Our dossier is on the way to CHINA!

Louanne on Aug 20th 2010

We are happy to announce that our dossier passed inspection from our agency and left for China today! WOO HOO! And the wait begins.

This time around we are in the special medical needs line, which is very different than the non-special needs line that we were in for Nadia. The SN list comes out about once a month with new children available. The list currently has about 1,000 kids on it and the vast majority are boys. This is also very different from when we adopted Nadia and 90-95% of the adoptions were for girls. We want Nadia to stay the oldest, and most of the girls currently on the list are older than her.

With Nadia’s adoption our paperwork was put in line and then we were matched by a person in China with all the other people who had our log-in date. This time around the matcher for our adoption agency will find a child on the SN list that she thinks would be a good fit for our family and contact on us. From there we would send our Letter of Intent (LOI) to China. If they accept that then they will give us Pre-Approval (PA). That generally takes about a week. Once we have that we would be able to make an announcement and show the child’s photo.

The next step after that is is to wait, wait, wait for our Letter of Acceptance (LOA). The LOA can take up to 80 days to arrive. Once we get that from China we will be jumping for joy and waiting on one more hurdle – our Travel Approval (TA).

Once the TA arrives we all apply for Visas and get ready to travel. From the way the timeline is moving today we would be looking at 4 months from Pre-Approval to Travel Approval. When we got Nadia’s referral it was about 7 weeks total from the day we saw her photo until we were on a plane to China. And I thought that 7 weeks was the longest of my life. 4 months is going to feel like an eternity, but God is good and we know that it will all work out as it should. And just to make sure no one misunderstands, that four months doesn’t start until we are matched with a child. A girl who is a fit for our family could be available for us as soon as next month or not until next year; we really don’t know.

I really hope that helped those of you who have asked about the differences in Nadia’s adoption and this one.

Filed in Adoption,China | 7 responses so far

  • Gwen

    Wow, this is great! I remember how exciting it was to FINALLY have DTC!

  • Lynnea

    Soooo happy to be DTC with you and be your LID buddy! Can’t wait for Sept. list to come and see if our daughters are on it!!! :)
    Such a looonnggg wait! Today Lena woke up and asked “get sister today?” Oh honey…..
    Blessings and love!

  • catherinethegreat

    Congrats again. I hope the time to your referral is short. But I know all in God’s time. God is good.
    Take care. CTG

  • Laurie Gruhn

    Louanne,
    I have not followed your blog in the longest time, but I follwed it religiously from the time you left for China for quite awhile. I originally got to know you guys becaue you were part of the Waiting for Your First Child from China group. While my LID was 7.14.06, I went on the SN list and was matched with my daughter on July 14, 2008 . (My two year LID anniversary!) I traveled in November 08. I was so excited to see your news! This will be such a gift for you and your family! I will now be following eagerly! And Nadia has become such a beauty! WOO HOO! Life is Good!
    Laurie
    DD: Susanna, born May 26, 2005, Gotcha Day 11.10.08

    PS: Her special needs were crossed eyes and an extra thumb.

  • Cristina

    Whoohoo!!! Fabulous news guys.

  • http://www.footballandfriedrice.blogspot.com Sara

    So excited for y’all!! congratulations!! can’t wait to see Nadia become a big sister!

  • http://preciouswondersandlittlemonkeys.blogspot.com/ Sara

    AHHHHH! YIPPEEE!!!!!! How awesome is this! Congratulations on your “dossier prego-ness”! Nadia is going to love her litle one… oh and you two too!!! ;) Taiwan is completely different than China’s program (thankfully on the wait afterward dept.). So if the 4 months afterward starts to get to you, remember the year wait I had and maybe it’ll help. I had to keep telling myself about other’s misfortune to be thankful about my hiccups (not that I enjoy other’s misfortune… just helps keep tabs on my persepectives). I just wrote a post about my daughter’s SN situation which we had one of God’s miracles in store for us. God is watching over you and yours and your little one unknown to you but known to Him. May peace be with you! ;) really… patience was a word I often repeated to myself! Much love, Sara