Timelines & Terminology

Everybody keeps asking me the million dollar question: How long does it take from here? The answers aren't simple, but explaining some of the terminology helps. Here's the 411 on what will happen from here.

Agencies

CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs): The Chinese government agency responsible for all international adoptions in China. The website for this agency is www.china-ccaa.org.

Adoption Agency: Our adoption agency will work with us and oversee our entire adoption from beginning to end. In our case, this is an out-of-state agency.

Home Study Agency: Our home study agency will visit our home and ask us questions to determine whether we are fit to be parents. Home study agencies must be located in the state you live. For this reason, our home study agency is different from our adoption agency.

Process

Adoption Application: The adoption agency reviews a 10 page application to determine if you meet the requirements set by the Chinese government for adoption.

Dossier: A collection of documents that report on various aspects of our life and represent us as adoptive parents to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). The dossier includes our home study information and recommendation by our social worker from the home study agency.

DTC (Dossier to China): Once our dossier is complete and translated to Chinese, it will be mailed to China. This is a big marker in the timeline. It is called your DTC date.

LID (Log in Date): Once the Chinese government receives your dossier and reviews it to ensure it meets the Chinese adoption criteria, it is approved and then logged into the system. This is your LID. Matches are made with children in a sequential process according to your LID. Right now, China has only matched families with an LID up to October 24, 2005 :(

Match and Referral: Again, China matches according to log in dates. When it's time for couples with our log-in date to be matched we will receive a phone call from our adoption agency and 2-3 pictures of our future child.

Travel Date: Five to eight weeks after the match we will travel to China for two weeks to meet our child and finalize the adoption process. We're really excited about traveling to China!

Gotcha Day: Gotcha day is the day we'll meet our new child and she/he will be handed into our arms.

Adoption Final Date: As long as Al and I both travel to China, which we plan to do, the adoption will be final as soon as our plane touches ground in the United States.

Timeline

Submit Adoption Application - February 27 (Eric's Birthday)
Application Approved - March 6
Start Home Study Process - March 21
Complete Dossier - Hoping for around June 15
DTC - Late June
LID - Hoping for early July
Match and Referral - Current timeline is 15-17 months from LID. This would mean we would meet our child October-December 2008.