Ohhhh...the cockeyed, whirling, jumble that is this entire process just continues!

Word has it that our TA's are in hand at the agency. This information came into *my* hot little hands just before noon. Has anyone from THE AGENCY called? Heavens no! If they didn't call when they received our referral, why would they call when our TA arrived? Which, by the way, Garry asked why we weren't called about our referral. Are you ready? "I already knew you were coming in to take a picture of the wall after work. It was one less call I needed to make."

SO! The phone rings about ten minutes ago and it's Gateway Travel...the travel agency that books all of our agency's flights. Bless her heart...she said her name is "Carol". I would bet you everything I've got that that is not her birth name. Her given name is probably something closer to Hua Mei or Ming Na. And I am *not* a racist! I'm simply pointing out that she had a VERY pronounced Chinese accent. Hey, when we went through this before, our agent's name was "Marvin". You guessed it...I had a really hard time understanding him too.

Anyway...Carol calls here and wants to talk to Garry. I ask if I can take a message, she gives me her phone number and starts to hang up. I say, "And this is about?" She says, "Your trip to China!" I immediately gave her Garry's cell phone number and told her to call him. She wanted to know if we were both going. I told her no, just him. Then she wants to know if he wants "extra seat for baby on flight home". Again I told her, "Call Garry. He's the one who's going. He's the one who knows the answers to your questions."

About five minutes after I hang up with Carol, Garry calls me. *HE* hasn't heard anything from THE AGENCY yet but Carol has called him. So...he asks Carol, "So what date is it that we are supposed to be leaving on?" She says, in a rather exasperated tone, "Well the 18th!"

At this point, Garry and I are laughing so hard that there isn't a single sound escaping from our lungs. How par for the course *is* this latest development? Hmmm...so we *may* have TA but we don't know...and he *may* be leaving on the 18th...but again...we don't know.

Am I excited? No. Am I mad? No. I believe the only word that describes it is numb. I refuse to get excited or upset or depressed or joyous until my youngest daughter is physically *in* my arms. I will tell you this, our family can't take much more of this. We are holding onto our sanity by our cuticles.

God bless each and every one of you out there that continue to wait for your chosen child. Our hearts and prayers are with you!

UPDATE: Garry just called again after getting off the phone with someone at the agency. I can't remember if he said that they called him or vice versa. At any rate, they do have TA's and they have been faxed to the consulate. They are expecting/hoping/predicting/WA guessing that our consulate appointment date will be faxed back to them overnight. Everyone is hoping for a departure on the 18th...if not they are looking at the 25th. Told you...God's sense of humor times 10.

Emotions are getting through. Mostly fear...lots of tears...and just afraid to hope.

UPDATE #2: Technically, this is an update on the update! The agency never did call about our TA. Garry is the one who called them. ::sigh:: I cannot WAIT to get off Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

No...we don't have our TA yet...and we're not happy about it!

We were told on December 27th that our agency was expecting them the next day. If we didn't hear anything we were to call in two days. Garry called. We were told that CCAA hadn't even started on ours and it would be another week. Call then. Garry called. More excuses...storms...delays...more complicated paperwork...all adds up to still no TA and still no idea as to when we can bring Claire home.

Garry's visa came today! So hey, he's ready...and has 30 days to get in and out of China before we need to buy another one of those. He put January 10th as his date of departure per the agency's instructions. I think we all know he's not going to make that! We've been told that we could leave on January 12th or January 19th. Other folks in the group were told the 11th or the 18th...and now the 25th. The 25th is God's sense of humor times 10. We left to bring Hope home on January 25th, 2004.

THE AGENCY isn't returning phone calls...I found an email in our old account today that we haven't used in over a year from them, apologizing for not returning our call last Thursday. Apparently not returning our call from last Wednesday didn't rate an apology. Again, they've been told numerous times over the last year that we don't use that email address and please update our file...you know the drill.

The email also wanted to let us know that there was no news on TA's yet and that we should be getting our I171H soon as USCIS had sent it out on 12/27. FAX them a copy as soon as we get it. I was as nice as I could be folks...honestly...but I still think my message came off way past snarky. I begged them to once again change our email address. I told them that we've had our I171H since 12/28 and that we notified THE AGENCY on the same day. I won't even go into what I said about the FAX.

I'm done...truly done. It does no good to even try and communicate with them, so I'm done. Sorry Garry but it's all you from here on out. And truthfully, it's been mostly him for quite awhile because I'm just gonna go off on someone.

People whose agencies sent their acceptance letters back weeks after the date we were told ours were sent already have their TA's, consulate appointments, and are leaving as soon as this week. SO! Who knows where this mix-up lies...LIE being the operative word...and yes...I am beyond angry.

I'm going back into drifting in a fog mode...

CORRECTION: In my AGENCY and Paula Zahn inspired ire yesterday I fear I made a mistake concerning Garry's visa. So, with a somewhat clearer head, here is the lowdown on that topic.

Garry's visa is good until June of 2007. He can make two trips to China from now until June and each trip can last up to thirty days.

I felt better for about two seconds after clearing that up then I just got mad again...I hope to God in Heaven that we won't be waiting until June now. : p

Haven't heard about the Paula Zahn thing yet? Well, she had several "experts" on her show last Friday expounding on adopting from China. Basically, I learned that I am only going through this process because it is the "in" thing to do, and I am a racist. (Hey, who wouldn't want to go through this easy, quick, painless process?! International adoption is FUN!!!) It was a simply lovely broadcast. LAST night she had a couple of the panelists back, along with two more who, well, had a clue! It was slightly better but...well...go to the CNN site and read the transcripts.

Our new I171H arrived yesterday! Could you hear me screaming from here? WHOOOO HOOOO!!!! One more major hurdle cleared!

C'mon TA!