OUR TIMELINE

April 19, 2006: Mailed application to Children's Hope International
April 25, 2006: Received preliminary approval from CHI
April 29, 2006: Received info packet from CHI on how to get started
May 1, 2006: Received final approval from CHI home office in St. Louis
May 3, 2006: Mailed I-600 application
May 8, 2006: Spoke with Pat at Children of the World in Fairhope, AL about getting started on our homestudy.
May 12, 2006: Received application from Children of the World for homestudy. Also, went to Health Dept to get certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage license and went to courthouse and applied for Steve and Monica's passports (we will do the boys later).
May 13, 2006: Received fingerprint appointment from CIS (6-6-06 12:00)
May 14, 2006: Mailed homestudy application back to Children of the World
May 18, 2006: Received email from Olga at Children of the World. We have been approved and she is mailing our homestudy packet today!
May 29, 2006: Received homestudy packet from Children of the World
June 6, 2006: Went to Birminham to CIS office for fingerprint appointment
June 7, 2006: Appointment with Dr. Schuster to get medical forms filled out. Went by banks for financial letters and went to HR at the hospital to get my employment verification. Steve got his employment letter today, too.
June 20, 2006: Mailed completed homestudy packet to Olga at Children of the World
June 23, 2006: Received Steve and Monica's passports
July 16, 2006: Spoke with Pat Sampson today. She is the social worker that will be doing our homestudy. Set up first meeting.

July 19, 2006: Received DHR approval letters saying we qualified to adopt with both the ABI and FBI

July 21, 2006: First homestudy meeting with Mrs. Pat. She has looked over all our paperwork and assures us she sees no reason why we won't be able to adopt.

July 25, 2006: Monica meets with Mrs. Pat for lunch. This counts as our second visit.

August 4, 2006: Mrs. Pat comes to our house for a walk-through and to talk to the boys. This is our Third meeting!

August 16, 2006: Our Homestudy is complete!! We had lunch with Mrs. Pat today and went over the rough draft. She is emailing it to Olga for her edits and then it's off to DHR! Hooray!!

August 18, 2006: We went to the Lauderdale county courthouse and Morgan county courthouse today to get two of our notaries county certified. Talked with Olga when we got back and she is satisfied with the homestudy and is emailing it to Vonda at CHI for her approval!!

August 22, 2006: Received an email today from Mrs. Pat. She said the agencies have reviewed our homestudy and had another question about our guardians. WHAT??? I know we have covered this....I thought (hoped, prayed) that this homestudy was on it's way to DHR and I find out it isn't even finished. I am soooo disappointed and frustrated! She said this was the only thing she had to do and then it would be finished.....Gosh, I hope so!!

August 26, 2006: Received an email from Mrs. Pat today. She said our homestudy is finished and she has mailed it to Olga at Children of the World! Finally......

August 31, 2006: Steve spoke with Pat Lee, the director of Children of the World in Fairhope (homestudy agency). She told him that our homestudy has been signed and is on it's way to DHR today! Hooray!!

September 25, 2006: Received our completed Baldwin county certified Homestudy today. Still no word on whether our papers have left DHR and are on their way to Atlanta.

September 26, 2006: Send 12 dossier documents to the Secretary of State for authentication via Trackable UPS. Also, I received an email from Olga. She got a letter today saying that our homestudy has been approved by DHR and was sent to INS on Sept 20!!

October 2, 2006: Received dossier documents back from Montgomery. Chinese Consulate in Houston is closed this week, so I will wait until Friday to send them on to Houston. Still waiting on 171 from Atlanta...

October 6, 2006: Sent dossier documents to Chinese Consulate in Houston via trackable UPS.

October 10, 2006: Dossier documents delivered to Houston Consulate.

October 20, 2006: All 12 Authenticated Dossier Documents arrived home safe and sound from the Houston Consulate! Come on 171......

December 14, 2006: Saw Lily Mei's picture on the Children of the World website. Called Mrs. Pat.

December 15, 2006: Mrs. Pat faxed Liang, Xiao Long's file to us. I emailed it to Dr. Chambers at the UAB International Adoption Clinic for her review.

December 16, 2006: Received our 171H form from Homeland Security!

December 17, 2006: Talked with Dr. Chambers on the phone for quite some time. She has reviewed Xiao Long's file and says she is developmentally right on target and sees no problems with her medical history.

December 18, 2006: Called Mrs. Pat at Children of the World and told her we wanted to accept Xiao Long (aka Lily Mei) as our daughter. Mrs. Pat faxed the acceptance packet.

December 19, 2006: Faxed completed acceptance packet back to Mrs. Pat at Children of the World. Received overnight originals, filled them out and overnighted them back to Mrs. Pat.

December 20, 2006: Talked with Mrs. Pat again. She said everything was in order and Xiao Long was ours. She has already sent part of our packet to Doris in China and she has begun translating. We could travel to bring her home as early as April!!

January 3, 2007: Sent Lily Mei's care package to Mrs. Pat. She is taking it to China with her when she travels this month!

January 5, 2007: Went to Dr. Harris' office for travel shots. Steve needed 3, the boys got 2 each, and I only needed 1! Hooray!

January 25, 2007: Our completed dossier sent to China. We are now officially DTC!

February 7, 2007: We are officially "Logged-In"!!

February 14, 2007: Received the boys passports in the mail today.

April 27, 2007: Mrs. Pat called today and said we recieved our Letter Seeking Confirmation!! We were on our way to the beach, so we went by Fairhope and signed the acceptance and Mrs. Pat put it right back in the mail to the CCAA. Now all we need is Travel Approval and we're on our way!! HOORAY

May 31, 2007: We have Travel Approval!!!!

June 6, 2007: Mrs. Pat called and our consulate appointment is confirmed for June 25 at 11:00. She said we could start getting our airline tickets. We will leave on Friday, June 15 and return Wednesday, June 27. I sent off for our visas today, too.

June 11, 2007: Mrs. Pat said we would be getting Lily Mei on June 20. We decided to leave a day later to save a little money.

June 16, 2007: Leave Hsv. International airport at 9:00 am.

June 18, 2007: Arrive Guanzhou, China.

June 19, 2007: Fly to Chongqing, China

June 20, 2007: GOTCHA DAY!!!!

June 23, 2007: Fly back to Guangzhou

June 26, 2007: Consulate Swearing-In

June 27, 2007: Leave for HOME!!!!!!

What's Our Dossier Doing While at CCAA?

1. CHI Beijing office takes your dossier to the CCAA.
2. Your dossier enters the CCAA administration office and can waitfor up to 1 month to be logged in. Once you have a log in date (LID)your official wait begins.
3. Your dossier waits to begin the process. This currently takes 3 to 4 months.
4. The CCAA administration office passes your dossiers to Bridge ofLove where they verify your dossier's translation. This processtakes from 2 to 3 months.
5. Your dossier is passed to Department I for review. This processtakes from 1 to 2 months.
6. Your dossier is passed to Department II for matching. This toocan take from 3 to 4 months. Your dossier is matched several weeksbefore step #7.
7. Your referral is sent to the administrative office to be signedby all the CCAA directors and mailed to CHI. This can take several weeks.
8. You receive your referral - a very happy day! You return your acceptance of referral letter to the CCAA.
9. The CCAA sends your travel approval to come to China to completeyour adoption. This process takes about 1 month.10. You travel to China to meet your child and complete the adoption.This is approximately 6-8 weeks after referral.

The current wait from LID to referral is 13 months as of 8/2006.

COMMON ABBREVIATIONS

DTC = dossier to China, Date your dossier was sent to China from the CHI St. Louis office

LID = log in date with the CCAA in China and the official start date of your wait for referral

TA = travel approval

ACR = Age of Child Requested

DOR = Date of Referral Date you received the photo and other information about the child you will/have adopted.

TA = Travel approval to come to China to complete the adoption

DOT = Date of Travel Date you will/did leave to travel to China for the adoption.

NSN = Non Special Needs Child without a known medical condition.

SN = Special Needs Child with a discernable medical condition.

LIO = letter of intent to adopt a waiting child

PA = pre-approval to adopt a waiting child

SW = Social Worker The social worker who prepares the home study, which is a major part of your dossier.

SWI = Social Welfare Institute (orphanage).

a. mm/dd/yy = adopted on mm/dd/yy

b. mm/dd/yy = born on mm/dd/yy

DH = Dear Husband .

DW = Dear Wife .

DD = Dear Daughter .

DSD = Dear Step Daughter .

DS = Dear Son .

DSS = Dear Step Son .

MIL = Mother in Law (May or may not be dear ...)

FIL = Father in Law .

SIL = Sister in Law .

BIL = Brother in Law .

DP = Dear Partner

OT = Off Topic Any topic not related to the stated purpose of the email list.

CCAA = China Center for Adopton Affairs The part of the Chinese government that processes all dossier and matches prospective families and Chinese children needing families.

INS = Immigration and Naturalization Service The part of the U.S. government that all U.S. families must deal with to allow the immigration of their child into the U.S.

= Little grin .

= Very Big Grin .

BB = Bulletin Board Usually electronic forum where messages are posted.

BTW = By the Way .

FWIW = For What It's Worth .

ROFL = Rolling on the Floor, Laughing You may only write this if you have in fact rolled on the floor first or you may roll your child, cat or dog a few times!

LOL = Laughing Out Loud You should actually laugh out loud to use this one in good conscience.

IMHO = In My Humble Opinion

OTOH = On The Other Hand

BTDT = been there done that