11 months

Well, as of tomorrow (November 14th), we will have hit the 11th month of our wait. How much longer? Who knows!

The CCAA has filled referrals up to August 25th of 2005.

Kim and I have had our last Hepatitis A & B shots. So we are good with that. Unfortunately, we now have to redo some paperwork. And that means repay for them! :(

We were refingerprinted back in October because our fingerprints had expired. Go figure, your fingerprints can expire!

We'll check everyone posted.

Keith

Review Room

Well, we are out of the review room! For those of you who do not know, the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) must review your documents. At this time, they may ask for more information, clarification on some items, or just flat out deny your request to adopt. With that being said, we have made it out of the Review Room!

So, now we wait to be matched with our daughter! How long will that take? Who know! CCAA has fill referrals for people with a log in date of August 9, 2005. Our log in date is December 14, 2005.

We'll keep everyone posted.

Still Waiting

Well, the CCAA has sent out referrals for people with a log-in date of July 13th. We are still holding onto the hope that we will receive our referral in December! God will!

Not much new here. Kim is about to start another school year. She's going to be tired for a few weeks! Oh, the house we are building is coming along. Hopefully, it will be completed, so we can decorate Kinsley room.

In the time being, check out a video at Youtube.com.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=flJI_IW5-jM

These two little girls are cute! ! !

This kinda makes us wish we had asked for twins!

Gotta go!
Keith

Still Waiting/Fundraising Update

Not much to report. The CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) has sent out referrals (matched families up to babies) for people logged into their system by June 28th of 2005. Remember, we were logged in on December 14, 2005.

We are hoping to get referral by Christmas this year! That would put us traveling around February of next year.

On the fundraising side, we are getting pretty close to having what we need. Unfortunately, with the longer wait time, we will have to have some documents updated, so this actually adds to the overall cost of adoption.

If it's not one thing, it's another! Oh well!

Happy 4th of July!

Shower Cake

Kim's students threw us a baby shower around the end of the school year. We got a lot of cute stuff! It's funny because we don't know what we will need but the gifts we got sure look like they will come in handy!

One of the parents made us a cake for the shower and it was adorable! Now, keep in mind that this parent has had no formal cake training! Everything on the cake was edible except for the little baby (who is Asian). The funny part about the little baby is that when the covers were removed, she was wearing pink pajamas and her little bottom was showing!

Kim was glad that her student's didn't see that or she would have lost control of her class from all the laughter! ! !

6 Months Down

When we started the adoption process last July, we were told that it took 5-6 months from LID (Log In Date) to Referral. If that was still true, then Kim and I would be getting our referral this month! But alas, China has slowed down. Our LID was 12/14/05. CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) has only given out referrals for people with an LID of June 15, 2005.

We are now hoping to get our referral in November or December of this year. That would make our wait from LID to referral be about 11-12 months!

With the longer wait, Kim and I could actually do another 1/2 Marathon!

Marathon Complete!

Well, Kim and I finished the marathon! We were shooting for a time of 3 hours and 20 minutes. We finished in 3 hours and 6 minutes! ! ! That's almost a 14 minute mile!

Here we are about to start the marathon!

We got to the Titan's Colesium at 5:30 am the morning of the marathon. This was where the marathon ended. We took a shuttle to where the marathon was going to start. There was tons of people around everywhere! It was like a sea of people! Of course, I had to hit the port-o-john. I waited in line for a long time!

With that out of the way, we got in our corral and waited for the start of the race. Finally it was time for our corral to start the race! It was a bit surreal-here we are about to walk 13.1 miles!

If you have never walked a 1/2 marathon, then I highly suggest it. It was a lot of fun! There were people cheering us on. They would hold us signs to encourage us. Here are some of the signs I remember:

"We know a shortcut!"
"Think you're sore now, Wait until tomorrow!"
"Fart, it makes you run faster!" -------(this was my personal favorite! ! ! !)

The runners/walkers were just as fun. There was one girl who stayed around us for a while who wore a large colorful sombrero the whole way! There was a group of guys running with a small cooler filled with beer! Their shirts said, "Miles ran...Beers drank." I don't know how many beers they consumed or if they even finished the marathon! ! !



Kim was doing great but it really hit me at mile marker 10! I felt like I could not push any harder and I just wanted to stop. But Kim keep me going! As we were coming to the finish line, Kim and I held hands and finished the 1/2 marathon!

My legs felt like lead! Kim, I believe, could have walked more! ! !

Oh, we did see a little Chinese adopted girl (about 3 years old) standing on the side of the street with her father, watching the marathon. I looked at her and gave her a smile and waved and she smiled and waved back! My heart about melted! ! !

Talk about motivation! ! !

Marathon Training

Well, the 1/2 Marathon is a week away!

Kim and I have been training hard. We walked a little bit over 9 miles today and around 10.2 miles last Saturday. Of course we walk about 3 miles each night (Monday - Thursday).

So I think we do just fine.

We are shooting for a time of 3 hours 25 minutes. We'll See! ! !

Nothing new on the adoption side. The CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) is still running behind!

Will we ever get our daughter? Only God knows!

Fundraiser/Marathon Update

Well, Kim and I are still training for the Music City 1/2 Marathon which is at the end of this month!

Yikes! ! !

This past Saturday, Kim and I walked 6 miles at Percy Warner Park. For those of you who are not familar with this park, it's grueling!

It has hills that go on forever. . . it felt like forever, at least!

This Saturday we will increase our walk to 8 miles! and then 10 miles-the week before the marathon!

The fundraiser has also been going well. We have been touched by each and everyone's kindness-through their donations and kind words!

We plan on sending out thank you cards after the marathon. Kim and I want to share our experience and our time it took to finish!

"She's going to THUMP you!"

That's what I heard today as we were buying new walking shoes for Kim! And the guy is right!

Kim has been so dedicated to walking and I've been more of a part-time walker!

I recently got back on my walking regiment after spending a month and a half working on the house. I'll get back to where I'm supposed to be but if I don't, then maybe I'll buy some of those shoes that kids wear that have the built in rollerskates. That way I can hold onto Kim and she can pull me the rest of the way! ! !

I can see it now. . . "Oops! here comes a hill! ! ! ! !"

On second thought, I should probably pick up my pace and get ready for the marathon!

Can you read me now?

Alrighty then! Can everyone read this?

Good! Now let's move on. . . What? You can't read it?

Of course not. It's the chinese symbol for love. We have had several people ask us what this means. We put it smack in the middle of our adoption/fundraising letter.

Love. It's the love we have for our daughter, who we haven't even seen yet, that makes us want to travel half way around the world so we can get her!

ROAR!

Well, the rumors on the adoption boards are that the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) is sending out referrals for May 31st and that there will be no June LID's in this bunch!

If this is true, then it has taken the CCAA at least 2 months to go through May's LID.

For those of you keeping score, we have a LID (Log-In Date) of December 14th.

The time seems to be slowwwwwwwiiiiiiinnnnngggggg down!

And now to quote my co-worker Stacy, "Roar!"

OUCH!

Well, Kim and I have had our 2nd round of Hepatitis B shots. Man, do they hurt! It feels like they are trying to shove something solid into our arms! !

We had our first round of Hepatitis A shots also the same night.

Kim hates shots!

I told her that the Hep A goes in your hip! heh heh! ! !

I almost had her believing me! When the nurses were about to give me my Hep A shot, I almost screamed out in pain just to play with Kim but thought better of it.

She wouldn't be happy!

I did treat her to some ice cream after the shots!

All's fair in Hep shots and ice cream!

Fundraising

Well, Kim and I are getting ready for the Music City 1/2 Marathon on April 29th.

That's 13.1 miles!

I get winded if I think too fast! Oh well, I'll be able to do it. I might have to visit the Oxygen Bar in Opry Mills!

Getting back on task. We are trying to raise the remainder of what we will need by doing a walk-a-thon. We need to raise $10,000. That's a daunting task but we are following God's will!

Did you know that it takes about $18,000 - $20,000 to adopt from China?
Did you also know that girls are abandoned because the family values sons over daughters? They are abandoned on the side of a road, in a park, outside of orphanages, etc.

Our daughter will be abandoned. She will be considered the bottom of society.

But here's the amazing thing: On a certain day, later this year, a day that we will call "Gotcha Day," our daughter will become the center of our universe!

You can't tell me that God's hand is not in this!

LADYBUGS!

"What's with the ladybugs?"

You might be wondering that same question. Well, the ladybug is kinda the unofficial symbol for China adoption. I'm not sure how it started but seeing the ladybug is a sign of good luck. And if you see a ladybug, then supposedly referrals are on their way!

It's something fun to do while you wait for your referral. I personally saw a ladybug back in December at my parent's house, and later that week, our dossier was logged in at the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs). Weird!

Introduction

HELLO EVERYBODY!

I'm Keith and this is Kim! (I'm on the right, and Kim is on the left). This is our blog dedicated to our daughter Kinsley, who is somewhere in China. We don't know where yet! You see, we are adopting a baby girl from China! This will be our first child and we are pretty excited.

Okay, we are REALLY EXCITED! and a little bit scared-at least I am. I've never really been around kids that much, especially babies. Kim has and she's great! She seems to be able to get babies to laugh and smile at her. They normally look at me like they have gas or something!

When someone tries to hand a baby to me to hold, I tense up and hold the baby like it is some delicate piece of 3000 year old Egyptian papyrus!

Don't get me started on changing diapers! All I got to say on that subject is there better be a manual!

During our time together, we'll share about our adoption experience and if you have any questions, then give a shout. We'll try to answer them all.

Keith and Kim

Our first post

Kim and I just set up our daughter's blog. We are adopting our first child from China-a baby girl!