We are in Translation!!!!

Our agency called us yesterday to let us know we passed critical review and our dossier is being sent for translation!! I'm so glad everything was ok with the dossier!! Translation takes about a week then it will go to China (DTC)!!!!

Final Document Off To Agency!

So our Dossier is complete and the last document has been all certified and authenticated today and Fedex'd to our agency! Here we come Critical Review!

I-171H IS HERE!!!!

Ok for those of you who don't know what that is or why I am so excited.. this is the LAST piece of paperwork I need to send to the agency. It is the Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition. This means we will make the agency's deadline!! All I need to do is spend a few days in NYC getting it certified and authenticated and off to the agency it goes. The next step is the agency will review all the paperwork and translate it and send it off to China. This is called DTC. Then when China gets it they log it in, LID. The LID is important because they match children with families by the LID date. So everyone with a LID before us gets matched first. That is why it's so important to get LID asap! THEN WE WAIT!

I bought Raven a couple of books from Barnes & Noble this weekend. One about a panda and another about a cat, both board books. They were on clearance so why not. Can never have enough books!

Now that we KNOW we are meeting the deadline, it's so much easier to refer to the baby by name, even though she probably will not be born until next year. She might not even be conceived yet!

Life is good! (I saw that on a spare tire on the back of someone's car today as I was going to get the I-171H notarized - how appropriate!)

USCIS Approval Email!

After emailing USCIS (Immigration) on Monday asking for a status, I got an email yesterday stating that our case was pulled and will be reviewed. I got an email today stating that we are approved and the approval notice (I-171H) will be mailed in 3-5 days!! That is the last thing we are waiting for. I'll be stalking the mailman now till it comes. Then I'll go into the city the day after I receive it to get it certified and authenticated, will probably take 2 days. Then I can Fedex to CCAI with some more fees. Looks like I'll be DTC (Dossier to China) in April since it's getting close to the end of the month.

At least we know at this point we are definetly making the deadline for China! Then we just have to sit back and wait. Right now the wait time is up to 18 months, but I'm hearing it'll probably go to 24 months if not a little longer. That's not good but at least in the meantime I'll have enough time to get some things done around the house adn save some money as well. We'll be able to take our time with the nursery and maybe can either get a new fence for the backyard, or maybe new windows. We need some furniture too. We are also thinking about getting me a new car since my car is 11 years old now. Maybe get something a little bigger with a hatchback. I think I need to make a list! haha At this rate, 24 months will fly by!!!

Dossier off to CCAI!

I will be heading to Fedex in a little while to drop off the package that contains our Dossier, minus the I171H which we are still waiting for. Here is a picture of all the docs spreadout on my table. They include:

Adoption Petition

Financial Statement

Medical Report - Freddy

Medical Report - Chris

Police Clearance Letter - Freddy

Police Clearance Letter - Chris

Employment Letter - Freddy

Employment Letter - Chris

Birth Certificate - Freddy

Birth Certificate - Chris

Marraige Certificate

Homestudy Report

Passport Copy - Freddy

Passport Copy - Chris

Doctor's Letter - Freddy

3 Passport Photos - Freddy

3 Passport Photos - Chris

Couple Photos (Need 3, but included more)

Family Photos (Need 8, but included more)

AND

A full set of copies of everything!

The agency will only be able to start the review if time permits since this Dossier is incomplete. They usually only start the review process when they have a complete Dossier, but since so many people are probably trying to get in before the deadline, they want to get started reviewing as many as they can, if they can.

When I get teh I171H and have it notarized, county certified, state certified and authenticated by the Consulate, then I just need to send it to them with a check for the fees and if they haven't started review at that point they will start.

ONE MORE DOCUMENT TO GO!!!!

I went to the Chinese Consulate in NYC today to get 3 more documents authenticated. Now we are officially only waiting on the I171H from USCIS!!!!!! In the meantime I can send all of the dossier documents and photos to our agency so they can start to review them if they have time (they usually only review complete dossiers). Once we get the I171H it'll probably take about 2 days for me to get a copy of it notarized, county certified, state certified and authenticated at the Chinese Consulate, then Fedex it to the agency. Hopefully USCIS will be good to us and get it to us sooner than later.

WOOOOHOOOO.. almost there!!

Another step closer....

Last time we went to USCIS there was a snow storm. Today we attempted to drive to the city in a rain storm! Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will keep me from finishing this paperwork! We ended up getting off the expressway and taking the train in. Of course when we got there the sun was out! We received our completed homestudy reports yesterday, had another little bump with the Notary's Commission expiration which we got fixed. Today we dropped our homestudy off at USCIS, which they need to finish processing our paperwork so that we can get approval to adoption and orphan from overseas (that's actually how they phrase it). So we were told to call them in 3 weeks to "gently" ask if it was done yet. Mind you, we only have 3 weeks left to get this last document to the agency so we are cutting it close.

We also went to the State Dept. to get 3 more documents certified and I am going Monday to the Chinese Consulate to get them authenticated. That will only leave the USCIS doc to be completed.

We are soooooooo close! Once we get our paperwork to China we can relax.. for about 2 years.. HAHA Right now the wait time to actually receive a referral of a child is 18 months I think, but I keep hearing rumors it's going to go up to 24+ months because of all the last minute people trying to get their paperwork in before the deadline. So we'l just have to be patient and keep ourselves busy for 2 years. There's plenty I can do around the house... like THE NURSERY! LOL Among other things. Freddy is going back to school for Fine Arts. I want to take the dog to another training course. We'll keep busy for sure.