People ask us all the time where we are in the adoption process and what all these terms and abbreviations mean. This picture diagrams the process.
We are between step 6 and 7 of 15, just waiting for our agency to approve the dossier we submitted and send it to China. (The dossier is composed of all the documents we spent months putting together, then notarizing, then county certifying, then state certifying and finally certified by the Chinese Consulate.) Now that the Atlanta office of CCAI (our agency) has done a critical review of our dossier and found everything to be complete, they will send it to Colorado, where they are headquartered. Finally, hopefully in a few days, but more likely next week, it will be sent to China. This very important step is known as DTC--Dossier to China. Once the dossier is received in China and they log it in to the system, we are given a LID--Log in Date. This date is what makes us eligible to be matched to our little girl, which is what happens between steps 7 and 8, so it's a pretty important step.
It has been a long two weeks waiting for our dossier to progress through the stages at our agency, but it has finally finished critical review and will be sent from the Atlanta office to the head office in Colorado today. When I say it has been a long two weeks, I will admit that I have been doing a bit of obsessing. Like all the moms in the Chinese adoptive process, I want to get to the next step as soon as possible because each step gets me closer to getting my little girl home to her family where she belongs. But this step is a really big step and there is an unavoidable hurdle in my progress. The Chinese Childrens Welfare (CCCWA) closes from September 29-October 7 for a holiday. That means nothing is done that week. I really hoped that our dossier would be in China when they were closed for the holiday. At the beginning of September dossiers that went to the Atlanta office were sent within a couple days to the Colorado office and were DTC a few days after that. So when I submitted our dossier on September 12, it seemed a real possibility, but I guess it was not meant to be.
That may sound very dismissive, "it was not meant to be". Despite the fact that I admit to obsessing a bit, stressing a bit, getting a little sad with this delay and a little frustrated, I truly believe that we will be exactly at the point we need to be at when our daughter's file is ready. From the time of our LID, it could be days, weeks or months before we get a referral. I am hoping for days, but the reality is that it will probably be months. I hoped to know who our little girl was by this Christmas, eventhough I knew we wouldn't be approved to go get her until next Spring, at the earliest. Now from all the indications, we might not know who she is by Christmas. That makes me sad, I have to admit. But I truly believe that must just mean her file won't be ready yet. Her file will be ready, or we will somehow be directed to her, when the time is right. So beside the fact that my human nature says that time is passing and we are getting older and our boys are getting older and we are ready and waiting for her, we will continue to wait until it is time.
Feel free to kindly remind me I said that if I start obsessing again in the near future.
(9/28/12 update: Due to the holiday, we have confirmed that our dossier will sit in the Colorado CCAI office and will not be mailed to China until 10/5/12.)
