Log In Date & An Orphanage Update!!

 

After 3 weeks of waiting, CCCWA finally notified the agency of our log in date- April 27th.  So we are officially 12 days into our wait for LOA!!  We requested a medical expedite, so we are hoping we will see LOA in the 30s (or sooner)!! :)

We also recently received an update from Ben's orphanage and answers to a few questions we had asked!

How often does he receive transfusions?
Every 15-30 days.

Due to the blood shortage, does he have difficulty receiving transfusions?
The hospital always has blood supply for him.

Has he received any immunizations?
No.

Is he receiving medication to lower the iron levels due to transfusions?
The child does not use medicine to lower his blood iron.

Has he had a new blood test recently?  Could you please send us those results?
He had a new blood cell count recently.  (was not attached)

Does he communicate with his teachers and friends now?
Yes, his speech skill is normal and he can communicate with his peers and teachers.

What kind of food does he like?
He likes every kind of food.

What does he like to play with?
He enjoys playing and plays well with other children in the center.

New measurements were included that show our little guy to be around a size 4.  So now this Momma is hard at work getting his half of the closet filled up!! :)

We were also lucky enough to receive 17 new photos!!  They took him out on the playground for a photo shoot and bribed him with food to get us lots of smiles and peace signs!!
He is even cuter than I thought he would be!!! :)  I'm so in love and ready to go get my son already!!!!  Come on LOA!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Fannie

DTC!!

Forgive me for my lateness in this post!!  I am on night watch this month and just got back from 5 days of house hunting down in Alabama, but on April 15th our dossier began the journey to China!

That's right, we are FINALLY DTC!!!  So what happens now?  Good question!!  This is a long process, so I've borrowed a flowchart from a fellow waiting family to help illustrate!! :)  We have now completed step 7 and moved on to 8!!!

We requested a medical expedite which could reduce our wait for the CCCWA to approve our application and dossier, culminating in a document known as Letter Seeking Confirmation (commonly referred to as LOA- letter of approval) to be sent to our agency..  The dossier process in China is one of the biggest unknowns with regard to timeframes.  The dossier approval timelines vary wildly!!  The basic timeline is 30-120 days.  Last year many families waited even longer than 120 days.  In recent months I've seen people receive their LOA in 24 days without a medical expedite!!  That's actually pretty unheard of in Chinese adoptions until recently!!  Still others are at 85+ days and counting..

SO how long it will take from now?  We simply don't know!  What we do know is that our little boy is waiting and we pray that LOA is sooner rather than later!!  Along with submitting our dossier, we requested an update from Ben's orphanage with nine questions for them to answer for us so that we can learn a little more about our boy! :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Fannie, Matt, & Katelynn

Things are moving fast!!

Today I checked the mail, hopeful, but realistically not expecting to see our USCIS approval until we get back from vacation.

God may be up to something because we got this approved from delivery to approval in 30 days!!  It has taken 45-60 for most people I've seen!

Looks like all we have left is authentication of this over in DC and then our dossier should be complete!  Yea!!!

Thanks for stopping by,
Fannie

Dossier ALMOST complete!!

You know what this means!!!  Our dossier docs are ready to head to the agency!

For those of you who don't yet know the process of submitting a dossier to China, I am happy to explain.  First of all, there's a list of documents that have to be completed and submitted to China.  These documents make up your "dossier".  The list is long!  Most documents have to go through a full authentication process where the state verifies the authenticity of a document followed by the Chinese Consulate.  It's a LOT of work, but when you are done you get these fancy little attachments to your original documents!

Our birth certificates and marriage certificate required state seals...

All of our notarized documents must make a trip to the US Secretary of State's office in DC for authentication...  These documents include:
Employment letter (one for each of us)
Medical physical (one for each of us)
Financial Statement
Adoptive Parent Letter
Police Records Check (one for each of us)

Finally all the documents receive final authentication from the Chinese Embassy.  This certifies to China that all documents are official ...

So, that's it!  Months of work to get these eleven documents completed, authenticated, and headed for my agency!!

And we are STILL missing two things!  Our agency just submitted our home study to the Chinese Consulate for authentication and we haven't received our I-800 approval which I'm pretty sure also has to go through an authentication process after it is received.  We are almost dossier ready though!  For now, we will just focus on that!

Thanks for stopping by,
Fannie