LID

Bad blogger!

I rarely swing by this way as I'm posting some updates on Facebook and adoption forums, but just in case *anyone* peeks here, we have a China LID (Log In Date - more adoption lingo!) of February 25, 2009. That means we are officially on the waiting list for a baby girl in China as of 2-25-09. It's a long, long, LONG wait (5 years? 6 years?), so there will be no news soon...unless the program closes in the the meantime. Ugh. I'm a "plan for the worst, hope for the best" type of person!

In other adoption news, things have also slowed down in Ethiopia. We had hoped to have a baby home within a year from our official wait date (2-18-09), but it looks like it may be December, 2010 before we bring home a child. I can live with that. It's not ideal, but what can you do?

Tad & I have hypothesized (in fear!) about the process slowing down in Ethiopia and speeding up in China so we'd have two young children at the same time! After all we've done to get to this point, we happily accept that possibility. (with a bit of healthy panic!)

DTC!

More great adoption news!

We're DTC today! For anyone not into adoption acronyms, that means we're "dossier to China." In other words, our dossier was translated and shipped off to officials in China. We should get a LID (log-in date) in the next few weeks, then we simply wait...and wait...and wait...

It's official!

Today, we are officially on the "waiting" list for a baby girl from Ethiopia. Quite a good day!

Just because I like to see progress...

...and there has been SO much progres lately!

Ethiopia
11-13-08 Applied to program
11-28-08 Fingerprinted for China process, which we can use for Ethiopia, too!
1-12-09 USCIS received I-600A
2-3-09 Home study approved by placement agency
2-9-09 FedEx'ed final dossier documents to Secretary of State for certification, so we should be done, done, done by late this week or early next week!

China
5-1-08 Applied to program
6-?-08 Home study appointment
10-9-08 Dossier (well, most of it) mailed to placement agency
10-29?-08 Home study finally completed
11-11-08 USCIS received I-800A
11-28-08 Fingerprinted by USCIS
1-23-09 USCIS approved I-800A
1-30-09 FedEx'ed final dossier documents to Chinese Consulate for authentication, so we should be done, done, done around the same time for both countries!!

I'm waiting (impatiently now) for FedEx to deliver two valuable packages to my house!

Updated timeline

Just for fun:

Ethiopia
11-13-08 Applied to program
11-28-08 Fingerprinted for China process, which we can use for Ethiopia, too!
1-12-09 USCIS received I-600A
Now? Waiting for placement agency to approve home study so we can finish the dossier.

China
5-1-08 Applied to program
6-?-08 Home study appointment
10-9-08 Dossier (well, most of it) mailed to placement agency
10-29?-08 Home study finally completed
11-11-08 USCIS received I-800A
11-28-08 Fingerprinted by USCIS
1-23-09 USCIS approved I-800A
Now? Waiting to receive I-800A approval to finish dossier! We're nearly done...finally.

A not-so-subtle message from the toddler

Samuel, looking closely at my face: Mommy, you don't look right. Your lips are blank.

This is how I know my makeup needs refreshing!

New photo

More from our waterpark vacation. Or, as Samuel likes to call it, his "vacation spot!"

A better day

Yesterday, after I posted the last blog entry, we received an e-mail from our USCIS officer saying she'd approved our I-800A application yesterday afternoon!!! I put a LOT of work into the application process (and everything else that preceeded it), so I was more than relieved. I slept better last night!!

Now on to the next zillion steps. At least there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

Pity Party for Two

I feel like the universe is telling us to stay away from a Chinese adoption!

This police clearance in the UK is going to make me crazy. Tad tried to get an international bank draft to pay for it in pounds sterling, but there was a delay at the bank, so we STILL don't have it. We created a time map to see how long each remaining step will take. (This, by the way, is what two math-minded people do in their free time!) We're cutting it really close. By that, I mean, some of our documents will start to expire soon and it's possible that if anything else goes wrong, we'll have some real problems on our hands.

For the second time in the last 10 months, we questioned if we should just abandon the process. We'll see. I'll call the UK police today and the results of that conversation may sway our opinions.

I thought I'd upload a picture of the adults in the household, for a change. I like this picture. Samuel took it with the "good" camera! I may look happy in the photo, but it's more like nervous energy as Sam fumbled with my new camera!

Yes we can!

As an aside, didn't it seem a tiny bit sunnier yesterday, the 20th of January, 2009, than it has in many years?! I'm still smiling!

We've been rejected

OK, perhaps "rejected" is a bit dramatic, but the USCIS (US Immigration folks) sent us a "Request for Evidence" in relationship to our I-800A application to adopt from China. I lived in London years ago when I was in college and I need a more official statement from the UK police that I have no record of abusing children there.

This is going to take longer than I'm comfortable. Our dossier documents start to expire in March, so I'm a bit concerned.

So, tell me parents of bio kids, how do you fill your free time if it's not spent justifying your ability to parent to the federal and foreign governments? (Yes, this is my bitter, maladjusted side. Occasionally, this all seems more complicated than it needs to be. That's a profound statement coming from someone as regimented and detail-oriented as me.)

I thought I'd toss in a photo of Little Man for a smile. We took a mini-vacation to a waterpark hotel nearly two weeks ago. He loved the water as an infant, decided in recent years that water is not-so-great, and had another 180 degree change this year and now loves the water again. Go figure!

Timelines

Timelines are a big deal in the adoption world. I think all pre-adoptive parents are curious to know how long it takes to paddle upstream. While we were in process with Samuel's adoption, I kept a detailed list of dates and milestones. For whatever reason, I haven't done that this time. I'm inspired to try to put together some sort of history tonight.

I'll start with the shorter, more encouraging, list:

Ethiopia
11-10-08 Hey, honey! What do you think about adopting from Ethiopia?!
11-13-08 Applied to program
11-28-08 Fingerprinted for China process, which we can use for Ethiopia, too!
Now? Waiting (impatiently) for home study agency to send Hague certificate to placement agency so they'll finally approve our home study AND for them to send us a copy of our home study so we can apply for our I-600A.

Now for the tough one (because it's painfully long):

China
5-1-08 Applied to program
6-?-08 Home study appointment
10-9-08 Dossier (well, most of it) mailed to placement agency
10-29?-08 Home study finally completed
11-11-08 I-800A application logged in at USCIS
11-28-08 Fingerprinted by USCIS
Now? Waiting (yes, impatiently) for home study agency to send home study report and copy of license to placement agency AND waiting for I-767C approval from USCIS.

If everyone would operate on MY timeline, this would work much better. I'm doing a lot of waiting.

No news

I have no adoption news, but I'm happy to say that I finally finished my Christmas cards. One thing after another came up this year that today, the 22nd of December, was the day that I finished them. Pathetic.

I'm rather certain I won't hear any adoption news until after the holidays. Everyone's attention (including mine) is focused elsewhere.

I had to add a seaon-appropriate photo! After the last post of Halloween photos, I thought I had better unload the new photos from my camera!