Surprise?

Kevin and I knew it wouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone that we were adopting again, so we decided to see how far in the process we could get before we shared our news. After spending the last ten months sneaking around, we are thrilled to tell you that David's little brother Max is waiting for us in southern China. We aren't allowed to post any photos or identifying information until we have received our official approval from China to adopt him, so stay tuned for that. For now I can tell you that he is almost 10 months old and adorable.
Many thanks to the Derdozos, the Mazhars, godfather Steve, Mike and Donna who helped with the necessary paperwork and kept it quiet.
So, even though I know this will likely only interest my mother, here is the run down of what we've been doing behind your backs:

The Paper Chase. This is the part of the adoption process designed for those of us with OCD. It takes months to gather all the necessary paperwork for 1) the homestudy 2) the I-800A application that is required for the US government to approve us for international adoption and 3) the dossier which is our huge stack of paperwork that goes to Beijing for the Chinese officials to review. Not only do we have to gather proof that we were born and are married, US citizens, healthy, not criminals according to the FBI and every state we've ever lived in, employed, have life insurance, health insurance, retirement savings, a house, cars, etc., etc., etc., but most of these documents have to be notarized then certified by the Secretary of State in the appropriate state then authenticated by corresponding Chinese consulate. Good good times. Highlights of our paperchase included but were not limited to:

• July 1, 2009 -- Our official start date. We ordered up some birth and marriage certificates and called our social worker to get the ball rolling.
• July 14 -- True to form, Snoopy adds an extra level of difficulty to the paper chase by eating the aforementioned birth and marriage certificates.
• July 30 -- Our first (of four) visit with Jacque, our social worker for David's adoption. We got off to a fantastic start. In the dogs' great excitement to see Jacque, Pete escaped but fortunately was coralled by a neighbor. David screamed the entire visit, and we found out Jacque was leaving our agency. So far so good.
• September 10 -- The last of our homestudy paperwork (or so we thought) arrives at our agency. Stephanie (the new Jacque) emails to let us know she has no idea what to do next. Fantastic.
• The next couple of months are filled with confusion and a seemingly endless string of paperwork and forms that Stephanie discovers she needs that no one mentioned before.
• November 25 -- Finally, after a lot of me banging my head against a wall and 3 rounds of editing, we have a completed homestudy, approved by our adoption agency and off to DCFS for their approval.
• December 22 -- We receive official approval from DCFS which means we can finally send our I-800A application in to USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Services).
• January 27, 2010 -- Our third and final (we hope) set of fingerprints. These are for our USCIS approval.
• February 1 -- We celebrate David's 3rd birthday and the arrival of our I-797C, our official response to our I-800A. It is our approval to adopt a child from China from USCIS and the last piece of paper we need to send our dossier to Beijing.

DTC (dossier to China) -- March 5, 2010. The official end of our paperchase. After one last round of notarizing, certifying and authenticating documents (and making about a million photocopies of all of them), our dossier finally left for Beijing.
LID (log in date) -- March 12. The day our dossier is officially registered by the CCAA. We didn't actually find out our LID until March 25. From then on we were eligible for a referral any time a new waiting child list was issued (about once a month).
Referral -- April 24. One Saturday, while Kevin and Dave were taking a break from various home improvement projects to watch the Blackhawks thrilling overtime win in game 5 of their series with the Nashville Predators, we got the call from our adoption agency. We accepted the referral on the spot. That night we told David that he has a little brother. We showed him Max's picture, and he said, "We get that one?" and kissed the computer screen.
LOI (Letter of Intent) -- April 27. Our letter officially requesting permission to adopt Max was submitted to China.
PA (Preliminary Approval) -- May 6. This step is pretty much meaningless. It indicates that they have our paperwork and will process it, but the real approval will come in 2-3 months with any luck.
There are several more steps between now and Gotcha Day, even more than last time due to the Hague, an international adoption treaty designed to protect children from abduction, child trafficking and other badness. I will bore you with these steps in a future post for anyone who wants to play along at home. They all involve initials that make little to no sense and waiting on government officials here or in China to do something. We hope to travel in 6-8 months, but it could be a little less or a lot more depending on how quickly or slowly everything is processed. Whatever the time table, we can't wait to follow that red thread again!