In order to adopt from China, families must go through a series of steps. Sometimes the steps are done in specific order and sometimes they are out of order based on when you receive your referral. I am keeping a timeline log on the side of the blog for reference on how quickly, or not so quickly things progress. Here's a list of the steps:
Application for China agency
Application for Home Study agency (if different)
LOI-Letter of Intent, a letter written by our family that expresses our desire to adopt and care for Yanan
Home Study-8 to 14 page document that outlines our family's history, health, finances, family
interactions, adoption recommendations, and approval to adopt
I800A-Preapproval from the US government to bring an orphan into the US, includes getting
fingerprinted for a federal background check
DTC-Dossier is sent to China, Dossier is a very important packet of documents that China translates
and uses to give us approval to adopt, these documents have to be certified, state sealed, and
authenticated by the Chinese consulate
LID-Log in Date, the date China receives our dossier
LOA-Letter of Acceptance, letter stating that we have been approved by China to adopt a
specific child (Yanan)
I800-Approval by the US government to petition a visa for a specific orphan (Yanan)
NVC Cable-National Visa Center will electronically send our approval of the visa petition to the China
Embassy
NVC Letter-The official letter from the NVC that our petition has been forwarded to the Embassy
Article 5-Embassy verifies that all paperwork is in order to child visa to be issued
TA-Travel Approval, typically leave for China about a week or so later
CA-Consulate Appointment, Yanan's Adoption Day in China!
There are lots of steps and paperwork that goes along with each of the steps listed above. Many China adoptions of our nature take a year or more. Our agency is hoping for 9 months of less. We know how big God is and we are praying that God will intercede and bring her home before her 13th birthday. We've gotten off to a great start. As of now, we have almost all of our dossier documents ready to go. The packet will be mailed this week to our China agency for processing and authenticating. We have completed our home study visits and the plan is to have a home study draft by the end of the week. Our Letter of Intent was completed and sent last Friday! We have our I800A application ready to send when our home study is complete.
If things continue as planned, we will leave for Disney this Saturday knowing our I800A and home study will be sent to USCIS while we are on vacation! It's amazing to see how quickly God has allowed the paperwork and steps to progress. Please join us in praying for those who review and approve our documents. We know, as her parents, that no one else is as passionate about bringing her home as we are. But our prayer is that others will process our paperwork quickly and with care. It's difficult to see her face and not have the ability bring her home right away. So I am working on the things I can control and trying to giving the rest to God. So far, that has worked... But we are only 3 weeks in and her video is getting played several times a day by this momma!
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