Way back on July 22, 2006, our dossier (a huge packet of information containing just about every detail of our lives) was recorded in China's adoption system. That date of 7/22/6 became our log in date, which is referred to in the China adoption world as LID. Your LID is what determines when you will be matched with your child. At the time we got our LID, China had just issued referrals of LIDs through 7/13/5. That means that there were 364 calendar days that had to be covered by China referrals from the time that we started in 2006 until later this year when we will receive our referral for Natalie.
I made a paperclip chain of 364 clips to represent each of these days that was between us and our daughter. I hung it over one of the doorways in Natalie's room and as you can see in the picture below, it was so long that it draped over the doorway twice!
Here is the chain today. There are just 9 paperclips remaining until the final clip is reached. It has taken over 5 years for us to get to this point.
To give you an idea of the history of the speed of referrals, here are the average number of calendar days covered each year since we started our adoption process.
2006 12 days/month
2007 8 days/month
2008 6 days/month
2009 3 days/month
2010 5 days/month
2011 ytd 6 days/month
For us this most likely means we will get our referral in the batch after next. Hopefully around the end of September we will get to see sweet Natalie's face for the first time, find out how old she is and where she is currently living in China. It has been the longest journey of my life, but I know Natalie will be worth every moment of waiting.
Soon this blog will shift from "All Newfoundlands all the time" to "Natalie and the Newfoundlands' Great Adventures". I'm getting so excited.
To tide you over until then, here is a video of two sweet Newfoundland dogs with an adorable 16 month old little girl. Too sweet...
7 comments:
Such exciting news!! :) God bless your family as you start your new adventure. We have one son, almost 5 now, and an almost 2 year old Newfie, Buster, and let me say, it is true what they say about Newfies and kids. He is soo good with our son. Where he is rowdy with us, and doesn't always listen, he is always gentle with our son, and always does what he's told. It is really amazing. Look forward to reading more! I am going to post a video of Buster if you want to check it out.. My blog is mostly crafts and hobbies with some Buster and Austin thrown in I'm sure. I just started it this week. Nice to meet you and your Newfs. :)
Kelli
Congratulations! I'm very excited for you to meet your daughter and for her to meet you and the pups!
I hope you get a few days off for good behavior! :)
Thanks so much everyone for the good thoughts!
Kelli, thanks for telling me about your blog. I'm going to check it out.
congrats you all.. i know you will be a happy family and nathalie couldn't ask for a better family :)
Thank you so much for finding our newfie blog and leaving a comment so we could find yours. Your newfs are gorgeous and I bet from the time she comes home, they will be so protective of Natalie. Our youngest newf was about a year old when our daughter came home and overnight her wild side was tamed and she became instantly more obedient and eager to please. It was as if she knew she had a very important job. To this day, 2 years later, they remain each others best friends. We still need to watch them and our daughter together (especially around other dogs) because you just never know. We did not do anything special to prepare the dogs for the arrival, besides making sure they understood the pack order beyond a shadow of a doubt. I look forward to reading more of your blog and hope I can keep up with your adventures when you and they enter this new stage. It is soooooo exciting!!
That is great news! Love your blog, too!
Stewey
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