Why we have named her...

I know that some people don't understand the process that we are going through. International adoptions are different in many ways than domestic adoptions. Especially right now, China adoptions. The wait is excruciatingly long and sometimes gets longer by the minute. We have had a lot of questions about the wait time and if we've heard anything. The answer is no, we are in a pile of dossiers in China and when they get to us they get to us. There is no updates until we get the referral. Our updates consist of being notified of other families at our adoption agency that have received their referrals, and of families that have gone and come back from China or are getting ready to go to China. But other than that there are no updates on our particular adoption case. It's a big waiting game. We do get the special needs list when one comes out of children that need parents and we always go through the list. We have had some people ask why we have already named her lately and they don't understand that because she is not even born yet.

Well, I will assimilate that to when you carry a baby in your tummy and you throw around names and eventually pick one. The baby is not born yet either, it's different because you can feel her/him move and you see the ultrasounds and etc. But some people have the name picked out before you actually give birth. My answer to everyone is... we are excited!!! Plain and simple, we don't get to feel her move in my tummy, or see the ultrasounds, or any of that. We have named her Avery Lin, a name we feel is perfect and we don't need to see her to make sure it will fit...our daughters name is Avery. We went through a lot of names and finally decided on this one. Lin in Chinese means "beautiful jade" I did my research of Chinese names and Lin seemed to go perfectly with Avery. People assume that when you are in adoption game it happens soon-NO!!!!! Each and every adoption is different we know we probably have at least another year to wait, and so sometime 6 months from now she might, probably be born. She will probably be 8-10 months old when we get her.

The process will probably be as follows:

We get the referral-We cry and weep-We accept-We have a travel meeting & meet the other parents we are going with-We shop-We get all of our stuff ready to go to China-We leave for China-We get there, jet lagged and tired- Avery could arrive to the hotel as soon as 30 minutes after we arrive at the hotel and then we are there for approximately 2 weeks finalizing all of her paperwork and doctor's appointments and getting to know our daughter just Gary & myself for 2 weeks in China with Avery Lin-HEAVEN!!!(hectic-but complete HEAVEN!!)

So we have named our little girl, it is all we have at this point, and we deserve to have something. The wait is so long, and agonizing on a good day. We wait and we call her room, Avery's room, and she is Avery to us. To us it doesn't matter that she is not born yet...she is with us in some way. I see and feel her in "signs" every day and no one can question that.

Love to all
~Alli