It's Official: We're Paper Pregnant!

We have our official Log-In-Date (LID)! This is wonderful news. It's the date China will use to match us with B.S. #3.

Our LID is October 9, 2007!

If the current estimates of 24 months pan out, we should be traveling in early December of 2009.

If the (more likely) speculation pans out (a 36 month wait), we should be traveling near the end of 2010. Yeah, it's a little later than we'd like, putting five years of distance (well, maybe 4 1/2) between Marcie and B.S. #3, but anything can happen.

And if the wait looks like it'll stretch longer than three years . . . well, I'd prefer not to contemplate that possibility. But being a worst-case-scenario planner, I realize that we may get antsy waiting and take alternative action in the mean time (translation: adopt another child while we wait for B.S. #3, who I suppose would become B.S. #4 at that point-- though, technically, if we label our kids in order of when we started the process, B.S. #3 will always be B.S. #3 even if he or she arrives fourth. But I digress).

So Other Grandma (the name my kids have given my mom) is in town this weekend, and Jason and I are off to Autumn in Vegas for a couple nights. Looks like we have something to celebrate (other than the new job, I mean).

The kids will keep O.G. (Other Grandma) busy-- yesterday they sliced up the pumpkin and cooked it like squash and mashed it. I think they plan to make a real pumpkin pie from scratch tonight (aren't grandmas great?!?). And tomorrow they're going to the annual fire station open house (after music and sports classes, of course).

B.S. # 3- Dossier Delivered

We just received word from our agency that our dossier was hand-delivered today to the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs). Though it's in their hands, they have not officially logged it in yet. It's that LID date that's magic! We'll keep you posted. . .

BS # 3-- DTC (Date to China)

Woo Hoo! We received an e-mail this morning. Our completed dossier was mailed to China yesterday. That means our DTC, or date-to-China is October 4, 2007.

China used to match families based on the date their paperwork was mailed, not the date it was received, which is why the DTC matters. Now China matches families to babies (or vice versa) based on the date the dossier was received, or logged in (this is the LID). There is some theory that on occasion, when China doesn't get all the way through a particular date, or if that were to happen, they would honor the DTC. That means that if my paperwork was sent October 4th, but China didn't log it in until October 20th for some reason, theoretically we should get matched before someone who mailed their paperwork October 10th with the same LID of October 20th. Not sure that's accurate. Anymore at least.

We should know our DTC within the next 8 weeks. That doesn't mean our LID will be some time in December; it just means that we'll know what our LID is by early December.

To further complicate things, China has an enormous Trade Fair in October, and the CCAA shuts down for a while (maybe a week?) during it. They were closed this week (October 1-5, 2007). Our paperwork won't arrive for a few days (it usually takes about 4 days), so it may not impact us.

In any event, once we have our LID, we'll officially be paper pregnant for B.S. #3.

Still, a DTC is something to celebrate!

B.S. #3-- On to Translation

We made it through our adoption agency's critical review. I was a little nervous because we're supposed to send 8 family life photos of both Jason and me with other people doing stuff. Truth be told, we're actually pretty active, but one of us is usually taking the photos! So we had several photos of both of us with Marcie, and several of us just the two of us. Even one or two of our whole family. But not many "outsiders" this time. Guess it was fine.

So now our dossier moves into translation, which is when our agency provides translated summaries of all the major information before binding everything together to send it to China, where it's hand-delivered to CCAA (the China Center for Adoption Affairs). CCAI (our agency) estimates it will send out our dossier within a week. That will be our DTC (date to China).

We'll definitely update you all again when there's more news to share!

B.S. # 3 Now Entering Critical Review

I just got an e-mail from CCAI (our adoption agency):

Congratulations! Your dossier has arrived at our office!

So that means we have moved on to the (hopefully) final stages of our dossier review process before mailing everything to China! Critical Review, where our paperwork is reviewed multiple times, translated, and bound, usually takes 9-11 days.

We'll keep you posted!

One Step Closer to BS #3

Our dossier, along with our final agency payment, our photos, and a photocopy of all the documentation, is going in the mail tomorrow. It's set to arrive at our agency Monday morning.

I remember feeling no anxiety about this stage of it all last time. For some reason, though, this time I feel some pangs of anxiety. Last time, the wait was only 6 months long. So if something needed to be fixed or redone, the one- or two-week delay was no big deal. This time, four days could mean the difference between a 24 month wait and a 25 month wait. So mistakes are a very big deal.

Theoretically, our dossier should be reviewed and off to China by the beginning of the second week in October. That is, of course, barring any mistakes or problems with our paperwork. The date it's mailed is called our DTC (Date To China). Then we'll hear from China, who will verify they received our documentation, with a LID (Log In Date). That date is our official place in line. We aren't out of the woods, though. A year or so from now (maybe much longer, maybe much shorter), the Review Room in China will comb through our documentation to make sure everything looks good and they don't have any questions.

Still, once we have our LID, we'll officially be paper pregnant, and our insanely long wait will finally begin. I know our child will be well worth wait. But I also know I'm incredibly impatient about these things, and the wait will be hard.

One step at a time, though. So let's just get our paperwork off to China first, shall we?

Wow! Already?

In the adoption world-- both domestic and international, from my experience-- there is a lot of hurrying up and waiting. You pay the rush fees because, with China referring only a handful of days' worth of matches each month, a week-- or even a day-- can make a big difference.

I wrote last week that we over-nighted everything to Red Tape Solution to courier our dossier documents through the Los Angeles Consulate. We know she received our stuff on Friday morning before 10am, because we are signed up for handy-dandy Fed Ex notifications when our stuff arrives. We paid the extra charges to have our paperwork "rushed," which means returned the next business day. We were hoping that meant we'd see our documents this Thursday or Friday. But, thanks to that same hand-dandy Fed Ex notification system, we know that something is in the mail to us from Red Tape Solution, and it's due to arrive before 10am tomorrow.

Our guess? Our dossier documents have all been authenticated!

That puts the ball back in our court. We'd planned to get our passport photos and pick out our family photos this week-- figuring whatever additional pictures we needed to take, we'd be able to do so all week long. But if our documents will be here tomorrow, well, we'd better hurry up to get it all ready to send to CCAI so we can wait for it to make its way through critical review and translation (then off it all goes to China)!

This is terrific news. And what great motivation to shuffle through all the photos we took today at Disneyland today to see if they meet any of our needs (Disneyland is a story for another post)!

Dossier Compilation Continues

So it's 10:34pm, and I just walked in the door. I left home around 9:15pm to make photocopies, after spending around 45 minutes to an hour preparing paperwork for our final step-- authentication by the Chinese Consular General in Los Angeles.

Our agency, CCAI, now offers a dossier certification/authentication service. Basically, you send them all the paperwork once you've gathered it and they notarize it, get it certified by the County Clerk and the Secretary of State, then get it authenticated by the Chinese Consulate. I don't know if it includes "rush" or "walk-in" service (though I imagine it does just because of the volume of clients they have). It's $1200, and though they claimed they don't recoup any cost, I was skeptical. Well, I am a skeptic no more. When all is said and done, all the notarizing, certifying, and authenticating-- not to mention shipment costs-- will have cost us somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000 anyway. And that means we saved around $200 doing it ourselves. You have to ask yourself if the time you spend collecting signatures is worth $200. I know, for me, it probably wasn't. Just the number of hours I spent-- around 4 or 5-- collecting the signatures and making copies probably wasn't worth $200 in the end. But, of course, how could I have known that? Plus, this allowed me to retain control over the process, something I would have had to let go of had I let CCAI take care of the documentation for me. Long story short, it's probably worth the $1200 in the end.

Oddly, although I now have sent all our documents off to a courier that specializes in getting documents authenticated, I feel more anxious instead of less worried. Last time, I mailed it all to the Consulate myself, and it took about a month to get it all back. This time, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it can be taken care of in a week by using Red Tape Solution (the courier). But the thought of turning over all that personal information to someone to walk it through the consulate makes me awfully nervous. Of course, that's what the big agencies do with it-- they send it to a courier, too. But still. It's birth certificates and passport photos and financial information and criminal clearances-- all the makings for stealing a person's identity. And now that I've thought that through a bit more, I have to stop writing about this because it makes me even more anxious. . .

Anyway, the FedEx package is scheduled for pick up at 4:30pm and guaranteed arrival in its destination (a mere hour and a half away by car, mind you) by 10:00am the next morning.

So please keep your fingers crossed and send your good vibes our way that the courier will get the package, deliver it to the Los Angeles P.R. China Consulate, get the stuff back authenticated, and return it to us without a hitch. And without borrowing our personal information . . .

Setback

I hope it's a tiny, tiny setback. But a setback it is nonetheless. I found what I thought was an error in our homestudy, so it didn't make it to USCIS last week. Which means nothing was notarized or certified or authenticated. It means nothing was sent in the mail to the Chinese Consulate. It means we're still waiting.

It turned out there was an error in the homestudy describing the "child we desire," but it wasn't critical because China looks at our Adoption Petition for that information and not the homestudy at all.

We still asked that it be updated. And, hopefully, we'll be following the previously described process next week instead. Hopefully.

What's the big deal of one week? Well, consider that China just made referrals for four days' worth of paperwork this month. The week-delay could, quite literally, cost us several months in the end. That is to say, we may end up waiting even longer because of it.

It's all part of the process, we realize. But it's still a bummer.

B.S. # 3 Update

So I haven't written about Baby S. # 3 in a while-- maybe since before I sat for the bar exam. I have actually been updating a timeline post regularly, but I haven't added it to the site yet; I'll do that later this weekend.

Anyway, long story short, we didn't forget about the paperwork. In fact, I just picked up our finalized homestudy. Tuesday I'll walk it into our local USCIS office and hopefully I'll walk out of the office with our I-171H in-hand.

What's next after that?

• Well, then I will take all the documents I've collected since May, and those that are not already certified (like birth certificates or marriage certificates) will get notarized.
• I'll take all the notarized copies to our County Clerk's office. The Registrar there will certify that the notary signatures on our forms are legitimate.
• Then I'll take all the certified documents to our Secretary of State. Luckily we have a branch right here. The Secretary of State will certify that the County Registrar's certification is legitimate.
• Next, I'll mail all the doubly-certified documents (plus a copy of each) to the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles, where the Chinese Consul will authenticate the California Secretary of State signature.
• Then, I'll make copies of all the doubly-certified and authenticated documents, along with the photographs we need to supply, and mail them to our agency, which will run a critical review of everything to make sure we have it all.
• The agency will translate the documents into Chinese and send them off to China (our DTC, or date to China).
• China will verify they've received our file by assigning us our LID, or log-in date. This is the date that will be used to determine where we fall "in line" for our next child.

And then the long wait begins.

I don't know how long it will take to get our documents back from the Chinese Consulate. I think it took us about 20 days last time. If that's the case, and everything goes smoothly with the certifying and authenticating (it did not with Marcie), and if there are no problems when our documents go through critical review, our paperwork should land in China some time in late October or early November.

It's still a little surreal, thinking about B.S. #3. I don't quite feel like the ground has settled from B.S. #2 yet. I mean, Marcie's still not even sleeping through the night (a topic of another post)! But I have no doubt that by the time our referral finally makes it to America that we will be more than ready. Dare I say downright antsy.

B.S. #3 The Paperchase & FAQs

So we have decided to pursue an adoption from China again. For B.S. #3 (That's Baby S. #3, although really Casey and Marcie aren't so much babies anymore). I was obsessing about it a while back, in May. And then I got sidetracked studying. Well, not really. Adoption's been on my mind-- I just haven't had much time to write about it. But now is the time I answer your burning questions:

1. Why China?
We kicked it around quite a bit back in May, as you know if you read regularly. I really struggled with it. I felt kind of strongly that I wanted to return to Asia because I want to be able to maintain some sort of connection to my children's roots. We already have two continents covered, and adding a third seemed a bit daunting to me (though truth be told, if things don't work out with China for us, we'll be making a bee-line to Ethiopia!).

Here's what it came down to for us. I did a boatload of research on Taiwan adoptions. They are private adoptions. We'd hire a US agency to coordinate with a nursery in Taiwan. We did select an agency-- the one agency we received so much positive feedback about, I felt very comfortable with them. I received a lot of unsolicited recommendations, and that's always a good sign. Their Taiwan program coordinator was amazingly patient, personable, and responsive. If you're contemplating Taiwan, you might look into FCA. They work with Cathwel in Taiwan. The thing is that the wait was going to be 18 months (average) until match-- and stretching. Plus another 6 months or so while the paperwork moved through the courts. And that's in addition to the homestudy. So basically we're looking at about 2 years from time of turning in paperwork. I was okay with the wait (there are several other agencies that have shorter waits, but many are new or I got very mixed reviews or they were terrible at follow-up). But then I started thinking-- if we're going to wait 2 years anyway, why not go back to China? With an agency I love, love, love? Plus, Taiwan was looking like it was going to cost substantially more (I estimated in the $10,000 range more), and with that extra money, we could bring the kids with us to China-- which might be nice (depending on their ages and temperaments at the time we travel). Given the risks involved in the Taiwan adoptions, the length of the wait, the additional costs, and the unknowns, we opted for China again.

2. What about the new restrictions? Do you qualify?
Yeah. We qualify. If something weird happens when we're in the review room, we'll have a valid international homestudy, we'll eat the agency cost, and we'll head for Ethiopia. Seriously.

3. Who are you using for the adoption?
We've returned to CCAI as our agency and Adoption Options as our homestudy agency. One of the reasons I was leaning against a California-based Taiwan agency is because they didn't work with Adoption Options, and I have had such a positive experience with them that I just didn't want to start a whole new homestudy process. Returning to agencies that have worked with us means they have a lot of our information and paperwork on file already, which makes our lives a lot easier.

4. Why now? Don't you think you should wait until after the Bar Exam?
Actually, making a decision is a huge relief. And perhaps we should wait until after July to start the paperwork, but with estimates placing the wait for a child from China estimated to stretch to 3 years, we know that getting paperwork done sooner rather than later makes sense. So we're taking it slowly, step by step, piece by piece. And when all the paperwork is together, we'll mail it in.

5. When do you think you'll be finished with "the paperchase"? What is the "paperchase" anyway?
Paperchasing is adoption lingo for gathering all the paperwork you need in your dossier. The dossier is the document that gets translated and sent to the China Center for Adoption Affairs, where they comb through your information and approve you as a prospective adoptive family. It includes birth certificates, marriage certificate, criminal clearance letters, proof of employment, proof of medical insurance, medial reports, a homestudy (which has a whole additional host of documents), a financial statement, and an adoption petition-- that's the brunt of it. To complete the dossier, though, not only do we have to collect all the right forms, but the forms have to go through a series of notarizations, certifications, and authentications to prove we haven't forged them or obtained them fraudulently. In addition to these documents, the homestudy is sent to USCIS (US Center for Immigration Services? I have no idea what it stands for; I'm totally making it up)-- anyway, they review the homestudy to approve us to bring home an orphan from a foreign country and they essentially pre-approve a visa for the child. This form/permission is the coveted 1-171H. And once that's in your hands, you can send everything off for certifications and authentications.

We are hoping to have our homestudy finished in August. We are hoping to have our paperwork all completed in September for shipment to our agency in October. Some of that will depend on whether we do all the notarizing, certifying, and authenticating ourselves, or if we have our agency do it for us. This process involves getting each document notarized. Then having our County Clerk certify the notary signature. Then having the Secretary of State in the local office certify the County Clerk signature (which is certifying the notary signature). Then we send all of that to the appropriate Chinese Consulate, which authenticates the Secretary of State signature (which is certifying the county clerk signature, which is certifying the notary signature). As you might imagine, that's rather time consuming.

6. Do you want a boy or a girl?
Yes. We want a boy or a girl. Or maybe we'll be brave and even request twins (which we'd never get, seeing as how we already have two kiddos). We go back and forth on this. We may request a boy. But even if we do, we'll make it clear we would be happy with a girl, too. We did not request a gender last time; we just requested a child "as young as possible." In the end, gender just isn't that important to us. On the one hand, I'd love to have another boy. On the other hand, I'd love to have another girl. Especially because Marcie is the only girl out of 7 grandkids. (Anyone else in the H. or S. families want to work on that for us? You know, ensure Marcie have a female playmate. . . we'd be cool with that!)

7. How old will the baby be?
We don't know. We qualify for a child ages 0-12 months old. And so that's what we will request.

8. Will the baby be from the same orphanage as Marcie?
Again, we don't know. We will be requesting a child from Yunyang Chengxiang Social Welfare Institute, which is where Marcie is from. We will be requesting a child from Chongqing Municipality, also where Marcie is from. We don't mind getting a child from anywhere in China, though. Going somewhere new would be a nice adventure. Returning to Chongqing would be nice, too-- we'd know what to expect, and it makes "returning to roots" much easier. But we're not that picky. We'll request these things, but I'm confident we'll end up with the child who is meant to be ours, no matter what part of China the child is from.

9. When will you meet the baby?
As I explained before, we're expecting the wait to stretch to two or three years. That puts us in China some time in 2010 or 2011. That's still awfully far away, which is why we're starting the process now. Marcie will be at least 5 by then. Casey will be 8. That's a bigger age spread than I'd ever planned. On the other hand, Jason will be home full time by then, and it's just more time to pay off debts and put away money. With five of us in our home, we'll be considering a home addition by the time 2011 rolls around, I think. If we can afford it. (Ah, to dream!)

10. Will this be "it"?
I don't know. We always planned to have at least three children. I can't say we'll close our hearts to additional family members after that. I can't say we'll seek another adoption actively, either. Let's see how things go with BS #3 and we can move forward from there.

11. What's your timeline so far?
I am keeping track of a timeline, which I'll be adding to the right margin eventually. Like I said, we're on schedule for now!

Have a question I didn't answer? E-mail me and I'll give you a response!

B.S. #3-- Timeline

4/07 Lots of research on Taiwan adoption

5/08/07 Selected potential Taiwan agency

5/10/07 Contacted CCAI about new China requirements (we qualify)

5/14/07 Received CCAI application

5/15/07 Submitted CCAI appliction (mailed it) (fee waived for second-time adoption!)

5/15/07 Contacted Adoption Options, our homestudy agency

5/15/07 Received Financial Statement/Verification of 90-day average bank account balances from our bank


5/17/07 Received homestudy application paperwork and filled it out. (Fee waived for second-time adoption!)

5/18/07 Delivered homestudy application and 2 photos of each of us to our homestudy agency (Adoption Options). Paid first homestudy fee.

5/21/07 Received homestudy packet/information.

5/22/07 Application officially accepted by CCAI. Received medical risk document and fee payment schedule to get notarized and to return.

5/24/07 Jason's first physical appointment

5/25/07 Request for criminal clearance letters at the County Sheriff

5/25/07 Notarized CCAI agreement and risk statement

5/25/07 Mailed CCAI agreement, risk statement, and first fee

5/25/07 Mailed I600A with fee for processing and fingerprinting

5/27/07 Asked two friends to write letters of reference

5/27/07 Asked future (potential) guardians to write letter of guardianship

5/30/07 Received Fingerprint referral notices for week of June 4th

6/1/07 Received criminal clearances in the mail

6/3/07 Requested letter of recommendation from preschool teachers

6/3/07 Requested letters of reference from two more friends

6/5/07 Karen's DOJ fingerprints

6/6/07 Karen's USCIS fingerprints

6/20/07 Jason's USCIS fingerprints

6/20/07 Jason's lab work for medical exam

6/21/07 Mailed agency documentation to home study agency

6/26/07 phone call from Jason's doctor letting us know his lab results are in (yeah!)

6/26/07 Karen orders birth certificates from New Jersey via vital chek

6/28/07 Karen's physical exam

6/28/07 Paperwork to pediatrician for the kids

6/29/07 Karen's blood work and TB test

6/29/07 Jason's DOJ fingerprinting

7/1/07 in-home visit w/ social worker

7/2/07 Karen's additional blood work (b/c first set didn't include Hep B results)

7/25/07 Mailed request for certification of Karen's birth certificate to State of New Jersey

7/27/07 Casey's TB test

7/30/07 Casey medical form completed

7/30/07 Received Karen's birth certificate from NJ

7/31/07 Kare's medical form completed

8/1/07 Jason attempts to get missing labwork completed, but lab closes early

8/1/07 Received medical insurance verification

8/1/07 Marcie's medical form completed

8/1/07 Karen & Jason request employment verification

8/1/07 Mailed all documentation and photos to homestudy agency

8/22/07 Mailed Jason's employment verification and final payment, post placement fees, and post placement deposits to homestudy agency

8/29/07 Homestudy draft sent to CCAI for review

8/30/07 Homestudy draft given the green light for finalization

9/11/07 Walked in the homestudy to USCIS and received our I-171H in return!

9/12/07 Notarized all adoption documents

9/12/07 Certified all adoption documents with County Clerk

9/12/07 Certified all adoption documents with Secretary of State

9/13/07 Overnighted dossier documents to Red Tape Solution, courier service to deliver paperwork to Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles

9/14/07 Chinese Consulate authenticated all our documents

9/18/07 Received authenticated documents

9/19/07 Karen's passport photos for dossier; selected Family Life and Couple photos for dossier

9/20/07 Jason's passport photos for dossier; printed photos; completed photocopies to Fed Ex dossier to CCAI

9/21/07 Dossier packet mailed to CCAI via Fed Ex

9/24/07 Confirmation of dossier received by CCAI-- dossier enters critical review

10/1/07 Out of critical review! On to translation. Should be mailed within a week.