Go Faster! ... And Slower!

Hi. We are Dan, Donna and Jonathan. We've been going through the adoption process with China for over a year and a half now, and in some ways the process is long ... and getting longer. But in other ways, time is flying by so quickly that we'll never be ready in time.

When we first completed our paperwork, the first unofficial estimate we had was to travel to China in about 5 to 6 months. Now, here we are, some 15 months later and we still haven’t traveled yet. And right now we are estimating that we would travel around April or May of 2007. So, that would be 5 to 6 months.

But don’t get the impression that no babies have been adopted in the last 15 months. Families have traveled. Babies have been adopted. The line we are waiting in is shorter. But the process seems to have really slowed down. Right now, the way it’s looking, when our travel group leaves for China, we will have the record for the longest wait time.

But in other ways, there is still so much to do that even now we wonder if we'll be "ready". For example, notice the name of this blog. We would have like to have personalized the blog a little bit more by calling it something like "ourpreciouskassanndrahcomeshome.blogger.com" or something like that. But to be honest, at this point, we don't have much of a clue what we're going to name our daughter.

There are also books to read, furniture to buy, room to decorate, clothes to sort. Now, we do still have a lot of Jonathan’s old clothes. So, unless we make the time to work on some of these things, our daughter is going to be the one who is dressing in boy hand-me-downs with a name that sounds like it was just pulled out of a hat.

But, overall, our trip to China can't come soon enough. Everyday, babies are born in this world to parents who haven't had enough time to think of a name or get the house ready. And they survive . Some, I'm told, do quite well. So, let the travel begin! Any time now would be fine.

Dan