Adoption is a long, emotional road. If you’ve checked our Adoption Timeline then you kind of know where we are in the process, but maybe not exactly where we go from here.
The Paper Chase
This week we had our Biometrics (fingerprints) taken at the local USCIS (immigration) application center. It was a very quick, easy process that we had applied for 6 weeks prior. Now we wait to be assigned an “officer” who will review our application and fingerprints and, hopefully, quickly approve us to bring a baby into the United States. This whole process will probably take another 3-4 weeks (if we’re lucky).
When we receive the approval letter, we will need to copy it…have it notarized…take it to the TX Sec of State’s office for certification…send it to a courier in Washington, D.C. who will take it to the US Sec of State Dept to be certified and then to the Chinese Embassy to be authenticated before sending it back to us. (Hopefully we can accomplish all of that before the beginning of Feb and Chinese New Year!)
Then we send that ONE piece of paper to our agency in Colorado to complete our dossier and the portion of the process called “The Paper Chase.”
Our dossier is a pile of paperwork that we have been compiling since July 2012, when we officially started on the road to Chinese adoption. Once the agency has ALL of our paperwork, they will make sure it’s right (cross your fingers and toes). If everything’s ok, they will have it translated and bound and send it to China. Then we will be “Logged In” and they will give us the date that they received it. We will then have an LID.
LID or Log In Date
This LID is a big deal because certain children are only allowed to be matched with families who already have an LID. This will (hopefully) give us an advantage to be matched quicker and with a younger child.
Once we are “matched” with a baby (our agency estimates 0-6 months to be “matched”), then it will be 4-6 months of more waiting and more paperwork before we will travel to China for 2 weeks to go get her!
I promise to keep you posted and let you know what’s going on next! Hopefully we’ll know who she is and have pics sooner than later!
