good news!

This is the email I got from Dawn today:

Hi Allison, your dossier is now complete and on it’s way to our coordinator for translation. Yeah! I would expect it to be in China in a week or two, then logged in about a month later. So you may have a log in date sometime in March.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Now the long wait begins. We will stay in touch and keep you informed of any changes.

Do you know what that means? We are one step closer! I am so excited. I feel like we have finally accomplished something. All of our documents have been given the stamp of approval from the US government. June will translate them into Chinese and then send them to her mother Shulan (not sure of the spelling) who lives in China. Shulan will then hand deliver them to the CCAA. Once the CCAA "receives" them they will give us a log in date (LID) and then the wait begins...16 months right now. So, if we have an LID sometime in March that means we can expect to see our sweet baby girl's face in July 2008...and bring her home in September. WOW!

I think I have said this before, but this coming Spring and Summer there may be a decrease in the wait time. We are praying that is the case. The only way we can find out is by the families who are currently waiting and close to receiving their referral. The families who received their referral two weeks ago waited 16 months, so that is how we are given our wait time.

The next things we will be told is our LID, I will be sure to let you know as soon as I do so we can all start the countdown!

It's here!

The very last paper in the paperchase portion has arrived! We have been approved by the USCIS to adopt a child from China. Tomorrow I will go sign the final paperwork before it is sent off to be authenticated. I am going to repeat myself, but authentication takes about 4 weeks and translation takes about 2 weeks. So, we are hoping to get our dossier to China (DTC) in the last week of February. Please pray that everything continues to go smoothly.

CNN

Tonight on CNN with Paula Zahn (8pm EST) there is a segment about Chinese adoption. This segement is in response to another segment that ran last Friday where a panel of "experts" reported that people who adopt from China are simply looking for an intelligent child.

Here is an exerpt from the transcript. It is in response to the question "What's the big deal with Chinese children? What's the infatuation?"

MARTIN: Maybe they think they can adopt a smart kid that is going to grow up to be a doctor? I don't know. They need to realize that's called training, not just inherent, it will happen when they're born. Angel, help me out.
MALDONADO: Absolutely. This is something I've been looking into for a long time. Americans have this love affair with girls from China. There is this belief, this perception, irrational as it might be that if you adopt a little girl from China, she's going to be intelligent, she's going to be more lovable.
MARTIN: Like the porcelain doll.

Well, needless to say the International Adoption Community went nuts. Thousands of people sent emails and letters so CNN decided to have another discussion tonight. This time the panel will have adoptive parents and representatives from adoption agencies. This will probably not interest most of you, but since we are all involved with international adoption from this point forward I thought you might want to know what some people say about it.

baby steps (no pun intended)

So I got word from Dawn today that our USCIS form is being approved. We should get the clearance we have been waiting for sometime next week. That means it will have only taken 5 weeks! We were told it would take 7 weeks, praise the Lord.

blessing or curse?

I'm talking about the internet. Isn't it nice to have access to SO much information? I mean without the internet I could not see pictures of my friends halfway across the country on a daily basis and you could not see what is happening in my life. However, in terms of the international adoption world sometimes ignorance is bliss, so the internet can be a curse. There are TONS of websites, blogs and email groups related to international adoption, China specifically. I can go online at any time of day or night and find out new information. It is a very slow time at work right now, so my internet use is up. Lately the "rumor" is that wait times are up...again! When we applied, just last September, the wait had recently gone up from 12 months to 15 months, now it is looking more like 16 or 17 months. Friends, this is from the time our dossier gets to China, that doesn't count the 3 months we have spent gathering papers and the 3 months we will wait to get everything authenticated and translated. I guess I am saying this myself (and the rest of my family who wants my daughter here as much as I do!) when I say...NO MATTER HOW LONG THIS TAKES THERE WILL BE A CHILD AT THE END OF THIS JOURNEY!

I guess this would be a great time to share an old Chinese Proverb with you. It is one used very frequently by people adopting from China, and I think it is very fitting.

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,

regardless of time, place, or circumstance.

The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.