The Bad News First

June 16, 2006. We had PA, we had our appointment with our social worker - we were going to have Lian home before Xmas. Three days later Jamie got laid off. Our adoption went on hold. While he searched for new employment, we took on whatever extra jobs we could find and economized. Finally in late October he got a job working for a marketing research company run by friends from our church. At the same time we got an e-mail forwarded from the CCAA asking permission to have Lian's palate repaired. Given the unknowns in our timeline, we said yes. We called the agencies, set up appointments and started working on our dossier again.

Our social worker got our home study done and we submitted it to the USCIS (formerly Immigration, now part of Homeland Security) on January 3, 2007. We got a fingerprint date a month latter and that coincided with the mammoth Valentine's Day blizzard. We actually tried to go, but after only getting a mile in an hour, gave up. We went in the next week and traded off holding Lela, while the other went for the digital fingerprinting. The technician was having a hard time with Jamie's, but said that they were, "Probably OK." Three weeks latter we got a letter rejecting his prints - with a new date a week latter. He diligently applied hand cream every few hours to help "plump up the lines." Back he went, with a much better and more careful tech, the fingerprints really were OK this time. Meanwhile we had to get a new certified copy of our marriage certificate - China only accepts documents less than a year old. I sent an e-mail to the CIS asking for progress - they had now had our file over 3 months. No reply. Finally on April 28 we received our approval.
By now our police clearance had expired and our medicals were on the verge. We got everything notarized, when down to the County, got our new police clearance and County certification of all the documents.

The next day I went into NYC to get the State and Chinese Consulate certifications. At the State Dept. office in lower Manhattan they noticed that my home study had been missed by the County in the mass of documents. Luckily the notary was also certified in Manhattan - I ONLY had to run (literally) up to the clerks office, a mere 12 blocks away, and come back. You would be surprised how fast a chubby old broad can move if motivated. On to the Chinese Consulate on 42nd St and 12 Ave. I got #291 - they were serving #94. An hour and a half latter, I handed in my paperwork.

Lela and I went back to retrieve it at the end of the week, spent a lovely afternoon at the Central Park Zoo and FedEx'ed our dossier to our agency. They had to translate everything and then ship it off to China. Our dossier arrived in Beijing on 5/16/07 (courtesy of Fed Ex tracking) 11 months to the day since our PA.
We settled in to wait for our LID (Log in date) with trepidation - if we weren't LID by 5/23 our medicals would be too old. On June 29 we got an urgent e-mail from our agency - Good News - all our documents were reviewed and approved - Except - the CCAA was requiring a letter from the CIS explaining the messy dates on our approval form. The Friday before 4th of July week. Yeah, right. I e-mailed and left voice mail, the agency e-mailed and AMAZINGLY the CIS faxed them a new amended cover sheet that afternoon.

A few days latter we got a call with our official LID - 5/17/07 - one day after receipt, a world record for Chinese LIDs. That's the day the clock starts ticking on a new wait for LOA (Letter of Acceptance), a new wrinkle added this year, and then for TA (travel approval) and then CA (Consulate appointment- you count back from that date to Family day) The average wait for LOA is about 70 days, and we're closing in fast on that #.