| Our Journey Begins... |
| May 6, 2003 - We sent in our application for adoption today. We are so excited. The paper chase for all the documents has begun... HERE WE GO!! |
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| May 31, 2003 - We have been working on our home study. We have also started gathering some of the papers needed for our dossier. We know that China has put a hold on allowing parents to travel to pick up their daughters. They have about 18 months to get this SARS thing figured out! |
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| July 16,2003 - China had closed the door to letting families travel to pick up their daughters in late May. They have since opened travel up again! We applied for our passports yesterday and finally finished our home study questions. We sent out the home study packet today. Now we are starting to complete our INS I600A. |
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| August 12, 2003 - We had our meeting for our home study. It went well. When the final home study is typed up, proofread, and finalized we will send it to INS. Then we are almost done with our dossier paperwork. We received our passports in the mail and have our first batch of papers back from the Secretary of State. Next the papers go on to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. We are getting closer everyday. The wait time for referrals is presently about 10 - 12 months. Lets hope that keeps getting shorter once we send out our dossier! We have chosen a name for our daughter... Elizabeth Rene. Elizabeth comes from her Great Nana's middle name, and Rene from her Aunt Kathy's middle name. |
| September 26, 2003 - We received the word today that our home study is finally complete. We should be getting the final copy in the mail soon. We will then be able to send it to BCIS and be able to proceed to our fingerprinting. We recently attended a meeting for waiting parents through our agency. We were able to talk to other families and see children that have been adopted. It made both of us very excited to travel to get Elizabeth. The wait time between when your dossier is logged in in China (DTC) and when you receive the referral has been shrinking every month. This gives us hope that we will bring her home sooner than we originally thought. |
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| October 29, 2003 - Matt and I were fingerprinted on Saturday, October 25, 2003. We are now waiting for our 171H to come in the mail to us. As soon as this comes in we will get it notarized, sealed, and authenticated. Then we will finally get to send our dossier off to our agency. We are hoping to have our dossier logged in soon. |
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| November 1, 2003 - We received our first batch of papers back from the Chinese Consulate in Chicago yesterday. We are just waiting on our 171H! Keep your fingers crossed that it comes in soon! |
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| November 27, 2003 - I am finally 30!!!!!! (I never thought I would include so many exclamation points after that sentence!) Our 171H form came in the mail on November 22!! We quickly got it notorized and sent off to the Secretary of State on Saturday. We hope to have it back in our possession tomorrow. We then will walk it in to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. We will hopefully will be able to send in our complete dossier to FTIA very soon! Referrals at the present time are coming in roughly 8 - 10 months after your dossier is logged in. That could time frame could still shrink some. We are trying to stay realistic about when we will be able to travel. |
| December 12, 2003 - WE ARE DTC (dossier to China)!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our dossier was sent to China TODAY!! Now we wait.... and wait..... and wait. We will most likely get our referral (Elizabeth's picture and medical report) in the early fall. The countdown to Gotcha Day has officially begun! |
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| January 18, 2004 - Our dossier was delivered to CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) on December 17, 2003. Our agency considers this our official DTC date. We have been watching the referrals come in for all the families that are ahead of us. The families that are April DTC received their referrals on December 31, 2003. We are patiently awaiting the May DTC referrals. Our agency is "unofficially" expecting them to be sent out before the start of the Chinese New Year. If this pattern continues we should receive our referral in August and travel to China 6 - 8 weeks after that! We wish everyone a Happy New Year... we know it will be a great one for us! |
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| March 7, 2004 - We are still waiting, waiting, waiting... We have seen the people that sent their dossiers to China in months ahead of us start to receive their referrals. I have heard that those that are DTC in June and July should receive their referrals tomorrow or Tuesday. That leaves us with just August, September, October, and November before we get our referral! We are still expecting ours at the end of the summer. Elizabeth will probably be between 7 - 14 months at time of referral. If my calculations are correct that means that she has already been born and is waiting for us. Please keep her in your prayers until she is home with her forever family. I know she has some special guardian angels that are keeping an eye on her from heaven. |
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| March 20, 2004 - We are still waiting. On March 10th the people from our agency that sent their dossier in in June or before July 20th received their referral. There have been some rumors that people from the end of July will recieve their referrals by the end of the month. I would love to see August DTC people receive their referrals too! I have started getting some of the fabric squares in the mail for Elizabeth's 100 Wishes quilt. I can't wait to get started on it! |
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| GREAT CHINA LINKS: |
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| May 10, 2004 - Sorry... We have been rather busy lately. We are happy to let you know that while we have been busy, referrals have been showing up! We have seen the referrals come in for families that were DTC in July, August, September, and the first half of October. We are hoping that at the end of May/beginning June we will see referrals for the rest of October and November show up. That would mean we were next!!!!!!! We are thinking it could possibly be a referral for us in July and our trip in late August/early September. I am finishing up my quilting class and am almost ready to start on Elizabeth's quilt. I am hoping to collect all of my quilting squares by June 1st so I can get started. I would like to have it done by the time we travel. |
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| June 5, 2004 - Rumors are flying around the Chinese adoption world... Most seem to say that the next batch of referrals are in the mail. We hope to see them arrive this week! The only question we have is what dates are included. Some seem to think it will be for all people with DTC dates in late October and all of November, and others seem to think they will only include up to November 25. All we can do is wait and see. It looks like we may soon be able to say that we are NEXT!! |
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| June 8, 2004 - WE ARE NEXT!! The referrals for the rest of October and up to November 25th came in yesterday!! That means that the last few days of November and all of December DTCs should receive their referrals next! There is a rumor floating around the Chinese adoption websites that they could come as soon as two weeks. Hold on Elizabeth, Mommy and Daddy are coming! |
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| June 14, 2004 - REFERRAL! REFERRAL! REFERRAL!!!!! With much happiness we announce the referral of our new daughter, Fu Ai Man. Fu Ai Man was born on October 31, 2003 in Fuling. She now resides in the Fuling 1st SWI. This orphanage is located within the Chongqing Municipality. We expect to travel sometime in August. We now wait for our travel approval. We have to finish collecting some final travel items and obtaining our Visas. You can see Elizabeth AiMan Rene's picture, as well as pictures of her orphanage at: www.fulingkids.org She is in the new referrals section. |
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