The Dossier

The dossier is the collection of documents that goes to China and has taken us many months to complete. It includes background, financial, and health checks, immigration clearance, petitions, vial records, employment records, home study, passport copies, and pictures. When everything is complete, each document is notarized, county and state certified, and then sealed by the US State Dept and Chinese Embassy. Each time we thought we were finally finished, we found some problem that seemed to delay us even more. What I thought would be ready by October, dragged into December. The day we received our last documents in the mail, I fell in the floor and had a good stress relieving cry. It's kind of like labor, you forget the pain, until you're right back in the midst of it. I remember starting this process thinking that I was an old pro and would whiz right through! Kicked myself for that thought so many times. Ours was finally sent to our agency on Saturday, December 17th. They logged it in on Tuesday. Now it is in the critical review process which takes about 9 days. If everything is perfect, it will be expressed to China and logged in there. If it's not... well I dont even want to think about that! That log in date is known as LID day. It's typically about 4-5 months from LID to travel. The Christmas season is keeping me slightly distracted from my nervousness at this point. Shopping has been hard though. I cannot stay out of the toddler aisle and being there makes me emotional, wishing she could be here for Christmas.