The rollercoaster has begun!

With five years of waiting under our belts, you would think the ups and downs of international adoption would be old hat by now. Wrong! We are still reeling from an email last Friday from our agency telling us there will most likley not be referrals until after Chinese New Year.

Then this morning the Rumor Queen is receiving information about cut-off dates and such. She is giving it an R2 that the cut-off is June 2nd.

Hang on, it might get wild this week!

Preparing to Match!!!!

Yippee!!! The matching process has begun, are agency is reporting that the Ch*na Center of adopt*on affa*rs is preparing to match. This means they are reviewing the prospective parents files and the available children's files. Soon, very soon they will begin matching, where they will decide what child should be forever in our family!!! So very exciting!!

International Adoption Lingo

Since I still have no news to share, I thought I would do an update post with the adoption lingo for all who are not familiar with the related to international adoption terms. My lingo list will be specific to Ch*na.

Dossier: The compilation of official documents about the prospective adoption family. This includes birth & marriage certificates, medical exams, police back ground checks, employment letters, tax returns. All items in the dossier have to be notarized, certified by the secretary of state you live in, certified by the US secretary of state and authenticated by the Ch*nese embassy.

CCAI: Chinese Children Adoption International, this is the agency we used. They are located in Centennial Colorado.

DTC: Dossier to China, this the date that your agency sends your dossier to China. Ours was sent on 5/23/2006

LID: Log In Date, this is the date that the Ch*na Center for Adoption Affairs records the acceptance of your dossier. Ours is 5/30/2006!

NSN: Non Special Need, this is the program that refers children with no known special needs. We are logged in for NSN.

SN: Special Need, this is the program that refers children with a specified special need.

Referral: this is the package of information that contains your child's photo, medical and personal information.

TA: Travel Approval, this is the approval Ch*na issues after you have accepted your referral

CA: Consulate Appointment, this is the swearing in ceremony at the US Consulate in Ch*na

I will add as I think of more, hopefully this will help clarify some of the terms as we progress.