We've crossed another hurdle!

Ahhhh.  Finally DTC--dossier to China!  Felt so good last Thursday, April 21, to know that our package was at last complete.  Our agency received the last 10 documents from the Courier and forwarded everything to China.  Now we just wait to hear that they've given us a log-in date (LID) and  then wait for our referral approvals.  We still have a long time to wait, though.  Here is an approximate timeline given to me by our agency today:

The estimated average timeframe from the dossier to China date to the Referral Acceptance (RA) is about 2-4 months.  While families in the non-Hague process typically receive their Travel Approval (TA) 2-6 weeks after their RA, it takes about 8-12 weeks longer for families in the Hague process. Please be aware that your TA will most likely arrive 10-14 weeks after you receive your RA and submit your I800 application. Families typically travel 2 ½ -4 weeks after their TA arrives. 

So I'm estimating that we'll receive our LID next week (today, Tuesday, is the day China is supposed to receive our paperwork, so they'll probably log it in today and our agency will hear about it next week).  Our RA may arrive around the week of June 6, based on some of the recent cases of RAs arriving after 39 or so days. I really don't think it will take any longer than 2 months, and hopefully less. Then, that would put us into August for our I800 paperwork to process, since ours is a Hague convention adoption.  So we'll probably get our I800 approval in early August and travel in September.  Still such a long way to go....

I am now gearing up to prepare the fun little 10-page I800 forms; one for each child.  Should be another wrist-killer!  And to think the I800A, a one page front and back document was the only thing we needed to fill out for our other three adoptions.   I'm told filling out all this paperwork up front is supposed to replace the "paperwork party" we had to do in China for each adoption. I think I'll miss those gatherings when we all used to crowd into our travel guide's hotel room and spend almost 2 hours filling out forms.  

I am hoping to request an update on our children soon.  We are permitted to ask for updates every six months, so I plan to do that for Joshua in May, since we haven't heard anything since November. I'm hoping they'll give us a little glimpse of Sarah Irene as well.

Almost at the next milestone

The past few weeks have been no picnic in our little adoption world!  Our I-800A was approved on March 18 and I had expected to receive the approval in the mail within a few days so I could send it off for certification before our departure for vacation on the 25th.  Well, as often happens in God's timing, I came to terms with the situation on March 24th.  I knew I would just have to take my mind off the paperwork and focus on having a nice trip to NC with the girls.  We enjoyed our vacation and travel, and as expected, the approval letter arrived the afternoon of the 25th after we had left on our trip.

We returned on Saturday, April 2, and I could do nothing over the weekend.  Monday was the day Merrilee started standardized testing required by the state of GA, so I could not get the paperwork notarized until the afternoon.  By God's grace I was able to get the document notarized, certified and FedEx'd to Atlanta that day.  I felt like I finally had the ball rolling as the last piece of paperwork greased its way through the system.  The Secretary of State's office returned it to me late that morning with it's beautiful Great Seal on Wednesday, and I was overjoyed to know the entire dossier was complete! 

I packed the kids up in the car and we left for the FedEx office once again to send the dossier to the courier in Houston.  My hopes were that she could take it to the Chinese Consulate on Friday and the last step would be finished so I could send the dossier to our adoption agency, and from there it would head to China.  Well, what I hoped and what happened were two entirely different things.

The courier called me Thursday night to tell me she had found three big mistakes with our dossier that I did not catch.  The first one was that the director of the homestudy agency signed and dated the homestudy as January 19, 2011, and the notary signed it January 18, 2011.   Since the notary’s signature cannot be dated before the signer’s signature, we had to get that fixed.  The courier suggested I ask for permission for her to change the 19 to an 18 with a pen so the dates would match. 

Secondly, the Secretary of State in Atlanta used a wrong notary’s name on the cover page with the Great Seal on one of the documents.  I had to contact the SOS and ask them to mail the courier a new cover page with a Great Seal to fix the mistake.  

And the third mistake had to do with the date of a notary’s commission that did not match with the certification date on my medical form. Since the medical form was signed in October and the doctor's signature had to be less than 180 days old, I only had a few more days to get the document authenticated.  There was no way to correct this problem in a timely manner, so I had to send a new medical form to the clinic, have a different doctor who has never examined me sign the form and get it notarized, and then take the form through the entire process of certifications again.

As you can imagine, I cried.  And after wiping away my tears, getting sweet cards and hugs from Merrilee, Jacob, and Katie Mei as they saw my distress, and crying again, I went to bed.  I prayed over and over that God would defeat the sense of failure the enemy had placed on me for not checking the documents thoroughly myself, and that He would fix what was broken.  I knew that this trouble was temporary, and that I had to place this burden on shoulders much stronger than my own. The next morning I sent Jay to work with a new medical form.  Then I put on my Big Girl panties and started making phone calls.  Everyone I needed to talk to was exceptionally helpful, and by Friday afternoon I had two of the problems solved.

The medical exam form proved a little more difficult since no one was available to sign it on Friday.  Thankfully, by Tuesday of this week--just two business days later--we had a new signed form.  I immediately took the form to the courthouse and got it certified, and then took it to FedEx to send it to Atlanta.  I put in a separate envelope to have it sent directly to the courier from there.   As of yesterday, Thursday, the form had been certified and was bearing the Great Seal, and today the entire dossier is on its way, or already at, the Chinese Consulate!

I know this is a ridiculously long post and if anyone is still reading it, you are probably one of those people who can sit and read through the book of Numbers without being tempted to skip any pages!  But I just wanted to record all of this so I can remember the huge, HUGE mountains that God moved on our behalf this past week.  Last Thursday I really felt like I was at the end of my rope and wasn't sure I was able to scale the massive wall before me.  But I just kept reminding myself of my new favorite life verse:

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you."  Isaiah 26:3

This verse has anchored me over and over in the past several months.  God is so good, and by just placing my trust in Him, I have been able to sleep when sleep would normally not be possible.  I have been able to see Merrilee through surgery without fear or anxiety.  I have been able to seek help and find it, where I normally would try to take things into my own hands.  I am so grateful to have God by my side, and know that "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!"  Psalm 150:6

Can I hear an Amen?