Friday, September 23, 2005

Adoption Timeline

Ok, for us singles, we have to go about things a little differently than the married folks. In order to adopt from China (who allows singles to adopt, unlike some other countries) I had to find an adoption agency with a singles slot for 2005. China only allows 8% of their adoption families to be singles! So, I applied with CCAI in December, as they were having a lottery to fill their 2005 singles slots. Amazingly, I got in! Woohoo! I found out about January 4, 2005.

List of documents needed for my Dossier (some people need more or less depending on where you adopt from) :



  1. Adoption Petition,
  2. Birth Certificate (BC),
  3. Police Clearance (state or county, I chose state),
  4. Physical from my family Dr.,
  5. Financial Statement,
  6. Employment Letter,
  7. I-171H,
  8. HomeStudy report,
  9. Guardianship Affidavit,
  10. Single's Statement

Once I got all these documents together, I had to have them Notarized, County Certified, State Certified, State Deptartment Authenticated, and authenticated at the Chinese Consulate in Washington, DC! Whew.

In addition to these, I needed 3 letters of recommendation and had to have a background check done to say that I have never been convicted of anything, proof of sanitation (water) and a statement from my bank. But none of this went into my actual dossier. It was just for my homestudy.



  • January 4, 2005 - CCAI singles' slot approval
  • February 2005 - called different homestudy agencies in my area and chose Adoption Assistance, out of Danville, KY.
  • March 2005 - Went to an adoption seminar (that counted toward my homestudy)
  • April 2005 - April 19 - Employer letter was written and notarized by my employer, I received my Statement from the Bank that I needed for my HomeStudy. 4/26 - ordered copies of my Birth Certificate from Ohio, put in requests for my KY state police report clearance and Child Abuse Registery Check. I also wrote up my Adoption petition, Financial Statement, Guardianship Affidavit and Single's statement. I did all this in April because it was required for my homestudy.
  • May 2005 - May 18 - First homestudy visit! Boy, did I CLEAN the house for this one! LOL. May 26 (grandma's birthday) - 2nd homestudy visit in Louisville. Also in May, I drove to Louisville, KY, to get fingerprinted for the INS approval and submitted my I-600A.
  • June 10 2005 - Homestudy was complete on June 8 and sent to CCAI and INS on June 10! This means that I-171H wait starts now (hoping to have I-171H by end of August).
  • July - August 2005 - waiting, waiting, waiting for the I-171H!
  • August 25, 2005 - 66 days wait for my I-171H from the time my homestudy was submitted to the INS . I-171H received August 25! Woohoo! (KY average is 70 days for this document and you can't bring a child into the US from another country without this approval!)
  • September 2-9, 2005 - First week of Sept, USPS Express mailed my BC to Ohio to get state certified. Took one week to receive it back.
  • September 7-9, 2005 - I went to my bank to have all 9 documents (not BC, 'cause it didn't have to be) notarized. Some of these documents were notarized as originals and some were notarized as copies.
  • Sept 9, 2005 - Today I went to the Campbell County Clerk to have 9 documents authenticated at the county level.
  • Sept 15, 2005 - drove to Frankfort, KY, to get all 9 documents state certified (except BC). USPS Express mailed all 10 documents plus copies to Caring Hands courier in Washington, DC, to have them authenticated at the State Department and then the Chinese Consulate. As of Sept 23 (one week) they should all be done and on their way to CCAI today or tomorrow.
  • Sept 2005 - CCAI receive(d) all 10 documents from Caring Hands.
  • Oct 2005 - DTC - 10/14/05 and LID -10/31/05
  • Oct 2005-??? 2006 - waiting, waiting, waiting for REFERRAL
  • October 2005 - Feb 2007 - Waiting - HUGE slowdown, from 6-8 months, to 8-10, to 10-12 ... all the way to an 18 month wait.
  • Feb '07 - beginning of Feb meant I needed to get my fingerprints redone (they expired in August) and my I-171H redone (expired in Feb '07).
    • Fingerprints
    • I-171H
    • Home study updates
    • State police re-check
    • Child abuse registry re-check

  • April 30, 2007 - CCAI posted that they received confirmation that referrals have been sent AND that they are through November 1, which should include me!




4/30/2007
MATCHES MAILED!

We are excited to announce that the CCAA has mailed the next group of matches to our agency! We hope to receive this match group within the next 2-3 days. The CCAA has updated their internal website to state that they have matched dossiers logged in through November 1, 2005. We are very excited for our families who are expecting matches! As always, we will update this site when more information becomes available.







  • May 1, 2007 - 18 months LID

Here are a couple of posts that are important, to me, from this week - "THE CALL" week:

  • Here's the info for the April 30 confirmation:

Nov 1 Confirmation!

  • Macey's Mommy wrote the sweetest post on her blog for me and Mia:

she-has-baby-on-way

  • May 2 - "THE CALL" - My referral!!!
  • May 4 - LOA - Letter of Acceptance SENT DHL!

... now, waiting for TA and going to get a care package together!!!


Referral timeline when I became LID, was 6-8 months, which would have put me at a May/Jun/July 2006 referral. As of Jan 2006, the referral rate went up to 8-10 months and then 10-14 months... As of June 2006, the referral rate was 10-14 months. It exponentially grew from 12 months to 18 after that.

My Nephew's first day of kindergarden!

We knew this day would come... who knew it would come so quick?! My nephew is getting so big! It is amazing. :)


The big day!





Notice the Pink elephant on the school bus. There was some discrepancy as to what bus he was supposed ride... first it was a butterfly, then a fish, and finally a pink elephant! The whole family came out to wish him well for his first day of school! He is getting so big! :)


Please sign my guest book!

Hi, I have added a Guestbook. I would love to hear from you!

About me

Hi, welcome to my blog! My brother-n-law asked me if I had a good idea of the timeline for what all I've done in the last few months, or a journal about this journey. I said no, but I should, shouldn't i? So, here I am. I hope to write down all the things I haven't written down in a coherent form so far, regarding this adoption. I am very excited and scared at the same time, to become a parent, especially by myself.

Almost DTC

Hi all! I'm pretty new at this Blogging... but I wanted to start posting where I am in the process of adopting my little girl from China. I submitted my paperwork to the DC Consulate this week and am hoping it will get to CCAI (my adoption agency) by Monday or Tuesday of next week!

I need to get my pictures together and send them some money, and they will hopefully submit my dossier to China in the next couple of weeks! :D I'm very excited and scared at the same time!