My Lollipop Girl!

I'm here to formally introduce my lollipop girl. I'm purposely not using any names here, but I think if you look at the pictures you'll agree that Lollipop is a great pseudonym for my little one.

My backstory- Around Christmas of '05 I decided that I was ready to start a family. For a long time I knew that if I was still single, adoption would be the way to go. I chose Chi*a for a number of reasons. (I'm avoiding typing the name here so the blog won't show up in a search of the country's name, no need to go into why here. Ask me if you're dying to know) . The primary reason, though, was that my heart went out to the little girls abandoned because of Chi*a's one child policy. So I began internet research and sent out applications to three agencies. As Chi*a was limiting single person adoptions at the time, I waited for one of the three agencies. In September of '06 a spot became available at Living Hope Adoption Agency in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. By Halloween of '06 my paperwork and homestudy were complete. I then had to wait for approval from U.S. Immigration. I received that shortly before Christmas of '06. My dossier was then sent to Chi*a and was officially logged in on February 13, 2007. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the approximately one year process from log in to referral (receiving a child's picture) had slowed down, and slowed down further, and then further. I was also very lucky, though, because in May of 2007 Chi*a stopped accepting any singles for adoption (along with many other families). Since my paperwork was already logged in, I was fine.

Jump ahead to 2009. My agency had called me at least 10 times about various little girls, but for one reason or another they weren't the right match. Finally on March 30, 2009 I read a file of a little girl was soon to be "Lollipop". I didn't have the huge "I have found her" moment that some have; instead it was a gradual feeling of comfort that grew each day. It was quite surreal for the first few days, weeks especially due to the fact that I physically felt horrible those initial days. And as many of you know, I am rarely really sick so this was quite a coincidence.

That brings me to today. I await the next steps in the process before I can travel sometime this summer. Thanks for joining me on my journey.