Timing, Abbreviations, Acronyms and other fun stuff

The last time we adopted, we started our blog the day before we left for China. Since we are a little more seasoned at this now, we are starting it at an earlier stage of our process.

We submitted all of our authenticated paperwork for our dossier to our adoption agency on January 15th. To get to this point, we have already done a lot of work. This might be a nice record in the future but it is also something that people currently engaged in this process are dying to know.

We applied for our I600A on November 7th.
This is our official filing date with the USCIS.
We were fingerprinted by a private investigator for the state on November 11th.
We had medical examinations the first week in November.
Our home study was received by USCIS on December 29th.
We received our letter for fingerprinting on January 5th and were fingerprinted by USCIS on the 6th.
We received our 171H on January 27th.
The following will be updated but:
We hope to be DTC by February 9th.
We hope to be LID by March 9th.

During our previous adoption, I was always suspect of any father that could recite his LID or DTC dates (I was suspect even if they knew what this stuff was). To this day, I still don't know when we were DTC, LID, or even referred Sophie. This time around, I am taking a different approach and will actually educate myself a little more on this process. I still can't guarantee that I will ever remember these dates but at least I now have them written down so that I can check back for reference.

So what do these letters above mean? Here is a quick dictionary.
USCIS - United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
DTC - Dossier to China. The dossier is all of our paperwork.
LID - Log in Date. This is when all of our paperwork is logged in by the CCAA.
CCAA - China Center of Adoption Affairs, the government office set up to handle adoptions.

We hope to have our referral in 24 months - yes, you read that correctly, 24 months. So all of you who feel like asking us if we have heard anything before December '08, please don't. We have a long road ahead. Due to the new, more stringent requirements of the CCAA, we are still not sure if we will be allowed to adopt. This, coupled with the upcoming Olympics and the ever-changing geopolitical landscape, makes us a little apprehensive about shouting the news of our impending adoption to the world.

I don't know how often we'll be updating this blog. I guess it all depends on how arduous the wait is. Stay tuned.

-Chris

If you've made it here

If you are on this site, as you might imagine by the title, we are going to China again - or we hope to be going to China again. We are in the process of "paperchasing" for our second child. We hope that this journey will be as fortunate as our last one. Stay tuned for updates.