We're DTC!!!

After five months of filling out applications, standing in line at government offices, getting fingerprinted, meeting with our Social Worker, answering questions about our childhood and marriage, writing big checks, getting to know the FedEx guy and the nice ladies at the post office, and chewing my fingernails down to nothing, we're FINALLY DTC (dossier to China) on Friday, 1/13!!!!

It's such a relief to know that our dossier is complete and on its way to our agency's Beijing office. Once they receive it, it's forwarded onto Bridge of Love to be translated and then off to the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) were it will sit waiting to be logged into the database (LID). My agency estimates LID to be about 2-4 weeks from DTC, although we won't have our official LID date until a month or so after LID.

I don't expect to hear back from our agency for about 2 months from now, which is when I hope to hear that we have our LID. Once our LID is established we are simply waiting for our referral, which at this point is running 8 to 10 months from LID. So, I'm estimating that we would receive our referral sometime between October to December of this year and travel to China between November 2006 to January 2007. If referrals pick back up, all our dates will also move up. It seems things are ever changing.

This past five months has been quite an experience and I've really enjoyed journaling through this blog and chatting on-line with other adoptive parents. I've met some really nice people, and I'm looking forward to joining a DTC group and getting to know other adoptive parents who are on the same timeline as we are. If it weren't for the on-line community, I don't know how any of us could stand the LONG WAIT!