L.I.D.

Are you keeping up with the adoption lingo acronyms? ...that's Log In Date

I wrote this entry several weeks ago and never got around to posting it...

So we were kind of figuring that this milestone had probably come and passed and we just hadn't heard yet.

Log In Date is when our documents are officially marked as being entered into the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs system. Our documents had gone to China on May 16th so we were hoping they were logged in by now. Well it turns out that Tina had gotten an email from our agency on the 21st (the solstice), but was in Cheney with Ben, visiting her Dad and her brother's family. Turns out our dossier was logged in on June 2nd! So it only took two weeks from when we sent in our documents.

The time frame now is about 8 to 9 weeks from log in date to Travel Approval (TA) and then two to three weeks from TA to actually getting on the plane and going to get him!!

So let's see... If we count out 12 weeks from our Log In Date, we will almost certainly be traveling by the 25th of August! But that's almost a "worst case scenario" timeline. Of course anything could happen, and it might take a bit longer than that... But Hey! Anything could happen, and we may well be traveling a bit sooner than that!!!

We are hoping that we travel before school starts so the trip doesn't interfere with Cam and Ben's schoolwork/attendance. Even if we do get pushed back into September, we will still take them with us. Tina and I feel that this is too important of a change in our family for them not to be there with us. And the opportunity to visit China is, in our minds, a more than worthy reason to miss a few days of public school.

Thoughts while we wait...

just kinda been thinking...

While we are in this final waiting period, We've had time to reflect on what we are doing. I feel this process is happening as it should and there is a feeling of destiny unfolding. I know I have written about this before, but it's on my mind again now

Tina and I keep looking at each other and asking, "Do we REALLY know what we're doing?" The answer is always a wild, crazy and ecstatic "NO!"

Getting a baby this way contrasts with the organic way we produced our first two in that their is a lot of technical, and formal work involved. But I feel that in spite of that, our motivation has been the same as it was with Cam and Ben, in that this adventure is being driven by our hearts and not our heads. Which I feel is at it should be.

Babies come through acts of love and passion. I try to keep my feeling for Kai and his coming arrival wrapped in sense of wonder and mystery. I know that there is plenty of hard reality ahead of us, and I should be cautious about over-romanticizing it all, but the same thing can be said for making babies the old fashioned way. Given that, I think it's best to enjoy the romance in it!

The Brown Envelope!

Mail From China...

When Cameron picked up the mail on Saturday this was in the mailbox!

It's an information packet from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou. It contains forms we need to fill out for Kai's immigration visa and adoption process in China. These are sent out when the I-171 form from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Bureau of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is processed.

In reality, this isn't that big of a step in the process, and not everybody even gets one. The forms inside it are all available online, but it was really cool to have it show up. It's another tangible marker along the path.

One of the forms inside was all written in Chinese, and there is a Xerox copy of a little tourism map of Guangzhou.

Anyway, it got us fired up again as we wait to hear from the CCAA in China. To recap where we are in the process...

We were DTC (documents to China) on May 16. The next step is LID (log in date), when the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) officially marks our dossier as being in their system. We hope this has happened already but we haven't heard, and may not. What we are really waiting on right now is our TA (travel approval). For most people adopting waiting children right now, the time from DTC to TA is about 8 to 12 weeks. Travel usually happens about 2 to 3 weeks after TA. So worst case scenario, we will be traveling the first week in September, but it could be as soon as the first week of August.