The China Guide

Here is a China Guide with a lot of fascinating stuff to do in China. I am definitely planning to have Peking duck as a culmination and celebration of our finally uniting with our daughter. To see the way cool site that covers everything from restrooms to Presidential suites, please click here to see it click here.

Dawn Choate Healing Hannah: Attachment & Bonding

Last evening we did an online course called Healing Hannah: Attachment & Bonding. The woman, Dawn Choate, who did the talk had serious attachment issues of an extreme nature on the spectrum with her daughter Hannah. She adopted two daughters from China and they are Hannah and then Maggie. Maggie is older than Hannah but she was adopted second and I think special needs. Dawn feels that Hannah had been abused and she was therefore hard to bond with and would scream, bite (to draw blood) and let out God forsaken wails. It is likely the girl had PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). The talk was someone scary for a future parents like me. Steve was also lying on the floor with the phone pressed to his ear. Here are some resources for attachment & bonding. Child Trauma Academy (offers online courses as well as articles and other resources). Attach-China web group (also offers many great articles and resources), Good page of resources: http://attachment.adoption.com/
A 4 Ever Family (a really great list of resources, checklists on symptoms, bonding activites, etc. http://a4everfamily.org/
Book: "Attaching in Adoption" by Deborah Gray, "The Post Adoption Blues" by Karen Foli and John Thompson. Cool and beautiful Choate family website: http://www.babyjellybeans.com

Possibilities

Steve has confirmed with our agency, Barker, that our log-in date is September 12, 2005. There had been a bit of confusion about it. Our DTC (Dossier to China) is what is August 24. We are in a limbo of sorts, please pray for us and our beautiful daughter.

The discussion on the web for what will happen with this month's referrals has gotten complex. There is much talk that the CCAA may end up somehow splitting the group with LID's of August 24th. If this happens, not all of the people who currently have the 24th as LID may get a referral. That is pretty radical.

Rumor Queen is Back

The Rumor Queen is giving it an r5 that we expect referrals soon and that they will get at least through the 23rd of August 2005. Everything else looks to be either an r2 or an r3 at this point.
According to RQ, "The thing is, if they do about the same number of matches this month as they have been doing, then they should make it a good way into the 24th, but no where near all the way through the day.
One lone agency has issued a statement that sounds like a hint that we may see part of the 24th this month. They don’t come out and say it, they hint at it. I repeat, this is not a sure thing, this not a huge rumor, it’s a hint from one agency."