Journey to Eva

One Year Anniversary

2008-09-29T10:05:00.003-05:00

We have officially passed the one year anniversary of being LID for Eva. The anniversary date is September 25th.

Unfortunately, I have no updates regarding time line. Through a rumor site, I did find out that the current attrition rate is about 30%.

Once we know more, I will update you.

One Year Forward, Two Years Back

2008-07-04T13:15:00.003-05:00

Posts on this blog and been few and far between. I apologize for that, although I am afraid it will likely get worse before it is better.

Chinese international adoptions are even more delayed than when we started the process of adopting Eva. Well meaning friends told me that my initial outlook of three years was unrealistic because they would never let the wait get that long. Well, we are a year into the process and the wait predictions have extended even further to four to five years. So, literally, we have one year down and we have extended the wait two years beyond my three year prediction.

The bottom line is that Eva's adoption is many years away yet. We have discussed and researched other options and, at least right now, they are not right for us.

We are using this extra time to focus on Jada and enjoy her early childhood. These early years seem to pass so quickly.

Thanks for your continued love and support through out this process. We are thankful that we have Jada to help make the time pass more quickly.

Home Study Update

2008-03-21T08:31:00.003-05:00

It's hard to believe, but a year has passed since we started the process to adopt Eva. That means, our paperwork is starting to expire already and needs to be redone. So, we are starting to update our home study, which we are required to do every year as we wait.

Step 1: Have fingerprints checked against FBI database. This step means that I have the dreaded rejected prints stigma to overcome.

I walked in the office, yesterday, with my head held high and explained that I don't print well. I was told with great confidence that their office has a new machine that does them digitally and that everything will be fine. Let's just say, Marty was back to work after he had his prints done the old-fashioned way and my prints were still being rejected by a new technology. The best we could get was only three of my prints were rejected (both pinkies and my left ring finger, for the record). So, my prints have been sent on with the rejected ones and we are hoping for the best.

Next time, I will remember to plump up my finger tips before being printed. I am fully confident that I will hear from them soon and be asked to visit them again.

LID!!!!

2007-09-26T09:57:00.000-05:00

I was shocked to read my email minutes ago and see that we have LID information already. Wow! That was fast. Our LID was 9/25/07. We have a Moon Festival log in date!

DTC!

2007-09-24T12:49:00.000-05:00

As I was complaining about our dossier not being in China, our dossier was actually on it's way to China. Oh...the irony. :^D

I received two emails from our agency today. The first one stated that our dossier was sent to CCAA on Friday. The second email said it was received at CCAA today. They both caught me off guard.

So, we are officially DTC now. I hope to find out our LID (logged in date) within a month or two. I am still hoping that we get a September LID, but I am not holding my breath.

Disappointed

2007-09-21T20:37:00.001-05:00

I cannot help leaving the work week feeling more than a little disappointed to receive no new news about our dossier. I thought, naively, that our dossier would have left translation, finished the final dossier prep (like binding), and be on its way to China. I wholeheartedly believed we would be DTC by the Monday or Tuesday. At this rate, we will get an October LID (logged in date). I am finding this set back to be even more depressing than last week's. I guess here we go again....

DnotTC (or hoping not to be lost in translation)

2007-09-16T09:24:00.000-05:00

I had one goal in mind for our dossier, even though I knew it was unrealistic. I wanted to be DTC (dossier to China) on or before my birthday. My birthday was Friday. We seemed to be paperwork cursed and we found out Thursday end of day that there was a problem with one of our documents in our dossier. Marty's Hep B test was too old. It's funny, but at least six pairs of eyes looked at that document and didn't notice it.

Thankfully, we just needed to get updated results to CCAI and then our dossier could move to the translation department.

Marty went to the doctor when they opened Friday morning and explained what we needed. Thanks to his persistence and follow-up, everything was resolved Friday and we moved, officially, to translation.

When will be DTC? I'm not quite sure, but I think it will be the beginning of next week.

DTFedEx (Dossier to FedEx), or Eva's Mom is Being Silly

2007-09-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

Today, the whole family took Eva's paperwork to the FedEx location closest to our house and actually 'mailed' Eva's dossier. Mom and Dad gave it a good luck kiss and Jada gave it a high five. Yes, we are dorky.

Since it's a holiday, it will go out tomorrow and arrive at our agency on Wednesday. Our agency takes about 9-12 business days to get the dossier to China. We are very excited to have the paperwork done.

The next step is to get the actual dossier to China (DTC), which our agency does for us, and to find out our LID (logged in date). Our LID is the date that will ultimately determine when we get our referral.

So, cross your fingers and toes that I didn't mess anything up and that it will be in China very soon.

It arrived early!

2007-08-29T19:11:00.000-05:00

"It" being that lone document I mentioned in my last post that was sent to the Chinese Consulate's Office in Houston. We were told it could take up to 20 business days and, given our recent luck, I figured it would take at least 25 business days. :^P

However, I was wrong and I am a big enough person to admit it.

What now? Now, I make some copies of documents, write a couple of checks, and send the dossier package to our agency. Then, in about two weeks, our dossier will officially be in China. Yes, we will be DTC again in September.

Eva's Dossier is Traveling

2007-08-21T19:50:00.000-05:00

It's sad...really. You see, Eva's paperwork has already traveled further than I have this year. Her dossier documents are in Washington D.C. right now for the last part of the sealing process.

This also means that this is the first time her documents have been under the Chinese flag. In this case, they are at the Chinese Embassy.

When they return to us on Tuesday, we may not recognize them with all the seals on them. It's almost like sending your child to summer camp to have them come back tattooed. Just kidding. :^)

It's hard to be sad for too long since this means we are much closer to being DTC (Dossier to China). Our hope is to be DTC by mid-September. It all depends on the fate of one lone document currently in Houston. However, that's a story for a different post.

Plumping Up My Finger Tips

2007-07-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

My fingers have a problem that I didn't even realize I had until a couple of years ago. They are difficult to print.

These are the reasons I have been told: They are too small to properly show the rings. They are too wrinkled.

Either reason, my finger tips don't print well and I have problems every time I get them printed. This wasn't a problem until we decided to adopt and I need to get them done at least once a year. This year, it has been twice already and Friday will be the third time.

Since I cannot give up doing dishes for a week (I tried that and it didn't fly). I have decided I will need to figure out something to plump up my finger tips. The only ideas I have so far are drinking more water and putting lotion on more often. Any thoughts?

Homeland Security Fingerprinting Date

2007-07-10T09:53:00.000-05:00

We have a date for our fingerprinting appointment with Immigration. We will be printed on Friday, July 27th in the afternoon.

I guess that means I need to start moving paper forward again. :^D I will explain the process in my next email.

Adoption Time Line

2007-06-08T11:04:00.001-05:00

The adoption time line side bar is getting a bit long, so I have decided to only include the most recent couple of items there and have an occasional post when I move things along.

This is where we are:

5/25/07: I-600A Sent to USCIS
5/24/07: Received Home Study!
4/29/07: Final Home Study Visit
4/25/07: Marty's Adoption Physical
4/24/07: Amy's Adoption Physical
4/21/07: Home Study Visit #3
4/14/07: Home Study Visit #2
4/12/07: FBI & State Fingerprints, Local Crime Check
4/1/07: No Foolin'! First Home Study Visit
3/6/07: Home Study App Mailed
3/1/07: Agency Accepted Application
2/20/07: Mailed Agency Application
2/4/07: Selected Agency
2/2/07: Decided to Start Process for 2nd Child

Referrals have been sent for November 1st - November 7th LIDs. If you want to see pictures of the babies, a list of blogs is located at http://chinaadopttalk.com/2007/06/08/june-babies/. I have been sending more time than I should at the Rumor Queen's site. ;^)

Dossier Time!

2007-05-24T21:01:00.001-05:00

The home study is officially over. We received our certified copies today. Yeah!

How do we celebrate such an occasion? We fill out our immigration paperwork as quickly as possible so that it can be sent out tomorrow. So, as of tomorrow, our I-600A will be on it's way to our local USCIS office. We could not be happier. :^D

We have officially entered "dossier time" when our focus is on the documents and pictures the Chinese government requires.

What now? We wait to hear from Immigration to find out when our finger printing appointment is and then we wait several weeks for them to approve our paperwork. In the meantime, we work on our dossier paperwork, like getting our adoption letter of intent notarized, and getting our documents certified and authenticated. I will explain all of this in more detail in a later post.

Last Document for Home Study

2007-05-14T19:25:00.000-05:00

We finished our home study today! I turned in our last document. Only a few more days and we can focus on our immigration paperwork. Yeah!

Rejected!

2007-04-24T20:24:00.000-05:00

I was officially rejected on Thursday. ;^D

I received a call from the State Patrol's office that the FBI rejected my fingerprints and that I needed to be re-printed immediately. I was lucky in many ways. I was called directly rather than going through our home study agency, which saved a bit of time. Also, the person who redid my fingerprints, Nicole, was really nice and explained the procedure to me and what they were doing to make sure I didn't have to be printed again.

I was more than a bit surprised today when I heard from our social worker that the results from our fingerprints were back today. Wow! That was fast!

Why Arkansas?

2007-04-13T13:08:00.000-05:00

Today, I have been pondering a question I have been asked over and over for over a decade now "Why Arkansas?" The full question is actually "Why did you and Marty get married in Arkansas?" It all started with a pretty chapel that I liked...

Why am I thinking about this right now? It's because our marriage license is our only adoption "one off." Everything else is from the state we currently live in.

So, it has to take a path all it's own to prepare it for our dossier. First, it needs to be certified at the Arkansas Secretary of State's office. Then, it needs to be sent to the Chinese Consulate's office in Houston to be authenticated. In between these two paths, it needs to be sent back to me so that I can write another letter explaining what I need and send it on. That's more work than I figured for one document!

The agency we used for Jada's adoption did all of this for us, so I didn't realize just how much hassle it was.

Crime Free!

2007-04-12T14:39:00.000-05:00

Marty and I got our fingerprints done today for the FBI and state checks. I had my usual problems with my fingerprints. ;^)

We also stopped by the police station and got our local crime checks done.

I will be primarily updating the adoption time line listed to the right from now on. I probably will not post until our home study is done.

First Home Study Visit

2007-04-03T14:56:00.000-05:00

The first home study visit for Eva went fine. Our social worker helped us prioritize what needs to get done when. We hope to meet with her again this weekend.

The overall paperwork is moving very slowly. I made some calls today about appointments and such and everything seems much further out than it should be.

I just read a post on one of the e-groups I belong to that mentioned that their paperchase for their second child was going much faster than the first. I think we might be the opposite. We are trying to fit it in with everything else and we had more time before we were parents. It's a good problem to have. ;-)

Reference letters should be mailed out tomorrow and we should be finger printed this week. The local criminal check may need to wait another week.

It may be a bit before I update again. The paperchase is rather boring to document!

Update

2007-03-26T11:45:00.000-05:00

I had to cancel our home study visit because I was ill. :^( It couldn't be helped.

I will update the blog again once things get moving again. Right now, we are more focused on Jada's 2nd birthday than anything else.

Blog updates?

2007-03-06T10:08:00.000-06:00

I know it looks like this blog isn't being updated like Jada's, but it actually is. It just serves a different purpose, which is rather boring to the casual reader. At this point, Eva's blog is just about recording dates when things were done. This matters more to adoptive parents-to-be than anyone else.

Most of the updates you see will be in the Adoption Time Line sidebar (see right). Since I wrote last, I updated the time line to record that our application was accepted from our agency (the official you-can-move-forward notice) and to note that our home study application is in the mail.

We have also scheduled our first home study visit for St. Patty's Day! I will likely not write an actual post until after our visit.

If you have any questions about the process, please feel free to contact us at jadasjourney@gmail.com. We don't check this email very often, so it may be a bit before we get back to you.

The Application is on Its Way (the adoption equivalent of the check is in the mail)

2007-02-20T10:04:00.000-06:00

We finished the application last night and it is officially in the mail as of 9:40 this morning! We are pretty excited.

I think it's pretty cool that we finished the application on one of the first days of the Chinese New Year and on President's Day here in the US. I see it as a nice bridge between Eva's birth culture and forever home.

To mark the occasion, I looked up some interesting facts on this day in history.

On February 20th in history:

In 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office. [That's good to be a good sign since I used USPS to send it].

On Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, flying aboard Friendship VII.

In 1809, the Supreme Court, in United States v. Peters, ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state. [Gotta love federalism. Just kidding]

In 2007, the agency application to adopt Eva was mailed. ;-)

Maybe Tuesday

2007-02-17T19:32:00.000-06:00

It looks like we should have everything gathered that we need for the application on Monday, so we may be able to mail the application on Tuesday. It will be a relief to have it mailed and the process officially started. Then, we can focus on the home study, starting with the home study app. Of course, most of the things we need we gathered for the agency application so it shouldn't be too bad.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Application

2007-02-14T09:04:00.000-06:00

We are still working on the application for CCAI.

I would really like to get it mailed this week, but I need a letter from my doctor's office and I need to give them time to work on it. I also need to write a letter explaining why we are using a different agency for our second adoption.

The biggest change we have noticed so far from last time is that bigger agencies ask for much more information upfront. All the information we are providing will come out in a home study and dossier paperwork, but they want it in the application. I can see that it is better to weed people out early in the process that don't qualify, but it is sure time consuming. At least these things are gathered for the home study.

I will update the blog again once we have the application mailed. I was really hoping for a Valentine's Day postmark, but I will consider this our first of many delays. ;^D

The Journey Begins Again

2007-02-06T12:39:00.000-06:00

We decided over the weekend that we were ready to start the adoption process for our second child. We anticipate the process will take three years.

We will update this blog as we move forward, but given the length of time this process will take, it will not be updated frequently.

Thanks for your love and support throughout this process.