Oct, 16, 2004 - Submitted preliminary application to the adoption agency.
Oct. 18, 2004 - Message from the adoption agency that we have been preapproved / Contacted Vista Del Mar Family Services to apply for a home study.
Oct 20, 2004 - Received application packet from Vista Del Mar (home study agency). Paperwork includes Family, Health, Education, Career, and Financial History. Also a form for our doctors to fill out during our physicals, and fingerprinting forms and instructions for CA DOJ and Child Abuse database. Also each of us was required to write a 2-4 page autobiography.
Oct 21, 2004 - Received complete application packet from EAC (placement agency). They require the same information as Vista Del Mar plus they require a Clearance Letter from the local police department.
Oct 26, 2004 - We began working on Autobiographies.
Nov 8, 2004 - First home study meeting with Social Worker Joe Ramirez. The meeting took place in our home. All meetings will take place in our home. Joe said this should be easy, our bio's that we wrote are going to be very helpful. Joe commented that anyone willing to wade through this much paperwork and willing to subject themselves to this level of scrutiny must be committed to being parents. He really put us at ease.
Nov 10, 2004 - Delivered completed I-600A form (application for advanced approval of citizneship of an orphan) to USCIS. When home study is completed we will need to be fingerprinted for FBI check.
Nov 15, 2004 - Ken went in for his physical today.
Nov 16, 2004 - Ken and Erin had fingerprints done for CA DOJ and Child Abuse databases.
Jan 15, 2005 - Attended the first half of the required Journey Abroad class. This class covers issues specific to adopting abroad and about transitioning to a transracial family also known as a conspicuous family.
Jan 25, 2005 - Notarized all of our paperwork for EAC. 40 pages of documents.
Jan 26, 2005 - Took all 40 documents to the Orange County Clerk office for county certification.
Jan 27, 2005 - Final home study report arrived in the mail. The packet was missing a few pieces. Called Vista Del Mar to get this cleared up.
Jan 29, 2005 - Attended the last part of the Journey Abroad class.
Jan 31, 2005 - Took the train to the USCIS office in Downtown LA to drop off home study. Got our FBI fingerprint appointment cards.
FEBRUARY 2005
Feb 1, 2005 - Met for lunch and had our FBI fingerprinting done at the Santa Ana Immigration Support Office.
Feb 7, 2005 - Drove into Century City to pick up the delayed missing documents from Vista Del Mar. Then went to the LA County Clerk office in Newark for county certification.
Feb 8 & 9, 2005 - Took Amtrak train into Downtown LA to have all the paperwork State Certified. Went back the next day to pick it all up.
Feb 9, 2005 - Fedex'd our Foreign Dossier (all paperwork) to EAC.
Feb 10, 2005 - EAC called to confirm receipt of Dossier. They are sending to Chinese Consulate for Authentication.
Feb 24, 2005 - Today was a big day. The coveted I-171h from USCIS arrived today. This is the letter of approval from immigration.
Feb 25, 2005 - I-171h sent to EAC today.
MARCH 2005
Mar 23, 2005 - EAC has received everything back from the Chinese Consulate, including the I-171h. However not in time to make March DTC (Dossier to China) :-(
Mar 27, 2005 - EAC called informing us since we will be DTC in April they need our 2004 Tax Returns. Ugh more paperwork to chase and notarize, certify, and authenticate.
Mar 30, 2005 - Took Tax forms to be notarized and then county certified.
APRIL 2005
Apr 1, 2005 - Took Amtrak into Downtown LA again to have the tax forms state certified. From there took the Red Line to the Chinese Consulate to drop them off for Authentication. EAC would do this for us but it takes them 2-3 weeks to get back. Since there is a Consulate close to us it was faster for me to do it locally.
Apr 4, 2005 - Took Amtrak back into Downtown LA to pick up the tax forms from the Consulate. Sent tax forms to EAC.
Apr 18, 2005 - DTC TODAY. Yeah, our paperwork has been sent to China. We can start the 6-8 month countdown to referral.
April 18, 2005 - Referrals received for Dossiers logged in on 9/27/04 - 10/21/04 - Congratulations to all those families!
Apr 21, 2005 - Received the DTC Letter from EAC today. The letter included the names and contact information for all 10 families in this DTC group. We will be traveling together and our children will come from the same SWI (Social Welfare Institute). Some of us have already met via email and the April DTC yahoo message group.
MAY 2005
May - Waiting. Our EAC travel group has started our own yahoo message group and we are getting to know each other.
We are also participating in pen pal type activities with the April DTC yahoo group. These are all people with different agencies who were DTC in April. There is a PostCard swap and a Secret Pal Exchange that we are doing.
May 10, 2005 - Received "Brown Envelope" from the US Consulate in Guangzhou China. This envelope contains all the paperwork we will need to complete and hand over at the Consulate in order to get a US Visa for our baby. Once she lands on US soil she will be a US Citizen.
May 18, 2005 - Began a six week parenting course - Parenting the first five years.
May 23, 2005 - Referrals received for Dossiers logged in 10/25/04-11/20/04 - Congratulations to all the families.
JUNE 2005
June 11, 2005 - Attended the FCC picnic. We got to meet numerous families and their daughters. It was wonderful to spend time with families who have already been to China and back. We got alot of great advice.
June 22, 2005 - Found out that our documents were logged in with the CCAA in Chna on May 10. Also Erin was in San Diego for a workshop and met one of our travel mates (Beth) for dinner.
June 24, 2005 - Referrals received for Dossiers logged in 11/23/04-12/19/04 - Congratulations to all the families.
June 28, 2005 - Attended a gathering at the home of another waiting family in Laguna Niguel. We met about a dozen families from the south county, two of which also live in Aliso Viejo, one attends our church. We all will have children home within a year of each other. It was really nice to meet local families that we will be able to have play dates with.
JULY 2005
July 23 , 2005 - We met Beth and Peter (couple in our travel group from San Diego) for Dinner in Laguna Hills. Erin met Beth before and this was the first time all four of us got together.
July 28, 2005 - Referrals received for Dossiers logged in 12/23/04-1/27/05 - Congratulations to all the families.
AUGUST 2005
August 2005 - Still Waiting, as you can see from the last referral group we have a ways to go yet.
SEPTEMBER 2005
Sept 1, 2005 - Referrals received for Dossiers logged in 1/27/05-2/24/05 - Congratulations to all the families.
September 2005 - Still Waiting. School Started. Erin is taking Chinese 1A again.
OCTOBER 2005
October 3, 2005 - Referrals received for Dossiers logged in 2/28/05-3/16/05 - Congratulations to all the families.
October, 2005 - I hope this isn't the new trend. This last batch of referrals only covered 2 weeks of LID's instead of the previous months worth. We have been expecting a late November early December referral. Maybe not.
October 15, 2005 - Grandma LaoLao (Janet) and cousins Shannon and Rashell hosted a shower for us. It was very nice. Everyone is very anxious to meet you and have you in the family. You recieved lots of very nice things.
NOVEMBER 2005
November, 2005 - We are still waiting. The rumors have not been very good about the next batch of referrals. The wait is starting to get really hard.
November 10, 2005 - Referrals received for Dossiers logged in 3/17/05-3/31/05 - Congratulations to all the families.
November 10, 2005 - The latest batch of referrals seems to be showing a slowing trend. This is disheartening. It looks like we won't be getting our referral in late November early December as had been previously indicated by our Agency (LID 5/10/05) . Let's pray for January for sure.
November 15, 2005 - GOOD NEWS - our dossier has completed the Review process. We have not heard of any problems or paperwork to redo, YEAH! So now our documents sit and wait to be matched with a child needing a forever family.
November - 26, 2005 - Grandma NaiNai (Pat) and Aunts (Gugu) Julie and Pam hosted a baby shower for us. You were showered with lots of well wishes, adorable clothes (you are going to be one well dressed little girl), and some great toys. It was a lovely day with family and friends.
DECEMBER 2005
December 4, 2005 - Still no definite word on Referrals for Dossiers logged in April. The latest rumor is that this group will only include up to April 15. I hope that is not true, if it is we could be looking at February at this point.
December 8, 2005 - How exciting, Referrals were received for Dossiers logged in April 1-April 14. Many of these are families Erin has got to know personally through the March and April DTC groups. Both of our Secret Pal's have early May LID's like us so we are all still waiting. The babies ranged in age from 6 months to 19 months. The couple of families with the older children specifically requested older.
December 30, 2005 - Unexpected Referral news today. But not for us. The CCAA (governing body in China that overseas adoption) posted on their website that children have been placed with families whose dossiers were processed since April 25, 2005. Congratulations and what a Happy New Year to these April families. These families have not actually received their referrals yet, they are expected next week. It is very unexpected that another round of referrals would happen in just a few weeks and a second batch in December. So although this batch did not include us we are still very hopeful that we will receive news of our Daughter in January. Please join us in continued prayer and lots of hope that this will be true. There are some late April families that are still waiting as well. The only remaining LID that I know of in April is the 27th but that does not mean that dossiers weren't logged in on 26, 28, and 29. But what we do know is that China has a major Holiday May 1 and they shut down for a week so the earliest May LID is 5/6 (which is Friday) and our LID 5/10 is the following Tuesday, so there is hope for us for January.
January 2006
January 3 - Referrals landed today in the US. Many are getting "The Call" from their agency today. These are the referrals for the families with LID of 4/15-4/25. The babies ages ranged from 6 - 20 months. There were two families who were referred children older than they requested but they were couples in their late forties and early fifties. We are so happy for everyone. Hopefully our turn will be soon.
January 23 - Hopefully we should hear from our agency with news this week. I have not seen this with my own eyes yet but heard from a fellow waiting family that this statement was posted on the CCAA website this morning -
"The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families
whose adoption application documents were registered with our office
before May 13, 2005." Our documents were registered on May 10. The CCAA is the China Center for Adoption Affairs, it is the governing body in China. Until we hear from our agency directly we are not counting on anything, but for this week at least we have hope. Please keep us and our little girl in your prayers.
January 24 -
Well, this week is going to be a nail biter. I have seen the statement on the CCAA website with my own eyes now, yeah. Last night we had a phone call from our agency just to check in and let us know what we can expect to happen. Today on a message board used by clients and the in China facilitator of our agency there was a post from the facilitator that referrals are on the way and he will be translating the development reports for us. He also slipped in a hint of information. Apparently our little girl is from the city of Fuling (Fou-Ling) in the province of Chongqing. This is in a southeastern region of the country. It is approx 1200 miles southwest of Beijing, so about a four hour flight from Beijing. That's all for now. Keep watching.
January 25 - THE CALL - Yep we got the call today at 1:16pm. She is 14 months old as of Monday. Our letter of intent stated As Young as Possible up to 14 months. We need a day or two to process and verify the information with the agency. But please watch the referral page for our baby girls first pictures and vital information.
The Referral page has been updated. Picture, name, all that information is available there.
Now we wait some more to receive Travel Approval. We expect to travel mid to late March.
March 2006
March 10 - Well, this is going to be quite the weekend. Yesterday we got the call that the Travel Authorization letters that we have been waiting for are finally in the mail. Our agency should receive them on Monday. The agency speculated we would be leaving on March 23 or March 30. Today Erin drove to downtown LA to get our Visas to enter China processed. As she was in route to LA she got a phone call from the China Facilitator for our agency that we might be leaving a week from Sunday on March 19. He hopes to get our Consulate Appt on March 29 or 30 so then we would need to leave on 3/19. That is fine with us, we are tired of waiting.
March 12 - It has been quite the weekend getting ready for Lexi to come home. Her car seat has been installed, her high chair has been assembled along with some of her larger play things. The safety gates for the stairs are going in. Fr. Fred blessed her blanket and us this weekend after Mass. Lexi and Erin are packed we are just waiting on Ken. So we are ready to leave as soon as they tell us to.
March 14 - It is official, we leave Sunday March 19 to bring Lexi home. Erin has been on the phone with the Agency and the travel agent all day to get our flights squared away. There has been issue with the return flight but Erin has gotten that taken care of and we will be on the direct flight home as opposed to the three connection that was proposed. We are very excited and now we have to get really busy. Check the travel page to follow along on this most incredible journey. We'll touch base with everyone when we get home. This is it from the states, the next you will hear from us we will be in China.
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