November 29, 2004

Days Away

On October 20th, 2003 I made the first post to this adoption blog. Now, we are just days away from our match/referral. Our agency, CCAI, is telling us that we should receive our match during the first 2 weeks of December.

Basically, we will receive a package in the mail that has photos of the baby that we have been matched with. It might contain a minimal amount of medical information. And perhaps some other data regarding her orphanage, what she is like, name, age, etc... We will need to review the information, sign the paperwork stating that we accept the match, and get it back to CCAI within 48 hours.

It's been a long journey. And we haven't reached the end yet. But we are getting close...

Posted by Mark at 06:26 AM | Comments (3)

November 27, 2004

BlogExplosion

Do you have a blog? If so, you should check out BlogExplosion. It's a site you can use that will help drive traffic to your blog. I used it for one of my other sites and had over 500 visitors the first week. Pretty cool, eh?

If you join BlogExplosion, please click on the link above when you register. It will sign you up as a referral site for me and I will get extra visits. Thanks!

Posted by Mark at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2004

Ouch Part II

We just got back from getting our second set of immunization shots. Today we got TwinRix (combo of Hep A & Hep B) and we also got Typhoid. I think we could have skipped the Typhoid shot, but we just prefer to err on the side of caution.

After we get our 3rd and final TwinRix shots the total cost for immunizations will be $765! So that's what I mean about Ouch! The shots don't bother us at all. The real pain was the cost. :-)

Posted by Mark at 01:43 PM | Comments (4)

November 16, 2004

We Are Next!

The May referrals came in. That means the June referrals are next. And our DTC date is 06/18/04.

My guess is that sometime around the middle of December we will get our match/referral. That's when we receive information on our baby. We should get photos, name, age, weight, location, etc... Then, we start working on the travel plans.

The May group is telling me that they should travel in 6 to 9 weeks. That's longer than I expected. I thought you traveled in 4 to 6 weeks from match. But I guess not. If that is the case, then we will probably travel to China in February. I need to get more info on the travel time.

Posted by Mark at 06:59 AM | Comments (1)

November 15, 2004

Guestbook & Comments

Psssst. Have You Signed the Guestbook? If not, look to the left and you will see it.

Also, you will see the word Comments listed under every post. If you want to comment on the post, please do. That's what makes blogging so much fun.

Posted by Mark at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2004

Chinese Video's & DVD's

We went to our small group meeting tonight and came home with a list of chinese video/dvd resources. So I thought I'd share them and post a link to them.

Follow Jade
Mei Mei & Me
Ni Hao Little Friends

If you have any other suggestions for Chinese Videos/DVD's, let us know! We'd also like to know if anyone has any suggestions for Chinese Lullaby/Music CD's.

Posted by Mark at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2004

Adoption Language

I know I just posted about Laura Christianson's Blog, but she has a great post that you should read. It's called Respectful Adoption Language.

Good stuff...

Posted by Mark at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2004

The Skinny Mouse, Inc.

The Skinny Mouse is a web hosting business that my friend Mike and I run. It's perfect for bloggers, small business, personal/family sites, and online communities. In fact, if you are into blogging, our control panel has a one-click, auto-install feature for WordPress.

You can use your own domain. Or you can use one of our subdomains. We offer the following subdomains:

http://yourname.coffeeblogs.com
http://yourname.techblogging.com
http://yourname.politicalblogging.com
http://yourname.christianblogging.com

You select the name you want to use and replace the 'yourname' part with it.

The cost is $19.95 per year for our subdomain accounts.

Sorry about the commercial. :-) We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

Posted by Mark at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2004

Laura Christianson's Blog

I recently received a really nice email from Laura Christianson. She has a fantastic blog that explores different adoption-related issues. Drop by and check it out!

Posted by Mark at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2004

We Bought A Camcorder

We finally got around to buying a camcorder. We went with the Sony DCR-HC20. Best Buy had it for $379. This is our first camcorder so we decided not to go overboard. I'm charging the battery right now so tomorrow I'll get a chance to play around with it.

Posted by Mark at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)