Introducing Madeline Li Snow!

Doug and I are ecstatic to announce that after a 4-year wait, we are the proud parents to a beautiful baby girl!!! We are over the moon with excitement and so in love with her already! God has answered our prayers and she was so worth the wait.

Here is what we know so far:

Chinese Name: Yi Xiao Li

DOB: 6/6/2008

As of 10/17/2008 she was 24.8 in long and weighed 13 lbs

Jiangxi Province, china

Maddie is currently in foster care. This is an answer to our prayers. This means that she is loved and well cared for. Her chubby cheeks and hands are further proof that she has been very well cared for and that she is healthy.

She is a moderate sleeper, holds her head up when placed on her stomach, rolls over, is able to discern the direction of voices, responds to her name, likes music, and laughs out loud. And, most importantly, just like her father, she is obstinate sometimes!! Go figure. :)

Doug and I, along with my mom, will travel to China in 6-8 weeks to bring home our precious daughter.

Waiting on a Very Important Phone Call!

European agencies are making phone calls with the next batch of referrals. We found out this morning that China set the stork loose last Friday. That means we should be getting our referral today or tomorrow!!! Stay tuned...

We missed it by a day!!

Yesterday we received the following in an email from our adoption coordinator:

Well, I have good news and bad news.
Bad news: the referral group only went to 2/23/06.
Good news: you will be getting your referral next month!

Our Log-In Date (LID) is 2/24/2006. This month, China matched through 2/23/2006. We missed the cutoff by one lousy day. After sulking for a couple of days that we will have to spend a fourth "last Christmas without Maddie", I'm getting over it and am now looking forward with great anticipation to the first week in January!!!

November Referrals

This past week, China matched several more adoptive parents with babies. Unfortunately, it looks like they only matched a whopping 2 days - through LID 2/17/2006. Our LID is 2/24/2006. We're still holding out hope for a December referral, but the little bright light at the end of the tunnel got a little dimmer.

One more month!

Well, according to the early rumors, the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) has matched adoptive parents who were logged in through 2/20/2006. Our LID (Log-In Date) is 2/24/2006. That means we should get our referral around the first of December. Finally, we'll be able to put a sweet face with Baby Maddie's name!!!