The hard part

I figured I’d post a little update for you, as we’ve now entered into the first of a series of Long Waits ™. Our social worker told us this week that Log In Dates have been trickling in much slower than anticipated, and that we’re still waiting for ours. She is hopeful that ours will come in soon and is having our in-country contact check on our dossier for us. Having someone in China on staff at our agency is one of the major reasons we chose the agency we did– though waiting isn’t easy, it’s better knowing that someone is watching out for us over there.

On a positive note, we picked out our adoption clinic after consultation with a few hospitals and my favorite pediatrician-on-call. We found an awesome clinic through the University of Chicago– they will review our referral’s medical file and have an in-person or phone consult with us within our 72-hour window, and then will follow up once we’re home with our child. During subsequent visits, the department tries to lump multiple subspecialists if needed, resulting in fewer trips in to the city for everyone and a lot more teamwork between physicians. Although I hope we won’t have to make significant use of their services, I feel as though we have a strong team working with us.

 

DTC

Three letters that say so much- we are finally DTC! This is the Chinese adoptive families community’s acronym for Dossier To China, or All Systems Go! Our complete application has been processed through our agency, filed, and overnighted to Beijing. Probably within a week, we’ll be logged in to the official system, and we’ll be ready to meet our future son or daughter!

In other news, our Sunday night dinners took an exciting turn, as we tried making bao for the first time. For those who aren’t familiar, bao is a steamed bun often filled with meat or vegetables. We made bbq and ginger pork bao– which turned out fantastic! We cheated by using this recipe for a lazy Sunday night dinner, but for our first time, they turned out wonderfully!

Anyone have any tips on cleaning bamboo steamer baskets?

 

Done

Our life story– portrayed in state approved documents.

Close to 100 pages. Every page scrutinized by the State and the Consulate. Photos of our life and family, and pledge to be the best parents we can be. Incredibly detailed medical evaluations. I think I reached my breaking point when our home printer decided not to accept the newly purchased ink cartridge– my loud muttering (“HP garbage helpdesk!”) and foot stamping must have intimidated it enough, as a quick printhead cleaning later it decided it would cooperate.

Brian will be hand-delivering our dossier tomorrow to our agency. At that point, it’ll go into final review to make sure nothing is missing, and will then be whisked off to China to be logged in. Hopefully, the next time we hear from our agency, it will be with the news that we have a log-in-date and are eligible for a referral.

Our attention now turns to checking out pediatric specialists for our future son or daughter, but for tonight, we can rest and celebrate. I can’t believe we did it!

Great News

I saw it the minute the car turned off our street into our driveway.  As my friend backed out of the driveway, his headlights focused on the big white envelope tucked into our door.

It’s here! True to their word, the Consulate mailed all of our dossier back to us today. I ripped open the envelope the second I got into the door… and I’m thrilled to share happy news! The Consulate authenticated all of our documents, which means our completed dossier will be on its way to our agency first thing Monday morning, and will most likely arrive in China at the CCAA before the end of next week! As soon as we turn our dossier in to our agency next week, then all we have to do is just wait for The Big Phone Call!

Thank you again to all who are joining us in prayer and positive thoughts on this journey. We are incredibly grateful– and we have a long way to go!

 

The Road (or Sidewalk) Not Taken

I was dreading today.

After the debacle during my last visit to the Consulate, I was not looking forward to a repeat performance today.  With any luck, today’s trip will be the last one for us (and our visas will be via courier!) The question you’re dying to ask– did they accept our forms? Do we have to repeat this paperwork tango again? Although we won’t have confirmation until our documents are returned to us via overnight post at the end of next week, the service agent did accept all of our forms for processing. (Last time, if you remember, they kicked back one of the  forms immediately at the window.)

If you noticed the photo I posted to Facebook earlier today, you might be wondering what happened. Well, I navigated the Secretary of State’s office in about 10 minutes, a person al record! In, out, and certified! When I arrived at the Consulate though, I had a feeling I was going to be in for quite a day.

Have you ever felt like the world was trying to send you a message?

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