No news

We have not received any referrals as of yet.  I will be sure to let you know when we do!  I am pretty jumpy anytime the phone rings.  I keep telling myself that it could be months before we hear anything, but my heart is not listening to my brain! :P

For those who are curious, our “spot in line” with our adoption agency is based on the date we submitted our medical needs checklist, which was 1/26/14.  This checklist, much like it sounds, is a list of medical needs they tend to see in the children’s files.  I researched the needs on this list for several months before we filled out our application to adopt.  Many say the checklist feels “brutal” and I would have to agree.  It doesn’t feel right to check some needs and not others, but it is important that we be honest with what we feel our family can manage.  Our adoption agency will use this list to help guide them in their search for a child for us.  Of course, our number one guide in all of this is God. :)

The kids started back to school this week.  Caetlyn is in 8th grade, Rebecca is in 3rd grade and Nathan started kindergarten!

Surprise!

Yes, that’s our LID!  We are completely surprised to have it just 2 days after the CCCWA received our dossier! :)  The picture was Kevin’s idea.  I told him we needed to take a picture that would “say” LID and the date.  He is so literal! You’ve got to love his sense of humor!

What does this mean for us?  Most importantly, it means we are now eligible to review and/or lock files of LID-only children.  These tend to be the younger kiddos (the age range we have requested) with more minor and/or correctable special needs.  It also means it’s time to download the next packet from our adoption agency.  Guess I will get busy...

DTC, baby!!

We are DTC- dossier to China- as of yesterday!!  We are waiting to hear that our dossier has arrived in China, and then we will look forward to hearing that it has been logged in by the CCCWA.

It feels surreal to be at this point!

Critical review is done

We were notified that our dossier arrived at our adoption agency on 8/4 (yesterday).  Much to my surprise and delight, we received an email this evening to let us know that they are done reviewing our dossier, already, and it is in perfect order!!  They let us know that the summary translation will be done and it will be bound for China in a few days!  Can you believe it?!  I seriously cannot believe it!  We are almost DTC!!  I saw a few people mention that our adoption agency sends dossiers to China each Friday, so I guess I will be obsessively checking my email all day on Friday!

Did I mention I bought another item for Little Brother?  Yeah, I don’t even know how old he is going to be but I went ahead and bought him a little backpack.  I’d been eyeballing a certain backpack and it went on sale.  I’m thinking it would come in handy during our travels to bring him home.

Good thing VBS is keeping me busy this week!  Three hours in the preschool craft room everyday keeps my mind distracted to say the least!!

It’s complete

If you’ve been through or are currently going through an international adoption, you understand my excitement at seeing this in front of my house!

I made copies of that glorious, certified, authenticated I-800A approval copy (and took a few pics) before loading everything into the FedEx box and dropping it off.

In case you’re curious what went into our complete dossier:
~adoption petition (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~certified copy of Kevin’s birth certificate (certified, authenticated)
~certified copy of my birth certificate (certified, authenticated)
~certified copy of our marriage certificate (certified, authenticated)
~Kevin’s employment verification (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~my non-employment verification (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~financial statement (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~Kevin’s physical exam (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~my physical exam (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~Kevin’s police clearance (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~my police clearance (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~home study (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~photocopy of I-800A approval (notarized, certified, authenticated)
~complete set of photocopies of everything listed above
~3 couples photos
~8 family life photos
~3 extra passport photos of Kevin
~3 extra passport photos of me
~2 copies of Kevin’s passport photo/signature pages
~2 copies of my passport photo/signature pages

Included with all of this, was our second adoption agency fee and the CCCWA (China) fee.

*Before you ask why we had to certify our certified birth and marriage certificates (say that fast 3 times), “certified copy” is more of a notarization.  It still has to be state certified before the Chinese Consulate will authenticate it.

Our adoption agency should receive our dossier on Monday.  It will be checked in to ensure all necessary items are present.  Then it will undergo a critical review, being examined with a fine tooth comb 3 full times to look for any mistakes or errors.  Once they have ensured all is in perfect order, our dossier will be carefully bound with photos mounted, a summary translation will be completed (this is not a full translation as that is done in China), and it will be sent to China.  This critical review process will take 9-11 business days.

Counting the days out, I hope to hear good news from our agency between August 15th and August 19th.