We can not put an exact date on
when our journey officially began, but there were many times in
late 2005 where our hearts were pulled toward adoption in China.
One of these times was when I met a family at my school’s Open
house on August 29, 2005 and was immediately teary eyed and full
of emotion to meet their daughter McKenna. McKenna’s mom, Kathi
opened her heart to me immediately, and said that if I ever had
any questions on adoption from China to give her a call. Next,
Glenn’s sister adopted a little girl from China and on October
16th, we met her. There, we talked about Tory and her amazing
journey into their family. Finally, on December 10, 2005, we
attended a MAK (Mom’s with Asian Kids) Christmas party at
Kathi’s house where 10 families celebrated and united under the
premise that all had a son or daughter from an Asian country.
MAK is a local group which quickly welcomed Tom and I, answered
all of our questions, and that night confirmed that we would
begin our journey to our daughter, Eliana.
We chose European Adoption Consultants in Strongsville as our
agency and Karla as our adoption consultant. We felt very
comfortable with this agency and liked their China Adoption
department tremendously.
We have recently found out that our documents are most likely
through translation and in line to be reviewed (Dec. 2006).
PAPERCHASE TIMELINE
December 5, 2005
Initial meeting at EAC
December 18, 2005
2005 Initial application filled out with EAC online
December 21, 2005
Received initial EAC adoption packet
January 12, 2006
Mailed I-600 papers to Cleveland
January 20, 2006
First homestudy visit
January 27, 2006
Fingerprinting in Columbus (BCI/FBI)
February 7, 2006
Second homestudy visit
February 16, 2006
Documents sent to PA to be notarized
February 21, 2006
Fingerprinting in Cleveland (Homeland
Security)
March 8, 2006
Homestudy approved and sent to INS
March 16, 2006
All documents notarized locally
March 17, 2006
All documents notarized in Columbus
March 20, 2006
Dossier FedExed to EAC
April 7, 2006
Received I-171 approval
May 9, 2006
DTC
May 15, 2006
LID |
Tom and Melissa in Jasper, Canada
Tom and Melissa in Punta Cana
Tom and Melissa with Alayna and Morgan
when they were one-month old
Tom and Mel on Thanksgiving (2006)
| "A
journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
–Confucius |
|
