call yet. Apparently our agency had called Jen's cellphone but the call got disconnected. Then they called our home phone and that got disconnected as well. Jen kind of panicked, emailed me and then called me. We decided that she should at least call the agency back and leave a message that we lost the call, but are home waiting.

About ten minutes later (the longest 10 minutes of Jen's life) she was able to talk to the director of our agency and got some basic info about Gracie Lu Hu. Fortunately for us we have most of this on video. It makes for pretty funny watching, albeit not for Jen. See the video below:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Part 2 tomorrow.......

Introducing Grace Lu Hu

Chinese Name: Zhuang Lu Hu
Date of Birth: 9/22/2007 (one day before Jen's birthday)
Province: Jiangxi - Yifeng SWI
We are just ecstatic. Will post about our crazy day later in the weekend. Isn't she the cutest thing ever?!?!

We Have A Daughter

We just got the call. Her name is Luhu and she is just over 6 months old. We are going into our agency this afternoon to get pictures and additional info. We are over the moon!!!!

Quiet Day

Yesterday there was definitely a buzz in the air with the rumors starting that referrals may have been mailed. The adoption boards were all very active with rumors, good and bad. Today is was just really quiet, almost like a hangover from yesterday's buzz.

It still seems like there is a small chance that referrals will arrive tomorrow but more likely that they will arrive on Monday. But we are preparing for them to arrive tomorrow just in case. I will update as soon as we hear anything. I know our blog stalkers will want to know ASAP. You know who you are.....

Something on the way?!?!

Today was a long day. Jen made an Italian dinner and I came home and cracked open a bottle of wine. We really needed the "whine".

The big rumor today was that referrals may have been mailed. The big question is when they will get here. If they were mailed from China on Wednesday the likelihood of them arriving in the US on Thursday is pretty slim. It is more likely that they will arrive on Friday. But there is also a pretty good chance that we will have to wait until Monday. What is a couple more days after waiting 27 months? We can do it.

As I was reading the rumors that something was in the air from China a song that has been playing lately popped into my head and now I can't get it out. The first line of the song is what got me but the rest of the lyrics are pretty appropriate as well. Here's our song of the week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbFo6u7l23k&feature=related

MAT KEARNEY

Nothing Left To Lose

Something's in the air tonight
The sky's alive with a burning light
You can mark my words something's about to break

And I found myself in a bitter fight
While I've held your hand through the darkest night
Don't know where you're coming from but you're coming soon

To a kid from Oregon by way of California
All of this is more than I've ever known or seen

Come on and we'll sing, like we were free
Push the pedal down watch the world around fly by us
Come on and we'll try, one last time
I'm off the floor one more time to find you
And here we go there's nothing left to choose
And here we go there's nothing left to lose

So I packed my car and I headed east
Where I felt your fire and a sweet release
There's a fire in these hills that's coming down
And I don't know much but I found you here
And I can not wait another year

Don't know where you're coming from but you're coming soon

I can still hear the trains out my window
From Hobart Street to here in Nashville
I can still smell the pomegranates grow
And I don't know how hard this wind will blow
Or where we'll go

** Bold for lines that really relate to us

Still Nothing

Lots of rumors about the cutoff date today but nothing about referrals being mailed. We worry that if we don't hear anything by Wednessday we could be waiting until next week. I can't believe it is only Tuesday....Gonna be a really long week.

A little something

Most months in the weeks leading up to referrals there are definite milestones that we can use to tell that we are getting closer to referrals. First the crazy rumors come out, then the really bad rumors. Some months there aren't many rumors at all. This month there haven't been any really crazy rumors, they all have seemed to be focused between Jan 9th and 13th. Although this time around how far they get is not as significant to us since we know we are next.

Once the rumors settle in we usually hear that matching has started and then within a few days to a week that referrals have been mailed. Once they are mailed some agencies can track packages from China and will notify the waiting parents that they are expecting something in the mail. Usually around the same time that referrals arrive, Travel Approvals from the previous batch arrive as well. Agencies don't usually know what they are receiving, they just know that they have a package coming from China. Sometimes waiting parents get really exited that the mail from China is referrals and it turns out to be travel approvals.

Today we heard that Travel Approvals started arriving. Let's hope that referrals are not too far behind.

Almost there

This could finally be the week that we see our daughter's face for the first time. Typing that is kind of odd, scary and exciting all at the same time. We have been telling everyone that this week we will be getting our referral but there is a chance it could be next week as well. In the past year referrals have always started arriving on or before the 6th of the month. So I think most likely they will arrive late this week but I also wouldn't be surprised if we get bumped out to next week. If we don't hear anything about referrals being mailed by mid week then it will probably be next week.

There were some rumors last week that matching had started. That matching process is where they match babies to their parents. So we may actually be matched with our child already. Usually about a week after we hear that matching has started referrals start arriving so that is a good sign that we will probably see them this week. Usually there are rumors that referrals have been mailed the day before they start arriving so we probably get a heads up that they are on the way.

Lots of friends and family have been asking how soon after we get Grace's picture and info will we be updating this site. The way we understand the process to work is referrals usually arrive at our agencies office mid-morning. At that point they call all parents with basic info such as girl or boy, age and province. We plan to update this site with that info as soon as we get it. They then set up an appointment for us to come in that day to get pictures and additional translated information. The appointments are usually in the afternoon so we will probably need to scan and make copies of the pictures and then stop by our families to show them the pics. We will probably be home in the evening and have pictures up on the site then.

In the meantime we will be rereading our Referral and Travel Preparation package and try not to go out of our heads waiting for the call.

More Time

It is kind of cool when you hear a song on the radio and it seems like it is speaking about your situation. They have been playing this song called More Time by NEEDTOBREATHE on the radio lately and I am pretty sure it is not about waiting to travel to China to adopt a baby. But, for us it is. They were actually in Boston Saturday night so we went to see them with our "super cool" college-age niece Lauren. It was nice to feel young again even though we are not college-age anymore. It had been a while since we have been in a rock club. Having Lauren with us made us feel not so out of place. The band was really good and it was fun to see "our" new song performed live. I posted the lyrics and link to the song below.

I promised you the world again

Everything within my hands

All the riches one could dream

They will come from me

I hoped that you could understand

That this is not what I had planned

Please don’t worry now

It will turn around

Cause I need more time

Just a few more months and we’ll be fine

So say what’s on your mind

Cause I can’t figure out just what’s inside

I hoped that you could understand

That this is not what I had planned

Please don’t worry now

It will turn around

Cause I need more time

Just a few more months and we’ll be fine

So say what’s on your mind

Cause I can’t figure out just what’s inside

So say alright

Cause I know we can make it if we try

Cause I need more time

Just a few more months and we’ll be fine

We’re off to new lands

So hold on to my hands

It’s gonna be alright

It’s a whole lot brighter

So stand by the fire

It’s gonna be alright

Yeah, the road gets harder

But it’s not much farther

It’s gonna be alright

You know that it ain’t easy

Please believe me

It’s gonna be alright

Please don’t worry now

It will turn around

Cause I need more time

Just a few more months and we’ll be fine
So say what’s on your mind

Cause I can’t figure out just what’s inside

So say alright

Cause I know we can make it if we try

Cause I need more time

Just a few more months and we’ll be fine

Something to keep us busy during the wait

It was pretty windy here the last couple days. When I got home from work Friday I had a little surprise waiting for me.

The wind had blown down one of the trees in our backyard through our fence and into our neighbor's yard. Luckily it didn't hit anyone. It missed their pool and house as well so the only damage seems to be to our fence. I was a little worried about that tree last year as it appeared to be dying but I really didn't expect it to fall over roots and all. Hopefully we can get the tree guys out sometime this week to clean it up and probably take another couple trees down before they fall as well. Then of course we will have to get our fence replaced. Not really expenses we were expecting right before referral but hopefully our homeowners insurance will pay for some of it. Never a dull moment.

Spring Cleaning

I have decided to streamline our site a little bit. Most of the links on the old website were pretty static so it was kind of getting to be overkill. Most people were just visiting the blog anyway. So I converted all of my content to blog posts and got rid of the website. I have tagged all of the old links so you can still get to them on the right. I apologize to anyone who reads this site with bloglines or a blog reader. You may get a couple hundred new posts for all of the old content I converted.

Re-Re-Fingerprinting

This morning we journeyed down to our local USCIS office to get fingerprinted for the third time. They used to make the process really easy and convenient by allowing you to come in anytime within a two week period. They are a little more strict now and send you an appointment for a specific date and time. It worked out pretty well for us though. Jen took the day off work and I happened to have a client in Boston that needed me to come in for the day. We were in and out of the office pretty quickly, we are old pros at the process by now. We even bumped into a couple Yoshimi and Craig, that we will be traveling with, they were getting their fingerprints redone as well. As I was in the subway heading into the office I was thinking to myself that the next time we ride the subway we will be going to CAWLI to get our referral. It is hard to believe after waiting all this time that in two weeks from now we will be seeing our baby's face for the first time.

The Difference A Day Makes

Back when we were paperchasing we met another paperchasing couple, Wendy and John on the adoption boards. They were at about the same point in the paperchase as we were. I think we compared notes a couple times and have encouraged each other throughout the process. They were DTC a day before we were but ended up getting a Log In Date of December 27th. That one day difference in DTC caused us to get a LID of January 5th, 9 days later. Today, Wendy and John, met their beautiful daughter for the first time. They got their referral in January, their LID just made the cutoff and we missed the cutoff by one day last month. So that one day difference in DTC caused a two month difference in getting our referral.

Sometimes there will be someone on the adoption boards that is starting the paperchase but is procrastinating on getting things done in the process, we usually just cringe. I will admit the paperchase is daunting, there are forms upon forms to fill out, autobiographies to write, things to be notarized, it is pretty overwhelming. But, we were pretty good about the process. We tried to knock one item off the list each day and got through the process in record time. But there were probably areas where we could have done things a little faster.

With the small batches we have been seeing the past couple years it is even more important to not procrastinate in any part of the process. If a one day difference in DTC can cause a 2 month difference in when you get your referral, what will a week or a month of procrastination do?

Half Way There

We are about half way through the longest month ever and it really is dragging. We are really not concerned about the rumors this month since we know we are next. We have been trying to keep ourselves busy with baby proofing projects and we are really getting a lot done, which is good. Jen has been a shopping fool, running all over the place trying to get some of the items we will be needing for the trip to China. There is still quite a bit of stuff that we can't buy yet since we don't know how old she is. We did find this little toy box for our family room.

Hebei

The province featured in our Chinese calendar this month is Hebei. Hebei is located in the northern part of China and completely surrounds Beijing. Hebei has a population of 68,000.000. It doesn't look like there are too many international adoptions from Hebei so we are probably unlikely to travel there. Looks like a beautiful place though.

The Dichotomy of International Adoption

I realize that this post is going to be kind of all over the place and rambling but with the stress of our referral quickly approaching and some of the things I have been reading in the news, on blogs and adoption boards I thought it would be therapeutic to get my thoughts out there. Sometimes it helps me to process my thoughts by writing them down.

For the past few weeks there have been articles in all of the major newspapers about China researching/thinking/talking about ending its One Child Policy. The more recent articles make it seem like the policy will stay intact for at least another ten years. Change happens slow in China so it is possible that we will see an incremental end to the policy over the next few decades. With the spotlight shining on China right now due to the Olympics, they are getting a lot of pressure regarding human rights issues. This may be why they are studying the policy now, to show the world that they are looking again at their controversial policies.

The one child policy was enacted because of China's overpopulation issues. As unthinkable as it may seem to us to have the government tell us how many children we can have, in China the policy has ultimately saved lives. They need to continue to be able to feed their population and with it continuing to grow exponentially it just would not have been possible.

Without the one child policy there would not be as many abandonments in China and there may not be as much of a need for international adoption. I think there still would be a need, just not the level where it is now. There are many countries without population control policies that adopt almost as many children internationally as China does. Even children from the United States are sometimes adopted internationally to Canada and Europe.

Our guilt comes in because the policy that causes families to abandon their babies inadvertently benefits us as adoptive parents. Our joy in adopting a baby will be a result of a huge loss, a family having to abandon their child because the law says they can have only one. Adoption is supposed to be about finding families for children, not finding children to make families. Per the Hague regulations on international adoption, every attempt should be made to place orphans with their extended family. If that is not possible they should be adopted domestically. As a last resort orphans can be adopted internationally. All seem to agree that these are better options than growing up in an orphanage. In order to have a free conscience we as adoptive parents have to assume that the Chinese government is doing all they can to place orphans domestically before internationally and that they are running an ethical, corruption free program. No program is perfect but I do believe the the Chinese government does all it can to keep their program as ethical as possible. If we did not believe this as true we should not be adopting from China.

The dichotomy is we as adoptive parents gain the most, we get a child. The child has lost her birth parents and by adopting her we are taking away her country and her culture. Many adoptive parents will argue that they are giving the baby a better life by taking her out of the orphanage, and giving her more opportunities. I think we do still have to acknowledge that the adoption will affect her someday. Her adoption won't be the root cause of her loss and pain, her abandonment is, but we will have to support her while she deals with any identity issues.

The anti-adoption folks would argue adoption damages a child so rather than adopt we should be providing money to families so that they can raise their children themselves. This argument doesn't really work with China as most babies are abandoned due to the one-child policy. The anti-adoptionist would then say we should put pressure on the Chinese government to end the one child policy. But ending the one child policy would cause the population to explode and many more children would starve and die. There are no easy answers here, if we lived in a perfect world it would all be easy, but we don't.

To be honest we chose to adopt from China primarily for the benefits to us. We wanted a family and the China program seemed like the best option. We didn't adopt domestically because we didn't want to deal with the unknowns and pain of a failed adoption. We chose China because we thought the timeframe was short. Our other reasons for choosing China were the babies are young and relatively healthy. All benefits to us. But ultimately if we do not do what is right for us or something we are not comfortable with that will not ultimately be beneficial for our child. Not all of the reasons were benefits for us though, we also chose China because they run a program that is thought to be less corrupt than other countries. Also because there is a great support network here for children adopted from China.

Since we started the adoption process I have tried to read not only the fluffy, happy adoption blogs but also blogs and writings by adoptees who are not so happy. I am currently reading "Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew". The book brings up some pretty difficult subject matter but I think it is important to examine. Always good to take a good look at yourself and ask yourself if you are ready to deal with the questions that will ultimately come up. By doing this we challenge ourselves. If we answer our own questions honestly we will be better prepared someday when we get questions from our daughter.

One of the interesting phenomenons I have been noticing more and more lately is how many adoptive parents' perspective changes once they have completed their adoption from China and don't plan to adopt again. Most waiting parents are pretty careful about what they say that is critical of China. The last thing we want is for some story to pop up and cause the program to slow down even more or shut down completely. We just want our babies home. I think once a family is home though they no longer have this romanticized idea of a child. They have a living breathing baby that will someday have to come to grips with how they came to live in America (or wherever) and it scares them. I think they can then more clearly see the issues that their child will be dealing with. Some become very critical of international adoption and may even take an anti-adoption stance. We waiting parents can't help but feel betrayed by this change of heart. We say "They have their kids, they got what they want, now they don't care about the rest of us". Maybe we, as waiting parents, can't see the forest for the trees. Maybe we close our eyes to any potential red flags or corruption because we don't want to see it. I am interested to see how my thoughts on the matter change once we are home.

I think we are going into this adoption with pretty open minds and as much knowledge as we can get. We have a pretty clear conscience that we are doing the right thing for ourselves but more importantly for Grace. We know things won't be perfect but we will do our best.

Operation Baby Proofing has started....

We have finally started the job of making our house safe for a baby, if only the house was safe for me. I was 5 minutes into my first baby proofing job today and I almost cut two of my fingers off. Let me explain...We have a surround sound home entertainment system in our family room and over the years our old method of keeping the wires in place has started to fail. We have speaker wires hanging down and bunched up on the floor. So out we went to the local home improvement store and spent an ungodly amount of money on these fancy new wire conduits that will keep our wires hidden and save from baby's curious hands.

So this weekend we were finally free and it was time to start putting it all together. They should really tell you in the directions not to try to cut the small pieces of plastic with a compound mitre saw. How was I to know that would be a bad thing to do? I put the piece of plastic in the saw, push the button, pull down on the handle and there is a big bang and my hand goes numb and the thing I was cutting exploded into 100 pieces. I was in a bit of pain and was afraid to look down at my hand for what I would find. Luckily all of my fingers were there, albeit a little bloody and bruised. They are still a little sore but I was actually able to get quite a bit of work done on the job and will probably be able to get it finished in another half day of work. So all in all a pretty productive day.

After the speaker wire job is done we still have a few more things to take care of. We need to figure out how to gate off our wood burning stove. We need to put child locks on all of our cabinets. We also need to install gates at the top and bottom of all our stairs. I think we may wait at least until referral before we start on these things so we can see whether she will be mobile or not. No need to leap over baby gates until we have to.

So we are trying to keep ourselves busy this month with work, projects and getting together with friends so we don't go too crazy with the waiting. One week down, four to go until we see Grace's face for the first time.

And then there was one

Jen took 8 more glass stones out of her jar at work leaving just one left. One lonely stone. We are still trying to wrap our heads around the fact that we are next. We go from excitedly saying "Oh my god, we are going to be parents" to panicking saying "Oh my god, we are going to be parents".

Today is also 26 months since our Log In Date which means when we get our referral we will have waited 27 months. So now we start the longest month of our lives. Well, I guess it will be the longest month until next month when we get our referral and are waiting to travel. Then it will really feel like the longest month(s) of our lives. After that the months will just fly by I am sure.

Comparing The Years - March Edition

Referrals started arriving today confirming that the cutoff is January 4th. That means they referred 8 days, the same amount as last month. Last March was the last month that they referred over 10 days. So for the past year the number of days referred per month has settled in at an average of 6 days. See the chart below for the number of days referred per month back to May 2005.

If we overlay each calendar year in the above chart (see below) the trend for 2008 so far is well below the similar trends for 2006 ands 2007. The scary data point on this chart is April (the next batch). For the last two years the April batch has been significantly smaller than the other months. In April 2006 we saw 5 days referred and in April 2007 we saw 2 days referred. I hate to use this chart to make predictions since we don't know why the April batch had been so small the past two years but if the trend continues we could be in for a smaller batch next month. It could just be a coincidence or maybe there is a valid reason that the April batch has been small. If we do see a significantly smaller batch next month then there has to be something to it, only time will tell. With a LID of 1/5/2006 we are pretty confident that we will be in next month but if our LID were further out I would not be so sure.

Someone asked me last month if I plan to continue updating these charts every month after we get our referral. I do plan on keeping up with them but if we get too busy once we are home with baby I may look to hand them off to another waiting family to update and post. If you are good with numbers and Excel and it is something you might be interested in let me know.

What age will she be?

One of the many things we are anxious to learn about Grace is what age she will be when we get our referral. When we sent in our application we requested an infant girl 6 - 12 months or as young as possible. At the time we applied most babies were under a year old at referral, some as young as 6 months. Recently the babies have seemed to be a bit older at referral. We are told they try to match younger babies with younger couples so we may be more likely to get a younger baby since we are on the younger side. Either way we will be happy though. I thought it would be fun to put up a new poll to see how old you all think Grace will be when we get our referral next month. If you have a specific age you think she will be leave us a comment. The poll is on the right hand side.

On the Bubble

The rumors started flying late this week and it is looking like the cutoff is going to be 1/4. This means we will miss it by one day. There is some speculation that 1/5 could be in as well but the 1/4 rumor seems to be much more believable so we are sticking with that. We kind of always thought we would miss the cutoff by a day for some reason but oddly we aren't upset about it. We have a nice calm feeling right now knowing that we can relax for one more month. We will use the next month to finish up some shopping and baby proofing around the house. The nice thing is that we know that come early April we will be seeing our daughter's for the first time. No more stressing and speculation, it is going to happen!

Everything You've Ever Wanted To Know About Traveling To China To Adopt A Baby

While we were away on vacation we got an email from our agency with a 60 page document containing details of the process of traveling to China. It includes packing lists, sample itineraries, a bunch of forms we will need to fill out and all kinds of good stuff. It is a pretty overwhelming document really. I have read through the document once but will probably need to read it a few more times to absorb everything. We did a little more shopping over the weekend, mostly for stuff that we will be needing to keep organized up until and through our trip. I am leaving most of the shopping we have left for Jen to do because basically I hate shopping and she loves it. So that should work out OK. I will probably handle most of the paperwork that is left to be done. We are also awaiting word from the USCIS on our third fingerprinting appointment as ours expire soon. I have heard from some people in our travel group that the Boston USCIS office no longer gives you the option to come in to get fingerprinted anytime during a two week period. They now give you a specific date and time to come in when they decide. Not very convenient now that I no longer work in the city.

Still nothing out there for rumors. Right now I am thinking that there is a 50/50 chance that we will be getting our referral in the next batch. Jen is a little less optimistic and is thinking more like a 10% chance that we will get our referral in the next batch. We are trying not to get our hopes up too much but it is hard not to.

The BabyMoon is definitely over

We arrived home safely late last night to find 6 inches of snow on the ground. I think we were pretty lucky to actually fly into Logan as many flights were cancelled. Our trip was great though, warm weather and relaxation really does the body, mind and soul good. We resisted the urge to bring the laptop to check the rumors and it really kept our mind off things. Although the first thing we did when we got in last night was check for rumors. Seems like there aren't really any rumors out there to speak of but we should expect to hear some this week. Some pics from our trip below.


This was the view from outside our room. We had a cool little hammock swing that was built for one but Jen and I fit just fine.
Jen enjoying a Red Stripe in the swing watching the sunset.

Steve on the beach

This cools little hummingbird visited us every evening.

Another beautiful Jamaican Sunset.

This guy landed on my arm one day, kind of looked like a ladybug except the colors were inverted. Maybe a Jamaican ladybug.

Our last night enjoying dinner at the Rockhouse at sunset.

BabyMoon

Dare we say this is truly our last childless vacation? I think it is at least our 10th "last childless vacation" at this point. I shouldn't complain though, not really the worst problem to have. Poor us, we are going to the Carribean one more time. I'll leave you with one of our favorites from Bob.

Sing it with me....

"Don't worry about a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,'
Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', ("This is my message to you-ou-ou)

Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.
"Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!

See ya in a week!!!

Shaanxi

The province this month on our Chinese calendar is Shaanxi. Shaanxi is located in north-western China and has a population of about 37 million people. It is known for its terra cotta soldier army unearthed in the 1970s by a farmer. Shaanxi is a province that our agency has gotten referrals from in the past so there is a chance that Grace could be from Shaanxi. Looks like a beautiful place to visit in the spring.

What's Up Doc

Now that we are getting closer to referral, one of the big to dos on our list is finding a pediatrician for Grace. We were kind of dreading this since we have no experience with pediatricians and have heard some horror stories about doctors being hesitant to work with the specific needs of parents traveling for international adoption.

We realize that all doctors will not be completely familiar with the needs of international adoption so we were prepared to educate our doctor if necessary. Jen was so excited when I got home from work today. She had just gotten off the phone with one of the doctors (who happens to be Chinese) she wanted to interview and she really liked him.

He told Jen that while he wouldn't consider himself an international adoption expert he has many patients who were adopted from China so he was familiar with our needs. He has no problems writing us any prescriptions that we will need in China which was one thing we were a bit concerned about as some doctors seem to have a problem with that. He is willing to look at our referral after we get it and also suggested we have an International Adoption specialist look at our referral as well. Jen told him that we were planning to use Dr. Laurie Miller, who is the local renowned international adoption specialist. He told Jen that he knows Dr. Miller well and has worked with her in the past. She didn't even need to ask him most of the questions on our list since he answered them in their normal course of conversation.

The office that he works out of seems pretty convenient as well, both proximity wise and the services they offer. They have evening and weekend hours as well as 24 hour emergency call-in. They also have quite a few doctors on staff so if, as Grace gets older, she doesn't feel comfortable seeing a male doctor she has options.

As much as this adoption process has been long and trying the big tasks, like finding the right agency and doctor, seem to have come pretty easy for us. So it looks like we have found a pediatrician who will be a really good fit. One more important task checked off our list.

Exciting Stuff

On Friday we got an email from our agency entitled "Assignment Preparation Letter". It was basically explaining how things would work from here on out for us. They told us a little bit about how the day will go when we get our referral. They also told us about some travel/visa related stuff. In addition, they told us we should start preparing our care package. This is a box of stuff we can send to Grace in China, things like a photo album with pictures of us, blankets, stuffed animals and a camera so we can get some pictures of her and her caretakers.

They were quick to point out that getting this letter does not necessarily mean that we will be getting our referral in the next batch but it still got Jen and I excited to get something from them about referrals.

This and That

Jen took 8 more glass stones out of her jar at work leaving just 9 more stones to go. That jar is starting to look pretty empty. We really can't believe that we are so close to getting our referral. We are still thinking it is pretty unlikely that we will get our referral in March but the possibility does exist. Most likely we are looking at an April referral. We are now able to do some more adoption related tasks that we have been holding off on like talking to our employers about time off and interviewing pediatricians.

We also celebrated 25 months since our Log In Date on Tuesday. It's not really much of a celebration, I just sent an email to Jen when I realized that it was the 5th of the month.

I am sure most people have seen the news about the storms in China. With all of the excitement about the big batch of referrals I hadn't really been paying that much attention until very recently. For those who are unaware, China is currently being battered by extremely cold weather and snow in some of the warmer regions that normally do not see cold weather. This is the worst weather the region has seen in over 50 years so they are not equipped to deal with it. Unfortunatly some of the orphanages are without power and heat. Others have sick babies, are runnning out of supplies, and have had equipment break down. With our impending adoption getting closer it dawned on us that Grace is probably in one of those orphanages. Kind of a helpless feeling but fortunatly there are some great charitable organizations over in China that accept donations and are doing what they can to help. One of these organizations is called Half the Sky. Hopefully our donations get to China and help the babies out.

Comparing the Years - February Edition

I usually wait until the cutoff is official before I update and post my monthly referral charts but since the CCAA is no longer updating their website I guess we are now as official as we are going to get. There have been a few families with LIDs of 12/27/2005 reporting referrals so that is 8 days which is a pretty significant sized batch. Looking at the chart below there was an 8 day batch in November 2007 but that batch included a couple days with very few families logged in because of the Christmas holiday so that 8 day batch may have been a bit inflated. The last time the CCAA referred more than 8 days was back in March 2007 which was an 11 Day batch.

Interestingly, if we overlay the above chart by year (see below) we see a similar trend for 2006 and 2007. In 2007 we started out pretty similar to 2006 but then the 2006 numbers started to drop to about half, which seems to be pretty consistent with this year so far as well. Last year the numbers dropped from February to March, as did the year before. I hate to make any predictions based on these charts but there is something here regarding the trends so read into them as you wish. Hopefully since the numbers are so low this year we won't see a significant drop, maybe even a slight upswing which we are really hoping for with a LID of 1/5/2006. I guess as they say in the financial industry "Past performance does not guarantee future results". But we can all hope.

We Drank the Kool Aid, and it was goooood....

It looks like the rumors of them getting through the 27th this month may be true. There are reports of some agencies getting referrals for the 27th. I expect that they will start arriving en-masse on Monday.

So then the million dollar question is: what does that mean for us with a LID of January 5th. Could we possibly get a referral next month? I do think it is possible but I am leaning more toward that we will have to wait until April. In order to get to our log in date next month they would have to get through 9 days. It has been a long time since the CCAA referred more than 8 days, so that is not working in our favor. I think the best way to predict how many days they will refer is by using the online polls and projecting out based on how many poll respondents they have been averaging. But even this method isn't always reliable as we saw last month. If we do use the polls to project out to the next batch they should be able to get well past the 5th. Looking at the polls there are only 5 days with a significant number of people logged in because of the weekend and the New Year's holiday. So the possibility is there. My gut tells me that they are going to get to the 4th and we will miss the cutoff by one day. We have had the fear that we will miss it by a day all along so that is what we are thinking at this point. But I don't want to get ahead of myself as the 27th isn't really official yet.

We really needed to hear some good news this week as the last couple weeks have been rough for us. Jen's Dad had a health scare last week, thankfully he is going to be fine but he had us all pretty scared for a while there. Jen is also dealing with a work-related issue that no person should have to deal with, especially Jen as she is the sweetest girl I know. Those close to us are aware but it looks like things are starting to get resolved. So things are looking up, we are headed to Jamaica in a couple weeks and we will probably see our daughter's face for the first time within a few months. We can't ask for much more than that.

Don't drink the damn Kool-Aid

So there is a rumor out there now that the cutoff for the next batch is going to be the December 27th. Not that 8 days is a whole lot of days but most people (including us) are expecting a small batch because December 2oth is a pretty big day. So 8 days would be huge. We have been burned before by believing the rumors and disappointed when they don't come to pass. We are trying really hard not to get too excited about the possibility of them getting to the 27th this month and then what it means for our referral, which we can't even think about yet. So for self preservation we are still expecting a 3 or 4 day batch but ohhh, how we would love to be wrong.

Rumors. rumors and more rumors

The rumors regarding how far they are going to get with the next batch started last week. They range from Dec 20th through Dec 30th. So between 1 and 10 days. I think it is highly unlikely that we will be seeing a 10 day batch. The 20th is thought to be a pretty big day based on the online polls so I wouldn't be surprised if they only did one day. But we are hoping for at least 3 or 4 days. Probably won't be seeing referrals arrive this week, most likely we will see them early next week.

So it is looking more and more like our referral will not be arriving until the Spring or Summer which makes it more likely that we will be affected by the Summer Olympics in Beijing. The goods news is it looks like travel to China will not stop. One postive rumor on one of the adoption boards is that referrals and travel will continue during the Olympics. US agencies will just skip the sightseeing trip to Beijing. As much as we are looking forward to seeing The Great Wall, Forbidden City and the rest of the sights, we know the top priority is getting our daughter. We plan to travel back to China for heritage trips with Grace when she gets older so we will be seeing those sights eventually.

Guangxi

One of the positive side-effects of our long wait to adopt is that it gives us time to read about parenting, attachment and the history and culture of China. Jen's parents gave us a really cool calendar that focuses on one of the Chinese provinces each month. Once we know which province Grace is from, we will do as much research as we can about that province. In the meantime, I though it would be fun to post a picture of the calendar each month.



The Province for January is Guangxi. Guangxi is a mountainous region in the southern part of China. It has a population of about 49,000,000 and is famous for its picturesque Li river and surrounding mountains. Looking back at the referrals from our agency there seem to be quite a few children from Guangxi.


Will be interesting to see how many months of the calendar we get through until we learn where Grace is from.

Mid-Month Doldrums

Once again we are a couple weeks away from referrals arriving and there are no rumors to speak of. Usually by this time there are a couple rumors floating around but the last couple months have been lacking in rumors, probably a good thing for our sanity anyway.

The last batch was pretty disappointing considering everyone expected them to get much further than they did. We aren't anticipating much for the next batch either. Based on the online polls we could see another pretty small batch. But we are hoping that they get through at least another 4 or 5 days but we wouldn't be too surprised if they just got though 1 or 2 days. Have to prepare ourselves for the worst and hope for the best.

Since we are getting closer to referral I decided to start a baby proofing project in our family room this weekend. The speaker wires for our surround sound are starting to droop onto the floor, perfect fun for a little girl to pull on. So we went off to Home Depot and bought some wire conduit to hide all of the wires away. Probably will take me a couple weekends to get it all installed. Seems like a perfect winter project.

We were also happy to see our beloved New England Patriots beat the Chargers today and are off to another Superbowl. Go Pats!!!

Ya Mon

Thanks to everyone who voted in our vacation poll. You overwhelmingly thought we should take the vacation......so we are!!! We booked the trip last week so in a little over a month we will be off to sunny Jamaica. Unfortunately the resort that we have stayed at the last couple times didn't have any vacancies. So we found a new place to stay called Negril Tree House Resort. The place looks really nice and the hotel is right on the beach so that will be cool, I think we actually have an ocean view from our room. I think at this point it would be our 9th last childless vacation so we aren't referring to our vacations as "last" any more because we never know.

Friday Night Fun

On Friday, Jen and I decided to do a bit of a Chinese themed night. I was working in Boston for the day so Jen took the train into town and met up with me after work. We we had dinner in Chinatown at Shabu-Zen. We have been wanting to try Asian Hot-Pot for a while so we gave it a shot. The food was really good and we had fun trying something new.

After dinner we went to the Opera House to watch the Chinese New Year Spectacular Show. This was a traditional Chinese dance, singing and instrumental show. The costumes, dancing and music were great. Although we weren't really expecting the show to be so political. Apparently is was sponsored by the Falun Dafa (Gong) Association of New England. Many of the dance routines had themes of persecution and rising up against it. It was interesting to say the least. There were also quite a few families with adopted children from China there so that made it extra special for us.

After the show we went for dessert and drinks at Finale. Kind of funny when dessert costs more than dinner but it was really good. All in all, it was a pretty fun night for us.

Gone Baby Gone

No, not the movie. The little box on the CCAA website that they update every month when referrals come out to officially announce how far they got with the latest batch (and the review room). As of yesterday morning the box looked like this:

So according to the message they will no longer be updating the website with cut-off information. We need to contact our agency who have some new system where they can get this info. There were rumors about this box going away a while back, but then it never did so I assumed it was here to stay. Not really sure if the box going away means anything. It could mean that the CCAA is going to start referring partial days and they don't want any confusion if the box gets updated and some agency LIDs get a referral and some don't. Even without the box it should be fairly easy to figure out how far they got just through reading the adoption sites and rumor boards. I assume our agency will have some additional info for us about it when the next batch comes out. So we are not going to worry too much about it at this point.

***Footnote from Jen: Steve is not worrying too much about it. I, on the otherhand, am freaking out!! Ok, breathe....breathe....breathe.

The Backlog

One of the readers of this blog asked if I had done any analysis on the CCAA's progress of the Review Room vs. the Matching Room. We got through the review room back in November 2006, which was about 10 months after our Log in Date. The people who last got through the review room waited about 14 months after their Log In Date. So comparing that to the last group that got matched who waited over 24 months, the matching room is staying pretty consistent. Dates are kind of hard to graph in Excel so I charted out the number of months since LID that each group has waited to get through the Matching Room and the Review Room. The Review Room backlog seems to be leveling out. Probably safe to assume if you haven't made it through review yet your wait to be reviewed will be around 14 months. The Matching Room Backlog is growing pretty consistently each month and unfortunately will almost definitely continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

To Jamaica or Not to Jamaica, That is the Question

So we are at that time of year again where is is really cold up here in New England and we are missing the warmth of Summertime. For the last two years for Jen's winter break have taken our "Last Childless" vacation to Sunset at the Palms in Negril, Jamaica.

For the past couple years I have been banking my vacation time to use on our trip to China and take some time off afterwards to bond with Grace. I have almost 6 weeks saved up which would give me a nice chunk of time to stay home and get in the swing of being a dad. But then, we really don't know how much longer the wait is going to be and some time for Jen and I to get away from it all would definitely do us some good.

So help us decide. I put a poll up on the right where you can vote to tell us whether you think we should take the trip this year or not.

2 Long Years

Today is 2 years since we were logged in at the CCAA. I wish we knew how much longer we have to wait for our referral but unfortunately we have no idea. It could be anywhere from three more months to another year if we are affected by the Olympics.

Jen removed 5 more glass stones from the jar this week leaving 17 more to go. We did get some news this week that gave us a bit of lift. Our agency sent out their monthly update regarding the referrals they received this month. The email mentioned that the next Log In Date that they are expecting referrals for is our LID (1/5/2006). Although this doesn't mean that we will get our referral next month, our agency just won't receive any regular referrals until they get to our group. This was the first time that we have seen our Log In Date in print with the word "Next". It is the little things that keep us going lately.

Comparing the Years - January Edition

The CCAA just released another small batch of referrals. Not the smallest batch ever in terms of Log In Days but still smaller than expected as December was supposed to be a smaller month and the 5 days referred were believed to be smaller days. Below is an updated chart back to 2005 showing the number if days per month.




If you overlay the years on the above chart (see below), last year's January numbers were overall a bit higher and then trended down through April. In 2006 the numbers went up in February and then trended down through April. Not sure how much lower they can go from where they are now. But we have seen a couple 5 day batches, a 4 day batch and a 2 day batch so based on the trends we could see a smaller batch next month. December is also thought to be a relatively large day so just one more reason to think we may be in for a couple slow months.

December 19th

The CCAA just updated their website confirming that December 19th is the cutoff this month. 5 days is pretty disappointing especially since we expected them to get a bit further. Might be time to hibernate and have someone wake us up in the spring.

Bad Rumors

So the latest rumor about the next batch is that they are only going to get through December 19th. That would be 5 days. This seems like it would be pretty much in line with the number of days they have been referring the past few months but it would probably be close to the least amount of referrals sent in a long time. The reason is because the 17th and 18th are weekend days so there are very few, if any, people logged in on those days. Also 15th, 16th and 19th are thought to be relatively small days. The 20th is thought to be a fairly big day but based on the number of referrals sent the past few months it was expected that they would at least get through the 20th. So the 19th would be a big disappointment. It is still a rumor at this point but the longer we don't hear anything to the contrary the more likely it gets.


Based on the online polls there are less people logged in on December 15th through the 19th than there are on the 20th. So if we assume the CCAA sends about the same number of referrals out every month it is possible that we could see only the 20th referred in the February batch. Although, I do think a one day batch is pretty unlikely. We have heard in the past that sometimes the CCAA matches ahead a little. I think if they only get through the 19th with this batch it is likely that they actually matched some families with a LID on the 20th. But they probably didn't have enough babies files to match all of the families with a LID on the 20th. Since the CCAA does not send out partial days the families with a LID on the 20th will have to wait until next month when they have enough to match the full day.


We should know for sure late this week or early next week.

Bad Omen

The whole ladybug/Chinese adoption thing is kind of cute but at the same time kind of silly. Some people seem to take it pretty seriously. But I am not sure there are really that many people out there that really believe that ladybugs mean good luck or that referrals are on their way.

We got a good chuckle the other day when we were up in Gracie's room putting her Christmas presents away when we found the above dead ladybug on the floor.

It did get us thinking about the Olympics rumors that have been floating around lately. As you may or may not know the 2008 Olympics will be in Beijing, China this coming August. There is a lot of speculation out there regarding what will happen with adoptions during that time. The CCAA has not made an official statement so the rumors are all over the place. Some agencies are telling their clients that no referrals will be sent out after February or March and will start back up after the Olympics are over. Other agencies are saying there will be no travel approvals after May. Other agencies are saying that the only people whose consulate is in Beijing will be affected (The US consulate is in Guangzhou). There is also the issue of the increase in hotel and airline flight prices around the time of the Olympics. I think at the very least there will no adoption travel to Beijing during the Olympics which lasts a couple weeks. That would mean we could potentially miss the sightseeing portion of the trip.

At this point we are trying not to stress out about it too much as we really have no idea what is going to happen. But based on our LID and the potential for getting a referral in March, April or later we could very well be affected if there are any restrictions on travel. Seems like there is always something....we are just hoping for a couple big batches coming up so we can get to China before any of the Olympics stuff starts.

Christmas Loot

Grace got all kinds of cute gifts for Christmas....

- The Bennetts gave her a bear scarf and headband.
- The Shahs gave her a Bob Marley lullaby CD.
- Aunt Melinda, Uncle Jim and J-dub gave her a panda bear book and stuffed animals, a shirt and a couple winter hats.
- Uncle Stephen, Aunt Maura and the MKs gave her an On the Night You Were Born book.
- Grammy K gave her some pajamas.
- Grammy and Grampy gave her a skirt outfit, a Grace Christmas ornament and a CD player.
- We got her a Chinese Lullaby CD, stacking cups and a ring toss toy. We wrapped her gifts this year and haven't had the heart to unwrap them yet.

Grace's room is getting full. There isn't going to be room for her in it soon, she better get home quick.

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We hate to say it but we are kind of glad that it is over. The holidays are especially rough when you are going through your third last Christmas without your daughter. Christmas is geared so much toward children there are always constant reminders that we are still waiting to start our family. But we are moving on and looking forward to good things in the new year.


Nothing really out there for rumors on the next batch of referrals. We are hoping that they get to at least Dec 20th. We probably will hear something late next week or the week after.

Christmas Spirit

Last year with the ever extending wait we weren't really in a holiday mood so we decided to skip putting up a Christmas tree and decided to just have a low-key Christmas. We were really hoping that this would be the year that we were finally home with Grace. Here we still wait but we decided that we would celebrate the holidays this year and decorate our tree and put some gifts for Grace under it. We really think that this will finally be the last Christmas without her home. So with another snowstorm hitting us today we spent the day in the house decorating the tree.

Although Lucy really loves posing for our Christmas cards next year's card will feature another little girl. For those who didn't get one here is this year's card.

22 More Days

Jen took another picture of her jar of glass stones at work last week. This month the CCAA got through 6 more days so Jen took out 6 more stones from the Jar. Only 22 more stones left. Every month after referrals come out we sit down and take a look at the numbers and try to project out how many more months we have to get our referral. Based on the latest batch we think the most likely month that we will get our referral would be March 2008. There is a small chance that we could get our referral in February but also a chance we could get pushed up to April. But at this point it looks like March is a pretty good bet. Although all of that could change if they do another 2 day batch next month but we don't think that is going to happen. So we will likely be enjoying April showers or May flowers in China.

Comparing the Years

A few months back I started charting out the number of days that the CCAA was referring each month and comparing with the number of days referred each month last year. I noticed a trend that a similar number of days were being referred for the same month last year. Below is a chart of the number of days referred per month back to May 2005. The downward trend that we are have been experiencing can easily be seen. I can't find the numbers anywhere for the months prior to May 2005 but from what I remember they were referring full months back then which is why the wait time was as low as 6 months. If anyone knows where to find the number of days referred per month prior to May 2005 let me know.


If we break out the years and overlay them we can see where the trend was similar and where it diverted. The number of days referred per month was eerily close for Oct 2006 through May of this year. After May we started to see some separation but comparing this year to last year we still seem to see the same upward and downward trend. I am not really sure what it all means but there is definitely something to it. It could be all a coincidence or we could be seeing the results of some unknown factors in China that affect how many babies are allowed to be adopted at certain times of the year.

December 14th Cutoff Confirmed

The CCAA updated their website tonight confirming that the cutoff date is December 14th. That is 6 more days down. Only 22 more to get to our Log in Date.

23

Had to do our obligatory anniversary post since today is 23 months since our Log In Date. Some early referrals started arriving today and it looks like they made it to at least Dec 14th. We should know for sure tomorrow or later tonight if the CCAA updates their website.

More Numbers

There was in interesting article in the Boston Globe this morning about the decline of foreign adoptions by Americans. You can read the full article here.

A key point in the article is the numbers released by the US State Department on the Number of US Visas released to Chinese orphans. This number is really just the number of children adopted by Americans from China last year. The article states:

Adoptions from China, the number one source country since 2000, fell to 5,453.
That is down by 1,040 from last year and well off the peak of 7,906 in 2005.

So we have:

2007 - 5453
2006 - 6493
2005 - 7906

That is 16% less adoptions from China this year than last year. The difference between 2006 and 2005 was a 17.8 % decrease. We all knew that these numbers were decreasing but it there is so much speculation out there it is nice to see concrete numbers sometimes. The State department numbers for previous years can be found here .

Update:

I also charted out the number of visas issued per year back to 1991. This info is also from the state dept. website. There have been a couple down years in the past but never two down years in a row. As always a picture says a thousand words.

Another Update:

I was looking some more at the State Department numbers and I found another page that lists the numbers of orphan visas by country back to 1990. I thought it would be interesting to see this charted out as well. I charted the top 9 countries by year and then added the rest in as "Other" to get the total. Interesting to see how things have changed historically. Overall the trend for international adoptions to the US is down for the last two years. There is so much data I could run analysis against it all day but I think this is enough for now.

Rumors

Still pretty quiet as far as rumors go. There are a couple floating around though. The first is that they are going to make it through December 14th with the upcoming batch. That is only 6 days but it is pretty much what we expected. The other rumor is that they were not yet mailed as of Friday. I think they will probably be mailed early in the week and we will probably see them in the middle to end of the week, somewhere around December 5th which will be 23 months since our Log In Date.