I am always amused when people compare adoption to being
pregnant. Mostly because pregnancy, in general, is 9 months or so give or take
a few weeks, so one has a pretty good idea when their baby will make an
appearance. Adoptwaiting is not always that specific. So when asked when we
bring will Mabel home I am truly making up the answer because I genuinely am
not sure. I have guidelines of course but those are often similar to trying to
nail jello to the wall.
I open with this because I am excited to update everyone on
our progress!!! We are closer to bringing Mabel home than we were a month ago!
But at the same time I am not totally certain exactly when that homecoming will
be. Hard for this recovering control freak, who chooses to worry about when
that homecoming will be all to often. Sadly both of which I demonstrated these
past weeks as I was waiting for DTC (dossier to China) If you want to know a
bit more about dossiers you can read my blog about that here. A dossier is 13
pieces of paper that are signed, notarized, authenticated and sealed all saying
we are capable of parents. We had PA (preliminary approval) from China saying
yes we could adopt Mabel. We had a deadline of getting our dossier to China or
DTC of Feb 18. We were down to the wire. 12 of our 13 papers were in the
process of getting signed, notarized, authenticated and sealed. But we needed
our I800a (immigration approval) from USCIS. Our fingerprint appointment was
January 16. I think estimates for getting I800a approval after fingerprinting
was 4 weeks. This was putting us dangerously close to missing our Feb 18
deadline. I wish I could say that I trusted in the Lord’s timing and did not
worry but saying that would be a lie. When we got our I800a approval on January
26 I was elated, thankful, and bummed that I wasted any time worrying. Our
I800a was sent off to be signed, notarized, authenticated and sealed. And we
waited. I am not a newbie at adoptwaiting. I thought I had grown. I have 2
living testimonies to God’s faithfulness and timing in adoptwaiting with our
precious boys. Yet, I struggled to keep my focus on Him and His timing. Last
Friday I was driving to work listening to some of my favorite worship tunes and
crying. Crying as I listen to worship music is a frequent occurrence for me so
that is nothing new. I literally sang the words “The sun rises on His time” and
was praising Him for this truth. I believed it. I did. Then 10 am came with no
email from my social worker on if we were DTC or not. Worry reared its ugly
head and instead of choosing faith I welcomed worry in. 1230 rolls around and I
am may or may not have said this must be national don’t email Tracy back day. I
owned my bad attitude. I love a faithful friend who tried to say that it had
not been that long since I sent the email………..I was having none of that. 230
nothing. Nada. I start thinking its 330 for my agency (they are in Alabama).
Its Friday if there is no news soon there will be nothing until Monday. And to
top it all off China offices close starting Feb 18 for Chinese New Year. I
texted said faithful friend to get an opinion on whether or not it would be
impatient to email again since I hadn’t heard anything. I pushed send and my
phone rang. Literally just like that and it was my social worker. She said I
know the 3 letters you have been waiting to hear DTC!! As I always do with good
news I reply. “Really?” J
and she said Yes!!!! We made the deadline!!!!! What I love about this story is
God’s faithfulness to my worrying and trying to be in control self. Even though
seconds before the phone call I am literally worrying and trying to be in
control. But that is how God, is faithful even though I am unfaithful.
So the next step? More waiting. We are waiting for LID
(Logged in date) I have listed the steps and guestamate of how long each step
is for your reading pleasure. J
As we wait we are preparing. Completing adoption training.
We are continuing to sell puzzle pieces. We are blown away by everyone’s
generosity. We have been able to pay all of our required fees thus far! Travel
and all the fees that go with that are up next. I am so awed at God’s faithful
provision for our adoption. I know He won’t stop now. In May or beginning of
June we will be having a garage sale to raise funds. So if you have items that
you were going to clear out during spring-cleaning please consider donating
them to our “help bring Mable home garage sale”
China adoption process:
Home study completed (3-4 months)
I-800a application submitted with
finalized home study to USCIS
Immigration approval received from
USCIS.
Dossier documents
certified/authenticated.
Dossier sent to China (DTC)
Log-in date received (LID) from CCCWA
(Approximately 3-4 weeks after DTC)
Letter of Acceptance (LOA) received
from China (Approximately 3 months after LID
I800 paperwork submitted to USCIS.
800 provisional approval received.
(Approximately 3 weeks after submission)
Information for visa sent by USCIS to
National Visa Center. (NVC)
Information for visa cabled to the US
Embassy in GZ by the NVC. (Approximately. 2 weeks after information sent by NBC
to NVC)
Article 5 letter received. (Approximately
2 weeks from cabling)
Article 5 letter couriered to the
CCCWA.
Travel Approval received from CCCWA
(approx. 3-4 weeks from being received by CCCWA)
Apply for Consulate Appointment
Receive Consulate Appointment
(Approximately 2 business days after application)
Travel (approximately 2 weeks after
receiving TA)
