F.A.Q.s, part 1

Some frequently asked questions…

Have you heard anything?
Sadly, no. And we don’t expect to hear anything for awhile. Chris calls it “hurry up and wait”; we were in such a rush to get our paperwork finished by April 2, and now we are just stuck waiting. There’s a great t-shirt I may have to buy…it says “No, we haven’t heard anything. Yes, it’s taking a long time. Thanks for bringing it up.”

When do you think you may hear something?
If we’re lucky, we WON’T hear anything in the next 3-4 months. Our dossier is either about to be in review or is already in review. Not hearing anything will mean that there were no questions, and things are going as planned.

What do you mean by “in review”? And what happened to all that paperwork you sent to China?
We sent all of our paperwork (our dossier…14 documents, each which was notarized, certified by the state, authenticated by the US State Department, and authenticated by the Chinese Embassy) to China on March 28, 2006. From there, it was translated by our agency’s China office, and delivered to the CCAA (China Center for Adoptive Affairs…the government agency in charge of all Chinese adoptions. It couldn’t be delivered any earlier, as both parents have to be at least 30, and Mara turned 30 on April 2. From there, our dossier was logged in…this can take awhile…our log in date (LID) was April 17, 2006. This is the date that the counting starts (and the date that the CCAA goes by). From there, our dossier waits “in line” to begin the process. It’s been 7 months, and we’re still waiting. From there, our dossier will go into the “review room.” This process takes 1-2 months. The CCAA goes over each dossier with a fine toothed comb, and can contact our agency to ask more questions. They can also deny our application (actually, they can deny our application at any time, and while any dossier being denied is rare, it is EXTREMELY rare to be denied after you pass review). We will breathe a giant sigh of relief when April LIDs come out of the review room! As of today, the CCAA has finished reviewing dossiers with a LID of January 31, 2006. There are rumors that at least a few April dossiers are in the review room right now, so we’re close! (you can see how far the CCAA gets on their home page!). From the review room, our dossier waits some more, then goes to the matching room. This is where we will actually be matched with our daughter! There is a huge backlog of dossiers, so the wait after review can be awhile. Currently the CCAA has matched families whose LIDs were August 26, 2005 or earlier. (yikes!) So we have a ways to go. Referrals generally come out once a month or so…I’ll start posting them here so you can keep track too! After we are matched and we accept the referral, we will wait for travel approval to come to China to complete the adoption. This usually takes 4-6 weeks, and you don’t get a lot of notice…usually you travel about a week after you receive your travel approval! Then we’ll go to China!

How much longer are you going to have to wait?
I so wish we knew. When we started the process, the wait was 7-9 months. Currently it is around 14-15 months. Some rumors say it is going to stabilize soon around 14 months; others are more pessimistic and say it could extend out to 18-24 months. There's also the chance that it could speed up again. We are being cautiously optimistic…hopefully we will get our referral over the summer, and travel in the fall.

I know there are a lot more questions…I’ll type up some more later! And send me any you have so I can answer them for everyone! For now, we’re off to go walk around Burke Lake as part of the 20^th birthday celebration of our Temple. And, of course, we have to watch the Patriots-Packers game. Let’s just hope we don’t kill each other over this!