Steve and I
were married in June 1998. After several years of battling
infertility, we decided to adopt and quickly realized that
our child would be from China. We began the paperwork in
July 2003 and 15 months later, on Halloween 2004,
Katherine Guo Dan joined our family at the age of 9
months. When we had been home from China a year, we began
the process to adopt again. We certainly didn’t realize
what a long journey it would be…
January 1, 2006
We fill out an application to adopt from China and e-mail
it to our agency, Dillon International.
January 10, 2006
Our application is accepted.
January – April 2006
We put together all of the documents for our dossier, the
official paperwork that will go to China. The paperwork
includes copies of our birth certificates and marriage
license, a letter of application to the People’s Republic
of China, short autobiographies of Steve and I, copies of
our health physicals (which include testing for syphilis,
hepatitis B, and HIV), letters of employment, a
certificate of our financial status, copies of our health
insurance coverage, copies of tax forms, character
references, and photos of our family and home. Everything
must be written just so and copied in triplicate. Many
forms must be notarized. It is all quite complicated! The
fact that we have done all of this before does not matter.
We have to re-do everything again. We request a little
girl as young as possible. We indicate that we are very
interested in a special needs child.
January 17, 2006
We mailed off forms for our Kansas Bureau of Investigation
[KBI] and social services [SRS] background checks.
February 18, 2006
We drove to Tulsa to attend a Pre-Adoption Workshop, which
is a requirement of our agency.
February 22, 2006
Our agency officially accepts our application.
February 28, 2006
We mailed off our I-600A, the first of the immigration
paperwork to USCIS. The federal immigration bureau has
changed its official name three times since we first began
adopting…
March 2006
We complete the home study process. Alison, our social
worker, manages to visit us three times within a month.
The home study is not nearly as intimidating as it might
seem! Through pleasant conversation, Alison observes our
personalities and parenting styles. She asks a few
questions about our extended families and how we plan on
dealing with a variety of parenting and adoption related
issues. Sort of as an afterthought, she makes a quick tour
of our house. Alison was our social worker for Katherine’s
adoption, too, so she is like an old friend coming to
visit.
April 5, 2006
Our home study is approved.
April 20, 2006
We went to the local police station to pick up forms for
more background checks. Apparently, state and federal
checks are not enough…
April 26, 2006
We mailed our dossier to Dillon. The paperwork is done!
April 26, 2006
We drove to the federal building in a nearby city to be
fingerprinted by USCIS [immigration]. The whole process is
intimidating and overwhelming, even for well-educated,
English speaking U.S. citizens like us. Our prints are
taken by rolling our fingers on a machine that looks like
a fancy copier – no ink involved!
May 26, 2006
Our I-171H arrives in the mail. This is an all-important
immigration paper doesn’t look at all impressive in real
life.
June 9, 2006
Dillon called to let us know that our dossier is complete
and ready to go. As soon as several other families finish
up the last of their paperwork, our papers will go to
China as a group.
July 12, 2006
We are DTC! This means our dossier has been sent to China.
July 17, 2006
Our dossier arrives at the China Center for Adoption
Affairs (CCAA) office in Beijing.
July 26, 2006
We are LID! This means that our paperwork has been “logged
in” to the Chinese system. The official wait has begun!
November 8, 2006
The “brown packet” from the American Consulate in
Guangzhou, China arrives. It includes instructions for
more immigration paperwork and a “GUZ number”, which is
our case number.
January 1, 2007
It’s been one year since we began the paperwork for our
second daughter.
April 9, 2007
Alison, our social worker, comes to update our home study,
which must be done yearly. We remind her again that we are
interested in a special needs child. Our agency does not
have a separate special needs program, but they do get
lists of Waiting Children and try to match the children
with interested families. We up our age request for our
daughter to two years or under.
May 7, 2007
We mailed forms off to SRS and KBI again, since background
checks are only good for one year.
July 26, 2007
Officially, we have been waiting for a year…
November 2, 2007
We mailed off our second I-171H, as the first one was
about to expire.
November 5, 2007
Dillon gets a list of Waiting Children, the first they
have received in months. The special needs program in
China is undergoing some changes and for unknown reasons,
Dillon will not receive another Waiting Child list for a
year and a half…
November 23, 2007
We don’t know it yet, but our second daughter is born!
November 26, 2007
We mailed off our second I-600A, because it too, was about
to expire.
December 12, 2007
We go to be fingerprinted by USCIS. Again. Yes, amazingly
enough, your fingerprints can expire! This is our third
trip to be fingerprinted. The good news is that this is
our “free extension” and we don’t have to pay big bucks to
get printed.
January 1, 2008
It’s been two years since we started the paperwork for our
girl…
May 2008
We sent off forms to SRS and KBI for background checks.
Again.
May 1, 2008
Alison came to update our home study. Again.
May 19, 2008
We go to be fingerprinted at our local police station.
This is a new rule for Kansas – federal fingerprints are
not enough.
July 26, 2008
We have officially been waiting for two years…
January 1, 2009
It has been three years since we began the paperwork for
our girl and it seems we are no closer to her. We are
losing hope…
March 17, 2009
Dillon has been approved by the CCAA to have access to
special needs lists again! This is the best news we’ve
heard in a long time. We fill out a new special needs
checklist and send it to them immediately.
April 4, 2009
We met with Alison for yet another home study update. We
told her again that we were very interested in a special
needs child and increased the age to three and under.
April 6, 2009
We mailed off yet another I-600A to USCIS and the
paperwork for background checks to SRS and KBI for the
third time.
April 27, 2009
We receive a generic e-mail from Dillon saying that they
unexpectedly received a Waiting Child list. We are glad to
know that Dillon is getting SN lists again, but a little
bummed that our girl is not on this one, since we have not
received a call.
April 27, 2009
Steve is putting Katherine to bed when the phone rings. I
answer it and hear Alison, our social worker, on the line.
She says, “I have a little girl that I think you might be
interested in!” I am stunned to realize that this is THE
CALL. “Okay,” I manage to stammer. Alison continues, “Her
name is Chen Fu Shen, she is 17 months old and is in
foster care in Guizhou. Her special need is a malformed
left hand.” Before Alison can go on I say, “Yes! We want
her! She’s exactly what we have been waiting for!” Steve
gets on the other extension and Alison repeats everything
again. Fifteen minutes later we are staring at Chen Fu
Shen’s picture on our computer. There she is… We have our
girl!
April 28, 2009
We meet with our doctor before office hours to have him
look over Chen Fu Shen’s medical reports. He gives us a
thumbs up.
April 28, 2009
We e-mail our Letter of Intent (LOI) to Dillon.
May 1, 2009
Our LOI arrives at the CCAA.
May 20, 2009
Dillon receives our completed home study – for the last
time!
June 3, 2009
We are fingerprinted for USCIS for the fourth (counting
the time for Katherine) and final time.
June 11, 2009
Dillon receives our Letter Seeking Confirmation from CCAA
via e-mail.
June 15, 2009
Our very last I-171H and our Chinese visas both arrive in
the mail.
June 26, 2009
We receive an update and three very recent pictures of
Rachel.
July 24, 2009
We received our
Letter of Confirmation. We signed it, agreeing once again
to accept Chen Fu Shen's referral.
The Letter
of Confirmation arrived at the CCAA on July 30th.
August 23, 2009
Travel Clearance
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