The Missing Piece (kind of a big one)

So, in my last blog post, I described the steps we have gone through so far and the steps in the process that still await us in the near future.  I mentioned that, at that time, what we were currently waiting on was our LID status, meaning that our dossier had been logged in to China's system and that we would be all set to be matched with a child once that would occur.  I expected it would be another week, possibly up to two weeks, before that would happen for us.  Instead we were thrilled to find out that we were LID only 3 days after I made that post! 

The last time I wrote, I also mentioned that we had decided to switch agencies.

BUT, there was a missing piece of information I did not pass along in the last post.

What I could not yet share was our reason for the switch.  It was kind of a big reason... or should I say, HE was kind of a big reason.  That's right, our family has a match and will be adding a little boy sometime this coming July or August!!!!  He will be 14 months old tomorrow.  We feel very blessed. 

I wasn't able to mention him in my last post because, although we were working on the process of declaring our intent for him, we were not LID yet and so we could not submit our intent for him and therefore we did yet have pre-approval from China for him.  Since the agency had no one far enough in the process interested in a boy and since we were so close to LID, they were able to hold him for us for a short period.  We were on a somewhat tight time-table.  His file was to be returned the first week in March to China's Shared list or to another agency's list.  So, our new agency had us go ahead and write our Letter of Intent/Nurture Plan for him so they could have it translated and ready to submit as soon as we were LID.  We got our LID Tuesday morning, they submitted the LOI that day and, crazily, I received an email Tuesday evening letting us know that we had already received our PA (Pre-Approval) for him!  I expected PA to take at least a week!  Talk about things happening more speedily now! 

So, this is how we found him...

One month ago, I was scanning through a Facebook China Waiting Child Advocacy Site and I saw these eyes:

 

I read a little bit about the little boy.  His age was a good fit for our family.  His special need was something we felt we could manage. But, he was with another agency.  We had been receiving several suggestions to consider switching agencies due to the changes in China's system and the fact that our wait for a match could be several months longer than we had previously expected since our original agency did not have any active orphanage partnerships.  Still, we were really happy with our current agency and the idea of switching agencies was overwhelming to me.  I just couldn't stomach the thought of researching agencies again, doing MORE paperwork, and having to deal anymore with our snail-slow local homestudy agency to make any changes that would be needed.  So, I decided we should just sit tight. 

 

About a week went by and I saw the little guy (or his eyes, anyway) again and this time a Facebook adoption friend had tagged me on his photo.  I showed him to Jeremy and said, "It doesn't hurt to just ask a few questions - maybe take a look at his file".  So, we decided to do just that.  We got his file and spent a day or so just reading over it (all 3 pages of information - you don't typically get a lot in these files).  We decided consult a couple of doctors to read over the file for us and give us their input.  After taking the weekend to rest in our "almost decision" to move forward, we officially decided to move forward to make this little guy ours and we let both agencies know that we wanted to start the process of switching agencies.  I can't say enough about Adoption Associates, Inc., our original agency.  They made it clear that they were happy for us and that they are all about children finding families.  So, we are now working with a new agency in Colorado.  It is called A.A.C. - Adoption and Family Network.  The switching process ended up being smooth and manageable - only a relatively small amount of extra paperwork in the end and only a small amount of dealing with our home study agency, thank goodness.  

 

So, what are we waiting on now?

 

We are waiting for our Letter of Acceptance.  Basically, official-official approval from China to adopt this specific little boy.  We don't expect that there should be any problem actually getting this approval.  The wait times for LOA, however, are all over the place.  I think the average wait is about 60-70 days.  Ours may be longer because we were matched so close to LID and our dossier has not yet been translated in China so that will have to be done first.  (People who get logged in and then wait a long time for a match typically get a fast LOA because their dossiers have been sitting translated already.)  We are hoping for an average LOA wait but it could end up being longer.  I have heard of some people waiting up to 120 days on occasion.  So, our hope is that we should be LOA sometime in the next few months. 

 

A.A.C. is a little stricter than most agencies I have seen about privacy and confidentiality. They have told us that until we are LOA, we are not able to publicly post any pictures of our little guy or share specifically where in China he is waiting for us.  This makes me sad even though I understand that they are doing it for a good reason.  I want to show his cute little self to the world!!!  Hopefully we'll get a FAST LOA!!! :)

 

So, as I mentioned earlier, we anticipate traveling to bring him home sometime in either July or August - primarily depending, I think, on whether we are at the more average or longer-end of the LOA wait. 

 

We (mostly me) are still nervous about traveling so far from home and leaving our girls for so long.   But we are SO excited to make this little boy a part of our family and give Maryn and Brynnie a little brother to love on.  We can't wait to learn more about him and get to know him - and be his Mama and Baba!! :) 



The Alphabet Soup of Adoption

I realize that I have started a pattern of beginning the majority of my blog posts in a similar manner.  I guess  I may as well stay consistent.  Therefore, I will begin with my disclaimer and apology of the fact that I have clearly proven myself not to be a natural-born blogger by the fact that my blog posts show up about once every 2-3 months! :) 

I have wished to be better at sharing our adoption news, progress, emotions, etc. as we have gone through the process so far and have not really found myself to be very on top of that, to say the least...  Perhaps I will do better as we begin having more to share...

Although it feels to me like a lot of "adoption stuff" has been happening, until recently there has been no real progress in our process to share.  I didn't ever blog about it, but many of you know from reading small individual Facebook posts that we have had many little paperwork setbacks involving silly things like water-main breaks, a loose staple and it feels like much more (perhaps there are other things that I have managed to repress at this point) which have set us back by at least a couple of weeks. 

In addition to those obstacles, we made the decision to switch placing agencies.  This was a choice that we made on our own and it is for the best but it did serve to delay things even a little more.  This meant that when our dossier finally arrived at our agency in Michigan from the New York consulate, it then had to be mailed to our new agency in Colorado.  The Colorado agency then needed a form signed by our local home study agency which took a week and then AAC (our new agency) had to get China to add our local agency to its list of approved home study agencies which took a couple of more days. 

BUT, I am so very excited to announce one of the things I was beginning to think I was never ever going to be able to share.  I expected to be saying this about a month or so ago, but, I can finally say that WE ARE DTC!!!! This picture included in an email from my agency made me smile! :)

What is DTC, you ask?  That brings me to the title of my blog post - The Alphabet Soup of Adoption. :)

There are many, many, MANY acronyms in the world of China adoption.  I had to laugh at myself a while back when I caught myself writing a note to someone and telling them - "I am hoping that we will be DTA tomorrow we can be DTC by Wednesday and then maybe if we are lucky we might be LID before CNY!"  These letters (other than the CNY which was Chinese New Year) are some of the "biggies" in the adoption world.  DTA and DTC refer to "Dossier to Agency" and "Dossier to China".  DTA and DTC happen a few days apart from each other (typically).  Getting DTC is a big deal.  Primarily in that it means that there is a break in the paperwork for a little while.  It means taking a deep breath and letting it out and hoping and praying that everything was done well and right (which should be the case since the agency reviews everything before it leaves their hands). 

Now that we are DTC, though, we still get to search for more letters in our soup.  After the dossier gets to China, The China Center of Adoption Affairs must log our dossier into their system.  At that point, we will be considered LID which is another biggie.  We have made a decision that the type of child we feel most comfortable adopting would be a child younger than Bryn who turned two in October.  We have also decided that we feel most comfortable at this time in our lives taking on a child with more minor special needs.  Children who fit this type of criteria (young with minor needs) fit into what is know as the "LID Only" group.  This means that you must have completed your dossier and had it logged into China's system (i.e. be "LID") in order to be officially matched with an LID only child.

So we were DTC as of Thursday afternoon hope to hear within the next couple of weeks that we have achieved our long-awaited LID status.
                                      

Once we are LID, we can be matched with a child.  At that point, we will submit LOI (Letter of Intent to adopt that child).  We then wait on PA (pending approval) and then a couple to a few months after that for LOA (letter of acceptance - official approval from China to adopt that child). There are a few more steps in between LOA and the real biggie - TA (travel approval).  I am trying to only stay a step or two ahead of myself in understanding this process so I will admit that I am not sure whether any of the steps in between LOA and TA have acronyms.  Either way, we have come to learn that adoption is full of A LOT of letters!! :)  

In news other than adoption... Jeremy is settled in and happy in his new job with Hamilton County Board of Developmental Disabilities.  He was able to get a teaching job at Margaret Rost School that is literally a few minutes drive from our house.  It has been a huge blessing because he used to drive an hour each way to work.  He liked his old job and that was the one drawback.  Now he has found a job doing the same work right around the corner from where we live!!

Maryn and Brynnie have moved into the same room with their new beds built by daddy.  I enjoy hearing them whispering and giggling at night - as long as it is whispering!  There have been a few nights that we have had to split them up but, overall, it has been a good move.  I even heard Maryn tell Bryn the other day, "we'll talk about this more when we go up to bed...".  So sweet!  Only problem, I think she may have been planning to continue the little lecture she had been attempting to give her on the fact that it is not nice to say "poopy butt" - something that Brynlee never would have said in the first place if she hadn't learned it from Big Sis, by the way!! :)  

Maryn started preschool 2 days a week in January and loves it, of course. Bryn likes having Mommy time while Maryn is at school.  One of her favorite things to do with me is laundry (thank goodness as this allows me to get a little something done!) but a close tie is having reading time together snuggled under a blanket. I think she would be happy to park herself in my lap with a stack of books for the entire two hours we have together.  I love it! 

The girls are so excited and talk so often about having a little brother! Today Maryn told me that she took a little pillow from her room and put it in the crib in the other room, "so my little brother can have a pillow, Mommy!". Brynlee tells me all the time about how her little brother will be "too little to use the big potty like me. He'll need to use the little potty".  I explained that he'll probably need diapers still for at least a little while after he comes home since we hope to bring home a child who around 18 months or younger.  :)  I've told them that I might need to grow a third leg to grow my lap for snuggle time but they have both reassured me that they will make room on my lap for their brother - "I'll just scoot back here, Mommy, and he can sit up there".  They are so sweet in their comments about him!  (Minus the times that Maryn asks if we are sure we can't bring home a sister instead!). I know there are many changes and adjustments ahead for all of us and that they will have a lot of new challenges to deal with.  We are going to work hard to help get them ready.  But, I am excited for them opening their hearts - (and my lap!) to a new family member.  They both have seen many, many pictures of "babies from China".  I can't wait until we can show them a picture and tell them - "Here he is! This is your brother!"  

I'm hoping there will be a shorter time between blog posts this time around and that the wait won't be long until I can come back here for the purpose of announcing a new little member of the Osterfeld bunch!