We have a lot of people who weren’t here the last time I did this, so I’ll give another guided tour of the site.

In the left hand column if you scroll down just a bit you’ll find links to the last five comments made.

In the top right hand column under Site Navigation you see a link that will take you to a page of the rules for people who wish to comment. Nothing draconian, just basic manners.

Next you’ll see a link to the Forum. What is a forum? Well, the part you’re looking at now is called the Blog. In the beginning the blog was where all conversation happened. Then as our little community grew we really needed a better place to talk, so along came the forum. Many rooms of the forum are viewable by anyone, but we have a few rooms that are only visible to those who are registered - nothing top secret, but sometimes it’s nice to talk about things in a spot that the search engines aren’t going to index. The forum has also turned into a nice spot for people to continue to come to once they are home with their babies. We’ve somehow managed to bring a lot of levelheaded people together who can have some pretty intelligent conversations - the forum provides a spot for us to continue to have a place to talk even after we are home.

Continuing down the top right of this page you’ll see an About Us page, followed by the CCAA Updates and Referrals page. This page lists when referrals have arrived and through what dates for as long as I’ve been keeping track. There is also a spreadsheet listing when the CCAA page has been updated.

Next comes Contact Info, and then comes the very important FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). If you have not read the FAQ, please do.

And then there is a link to our Half the Sky fund raising page. If you feel that you get value from this site, please consider donating to Half the Sky.

The next link will show the results of all of the Polls that I’ve put up that have been closed. There are also results from some outside polls and other data sources. Each is marked at the bottom to tell where it came from.

Next we have the the requisite Privacy Policy, and then some RQ Gear you can buy that was created a while back as a result of a crazy thread.

Last in this section we have a guide to the Rumor Ratings I sometimes use to rate the rumors.

The next section includes links to some of the blog posts I’ve made on my other blog. At some point I intend to be a lot more active on that blog, and to talk a lot more about what happens after you’re home. You know, in my spare time.

Next you’ll see a link to posts I’ve made that I feel are of interest to people across time. Articles about how the matching room works and when adoptions are final in China and what I thought the backlog was six months ago (I should probably do the math on that again).

The next section is for Links outside of this site. First we have a 2005 and a 2006 calendar. I use both quite a bit when I’m doing my analysis. Then my other blog (not a particular article, just the normal blog address), and then the link for Bright Outlooks, followed by a couple of CCAA pages of interest. If you haven’t read through their Requirements and Rules pages then the next time you have some spare time you might want to do so.

Next is a link to a map of the provinces in China.

The next site is an attachment site that I highly recommend. I think that all parents who are adopting an institutionalized child should spend some time there before traveling. Attachment is best formed during periods of stress, and the first couple of weeks are incredibly stressful for all involved. Don’t blow this wonderful chance you have of forming bonds because you figured you’d read about attachment strategies if you thought there were problems. I’ve never talked to anyone who read up on attachment ahead of time who said it was a waste of time. But I know a lot of people who wish they had read up on it ahead of time because they missed some important red flags that they would have known about if they had only educated themselves about it first.

And last in this section is MandarinTools.com. When you get your referral packet I recommend that you go here to listen to the proper way to say your child’s name. Type in the pinyin word and tell it that it’s pinyin, you’ll see a list of meanings and the Mandarin characters will be shown. Find the one that looks like the character on your paperwork and click it - you’ll hear the word being said. Tone is important. If they sound ticked off when they say it then you must sound ticked off. If they say it in a singsong voice then you must try to match that sing song tone.

Next is a list of categories. If you just want to see the posts about referral announcements then click on that category. If you want to see a list of posts about The Wait, then click on that category. If you are looking for an analysis I’ve recently done then click on Analysis.

And last are the archives. Well, part of the archives. I blogged on Blogspot before I got my own domain, so the original archives are still over there.

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