We had a fantastic Easter this year. The kids woke up and opened their Easter baskets. No pictures since Max was in his undies. Max got some sand/dirt toys including a dump truck and two books, and Ellie got seeds/gardening supplies. She has been dreaming of planting a garden this year. She also got a couple of books including the second in the series of BOB books. (Since she READ the first set.) After Easter baskets, we dressed the kids and met my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew for church and then drove to my mom and dad's. It was a gorgeous day, almost 80 degrees and sunny. We changed the kids into their play clothes and they flew kites and played with their cousins. We had a great ham lunch and then a giant Easter egg hunt. I know my kids probably had at least 50 eggs each. My sister-in-law brought the bunny from her science classroom and the kids got to play with it a bit as well. They thought that was so cool.
So, you're wondering what it takes to adopt from China - Here's what we've been doing for the past two years. October 2007 - We first seriously investigate adopting from China November 2007 - We sign up with our first adoption agency December 2008 - The paperchase begins We gather passport photos and copies of our passports, photos of our family and home, a letter of petition to adopt, our birth certificates, our marriage certificate, medical reports from our physicians, letters from our employers, a financial declaration, local background checks, and 5 letters of reference January of 2008 - We have our first homestudy February 2008 - We file our paperwork with immigration March 2008 - We get our immigration paperwork back and send everything off to the Secretary of State and then to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to be certified and authenticated April 2008 - Our finalized dossier is sent to our agency and then on 4/22 to China May 8 2008 - We receive our first log in date (LID) May 2008 - We finalize our decision to adopt from the waiting child program and get on our agency's list July 2008 - Our agency loses access to the waiting child list from China July 2008 - February 2009 - We wait February 2009 - We make the decision to sign on with another agency and immediately are matched with our son. Februar 16, 2009 - We send a letter of intent (LOI) to adopt him. February 23, 2009 - We receive pre-approval (PA) to adopt our son Now we scramble to reassemble updated copies of the same information we assembled in December of 2008 and we update our homestudy. March 2009 - We resend everything to get certified and authenticated. March 21, 2009 - Our second completed dossier is sent to China and our original dossier is withdrawn March 30, 2009 - Our LID (log in date) April 14, 2009 - We find out our LID
OH, they both look so cute!!! Love Mr. Max in a tie!! ;)
ReplyDelete