Waiting, waiting, and more waiting.

The Chinese Child welfare center entered our dossier into their computer system on 8-2!! (so that is our LID or log in date).

Now we wait for a referral. We pray it will come soon, and that the first file we see will be our daughter.  The waiting is very hard. I think it is so hard because I know she is over there, and I don't know if she is hungry or getting enough medical care, and every day that goes by is one more day she will have to spend there.

How does it work? The referral will come from our adoption agency. They receive files and match the files up with the medical checklists they have on file.

How long could it take?  We could get called tomorrow. We could get called next year. Our agency thinks we will not wait too long because we want an older girl, and we are open to multiple medical needs.

So what are we doing while we wait?  We will be focusing on our Both Hands project!! We are meeting with the widow this week and will be setting a date. Stay tuned for that!!

Timeline

I thought I would write out the timeline of where we have been, and where we have left to go.

Application approved by our agency 2-8-12

First agency meeting 2-23-12

Homestudy complete- 5-10-12

I-800a receipt date- 5-14-12

I-797c Approved- 6-19-12

DTA- Dossier To Agency- 7-6-12

DTC- Dossier to China- should be soon!!!!

LID- Log in Date - date we are entered in China's computer system

PA- Pre- approval once we accept the match with our daughter. This means she is locked in to us.

LOA- Letter of Acceptance- this means we have been 100% approved to adopt her

I-800- More US immigration stuff

Article 5- US immigration and chinese visa stuff

TA- Travel approval- when china officially says we can travel

Travel dates!! I can't wait to be at this step.


So how much longer??? Well if we are DTC soon and get an early august LID, and a match soon after, we could travel anywhere from mid december- march.  usually travel happens 4-7 months after matching. Right now the longest wait will be for the LOA. That has been taking anywhere from 60-100 days. So if it is 60 we will travel sooner, if it is 100 it will be later.

We could be matched in 2-4 weeks. I can't wait to see her picture. We are 99% sure we have decided on a name, and we will tell everyone what her name is when the match is official. 

One good thing is that I will be busy the next few weeks. I am working extra because my coworker is out on medical leave for a few more weeks, Noah starts kindergarden, and we have a good lead on a widow for our both hands project.

Beach day!!!!

 We went to Jekyll today- Noah has been asking to go to the beach. The boys loved it- well after Aiden got over his sunscreen in the eyes incident.

 Aiden kicking the water.

 A wave got them!!!

 Excited smiles right after!

 Close up of Noah

Close up of Aiden

Both boys loved the water and we couldn't get them out! It was a great day- calm and hot. No jellyfish and no riptides.

Almost DTA (dossier to agency!!)

Our agency has in its hands most of our dossier! The I-797 (that's the immigration approval letter) is at the secretary of state getting sealed, then it will go to the Chinese consulate in Houston, and then it will go to our agency! Yay!! Then we will be DTA. That means we should be DTC (dossier to china) by mid-late July.  So here is where the papers will go the next few weeks after our agency gets them all. The dossier gets reviewed and sent to the Colorado office of our agency. They bind it, post our pictures on it, and so a summary translation into Chinese. They then mail it to the agency employee in Beijing who will hand deliver it to the Chinese adoption affairs office. They put our info into their computer, and that date is known as our Log in Date (LID). We are praying to get matched pretty quickly after that. From match to travel is anywhere from 4-9 months. Isn't that exciting?????? We could be home with our daughter in 5 months. Ok, I know, 8 months is more likely but I can hope, right?

We are also beginning our Both Hands Project. If you want to help or be on our team, let me know. I'm sending out the team email today and will happily add people to it. You don't even have to be local to help!

If you want more info on the Both Hands Project- check out the website
 http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bothHands.html 

The video is very good!

Over 13,000 miles

That's how far our paperwork will travel!! Right now it is on the way to the Chinese Consulate in Houston. When it comes back, we will send it to Atlanta. Then when we get the 797 approval letter (from US immigration) it will get notarized, certified by the county clerk, sent to the secretary of state, then to the Chinese consulate in houston, then it will join the papers in Atlanta. Then they go to Colorado to be bound and sent to China!!!!! Wahoooo!!!! I can't wait for that day. The paperwork travels further than we do. We will just go to China and back once.  I am hoping our paperwork will be in China by the end of July. That would be wonderful.

We went and got fingerprinted through USCIS on Thursday. Once they run the prints and find out we are not international child trafficking criminals, they will send us the 797 approval. Prayers that this would happen fast would be appreciated. The courier for the Chinese consulate is closed the week of july 4th. It would be wonderful to have it done before that- but that is pushing it.

I have also spent over $300 at my friendly UPS store in shipping (today the total was $148 to get those papers to houston and back!), $350 toward fees for sealing, and $150 to the courier for her fees. The shipping/sealing/courier fees for the 797 should be another $300, I think. Then another $100 or so for all of it to ship to Atlanta. We will also be writing a big check to Chinese government for our dossier fee, and our second set of agency fees are also due at that time.  The garage sale made us slightly more than half of what we need for all that- so have I mentioned the wonderful Tshirts we have???? A twenty dollar donation will get you one, including shipping! If you want more than one, I might can work out a deal.We have women's fitted in the pink in med and large (they are pretty much true to size- I can wear a medium), and we have unisex blue in med, large, and xl.

Also my friend Brandi is doing a yard sale for funds for her adoption next saturday- so if you have stuff to donate, let me know and I will get it to her!!!!  She will be traveling to China in 7-9 weeks to pick up their son.

Life Update

I wanted to update on what we have been doing lately outside of the adoption. As much as we live and breathe the adoption, other things happen in our lives too! Noah graduated from PreK. We went blackberry picking. We have had our bible study group, a trip to the ER for Aiden in the middle of the night, and cleaned out the garage. I have baby tomatoes, baby green peppers, and a baby eggplant so far in my garden. I am also working 2 jobs this summer. I thought I had the semester off from my clinical faculty job- but they needed me to pick up two students- so I did. (I won't mention where that money is going, since this is not a blog post about That for once!)  So enjoy some picks.

How the Paperwork travels

I wanted to talk about the paperwork involved in the dossier and where it goes. Now do not ask me why- the answer is "because the agency and the chinese government said so." They get the final say, so we do what they tell us!!

The dossier will contain 13 documents.
1. Adoption Petition
2 & 3. Birth certificates for scott and I
4. Marriage certificate
5 & 6 employment verifications for both of us
7. Financial statement
8 & 9 Physical exams for scott and I
10 & 11 Police clearance reports for scott and I
12 the homestudy
13 the I-797 this is the approval form from US Immigration!!

Each document has to be notarized (except the marriage and birth certificates), Certified by the county clerk AND the secretary of state, and authenticated at the Chinese consulate (we will use the one in houston).

So right now documents 1-11 have been notarized and certified by the county clerk. #12 is on the way to the county clerk for certification- it should be back to me thursday. Then 1-12 will be sent to the secretary of state, then when they come back they will be sent to the houston chinese consulate. Oh, I forgot to mention that you cannot actually mail documents to the houston chinese consulate- they only allow walk-ins. We have to hire a courier to walk the documents in and then mail them back to us. Then 1-12 will be sent to our agency to review and double check. When we get #13, we will fly it through the whole process (lots of overnighting in our future) and send it to our agency, then they bind the documents, add our pictures and a few other requirements, like copies of our passports, and send the whole thing to china. That is called the DTC date. (dossier to china). China then will enter us into the computer (Log In Date or LID). We want to be LID before our anniversary on 8-30. If immigration hurries, it will happen. If they take the full 90 days, it won't.

I made friends with the girl at the UPS store today. I will be seeing her alot the next few weeks, and probably should just sign over my next paycheck to them. It was 54 dollars to send the homestudy to altanta and back (plus the 2 bucks they charge to certify the document) and then I will mail 1-12 to the secretary of state in atlanta- but I'm guessing that will be closer to $75 since it weighs more. The secretary of state charges 10 bucks a document for their fee. The courier will be several hundred, and the chinese embassy charges $20 per document and a $5 handling fee. We will owe our second agency fees (about 3400), and a check for 1150 goes with the dossier to china for their fee. If anyone wants to sponsor any step in this process- just let me know ;) 

The entire adoption process is so hurry up and wait. Now we are hurrying to get the documents we have through the process, then we wait for the I-797, then hurry again to be DTC then wait.

The paperwork will travel further than we will when we go to china, bc it has to go to atlanta and houston first!!!!