Our I800A approval arrived last Saturday! This approval is our permission from US immigration to adopt a child from China. Our agency can now prepare our dossier to it's trip across the ocean. You will soon see why it is such a huge deal to us that dossier preparation services are part of our agency's standard services. This last step in the US side of this process (for a good long while at least) is loosely referred to as authentications. I saw the process explained years ago on a blog that appears to be shut down, and I can't do nearly as clear a job as the blogger I was hoping to reference, but I will try to paraphrase for now. Ready? Good!
So, your whole life is laid open on 13 precious documents, condensed from (in my case) the rolling file cabinet of paperwork it took to acquire those documents. But how do the central adoption authorities know from all the way across the world that everything is in order? Those documents need to be notarized, so everyone knows that you are the one who prepared them. But how do we prove that the notary is really who he says he is? Well, the county or parish must seal the documents. But how do we prove that the county authority is who they say they are? The state must seal the documents. But wait! How we prove that the state authority is who THEY say they are? The documents must be authenticated by the designated Chinese consulate. In our case, the that would be Houston. This way, the central adoption authorities in China know that we are the Norris family and we meet all the standards set forth for adoptive parents. Whew!
Adoption can be divided into 3 mega-steps, 1. The Paperchase, 2. Matching, and 3. "Come On Already Let's Get This Child HOME!" The Paperchase includes the home study, I800A, and authentications. After authentications, mega-step 1 is done, which means our agency can send our dossier to China (DTC), and we can receive a log-in date in the system. This log-in date (LID) is important in the matching process, so I'd call it the beginning of mega-step 2. Currently matching in the medical needs program is taking about 1-6 months from LID.
That much closer to knowing the little one we are coming for! If you're praying with us, our requests are for smooth authentications, and for some relief from repairs and replacement needs on the home front. We've had quite the month! We're praying for my sweet girl's speech, as we do need to hit some big milestones this year. And finally, we are praying for this child waiting somewhere in China right now. We don't know anything else yet, but we know for a fact that this child- our own son or daughter- has already experienced the loss of his or her biological parents. Whatever people may say, early scarring is stored in a different way- like anything in your own life, it can be healed, not undone. It makes my heart ache. It makes me want to run there right now. We are praying that this child is receiving nourishment, medical care, and love. That his or her heart is being prepared for adoption and learning how to trust again after some very big separations and trust breaches during those early months, which are critical to learning attachment. We had a very good scenario with Vivienne's adoption, and we know that. We're praying for our whole family, here and overseas, to be protected and to be woven together, and we are thankful to have been able to reach this step in the adoption process!
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