Sunday, July 30, 2006


Our Godchild Andrea made her 1st Holy Communion on Mother's day this year. My sister in law Diana and her husband decide to wait until the nice weather to have a family party.We took the kids,(Mckay, Rach & Con) and granny Annie and drove down to Maryland for the weekend. It was a really nice weekend not to hot till Monday, when the temps hit triple digits. Andrew and all the kids spent most of the weekend in the pool. It was next to impossible to get Andrea to smile for any of the pictures. Andrews parents and his sister Diana and brother in law Mike along with their 3 kids Michael, Matthew and Andrea all posed for these pictures the day of her communion. The last picture is of the gang in the pool (minus Mckay and add a Jeff). Aislinn has one more uncle,aunt and two cousins that I need to get a photo of. As always Be Good and Be Safe!





Labels:




Friday, July 28, 2006


WHERE IS THE TIME GOING?
I haven't had time to post in awhile, between going to Maryland for a few days, working last weekend , having a house full of company, a family wedding (and the bride looked beautiful when I get the pics back I'll post one) and now its the end of the month and the kids are in Ireland for a coulpe of weeks. The adoption is still going slowly, waiting on the fiinish of the home study, at this rate it looks like winter 2008 before we travel. Oh well, will post more soon. As always be Good and Be Safe.

Labels:




Sunday, July 09, 2006









Last weekend 7/1/2006 we celebrated the engagement of my youngest sister Kerri Ann. Pete and Kerri got engaged on the 14th of March and plan on a September 2007 wedding. A great time was had by all. I was honored to be asked to be part of their wedding party. In honor of Pete’s heritage there was an exotic dancer there, she was beautiful and moved in such graceful way. I thought I’d post some pictures of my family. (I’ll post Andrews side next week after Andrea’s communion party) In order they are The exotic dancer, (not a part of my family but I just thought I’d post her picture) Aunt Kerri and Uncle Pete, Aislinn’s Daddy (looking dapper in a suit) Me with two of my gang Micheala in the pink and Rachael in the brown (I’ll post more about my gang at a later date) Aunt Kerri and Aunt Jamie (aka Precious and Princess) and last but not least Granny Annie. There are a few missing from these pictures Uncle Mike, Saorla, Fianna, Seamus and Conner. As soon as I can hold them down we’ll post their pics too!!!! As always Be Good and Be Safe!

Labels:




Wednesday, July 05, 2006



Over the last few days, I have been getting a lot of questions about what exactly our process will be for the adoption, the following is a brief summary of what it will take to bring our daughter home.
Adopting a child from China is a process that naturally divides into three phases: Assembling the paperwork that will to go to China, waiting, and the trip to China to adopt the child. The paperwork is generally known as the dossier and consists of ten or so documents that actually go to China and other documents required by State, County and adoption agency rules. The paperwork that goes to China must have a series of certifications that attest that the document is authentic and not something created with a good graphics program. The parent(s) must also submit documents to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. After all of the documents are collected and authenticated, the entire package is sent, usually in a group of 3-10 dossiers, by the adoption agency to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in Beijing.

For the parents, this is the beginning of the waiting period. After all of the hustle and work of getting all the paperwork assembled and processed, there is little to do but wait.As of this week the wait time is just about 12 months. In Beijing, the dossiers are entered into the registry and then translated or have the translation done in the US checked. After this step, the documents are checked to ensure that all of the legal requirements have been met. In parallel with the parents, the Childrens Welfare Institutes (orphanages) all over China have assembled a dossier on each child available for international adoption that includes a photo and medical report. These are also sent to CCAA in Beijing. Finally, the two sets of dossiers come together and a child is matched up with a family. The medical report and a (small) photo are sent back to the adoption agency in the U.S. This long awaited document is called the referral or offering. It specifically says to the family, here is a child that is available for adoption, would you accept this specific child to be part of your family? After translation into English, the medical reports and photo are sent to the family that has been waiting for many months at this point. Except for very unusual circumstances, the family accepts the referral. This acceptance is sent back to China and the second part of the waiting starts. In China, the acceptance leads to further paperwork in Beijing along with notification to the Childrens Welfare Institute that a family has been identified for that specific child. After the paperwork is complete, CCAA sends a permission to travel document back to the adoption agency.

This permission to travel document initiates the third phase of the process, the trip. The agency may set a date, or the group of families may decide on the date for travel to China, plane tickets are purchased and arrangements made with guides/translators in China. The trip usually lasts between ten days and two weeks. The group may travel together from the U.S. or meet up in China on a specific date. In China, there is Chinese paperwork to complete at both the Provincial level (equivalent to a State) and at the local level. At the completion of the Chinese paperwork, the adoption is final and is recognized as final by the U.S. and Chinese governments. After completion of the Chinese documents, the new family travels to Guangzhou, China to the U.S. consulate there for processing of the INS documents to allow the child to legally enter the U.S. This usually is completed in two to three days. Then we get to fly home to the U.S. and our waiting family to begin the next chapter in our lives.
As always Be Good and Be Safe!!!

Labels:




Saturday, July 01, 2006

Another month has passed and I feel like we are going nowhere. We are still waiting on our birth certificates, mine came but it was wrong for what they need. Since both Andrew and I were born in New York City( Manhattan and Queens) it has to be a “Vault copy long form with letter of exemplification”. Of course this could not be done online @ www.vitalcheck.com or over the phone. Its by mail or in person,in Manhattan. So now we wait on that. Then we had our first homestudy visit, all went well. Our second one got cancel be the social worker was in a car accident(she is fine but our next meeting is set for the 10th of July).Our medical exams are done and our local fingerprints too.When we had first send in the application in February I had hopes to be DTC(dossier to China) buy mid July. At the rate we are going we will be lucky if we are finish with our paperchasing by September. Lets hope that July gets things moving . As always Be Good and Be Safe.

Labels:





This is an account of our lifes as we head down the path of life towards our first child. An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break." --An ancient Chinese belief

DTC 4/20/07...LID4/26/07. ...Referral 5/27/10~Waiting for our TA...Aislinn Day is March 6,2011


RockYou FunNote - Get Your Own

Girly Comments & Graphics

Myspace Comments
Myspace Comments @ DazzleJunction.com
Photobucket Myspace Comments
Myspace Comments @ DazzleJunction.com
Sign my Guestbook from Bravenet.com Get your Free Guestbook from Bravenet.com

Girly Comments & Graphics








Beijing

Terror Alert Level




Visitor Map
Create your own visitor map!
Get awesome blog templates like this one from BlogSkins.com