Here are some links that I thought were cool to look at.
Hope everyone has a great holiday!

http://www.orphandoctor.com/medical/commondiseases/developmental/age.html

http://www.chinapage.com/quote/quote.html

http://www.chinapage.com/china.html

www.chinasprout.com

Before and after photos
http://www.maoming.homestead.com/Children.html

Tips for China
http://www.dannysbagel.com/tips_on_Guangzhou

Finding Ads
http://www.research-china.org/findingads/index.htm

Map of China
http://www.muztagh.com/map-of-china/index.html

Not flesh of my flesh Nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously My own.

Never forget For a single minute:

You didn't grow under my heart But in it.

- Fleur Conkling Heyliger

Legend of The Red Thread

Chinese folklore says that there are invisible red threads that connect a newborn child's spirit to all the people who will be important in the child's life. As the child grows, the threads shorten, drawing closer those people who are destined to be together.The threads are said to never break or fray, binding families and friends forever.

LOGGED IN!!!
10/30/2006

We are finally logged in!! I talked to my adoption coordinator today and 12 families from our agency were logged in on 10/30/2006. We are officially paper pregnant. I just hope this is not a long pregnancy. Ken and I are very relieved to have gotten this far. Thanks for
everyone's support.

Yesterday was Halloween, here is a picture of our four nieces Maclaine, Chapel, Sydney, and Carson. Ken and I have been helping Gable and Mandy move into their house for the past few days and everyone thing has come together great. We are all exhausted! I will post some pics later of their house for all family members who read this blog.
Sarah

Well nothing new. Still waiting to be logged in. I know a bunch of families were logged in on 10/10 but not us! Frustrating very frustrating. The time length for China is increasing so at this point I don't know how long it will take. I guess you just gotta keep the faith and know all happens for a reason.

Ken and I are talking about maybe taking a trip in the Spring. Our favorite place is San Francisco and he has hinted to going back. I wouldn't mind trying something new. We'll see:)

Great news! Ken and I are going to be an aunt and uncle again. Mandy is pregnant with her second baby due in May. Just another baby for us to spoil, Ken is crazy about his nieces.
Talk to everyone soon!

Here are a few ideas for rugs that have been presented to me for Kate's room. What do you think? A local artist in town designed them for me and I think she did an amazing job. All the rugs are made in Nepal so it will take 4 months to make.


One of my oldest friends from college, Jenel had a beautiful baby girl this week. Isabel Faith 7lbs 9oz. Mom and baby are doing great. I spent about 2 hrs. at the hospital yesterday. Just thought I would share.
Not much is going on here just waiting for our papers to get logged in. I am learning how to be patient through all of this. Ken is going to Hilton Head at the end of the month and I think I will use that as a good excuse to go to Miami and see my best friend Anick who is in law school.
On my next post I will post the awesome piggy bank that I bought.

DTC 9/22/2006
Our paperwork has finally been sent! DTC means Date or Dossier To China. I got a message yesterday and hopefully in a few weeks we will FINALLY be logged into the system. Now I have cleared off my dining room table and put all my papers away, there is nothing left to do but wait out the next year and hope the process speeds up. I'm sure I will be buying things here or there along the way. Who are we kidding? I will be buying a lot of stuff while I wait. Nothing like shopping to make you feel better.
Saturday Ken and I went to a brunch for families in Bowling Green with adopted Chinese children. Some have already adopted and some are going through the process for their first or second baby. We met a lot of great people and got some great tips.
Hope all is well with everyone!
Sarah

Well we did not get our papers sent to China on Friday the 15TH. BUMMED. We were hoping it would have happened. They should be sent this Friday so we will let everyone know.
Happy Birthday to Carson today!! Our niece is 1!
tomorrow is our 3 year wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary Ken.

Here are some of the items I have started purchasing. I usually wait until I get something
accomplished in my paper work or home study to buy as a celebration. The Dora doll is a special one that won't be sold for that long so I bought it as soon as I saw it in Wal Mart. She is dressed in an outfit from China. My dad made the chest when he was in high school and he just gave it to me last month. I plan on putting it in Kate's room.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2006
We finally got our papers back from Washington last Tues. I immediately sent them to my agency. I will know tomarrow if it was all sent to China on Friday the 15th. If not then they will go the 22nd. I took a couple of pics of the documents. All the ones with the red stamps came from the Chinese embassy and it is all written in Chinese. The State Department also approved them and Condeleeza Rice signed them. Pretty cool. We also included some pictures of ourselves and all our reference letters in the final package.
I will let everyone know tomorrow if we are finally DTC (dossier to China).

FINGERS CROSSED
I should be getting my paperwork back Tues. morning if all goes well. Our papers are at the Chinese Embassy right now. I will get them down to our agency by Tues. afternoon or Wed. morning. If all goes well they will be sent to China on Friday the 15th and we will finally be DTC (dossier to China) after that it shouldn't be long before we are logged in. Right now the wait has gone up to 13 t0 14 months. I keep reminding myself and Ken that we will have her for the rest of our lives so what is another year.
We went to the Titans season opener game today. They lost (ofcourse) but we still had a good time tailgating and hanging out. We need to enjoy it now before we have Kate and she will not tolerate watching a losing team (just kidding to all you Titans fans!).
I will report back once I get that beautiful Fed Ex package.

I am patiently waiting for the Fed Ex man to get here with my last two documents from Frankfort, KY. Once he comes I will send ALL my documents to the Assistant Stork In Washington, D.C. to be authenticated through the U.S. State Department, and the Embassy of China. Then finally they will be off to China!

OUR APPROVAL CAME!!!!!!
Our I 171 came today in the mail from immigration. My heart jumped when I saw Homeland Security in the return address. The form says the United States government has approved us to adopt one female child, as young as healthy as possible, between birth and 18 months of age. I will photo copy it tomorrow and have it notarized then send it to be state certified. We take the original to China with us. I got all my other documents from the state of Kentucky today.
Hope everyone has a great labor day!

Waiting on my I-171 from immigration. The good thing it is only taking about 3 weeks for Ky. I got our stuff county certified today. Once I get the I 171 I will send all to Frankfort, Ky to get State certified. Can you believe that it has taken 3 months just to gather these 12 documents!! Everything as to be so detailed oriented. The documents in the picture are
employment (unemployment) letter
financial statement
medical report
birth and marriage certificate
letter asking china for a little girl
homestudy
police background check

Hope everyone is doing well!

I will write again when I have more to report.

sarah

Baby Shower for Grace
We went to a baby shower last night for our friends John and Krista who just adopted a baby girl from Korea. They got home a few weeks ago and Grace is almost 6 months old. We had a great time celebrating with John and Krista. Here are some pictures.
Stephanie, Mandy, Tanya, Sarah
Sarah and Carson
Stephanie, Mandy and Carson
Sarah, Ken, and Carson
John (Dad) and the star of the night Grace

Gable, Mandy and Carson
John and Grace

Ken ran his first 5k yesterday and I am so proud of him. He did it in under 30 minutes without stopping. He has been running everyday for the past 8 months on a treadmill but outside was completely different for him. I'm not really sure if his outfit matches! I wasn't up when he left, maybe I should have been.

HOMESTUDY COMPLETE!!
Our homestudy is done! Ken and I met with Nan yesterday and read our homestudy report (our lives written in about 9 pages). Thanks for all your hard work Nan! :) It will now be sent to USCIS late next week and we wait for immigration to approve us. Right now the turn around time for that is about 3 weeks (fingers crossed). Some states it takes up to 3 months. They will send us a form called a I171 which says the we are approved to adopt an orphan. Then we can finally get all of our papers certified and sent to China to be logged in. I will post later with more developments.
Sarah

Not much to report. My homestudy should be completed in about a week. Ken and I will meet with Nan again to go over it. It will be sent to USCIS to meet up with our fingerprints. Hopefully it will only take a few weeks to get our 171 approval form. Then we should be on our way to China to be logged in.
I have picked out fabrics for Kate's bedding. I am going with pink/chocolate polka dots and stripes. the skirt will be pink with chocolate polka dots and the bumper will be one side pink/chocolate stripe and the other choc with pink dots. I will buy the fabric and have it made. I have plenty of time so I will take my time. Above on the left is what her room looks like now. Hope all is well with everyone.
Sarah

http://www.familyoffour.homestead.com/June05CCAA.html

This is a great website that someone made to show pictures of the CCAA in China. It gives you a good picture of how the process is going to work. I got a great book yesterday on questions children ask about adoption
is she really my cousin?
why do they have to go to China to get her?
was she abandoned?
what does adoption mean?
This will be great for the girls and any of our friends who have children and are curious.
Later
Sarah

I have all my paper work ready to be certified by the county. Nan is writing our homestudy and once it is written Ken and I will meet with her to look over the final draft. Our homestudy will be sent to USCIS which is immigration and we will wait on the magic form that says we can adopt.
Our friends are in Korea right now picking up their new little girl Grace. She so precious Ken and I can't wait to meet her. www.raceforgrace.blogspot.com

Ken says that he is going to start posting weekly (we'll see).

Katherine Douglas

凯瑟琳 道格拉斯

Yesterday was our house visit for the homestudy. Everything seemed to go well. We showed Nan all our rooms, smoke detectors, and cleaning supplies. I will have to get some shelves put up so I can store the cleaning supplies high up ( now I probably won't beable to reach them). The visit took about an hour and I was more nervous than I thought. Now Nan will write a 9 to 12 page report on what she thinks of Ken and I (oh boy) and if we are suitable to be parents.
I got my Asian dolls yesterday in the mail and now they have been taken over by my nieces Sydney and Chapel. We think it is important for them to understand what their cousin Kate will look like. I told Chapel age 4 that her new doll looks like my baby. She quickly and loudly responded " you're gonna have a baby?!". How do u tell a 4 year old we are going to China to get a baby? I will leave that up to her parents. Good luck Christiaan and Anne Marie. When I got home I got back on ebay and ordered more dolls. Well to celebrate the 4th we are going up to the lake today and spend time on the boat.
Have a great holiday weekend
Sarah

HOMESTUDY VISIT
I am busy cleaning the house today. Tomarrow our Social Worker Nan is coming to the house to check it out. I never thought in a million years that I would ever have a sw visit my house to see how we live. She will want to see where Kate will sleep ( right now it is a empty room with a few toys to entertain Syd and Chapel when they come over) and she will want to make sure we have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers on both floors.

I picked up our physical reports yesterday and Ken and I are very healthy. I will take my documents next week to be county certified and then I will make the 2 1/2 hr drive to Frankfort Ky to have the state seal put on all our documents. I would rather drive everything then mail it and be nervous that it gets lost. I have spent the last six weeks collecting these papers and I would have a heart attack if anything happened to them. Well I am going to start mopping.
Later
Sarah

What is my Dossier doing at the CCAA while I wait?
While it is not practical to ask the CCAA to notify an agency of where a certain dossier or set of dossiers is located in their process, the CHI Beijing office was able to provide me with the CURRENT schedule for your dossier at the CCAA.
1. CHI Beijing office takes your dossier to the CCAA.
2. Your dossier enters the CCAA administration office and can wait for up to 1 month to be logged in. Once you have a log in date (LID) your official wait begins.
3. Your dossier waits to begin the process. This currently takes 3 to 4 months.
4. The CCAA administration office passes your dossiers to Bridge of Love where they verify your dossier's translation. This processtakes from 2 to 3 months.
5. Your dossier is passed to Department I for review. This processtakes from 1 to 2 months.
6. Your dossier is passed to Department II for matching. This too can take from 3 to 4 months. Your dossier is matched several weeks before step #7.
7. Your referral is sent to the administrative office to be signed by all the CCAA directors and mailed to CHI. This can take several weeks.
8. You receive your referral - a very happy day! You return your acceptance of referral letter to the CCAA.
9. The CCAA sends your travel approval to come to China to complete your adoption. This process takes about 1 month.
10. You travel to China to meet your child and complete the adoption.This is approximately 6-8 weeks after referral.The current wait from LID to referral is 12 months as of 5/2006.

Here is one web site that shows a picture "tour" of the CCAA:
www.familyoffour.homestead.com/June05CCAA.html

Tomarrow is our individual meeting with our social worker
wish us luck!

Ken and I had our physicals this morning. Basic stuff TB test, urine, liver, Hepatitis, HIV, and blood pressure. We will go back on Wed. for the results of our TB. This is the last form I need notorized before I get everything county certified. Tomarrow we have our individual homestudy meetings.
Sarah

I thought these were the cutest dolls. They are asian baby dolls and I bought them for Kate. I want her to play with asian dolls as well as american dolls. I think she needs to relate to herself but also have a few blonde dolls to relate to me.
sarah

Here is a picture of our house that we bought last summer and spent three months remodeling. This is where we Kate will grow up.

June 21, 2oo6
Why We Chose China

Why China?
Ken and I have been getting many questions about why we are going to China to adopt. "Why not stay here and do a domestic adoption?" There are several reasons for our choice, and I thought I would try and explain how we came to this decision.
1. That is where our daughter is!! In my heart there is no question
2. Once we get through the adoption in China she is ours. Steps have been taken in China to find her birth mother, for example an ad will have been placed in the local paper. It will be determined that the baby was abandoned. The birth mother will not show up three days, six months, or a year later and decide she wants her daughter back.
3. Birth mother’s health is generally better than in America or other countries. From my research I have found that women in China take care of themselves during their pregnancy. Most feel they have one chance to deliver a healthy boy, and they work to make that happen. Babies born with fetal alcohol syndrome, addicted to drugs, and many other transmitted diseases is lower in China. Babies are born with health problems, as with any country, but most are known early.
4. This may be a selfish reason, but I don’t want to have to sell myself to prospective birth mothers. In a domestic adoption more and more women are choosing open adoptions where they pick the family. I am not a salesperson, and I don’t want to advertise my family and myself in order to raise a child. In China the CCAA matches you with your child. I have read many stories about “perfect matches”. It is not quite known how they do it, but I would rather have my child matched with us. Again, this may be a selfish reason, but it is a strong feeling I have and I must go with my gut.
5. We would like a girl and we have a 95% chance in China

June 21, 2006
Ken and I made the drive to Louisville this morning to have our finger prints taken and sent to the FBI. We have separate home study interviews next week and also a home visit by our Social worker Nan. Our homestudy will be sent to meet up with our finger prints and we will then wait on a I-171 letter saying we are approved to adopt an orphan. We hope to have all our paper work sent to China by the end of August.
Sarah

Ken and I are creating this blog so family and friends can follow our journey to our daughter Katherine Douglas. We are currently in the paper chase right now and hope to have our homestudy done in the next couple of weeks. For those who don't know (I can't believe mom hasn't told you yet) we are adopting a little girl from China. It is a ton of paper work right now and interviews with a social worker. Once we get that done and everything sent to China then we WAIT. As of now the wait time is 12 months and hopefully it will stay that way. We are hoping by next fall/winte to have our girl home. We think this blog will be great when we actually go to China to pick her up because all of you will be able to follow our time there. I am just learning this blog so be patient with me. Hope all of you are as excited as we are to have this new addition to our family.