Monday, June 9, 2008

Paper Chase is Nearly Complete!

Our authenticated documents returned from the Chinese consulate on Friday morning. The kids and I spent the first morning of their summer vacation at the post office, picking up the express mail package, making photocopies of each page of every document, compiling it all, writing a check, and re-packaging the whole stack to express mail to our agency. Whew! The paperwork should be in the hands of the "dossier divas" at CCAI this morning, where they will go through each document with a fine-tooth comb to make sure everything is done properly. When the critical review is complete, the dossier will be compiled and sent to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs and be logged in. Then the wait for our "match" or "referral" begins. It feels good to have the paperwork done and out of my hands!!

It also feels good to be on summer vacation with the kids. We had a swim meet this weekend, and we have soccer games starting up, so things are still somewhat busy, but the pace is so much nicer now! We have lots of cleaning, tidying, and organizing to do, and the kids will be spending time everyday working on handwriting practicing instruments, and doing Bible study in the morning with mom. I will also be spending time each day working on math with Anna as she struggled a little bit with the advanced math they challenged her with this year. Most of all, however, I look forward to time to just do fun things at home and about, enjoying time with Jared and Anna.
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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