Dossier Delivered!

I found out today that our dossier is now officially in China. Sitting on someone's desk I assume. Waiting to be logged into their system.  I've been told this could take up to 2 weeks. BUT....since they are just getting back from Chinese New Year then it could be a little longer.  I don't think so.  But I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Our agency gets Log In Date (LID) updates 1x a month.  So it could be a month from now before we hear when our LID is.  It would be great if we are already close to a month into the wait when we find out.

Still no pictures of the girls.  Praying we get something this week.

Check back soon....

DTC!!!!!!

It never fails.  As soon as I write something, after waiting days, then I get the answer.  :-)

This is an email we received last night....

Dear Debbie  & Bill -  Congratulations!  Your dossier is being sent to China Friday 1/ 27/2012   It was a pleasure working with you during the dossier phase of your adoption journey.   You  will continue working with  Cori  in the Waiting Child Department.  She will be in touch with you once we are notified of your Log In Date and will work with you now up until the travel phase regarding any questions/status about the waiting child paperwork process.  

I have truly enjoyed working with you. Yuo have an amazing family and am I so honored to have been a part of your journey to Chunwei & Fufang.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!  

CONGRATULATIONS!

WOO HOO!  It's done! This part of the paper work is D-O-N-E!  It feels so good.  3 1/2 months. That's it. That's all it took to get it done.  That's all it should take. Well actually it should take even less time (we waited 59 days for the last approval and that should have taken a few days max).  But anyway, it's done, it's going to China tomorrow.  So now we sit, and WAIT again.

We are now waiting for our LID (Log in Date).  Hopefully it will be quick.  Then we wait again.  We wait for the LOA (Letter of Acceptance/Approval).  This is China giving us the 100% OK to adopt Hope & Maggie.  Right now we have a PA (Pre-Approval).  Now they will go through our WHOLE dossier to make sure we are a good match.  This phase is taking about 2 1/2 months or so. My friend, who is adopting one of Hope & Maggie's orphanage sisters, just received her LOA after 72 days of waiting.  So, we're hopeful we'll get LOA in April.  

Then we wait for TA (Travel Approval).  I think that comes about 6-8 weeks after LOA.  BUT....I have not been following the trends on that so I'm not sure.  I will be keeping my eyes out watching other's status updates on that phase.  

If we get LOA in April, and TA 2 months later, we could be traveling in June. But we do think that we will be there in July at the latest.  We should be home before the 1st day of school.  That is my prayer.  I REALLY want to be here for Tiffs first day of her Senior year.  

We are very excited. The countdown is on. We are slowly getting the house ready for 2 more beauties.  

Please keep praying.  And keep checking back here.  There won't be much to update with the process.  BUT we are expecting new pictures of the girls soon. And I will post them here.

Thanks!  

No News is Good News, Right?

So, our agency has had the bulk of our dossier since the 13th. Almost 2 weeks. They received our final piece of paper 1 week ago. We were told they were going to go through our dossier and we will be DTC (dossier to China) on Friday Jan 27th.  Well, that was the last we've heard from them.  So I'm going to assume that our dossier is perfect and ready to fly to China on Friday!

It should be perfect, right? I mean this is the 4th time we've done this. We should be pros at this.  BUT, I still worry that I forgot to do something simple.  Forgot to include something that is needed.  There will always be the fear that something is wrong, until I hear the words "It's finished!"

So hopefully we'll hear that we are DTC in 2 days.  Oh how I can't wait. We've been counting down the days for this.  Honestly, this has moved very quickly.  On Saturday Jan 28th, it will be 4 months since we saw Hope & Maggie's photos on the website.  We started the process on Oct 8th.  3 1/2 months to finish a dossier.  Very fast.  Our other 3 adoptions took 6 months.

SO, we're praying we get a quick LID (Log in Date).  Then we wait for the LOA (letter of acceptance). This is China giving us the 100% approval to be Hope & Maggie's parents.  After LOA comes TA (Travel Approval.  We are confident that we should be traveling sometime in July or early August. Of course we would love to travel in May or June. So keep praying.  :-)

I will update once we know for sure that we are DTC.  And if we get updated pictures of the girls I will upload them here too. We are patiently waiting to see photos of them opening their Chinese New Year package.

So check back soon.

Gong Xi Fa Cai (Happy New Year)

Tallahassee was FAST!

Tallahassee received the copy of original 797C at 9:30 AM this morning.

At 4:30 PM I received an email from Fed Ex saying that a package has been picked up from Tallahassee and will be delivered to DC tomorrow by 10:30 AM.

That means Tallahassee certified our form THE SAME DAY they received it.  Prayers are answered.  It's looking very possible that we will be DTC in 2 weeks.  If Monday was not MLK Day and if Chinese New Year wasn't the following week, then we would have been DTC next week.  But we have to wait a week. It's okay.  Summer travel is looking more and more realistic now. 

Please continue to pray.  Anything could happen to slow down the process.  So far God has been moving things fast so I know He has a Great plan for us and for the girls. 

We are so happy right now and just excited to see and end to the paperchase. 

Thanks for following along.  More updates soon.

Whew! It's out of our hands now!

YAY!  Our 797C arrived in the mail today.  I've had TONS of anxiety waiting for this piece of paper to arrive.  It arrived at 1:20 PM and we were sending it off to Tallahassee by 2 PM.  The poor guy at the Fed Ex office.  We had 5 Fed Ex envelopes to buy and make sure they went to the right place, that the right forms were in the right envelope, and that everything was perfect.  I was stressed. Thankfully my down to earth, non-stressed hubby was there to make sure it was all perfect.

I'm also very thankful and excited that we are on this journey with our dear friends David and Melissa.  It's been fun doing the paperchase with them.  We are praying that we will be able to travel together too.  (pray for them as they wait to see who their new child is).

So now, we wait. And we pray. We pray that Tallahassee will be QUICK at certifying this ONE form. We pray that the Consulate is quick (we paid for 2 day service) and that everything will be done and at our agency by Wed Jan 25th so then it will all go to China on Friday Jan 27th.  This is our prayer. And our goal.

From there, travel could be 4-6 months. So we're looking at traveling this summer.

It feels good to have the paperwork behind us.  It took us 3 months to get to this point.  Not bad at all. A record for us.  The last 3 adoptions it took us 6 months to get here.  We are so thankful to those who have helped speed up the process. And we LOVE our adoption agency. They have been amazing.

Very excited to see this in the mail today

The form we've been waiting 64 days for (we were approved on day 59)

All of our paperwork on it's way.

I'm so happy we are doing this together with our friends Melissa & David.

CNY Package

We are so excited. We ordered a Chinese New Year package for Hope & Maggie. I just received photos of what is in the package. We used Gifts to China With Love. 

They will also be getting a cake.  That is being delivered from their province, so no pictures yet.  We are PRAYING we will get more pictures of the girls with their CNY package and cake. 

For now, here is what they will be receiving.  I hope they will be excited.

Hello Kitty Pillows & A camera for each

Snacks

More photos of our family

Letter & CNY card for Hope

Letter & CNY Card for Maggie

Letter & CNY card for director, nanny's & Teachers

CNY Cards

APPROVED!

Bill called USCIS today to check on the status of our 797C.  Guess what??

We are APPROVED!  We were approved on Friday Jan 6.  59 days! 

WOO HOO!  We are so excited. 

Next steps:
Receive approval in the mail (hopefully by Wed)
Fed Ex approval to Tallahassee to be Certified
Fed Ex Certified approval to DC to get Authenticated
Send Dossier to agency
Send Dossier to CHINA!  (DTC)

Hopefully all of it will be done in 2-3 weeks max.

From here, it will be 4-6 months before we are on the plane to China.  Looks like it will be the end of July when we travel (if all goes well). 

I would love to be home before school starts. 

We're almost finished!  It's been 3 months.  Pretty fast.  :-)

Day 60

Today, Jan 7th is day 60 of our wait for our 797C.  SIXTY DAYS!  I just think it's crazy to have to wait this long. That's 60 more days our girls have had to spend in the orphanage.  60 days we've had to wait to send our papers to China.  60 days of doing NOTHING but waiting. 

I am stalking a forum online where they keep track of families who update their status. And someone who had their papers logged into the system 2 days before us, were told they got their approval.  So, we are PRAYING we get word this week.  This is the LAST piece of paper that we need before we can send everything to China.  And once everything is logged in in China, we start the countdown to travel.  That will most likely be 6 months.  So, we're ready to send everything to China. 

Please just pray we can get word quickly.  We're tired of waiting.  :-)

Thanks!