Saturday, February 25, 2006

Still Waiting for our LID

We are still waiting for our LID. Hopefully, we will hear something early next week. I have heard of other families who had a DTC of 1/20 and who were logged in on Valentine's Day (2/14). We are anxious to hear. I will post when I hear something.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Sample Intra-China Travel Itinerary

Thursday: Depart from home
Friday: Arrive in Beijing (13 hour plane ride plus date change)
Saturday: City tour of the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square
Sunday: Fly to your baby's province, meet your baby THAT afternoon.
Monday: Do the paperwork
Tuesday: Shopping for babies (super Wal-mart, I hear)
Wednesday: City tour
Thrusday: City tour
Friday: Get baby's passport. Fill our forms and check documents
Saturday: Fly to Guangzhou
Sunday: City tour
Monday: Baby's medical exam
Tuesday: Interview with American Consulate Office
Wednesday: Obtain baby's visa
Thursday: Depart Hong Kong
Thursday: Return home with your baby (it is still Thursday because of date change)

1 month since we were DTC

It has been one month since our dossier left for China. Once we receive our LID, I will begin counting down months. I have no idea with what number I will start. I suppose I could count up. Yeah, that's it. I'll count up.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Waiting for our LID

It is February 19, 2006. I have decided to do what all these other adpotive moms and dads-to-be are doing...setting up blogspots. Now, if I can keep up with this, everyone will have a clue about this adoption process.

Alright for the nuts and bolts. We were dossier to China (DTC) on January 20, 2006. Remember all that paperwork I was complaining about! That was our dossier. I was gathering all kinds of documents for the Chinese Government to look over.

Now we are awaiting our log in date (LID). That is the date the Chinese government "recognizes" our dossier. It is also the date we use to track where our dossier is during this whole process. The Chinese government only logs the dossiers in once or twice a month. I am hoping that we will get an LID of February 7th or 8th. We should know soon.

Once logged in, our dossier will spend1-3 months being translated. Then it will spend up to 4 months in the Review Room, being (are you ready for this) reviewed! Then it will spend up to 2 months in the Matching Room. The Matching Room is where our family is matched with our daughter. The rumor regarding the matching process is that they scan the Father's picture and match it with a child that "looks" like him. I HOPE NOT! Joe doesn't have any hair! I don't believe I have seen an Italian/Polish Chinese baby.

I am rambling. Back to the dossier tracking process. Now this is where it gets good. Once matched we get a referral which includes a picture, a birthdate, and a size. We then must decide yes we want this little Italian/Polish bald Chinese girl or no thanks.

Once we sign on the dotted line and answer yes at the top of our lungs....we make our travel arrangments and wait again. Do you see that waiting is a reoccuring theme in this process? Although this wait is 6-8 weeks, I hear that it is the hardest wait of all!!!

Then we travel to China, 13 hours ahead of Norfolk to gather our daughter and bring her home.