Waiting on TA

Instead of being productive on my day off, I've decided to start this blog for family and friends to follow our trip to China and the many misadventures that will follow. The adoption process is lengthy and involves more steps than you would ever imagine possible, most of which come with an abbreviation so that you can sound even more ridiculous when trying to explain yourself. For anyone interested, here's a brief summary of our wait so far.

• Application to adoption agency -- 9/15/06
• The paper chase, 6 months of compiling all the necessary documents for our dossier including birth certificates, marriage licenses, family photos, 3 sets of fingerprints and a homestudy by our favorite social worker Jacque. Everything had to be notarized, certified by the Secretary of State and verified by the Chinese consulate.
• Dossier to China (DTC) -- 3/9/07
• Log in Date (LID), the date our papers were officially placed in the system in Beijing -- 3/29/07
• Application to Waiting Child Program -- 11/19/07
• We got the call that there was a baby in China who would be a good fit for our family -- 11/30/07
• After reviewing David's medical file with adoption specialists and a plastic surgeon, we accepted the referral -- 12/17/07
• Letter of intent (LOI), a letter asking the Chinese government permission to adopt a specific child, to China -- 12/21/07
• Preliminary approval (PA) -- 1/15/08
• Letter seeking confirmation (LSC), our official approval -- 3/4/08

We are now waiting for our travel approval (TA) from Beijing so that our agency can make our appointment at the American consulate and set our official travel dates. We're hoping to leave on May 8 or 15.