Met some more waiting families...

We went to a function hosted by our adoption agency, New Life, yesterday in Liverpool. It was for waiting families and there were about 5 families there. Also, most of the New Life staff was there. There were 2 families that their DTC was a 2006 date and hopefully will travel soon. They also told us that a bunch of other families from the agency were traveling to China this week to pick up their children...exciting!!

There was another couple there and their DTC was February 2007, so they are only 4-5 months ahead us. They were really nice and you could feel the comraderie with everyone in the room...the waiting thing is just HARD!!!! Nobody was there from our group, a little disappointing because I was looking foward to meeting who we might be traveling with.

There was another couple there and they are going to adopt their 2nd child from China. They brought their little girl, Catherine with them. She was adorable and they had just come from dance class. She takes ballet and tap and she is 3 1/2. She was very cute!!!! Her mother was so nice and forthcoming with information and her husband was the same way.

We saw our adoption agent, Vicki, and met the other people we get e mails from all the time. Lashonna, and Pat were there and it was really great to meet them. I will say that everyone that works at New Life seems to be just as friendly and helpful as can be...and very understanding!! We also met another one of the social workers, and traded NYC stories with her and Vicki.

Lashonna the post placemnet person at New Life, said she had heard that China might speed things up at the first of the year to get more families traveling, and then it will slow down because of the Olympics. Everybody seems to think the wait is so long now due to the Olympics and all the renovations going on in China right now. It would be great if they did try to speed things up at the first of the year so more families ahead of us would travel sooner. But again, it's just hear say and nothing to get excited about...yet.

We got there about 11:00AM and stayed until 12:30, we didn't expect that we would stay to the end. We are really looking forward to the Chinese New Year Celebration in January. We have heard from a lot of people that it is a blast and there are about 300 children there for that.

It is so nice to be around other waiting families. There are certain things you need to ask and talk about and other people really don't know or want to listen sometimes, they just see it as so far away. But with us we live with the wait every day and every night. You want people to ask how you are doing just like they would if you were actually physically pregnant. There is more of a mental difficulty with adoption than I think most people understand. So it's nice to know that the feelings you feel are valid and alright to feel.

After, we went to Babies R' Us and bought Avery a panda bear rattle. It's cute!!!

I will put up another post soon about our trip to China Town in NYC last weekend. I'm a little out of order here.

Love to everyone~
Alli & Gary