On 11/23/16, we received the perfect Thanksgiving present. We learned that our Dossier was on it's way to China for official review. This is summarized by "DTC". Dossier is just a fancy word for our packet. The packet is our whole life on paper. It contained our home study (see previous blog for all this entails), our employment references, three of our other references, our financial status, medical documents, police checks, abuse registry checks and many photos of our family and daily lives. All of these items had to be notarized by a local notary, certified by the State of Ohio (I'm BFFs with Dave at the State Secretary's office now) and then authenticated (which just means verifying what the state has already certified) by the Chinese consulate in New York City. It was a long drawn out process, so when the packet is complete and FINALLY sent to China, it is the first real milestone, hence the DTC celebration.
The next major milestone is called the LID. Once China receives our Dossier, they log it into their system and begin translating all of it and reviewing all of it. When they log it into their system, this signifies official receipt and they issue you a "Log-in Date" otherwise known as "LID". For us, this date was 11/28/16. In our case, this was a particular important date because we were obligated to get our Dossier logged in by 1/10/17 in order to stay locked in with Cheyenne. If they did not receive our Dossier by 1/10, they would have released her file back into the adoption world for another family to find her.
Now that our Dossier is being translated and reviewed, we are (impatiently) waiting to receive our "LOA" (Letter of Approval). This would be the next MAJOR milestone. The letter of approval means that China has officially blessed our Dossier and has formally approved us to adopt her. We already received a pre-approval when we started the process. I'm hoping that speeds up this process. We are at the mercy of the Chinese government and there is no rhyme or reason as to how long they take to approve Dossiers. Some are approved in a couple of weeks while others take months. I'm praying for an early Christmas present! I believe another reason the LOA is so important is because that's when China will tell her that she is being adopted. This is what I've been told, but today our case worker told us that we can begin emailing their China rep to begin the notification process.
I emailed the China rep right away. He told me that he will buy her a cake and a stuffed animal and deliver to her along with a photo album of all of us. He will then tell her she is being adopted and present her with these items. I've asked him to video record it or at least photograph it but I haven't heard back from him yet.
The wait is excruciating, but today we got a little relief. Not only was I given permission to reach out to their China rep to begin the notification process, but we also received updated measurements and three new photos of her. She is now just over 4 feet tall and weighs about 58 pounds. Here are the pictures they sent:
I love this one with her hair down. This is the first time we've seen her with her hair down. Isn't she beautiful? And check out the little scrape on her knee...I bet she plays hard and will give the boys a run for their money!
For now, we will continue to wait... Please continue to pray for all of us.
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