handsful

Well, our dossier is at our adoption agency as of yesterday!  The paperchase is over! Sort of. I don’t really think it’s “officially” over until the dossier is logged in at the China Center of Adoption Affairs.  At that point, we get our LID (a.k.a. log in date) and the wait “officially” begins.  Wait time from LID is approx. 12 months.  It could shorten…it could lengthen.  Can you guess what I’m hoping for???  Our dossier will be at our agency for a total of about 2-3 weeks before it’s sent to China.  CCAI will let us know when it passes critical review, when it goes into translation, when it’s sent to China, and finally when it’s logged in.  So, guess what we’re doing?  WAITING!!!  lol…

On another note, I was at gymnastics today waiting for the girls class to finish.  While I wait, I either read or crochet.  Today, I was working on the crochet edges on baby socks.  I’ve made about 7 pairs so far (can you imagine the sock drawer of our baby when this wait is over??).  These socks also have a little ladybug button on the side/edge of the sock.  A lady sat down and began admiring my work.  She asked if I sold them.  I told her no, I was just passing time, we were adopting a baby girl and the socks would eventually be for her.  Long story short, she is also adopting from China and got her referral this week!!  She had the picture of her 7 month old Eliza with her.  So cute!  We plan on meeting at the next FCC waiting parents get together!  Small world!

A couple of neat things from this weekend:

Saw our first ladybug :)  When we first found it, it seemed dead and just sat motionless in my hand.  Finally, it started to move it’s legs a bit, then started walking all over my hand.  I gave it to my youngest daughter, Marley (a.k.a. bug-lover) so she could let it go free.

On Sunday, we were driving home and noticed a new antique furniture store having a sale.  We’d never been to this store, and thought we’d stop by to see what they had.  My husband went in and I stayed in the truck with the kids…he’d call on his cell phone if there was anything we might all want to see.  He called right away and said, “this place is filled with antiques from China!”  Needless to say, we all went right in and were felt transported back in time to ancient China.  The proprietor was a very nice older Chinese gentlemen who spoke broken English.  Each item was tagged with it’s approximate age, province of origin, and type of material used in the item.  The gentleman told us that the items were actually much older than documented on their tag….China will only allow antique items “younger” than 150 years old to leave the country.  So, these were all tagged around 100 years old.  There were beautiful chests, wardrobes, baskets, pottery, benches, paintings, etc.  We found a chest that was completely made of leather, even the hinge.  We ended up buying a wonderful low bench, aspen wood and metal basket, and oil lamp holder.  My oldest daughter loves China and we were buying her a ceramic soup spoon, but the gentlemen “threw it in” for free.  I couldn’t help but think, what if the ancestors of our child made this bench or basket and here I was, holding it in my lap?  We’ll be back to that store.

Our last 2 documents are at the Houston consulate today!  I’m anxious to have them back so we can send our dossier to CCAI this week.

You know…the light at the end of the tunnel called Adoption Paperchasing!  I was looking at my previous post about the timeline I guessed for having our paperwork done.  I’m a few days off.  I originally said the I-171H would be here 6/16…nope, got here 6/21.  I estimated that we’d be able to send our completed dossier to our adoption agency on 6/30.  That might come true!  I’m sending our last 2 documents to the wonderful courier in Houston tomorrow.  She says I’ll have them back, properly authenticated by the Chinese consulate, on Wednesday, 6/28.  I should then be able to get our whole, complete dossier (yea!!) in the mail to Chinese Children Adoption International that next day, 6/29.  So, I might even be a day AHEAD of my guesstimation :)  Then, the real waiting game will begin!

Randy and I went to the Jacksonville, FL Dept. of Homeland Security office today to be fingerprinted.  This is our last “to do” before receiving the coveted I-171H form that gives us permission from our government to bring a foreign child into the US.

I assumed we’d be going into a regular office, have some nice lady fingerprint us, and then we’d be on our way.  I assumed wrong.  We arrive and there are armed security officers at the door.  They tell us we must take all cell phones, electronic devices, drinks, food, sharp objects, etc. etc. back to our cars.  If we forget to remove something from our “person”, they will confiscate and we will NOT get it back.  So, Randy takes our dangerous items back to the car.  We get back in line and go through airport-level security.  After my purse goes through the conveyor and is x-rayed, the official begins to rummage through my purse.  I mean, she’s checking every pocket, taking out suspicious looking items (I had a carpenter’s pencil in there that a Home Depot employee gave my son…I figured we would be arrested on the spot).  She takes out a 1/2 pack of gum and lays it on the conveyor belt and tells me we’ll have to take the gum back to the car.  Gum?  Not GUN (that, I would understand), but GUM?  We ask if we can just throw it away and she says yes.

After thinking this through, I decide they must view gum as food (and food is NOT allowed).  I guess they couldn’t trust me not to chew it on the premises.

So, after joking about our lethal gum while waiting for our turn, we were successfully fingerprinted and (hopefully!) done with the USCIS dept. for good.  I’ll be watching the mail for that form in the next week!  In case anyone is keeping score from my previous post, I’m ahead of my timeline guess by 3 days!

Today we received our 8 Florida-originated documents back from the Chinese consulate in Houston.  That means that 11 out of 13 needed Dossier documents are ready to be sent to our adoption agency and then on to China!  Our home study report should be sent to us, our agency, and the US immigration office next week.  Then, we should get our clearance letter from US immigration, saying we are allowed to bring a foreign child into the US.  We’ll get the clearance letter and home study report certified by the state and then authenticated by the Chinese consulate in Houston, and then we’ll be ready to send the completed Dossier to our agency!  Even though I’ve had a monster cold for 2 days, I’m happy as can be!

I’m trying to get an idea of when our dossier might be ready to send to CCAI.  The dossier is the group of paperwork that is eventually sent to China, which they will use to match us with a baby.  It’s hard to “guesstimate”, but here’s my ideas.  We have our last visit with the social worker tomorrow, 5/12.  He told us at our last visit that he should have us “rolling” by the following week.  I assume that means he’ll have the report for us to review and make any changes.  Let’s assume it might take 3 weeks from tomorrow before our final report is sent to USCIS (US immigration).  An online friend who is ahead of me in the process helped with my time frame ideas!).  That would be 6/2.  The Jacksonville USCIS office has been quick lately, so we should be able to be fingerprinted a week later and would hopefully receive the I-171H form a week later on 6/16.  This form means that the US immigration office is allowing you to bring a foreign child into the US.  At this point, I’ll send our home study report and I-171H form on to be certified in Tallahassee (Randy can hand deliver this) and then on to the courier in Houston for authentication.  I’ll allow 2 weeks for that, to be cautious.  Making it 6/30 that I hope we can send our completed dossier to our agency, CCAI.  If we can do this, it will have taken us a little less than 4 months for dossier preparation.
Any gamblers out there?  I wonder how well I guessed!?

Our NC and NJ documents, that is!  On 5/5, I sent off our birth certificates and our marriage liscense to their respective couriers for authentication at the Chinese consulates.  We’re using couriers for this, rather than sending them directly to the consulates.  It costs extra, but this means that the couriers will thoroughly go through our paperwork and make sure all i’s are dotted and all t’s are crossed.  Then, they will hand-deliver them to the consulates and, when they’re ready, they will pick them up and then mail them back to me.  It was so hard letting those documents go at the Fed-Ex office!  I know the clerk thought I was nuts, checking and re-checking to make sure I had everything right.  I’ll be constantly checking the tracking on these packages until they arrive back to me, safe and sound!