Good Friday!

Originally written April 14, 2006

It was definitely a Good Friday for Jennifer and I.

After nearly seven months of working on paperwork, we received our approved dossier back from the Chinese Consulate's office in Chicago.

If you remember correctly, we started this process with our application in September 2005. October was our initial overview appointment. November and December were devoted to our home study. January began our true paper chase; and, has just ended.

By the time I got home, the post office attempted to deliver the package and the earliest I could get it would have been today after 11. Thank God our wonderful carrier saw the garage door open and decided to try again! Had it not been for her, we would not have received the packet.

In the packet, the Consulate put in the change ($15) from our over payment in CASH! If you remember, they gave us a very hard time about over paying.

I made copies. Jenn came home and sorted. And then we submitted everything to our caseworker and are DTC (documents to China).

We are officially PAPERWORK PREGNANT! WOO HOO

Our next step is to get our logged-in date. We should receive that in about a month or so. Once we get that date, it will be 10-12 months later for our match/referral and travel two months after the date of the match/referral.

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GOSSIP: Apparently China had some turnover and that is the reason why it takes so long to get our logged-in date.

MORE GOSSIP: If you remember from the beginning, we were told six months for our referral/match. Then it went to seven. Then it went to eight. Then it went to eight to 10. Now we are at 10-12 months. The reason? We've heard two stories:

1. the workers haven't matched the paperwork up with the children because they are so behind.
2. With the influx of applications, at the moment there is not enough supply to meet the demand.

Who knows the real truth? We try to stay out of the online chat rooms and just let our friends tell us. The wait is hard (and long) enough. We don't need to read gossip.

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On a separate, but related, note. We went to our first waiting families group that our agency organizes. There were only three couples... us, the Ventura's and the Tallackson's. We've met both of them before. This time the Ventura's have received their referral/match. Katelyn is beautiful. She actually looks like a chunk. I can't tell you the excitement you get for people you don't know that well when they get their referral. And, it really helps us to know that it does happen. The Tallackson's will be next sometime this summer. It's quite funny... the meeting started at 6. The organizer was ready to go at 8. And the six of us stood in the parking lot and talked for another hour. And we still weren't ready to go. Jenn and I are the oldest in the group but only by two-or-three years.

Other than that, that's about it.

It was a great day yesterday and one, we will forever remember.

Love... us