We celebrated Dave's 34th with a BBQ including his parents, sis/BIL & family, and our friends the Zegers. Dave celebrated with the boy's the Friday before - all of his friends showed up for poker & cigars. Good times.
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books I'm reading & recommend...
- a long way gone - Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - Ishmael Beah
- A New Kind of Christian - Brian McLaren
- The Shack - William P. Young
- Beautiful Boy - David Sheff
- Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
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ADOPTION TIME LINE
- 10.19.2008 - Received renewed I-171H in the mail, our new visa's expire in 18 months. Thankfully this part is over with, which included updating our homestudy, more fee's, applications, etc.
- 07.25.2008 - 1 year anniversary of our log-in date. Wow. It's funny that we've celebrated w/chinese food on every other month, but this one, b/c Dave is out of town.
- 07.15.2008 - Received renewed fingerprint approvals in the mail, they now expire in October 2009. Hopefully we'll be in China by then! Now off to renew our visa's with China.
- 07.07.2008 - Refingerprinted at the USCIS offices in Tukwila. This time the wait was significantly shorter than last time, and all we could think about is that we hope we don't have to repeat this again in 18 months!
- 06.25.2008 - 11 months - and waiting! Today we'll have our 11th Chinese dinner out, to celebrate another month gone by. We believe the wait is about half-over, assuming that match-times remain the same.
- 06.20.2008 - Received fingerprint appointment letter from USCIS to be refingerprinted again as our original approval expires next week. We'll apply for a new I-171H following the fingerprinting.
- 07.25.2007 - We are LOGGED IN!!! Today is our official date, in which China uses to match for adoption. Picture a big stack of applications, and we are at the bottom. We are thrilled that the paperchase is done, and now we await the most difficult part - the wait.
- 07.23.2007 - Notified by e-mail from an agency rep in China that he just delivered our dossier to the CCAA. We should expect our log-in date (LID) within two weeks.
- 07.19.2007 - Agency e-mail's us - our dossier was mailed to China today!!! They will notify us when it is hand-delivered to the CCAA (Chinese Consulate of Adoption Affairs)
- 07.12.2007 - Agency e-mails us and informs us that our dossier is complete - phew! :) It's finally off to the translation department.
- 06.28.2007 - Notified by agency that our dossier has been received, and is going into critical review
- 06.26.2007 - Photocopy 4 sets of all documents, mail originals, final fee's, and 9 pictures - 6 "family life" and 3 couple pictures of Dave and I. Overnight these documents to our agency in Colorado (see picture below of all the paperwork!)
- 06.24.2007 - Receive all documents back from LA constulate - the paperchase is officially done!!
- 05.15.2007 - All notarized and now certificated documents are in hand - one more big step to go! After making two full copies (a total of roughly 19 documents), and completing the application form, we mail off this precious paperwork to Los Angeles. The Chinese consulate there reviews each one of our documents and "authenticates" that it is an original and true document. They apply a red stamp to the back of each original and the authentication is written in Chinese.
- 05.02.2007 - Mail final notarized documents, including a copy of our I-171H doc, to the secretary of state to be certificated. Mail Dave's BC to California secretary of state
- 04.24.2007 - Receive our I-171H from the US Department of Homeland Security (completed 4/13/2007). We have been given "favorable determination concerning application for advance processing of orphan petition" AKA: We are a GO to adopt! Our application is awaiting us in Guangzhou, China. Hooray!!
- 03.30.2007 - Fingerprinted by the USCIS (US Citizen & Immigration Services) in Tukwila. After a 3 hour wait, we wonder why they make appiontments? :)
- 03.16.2007 - Receive "invitation" to be fingerprinted by the USCIS in Yakima. Our appointment was for 03.29, but we did not arrive home from vacation until this day. Thankfully, they were able to reschedule us for the following day.
- 03.02.2007 - Second I-600A filing to USCIS (home study report). We've officially been approved by the State of Washington to adopt! Now the long wait for our fingerprint appointment w/the FBI before we receive our I-171 (Immigration papers to travel to China and bring home a foreign-born child)
- 02.28.2007 - Received final copies (4) from Mike. Our home study is finished!!
- 02.22.2007 - Home study reviewed by agency and approved
- 02.20.2007 - Notarized documents mailed to Secretary of State to be "certificated"
- 02.18.2007 - Receive draft of home study from Mike for review
- 02.12.2007 - Second home study appointment with Mike
- 01.23.2007 - Mailed I-600A application to USCIS (US Customs & Immigration Services). First filing, minus home study report
- 01.15.2007 - Physical exam appointments
- 12.13.2006 - Received approval from agency!
- 12.12.2006 - First home study appointment with Mike, our adoption case worker
- 12.01.2006 - Mailed application to CCAI (agency)
Our Dossier
All of this precious paperwork is the result of 6 months of the "paperchase".
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