DTC!!!

 
In the China adoption world, that means Dossier To China!  This is an important step, and we’ve been working toward this and waiting for it for a long time.  There are a couple of different processes that can occur in different orders when adopting from China.  Some families send their dossier to China, and then it’s reviewed and accepted, and then later on they are matched with a child.  Since we chose a special focus child, who has medical needs and is older, we got preliminary approval to adopt her earlier in our process.  Now that we have all the paperwork needed for our entire dossier, it has been sent to China for them to review thoroughly and then officially grant our acceptance. 

Another step of the process, on the U.S. side, is the I800a and then later, the I800.  One of our kids asked, with sincerity, “Is that because it’s 800 pages?”  It’s not, but sometimes it has seemed like we’re getting close to 800 as we’ve prepared our dossier!  We have over 165 emails in our adoption email folder and 98 adoption files saved (and growing!).  This is, hopefully, at least most or all of the important ones.  In the beginning of the process, I kept a log of each step we completed, but after a couple of pages, we just did it and didn’t take the additional time to document every step of the way.  I think we’ve gotten 11 background checks/clearances between the two of us since we needed one from every state we’ve lived in as well as letters from our local police/sheriff’s office.  Those were in addition to getting fingerprinted (two times each).  One of our fingerprinting appointments was scheduled early in the morning in Des Moines.  It happened to be a couple of days before our anniversary, so we turned it into an overnight get-away to celebrate 16 years of marriage and get one step closer to bringing our little one home!  We’ve also had multiple documents notarized, made numerous photocopies, and answered over 1,250 questions.  Some were true/false for our psychological inventory, others were about a long list of potential medical needs, and others were more like essays.  This gives a little idea of what we’ve been doing in our spare time these last few months.  But, no matter how much paper work, how many phone calls, emails, or questions, we’d do it all again so we can bring our little girl home!


So, what’s next?  We wait some more, and fill out our next forms so they’re ready when we get approval from China.  The wait is so much harder once we know who are child is. This was the case for Joshua, and now for our daughter as well.  But, I also love that we know more about her and are able to pray more specifically for her while we wait.  And this time around, since our other kids are older, I love hearing and seeing their hearts as they pray for their little sister and wait expectantly for God to answer.  We’d love for you to be praying with us!  We have submitted a request for a medical expedite.  Since our daughter has thalassemia and needs regular blood transfusions as well as medication, the sooner we bring her home and she starts receiving the medical care she needs, the better.  In China, children with thalassemia often get so anemic that they are unable to play or even get out of bed.  And, not getting the medication she needs can be detrimental to her organs.  If we are granted a medical expedite, we may be able to bring her home a few months sooner than we would otherwise.  This decision in China will likely be made next week.  So, we’d appreciate prayer for each person involved in making the decision along the way.  And, we’d love prayer for our daughter’s heart (emotionally) and each of ours as well, as we prepare for her to become a part of our family.  We’ll share more in future updates (whenever we’re able to take a break from paperwork!)