ANOTHER WEEK DOWN

ANother week down. Still no firm name yet. Referrals for this month are coming with the agency. I have been purchasing little things every paycheck to travel with. It seems like this will never happen. Nothing new to report. This week the agency sent an email about immunizations. YEAH I get mine free at the Health Department. I enjoy talking with the chat groups of people who are dtc with me. I purchased a ccol diaper bag to use. I don't know if we will take it with us or not. We will just have to see.

McKenna is doing well in basketball and will start tee ball in March.
She is getting excited for track break soon. She will be off most of the month of Fevruary. She is doing awesome in reading and seems to have fun. We should get Christmas pictures soon and then we can post them.

Well thats about it. This wait is just filled with being together as our family and working and saving money for the travel portion.

Talk to you later.


Natalie

One week into the wait for our referral

The past week went by so quickly. We had alot of fun. McKenna started her basketball games and was signed up for tee-ball she is excited to play sports.

I still keep tossing around names for our little one. I like so many girls names and can't decide. Jason and I don't agree so I want to throw out the list and just decide on something totally new. If the referral is a boy well the name is decided and I won't change my mind on it.

We still don't have the official LID although our dossier should be logged in by now. The agency probably will not be letting us know for about five more weeks.

Bid and one a cool diaper bag to take to CHina. I want to bid on a few for gifts in the coming weeks. Getting to know alot of people who are DTC the same month we are, hopefully we can make some lasting friendships. Hopefully also the shifts will be there so we can travel on time.

Well thats about all for this week. I do need to learn how to add photos etc. to spice up the website.

TIMELINE

Well here is the timeline for the paperchase part of our adoption journey

January-May 2004 Researched many many many agencies

May 2004 Decided on what agencies to use.

June 2004- Sent applications to Great Wall of CHina and Premier Adoption (homestudy) Agencies

June 23-30 Received email and phone calls from each agency and on 6/24 Premier accepted us; 6/28 GWCA gave final approval

July 3 Ordered Birth Certificate and Marraige licenses from Utah and Virgina
July 6 Completed Fingerprints for our State Fingerprint Checks for the Homestudy
July 8 Received Jasons Certified Birth Certificates
July 12 First packet of paperwork to Premier Adoption Agency
Passports ordered for our family including McKenna in case she travels with us
Employment Letters Ordered
Police Clearance Letters Ordered
July 13 Arranged for my birth Certificate through Vital Check
Financial Forms Completed
July 15 Adoption Petition Letter Completed
Police Department Called and police clearance letters are in the mail
Marraige Certificates Arrive from Utah
July 16 Police Clearance Letters arrived
Work letter for Natalie obtained and was notarized at work
July 19 Sent marraige and jason birth certificate to Utahs Secretary of State
July 21 Secretary of State Paperwork returned from Utah
July 22 Recieved my birth certificate withe the secretary of state seal of Virginia attached
July 26 More paperwork to Premier our homestudy agency
July 27 My medical exam done
I600A sent in with accompanying paperwork


August 2 Jason arranged his work letters and his medical
August 17 Final packet of paperwork to Premier adoption agency, awaiting their call to set up homestudy
August 19 First batch of paperwork to Nevada Secretary of State
August 20 Homestudy Arranged
August 26 Homestudy Visits Done
August 31 Completed On-Line Education course required by Premier Adoption Agency

September 7 Homestudy Final Visit and prepaid post placement visit fees

September 13 Documents sent to Washington DC for Authentication
September 23 Received documents back----used Dependable Courier
September 28 Homestudy Approved and sent to Great Wall and Homeland Security Office


October 16 Homestudy Received
October 19 Sent to Secretary of State for Great Seal
October 20 Letter received for appointment for fingerprints for I71
October 21 Fingerprinted at Homeland Security OFfice her in Henderson
October 22 Received Homestudy back from Sec of State
October 31 Received I71H

November 1 I-71 to Sec of State
November 7 Return of packet from Sec of State

November 8- Jason must redo work letter and medical this will set us back one month

November 30 All documents except Jasons to San Fransico for Authentication

December 3 Jason receives work letter and completes physical
Received the Brown Envelope from Guanzhou which most people get after they are DTC

December 10 Received packet from SF this is amazing the turnaround because we did not expedite the paperwork

December 13 Sent Jasons paperwork to Sec of State
December 31 Received Jasons paperwork back from Sec of State


January 3, 2005 Final paperwork sent to San Fransico

January 6, 2005 Pictures prepared for Dossier and Dossier prepared except for the final two papers

January 11, 2005 Received paperwork back from San Fransico and send completed dossier to GWCA

January 12, 2005 GWCA received dossier

January 13, 2005 GWCA approved dossier and sent email saying our dossier would be send to China on 1/14

January 14, 2005 Dossier is on its way to China


From this point on we wait about six weeks to find out our actual LID which should be sometime between 1/18 and 1/21 but it just takes a little while to get word back. We are now in the waiting phase for the referral. Referral time right now is about six months and if the time frame does not change that would mean a possible referral in July. Travel will be two weeks and comes 4-9 weeks after referral which would put travel time sometime between the end of August and the first of October. For now we will be saving money for travel and starting to stock up on diapers etc.

Dossier was sent to the agency today

We received the paperwork back from SF today. So I sent the dossier out today to the agency. Barring them finding something wrong. I have checked and rechecked everything so hopefully I did not miss something. THen the dossier will either go out this friday or next. We won't have a firm date to count down from for about six weeks.

It feels good to be done with this stage of the paperchase. Now if we could only decide on a name.

Paperwork is on its way

When I checked the USPS site tonight, it showed that the paperwork was processed today and is on its way to Nevada, so sometime tomorrow or wednesday it should be here. That means that we will send the dossier to the agency and then depending on them finding any errors, I have checked and checked and checked, our dossier will go to China this Friday. I will let you know what happens. I think it will go to China either this week or the next.

Yippee the countdown truly begins.

It looks like a summer referral and a fall travel,

Our final paperwork is at the consulate

Well our final paperwork is at the consulate. McKenna and I picked and did the photos for the dossier today. Everything is ready to send just as soon as we get the paperwork back. Barring and unforeseen things that the agency finds we should be DTC/LID this month sometime.