Introducing...

Sweet Pea!  (Sorry, you don't get her real name.)

We have a referral!  We have a referral!  We have a referral!  For those not in the adoption world...We have been matched with a child!  We have been matched with a child!  We have been matched with a child!  (I thought since I won't be posting a photo I should make it up to you with enthusiasm.)

She is almost 6 months and waiting for us in Yugan County SWI in Jiangxi Province of China.

She has a small mop of soft hair, a sweet round face, and the most beautiful eyes.  It does not appear she has any teeth yet...I keep looking at the picture over and over.  (But nyah, nyah I won't share!)  She does look a little angry or determined; I think she'll be able to keep up with Sunflower no problem.

Because of the snow this week we were all home (though Oak was in the shower) when we got the call from our agency.  We'd made sure on Wednesday that the China Team would call us directly instead of trying to go through our social worker here in this state (who we did not expect to be at work anxiously waiting to get our information for us.)

So our China Team rep called at 12:15 p.m. our time.  I was just pouring a coke that I found 3 hours later.  I immediately asked her if it was bad news while I ran to get Oak.  She laughed and said, "no good news, very good news."  And it is.

After the call they finished scanning in all the documents and put them so we could download them.  Can I tell you when our power flickered taking out the internet BEFORE we saw the picture we were pretty stressed?  We had it back up in 5 minutes and I have many friends who have been without power overnight, so I feel bad...but if we had not gotten that picture... 

So timeline...Monday we knew we were in this batch.  Tuesday our agency confirmed the "referrals would be landing later this week."  Wednesday we had a conference call about next steps and travel.  Thursday we got the call.  Today we expect to have the hardcopy of all the paperwork in our hands.  

Next week sometime we'll have the translated documents.  At that point we get to start the countdown to travel as we send in our I800.  We are expecting (based on current travel estimates) that we will be traveling late March at the earliest and early May at the latest.  We will have 3 days to 3 weeks notice of our travel dates...so we'd better get packing.

Yesterday I printed out the little referral picture they scanned and e-mailed.  I forgot to tell the printer I was printing on 4x6 so it "filled" the paper with the top of her head and eyes.  

Sunflower pounced on the photo and asked if she could have it.  She said it would be a good idea to put it on her tall dresser.  I gave it to her because I knew I planned to print another properly.  But once I had the other one printed Sunflower decided to "trade" with me.  "Here, Mom. You can have this one.  She is MY BABY SISTER."  

I stole the picture back after Sunflower was asleep though I plan to print more as soon as I have more ink.