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.