Sunday, June 15, 2008

Dossier has passed the critical review, undergoing translation!


We received word late last week that our dossier is entirely in order! It has been submitted for translation and will soon be on its way to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA), the Chinese government agency that oversees adoptions. Once it is logged in at CCAA, our wait begins for a "match" with a child...the wait could be anywhere from just a month or two, up to nearly a year... I am personally hoping for a short wait for our match!! Once we are matched with a child, we wait another 3-6 months until we are able to travel.

The waiting is still a struggle, but it's a chance to learn to rest on God's sovereignty and trust His timing.

In the meantime, we celebrated Anna's 8th birthday this week!! She had a pool party here at the house for a few friends, and we had a fabulous time. I can't believe she is 8 years old already! We also bought hiking shoes for Jared last night since he leaves next weekend for a week at Boy Scout summer camp. Not only can I not believe that he will be away from us for a whole week at a camp in Georgia learning to shoot a rifle, drive a motorboat, ride a horse, and live in the mountains, but--get this--his shoe size is only a size and a half smaller that Tom's!! Yikes! When did this happen??
Thanks for the comments some of you have left for us...always fun to hear from friends!

Happy Father's Day to any dads who are reading!

Enjoy the photos! There are some from the last day of school, the black and white of Jared is his 5th grade portrait (isn't he handsome?) and some are from Anna's birthday.














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Why Adoption? Why China?

I'm sure that many of you, when you learned that Tom and I were pursuing adoption of a little girl from China, wondered "why?!" We may have taken some of you by surprise, and we thought it might be nice to share some of our thinking about this journey we are undertaking.

Adoption is something that, even from the earliest years of our marriage, we talked about as "maybe someday." The idea of adoption is appealing to us for many reasons. As Christians, we are adopted by God as his children through faith in Jesus. Adoption allows us to provide a child with the needed love, warmth, and financial resources we have been blessed with as a family. Finally, adoption allows us to add to our family at a time when our biological children are old enough to be more self-sufficient, and we are in a position financially to be able to welcome a child into our family in this way. What we hope to gain is an additional family member to love and learn from, and an opportunity to share the joy and love of our family.

We recognize that an adoption will bring unique parenting challenges to our family--especially since we are considering a child with special needs--and it is likely to put unique stresses on our family in a variety of ways. We are grateful for Tom's medical knowledge and for the great medical coverage we get through Tom's Air Force career, and we look forward to providing a forever family for a child whose medical needs might make it more difficult for another family to take on.

Finally, why China? My love for China, the Chinese language, and the Chinese people made China the natural choice. It was never really even a consideration whether to go with a domestic adoption or international; China was simply the natural choice that we immediately pursued, especially since there are so many children in China that need a forever family.

Chinese Word of the Day

The Time in China

When Love Takes You In

Our Adoption Timeline

  • Travel Dates--11-26 March
  • Swearing In Ceremony at Consulate--25 March (Lilly's 3rd Birthday!)
  • Consulate Appointment (CA)--24 March
  • Travel Approval (TA)--19 February 2009
  • Received Letter of Approval (LOA)--22 January 2009
  • Received Pre-Approval (PA)--25 November
  • Submitted Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt An Xiao Xue, soon to be named Lillian Joy Xiao Xue, 1 November (logged in at CCAA 21 November)
  • Referral Call from CCAI asking us to consider An Xiao Xue's profile--31 October
  • Dossier Log-in-Date (LID) 3 July 2008
  • Dossier to China (DTC)--June 27 2008
  • Dossier Submitted to CCAI--June 2008
  • Fingerprinted at USCIS Jacksonville--April 2008
  • Application Approval ("We're Pregnant!") January 2008
  • Submitted Adoption Application and 3 References--December 2007
  • Requested Application from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) --November 2007
  • Decided to Investigate Agencies--October 2007