| Our Monthly Adoption Update!! |
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| Phase I - The Paperchase!! August, 2002: Our conversations about adopting have definitely taken a more serious tone ... we're requesting agency information, and it looks like we will proceed! September, 2002: We submitted our application to Lifelink Adoption Services on September 18. We have decided to apply through the China program for an infant daughter. We have been told that, due to adoption quotas put into place by the Chinese government, our agency will not have a space to submit our dossier to China until February. Since it takes several months to pull the paperwork together and get all the approvals, that seems reasonable anyway. With a Feb 03 dossier to China, we would hope for a referral in March or April, 2004. The paperchase begins! October, 2002: Paperwork is coming together well, and we had our first in-depth interview in Moline with our agency. Filed our I-600A orphan petition with the INS. Working on IL Foster Home Licensing requirements, including fingerprinting for a DCFS check and gathering local/state police clearances. And ... yikes ... we now have a teenager in the house, as Drew turned 13 on October 6th! Won't our lives be fun in a couple of years when we have a preschooler, a grade schooler and a high schooler, all under one roof? Of course it will ... or we wouldn't have done it this way! :-) November, 2002: Celebrated our upcoming 20th wedding anniversary with a trip to Cancun. Even on vacation, this whole process was on my mind, as on our last night in Cancun (Nov 9) I had a dream that I was in labor, delivering a baby! Now that seems too early as a preminition of when our daughter is born with the current timeframes and the age child we "should" be referred, but it's one for the journal! Now it's back to reality ... more paperwork to chase, and a trip to Macomb for INS/FBI fingerprinting on Nov 11. We had our second round of homestudy interviews on Nov 26. There may be a very slim chance of getting our dossier off to China in Jan instead of Feb ... we'll try! Even if we get everything finished in time, the Chinese goverment offices close down for a couple of weeks late Jan/early Feb due to the Chinese New Year's holiday ... so our dossier may get there but still not be logged in until mid-February. December, 2002: Started the month with required physicals for the entire family. Had our individual homestudy interviews with our social worker on Dec 4, and she visited our home Dec 10. Now she has to write up the homestudy report for our dossier and the INS approval. We're still hopeful that we can get our paperwork submitted to China in January, but it will depend upon approval turn-around time from the INS, and the availability of a "spot" with our agency's January group. China has lifted quotas for married couples put in place a year ago, stating that they have reduced the backlog of dossiers and wait times should be shorter in 2003. While this is good news, we're trying hard to keep a reality check and not anticipate something we cannot control. Maybe I'd better write "I will NOT get my hopes up to have our daughter home by next Christmas" 100x on the blackboard? :-) We celebrated the holidays with the Scott family on Dec 21-22, and our 20th wedding anniversary on Dec 26. Happy Holidays!! January, 2003: This month we shift from chasing paperwork to moving the paperwork we have gathered through the various levels of govt approvals. Our dossier consists of 13 documents; 10 of which are in our hands and were certified by the IL Sec of State on Jan 3, and picked up at the Chinese Consulate Jan 10. Two remaining three docs are complete and picked up from the Chinese Consulate Jan 17. Received INS approval on Jan 16, so final docs were certified and authenticated and sent to the agency on Jan 23. Dossier was express mailed to China January 27th! We made it!! |
| We waited << 294 DAYS >> from dossier mailed to referral! |