Are you guys still adopting?

We get this a lot. Or how’s that adoption thing going? Or when are you two getting a kid?

This might give you a clue as to how long this process takes. To be fair, we did have a few adoption starts that didn’t exactly result in an adoption finish…but I like to think that, in our case, all long and winding roads lead to China!

So here is where we are now, aka-way more information than you ever wanted to know:

Home Study completed in Nov 2011.

Home Study report finally received in Jan 2012 (delayed due to our agency merging with another agency).

I800a form submitted to US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) in late Jan 2012 – This is an “Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a (Hague) Convention Country”.

Bio-scan (fingerprinting) appointment for USCIS in Feb 2012. This is our second bio-scan, the first, as part of our home study was for the DOJ.

Received our I800a approval in Mar 2012, which is important as you cannot submit a Dossier to China without this approval included.

While waiting for the I800a approval, we were frantically gathering all the documents required for our Dossier (which is a packet of documents required to be sent to China, or any other country, in order for one to adopt). All these documents, once completed in a very precise manner, have to be either certified or notarized, depending on the document.

Then, each certified/notarized document has to be authenticated by the State it was certified/notarized in, proving that the certifier or notary was legit. Theeeeeeen, each document has to be authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in that state, that they will accept that state’s authentication. All-righty then.

We used the courier services of a wonderful lady named Janice at www.redtapesolution.com who took our whole packet up to LA and had it authenticated by both the state and the Chinese Consulate. She was an absolute wealth of information and I can’t sing her praises enough!

So if you are still with me and aren’t bored silly yet……

Next step is DTC or Dossier To China. Our agency now has the whole packet and they send it to the CCCWA in China which is the China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption.

Once the CCCWA acknowledges receipt of our dossier, we get a LID or Log-In Date, which is really important because we are then available to receive a referral, in other words – be matched with our daughter!

Once we get the referral, the next step is receiving first a PA-Preliminary Approval which happens pretty quickly and then an LOA or Letter of Acceptance from the CCCWA approving our match, and this step can take anywhere between 1 to 3 months (and in some cases, 4 or 5 months).

The USCIS has to also approve the actual referral of our child, which is a second step of I800 process.

The Time Line on the left side of the blog shows these steps and I will fill in the dates, as I get them. I completely forget what the Article 5 is about, but it happens in China and has to happen before we are given our TA or Travel Authority, which gives us permission to book flights, hotels, etc. to get our daughter.

The Consulate appointment in China happens the day after we meet our daughter and at that appointment, she officially becomes part of our family!

That's enough about the process for now......thanks for hangin' in there!

Journaling....

I pretty much hate it. I procrastinate doing it. I don’t think I’m any good at it. I’d rather eat sand.

I can’t tell you how many cute little journals I’ve had over the years, with the first few pages penned in,  and then…nothing….nada….zip. A few years later and you will find those cute little journals, the first few pages torn out and shredded, in a box labeled Garage Sale.

So when I wanted to start a blog about our adoption journey, I had to do some self-convincing that I wasn’t crazy.

That I wouldn’t hate it.

That I wouldn’t procrastinate about writing posts (it has only taken me a whole month to write out the first post…hmmm, not the greatest start).

That, even if I wasn’t that good at it, at least I wouldn’t totally suck, and someone would be interested in reading it. (thanks Mom!)

And…I lied…I wouldn’t rather eat sand….well maybe just a few grains :)

I do want a way for family and friends to follow along with us and experience this road to our daughter. I want to document the journey, the miracles, the amazing moments, the sad moments and even the frustrations. I want our daughter to be able to read all these entries one day, and see how much we wanted her as our family, how much we loved her before we even knew her!

I had to convince myself that a blog isn’t REALLY online "journaling". It’s just like writing an email….or a super long text. And I can take up a lot of room with photos…..if I ever manage to take any.

So here goes…………..