Another step done...

Today we were happy to receive back our NY documents (SEE SLIDE SHOW BELOW THIS POST) that have been officially authenticated by the NY Consulate of the PR of China. These docs were our birth and marriage certificates. They were ordered by us as certified documents (not good enough.....) They were then Verified by the State of NY (since I was born in Manhattan, I needed an extra NY County Verification as well). Then the NY Consulate authenticates them and they are ready for our Dossier for China. We are still waiting on our Florida documents to be authenticated at the Houston Consulate. Today we also received our final homestudy report signed, notarized and now this document will go through all those steps.... certified, verified and authenticated. Still waiting on USCIS to give us the ok and then our paperchase is over... Can't wait. We are basically done gathering documents and just waiting on authenticating and receiving the I171H. We will be taking our boat over to West Palm Beach (Joe's sister Nancy lives there). Should be a fun trip - we will be leaving Fort Myers Beach from the Gulf of Mexico and traveling straight through the intercoastal via Lake Okeechobee. We will cross through 5 locks (yes, I didn't know what a lock was either) but our pictures should explain more once the trip is done :) Happy summer to everyone -see below for a new slide show....

Update....

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Red Thread

"An invisible red thread
connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle,
but never break."

Ancient Chinese Belief

All of our Florida documents were sent Fedex to The Consulate General of the Peoples Republic of China in Houston today for authentication. Florida documents go there (those are any docs created since we have moved; i.e. adoption petion, sheriff's clearance, financial statement, etc.) Our NY documents (birth and marriage certificates) went to the NY Consulate of the Peoples Republic of China last week for Authentication. Hopefully these will come back soon - As I understand they come back with a really cool Authentication Page written in Chinese with sone sort of red seal. I'll post a pic once they are safely returned back. Our Social Worker sent our completed homestudy to our agency for final signature and that should be on the way to USCIS next week.

The CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs) in Beijing moved this past month into a bigger building with more help, new computers. I'm hoping this will mean referrals will speed up - one can hope....

USCIS

We are one step closer... We went to USCIS/Homeland Security today for our fingerprint appointment. Interesting place, if you ever have to go, know that you can not bring any electronics or purses. The parking lot is a prime location for robberies - everyone was putting stuff in their trunks. Joseph was extremely dissapointed because they would not allow him to come up with either of us to watch the electronic fingerprinting. Oh well, it really was not that exciting a process. It was a very sterile place with very unfriendly workers. Now we wait for the I171H - our Fla documents were sent back already to us certified and they are now off to Houston to the Chinese Consulate for Authentication. We are almost done paperchasing.....

Fingerprints/Busch Gardens 7/2006

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Chloe in her Kimono - she is ready :)

Message from Joseph

Welcome to our Blog

We are happy to announce that we have begun the process to adopt our daughter from China. We have created this journal to document and share our journey to bring her home. We are hoping that you will follow along with us on this adventure. One day our daughter will read this journal and be able to see how we spent our time waiting for her and be able to read the comments left for her. We will also use this journal to share our daily lives as well for family and friends who do not live near us.

First, I will start by saying that we have been very blessed and this is just another blessing from God.

So here is what we will need to do: Gather all necessary documents (for us some have to come from NY), certify, notarize and authenticate the documents; File an application with the Homeland Security - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to bring a foreign adopted orphan into the United States and obtain the I171H; Have a homestudy completed by a licensed Social Worker.

We began this process in May 2006. Many call this phase "paperchasing" or the "paper pregnancy". We have been making steady progress on our documents. Our NY docs are ready to be shipped tomorrow to the NY Chinese Consulate for Authentication and our FLA docs are being sent to the Secretary of State of Florida for Certification. So many steps. We are also going to Homeland Security in Tampa on Friday for our fingerprints. We will make a little trip of this and go to Busch Gardens. Joseph is more excited about seeing the fingerprints done than Busch Gardens - hopefully this will change :) This appointment is a big step - the beloved I171H that we will await once fingerprints are done. Some offices are quicker than others - we hope Tampa is one of the quicker ones. Once we have that last piece of the puzzle, the remaining documents are authenticated then go to our agency for critical review and translated into Mandarin and sent to the CCAA in China. Once there we have our DTC (Date to China) and the wait for our referral begins. We are hoping to be DTC by September.

The wait for a referral in China is changing often so we will hope that the wait will shorten rather than lengthen. Once we are matched, we will receive a "referral" which will consist of a photo of our daugher that China has matched with us along with information on her estimated birth date and a medical report. We should expect to travel to China about 4 - 6 weeks after that to complete the adoption process and bring her home!

This is a very long and tedious process but in the end we know our daughter will be home with us. The wait could be longer than we anticipated but we have no control over how the CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs) will proceed. We will update this website as we progress so please bookmark it and check back often to follow along with us.

We can't tell you how excited we all are and how much this unknown little girl is already loved so very much! We can't wait to have her home and in our arms!

~Daniella, Joe & Joseph