This made me cry today.

In hope...

a frustrating week

Well, we thought we were getting close to a referral.  It seems it's further away than we want it to be....

On Wednesday we received the disheartening news that we need to redo lots of paperwork for our dossier that we'd completed months ago.  Apparently China started enforcing policies that they haven't paid attention to in the past.  So now none of the documents in our dossier can be older than 6 months.  Most of ours had been completed in Feb-April and then notarized in May. 

So now, we're on the paper trail again.  Please pray for quick contacting and processing of everything from new certified copies of birth certificates to criminal clearances in Ohio.  There are a total of nine documents we need to redo.  Pray this doesn't delay us too much. 

We want these girls in our arms!

An Update

In trying to be creative and sharing my heart’s impressions of adoption, I’ve been realizing that I’m failing to share with you where we’re actually at in the process.

We’re getting very close to referral time!  Maybe before the end of the year, maybe before the Chinese New Year (mid January), we’ll see.  A referral means that a specific little girl’s picture and information about her medical condition will be sent to us.  We then have about 24 hours to decide if we want to accept or reject this referral.  Reasons we would reject a referral would be that we feel this little one’s medical needs are more than we can handle living over here.  We have limited ongoing resources available in our city, so we’re looking for something that would be more minor and correctable. 

Once we accept a referral, it will still take 4-7 months before we can travel to get her.  We need China’s official approval.  We need to inform the American government which child we intend to adopt.  Then, the US government’s approval gets sent back to China and then we receive permission to get our child. 

I wish it could be easier and faster, but all of this back and forth protects children from trafficking, which is extremely important.

All of this is the process for one child, and honestly we’re still not entirely sure when we might get matched with a second child.  Apparently it’s harder to find baby girls with more minor needs on the special focus list, which is what needs to happen for us to be able to adopt both at once.

So, we appreciate your prayers and we’ll keep you updated!

Acronym Answers

LOI = Letter of Intent…to adopt a specific child

PA = Pre-Approval

USCIS = United States Citizen and Immigration Services

CCAA = China Center of Adoption Affairs (am I wrong in this?  does it have a "w" in it now?)

DTC = Dossier To China… meaning it was put in the mail

LID = Log in Date… dossier registration in China

LSC = Letter of Seeking Confirmation… comes from CCAA, gets sent to our adoption agency

LOA = Letter of Acceptance…China agrees we can adopt this specific child

TA = Travel Approval

CA = Consulate Appointment

Now when I or others use these little letters, you'll know what we're talking about!