11/04/06: Attended
Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA) Workshop in Columbia, SC.
11/05/06: Started ordering Vital Documents through
Vital Check.
11/11/06: Attended second
GWCA workshop in
Greenville, SC.
11/16/06: Attended
Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) workshop in Bogart, GA.
11/20/06: Sent Jeff's birth certificate to courier
James Nelson-Traveling Notary in Ann Arbor to be
certified at
MI Secretary of State.
11/21/06: Sent Stacey's birth certificate to courier
Johnna Horn in Jefferson City to be certified at
MO Secretary of State.
11/22/06: Certified documents back from Michigan
11/28/06: Jeff got passport photo's taken. Missouri
certified documents back from courier.
11/29/06: Sent Jeff's
passport to Delaware for correction name spelling.
12/01/06: Sent the adoption application to
CCAI.
12/04/06: CCAI received application.
12/07/06: Stacey got passport photo's taken.
12/13/06: Sent Stacey's
passport to Delaware for renewal. Sent agency contract to
CCAI.
12/16/07: Met with our accountant
Helen Taylor in Missouri to go over the accountant letters.
12/29/06: Sent
I-600 (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) to
USCIS Application Support Center/Department of Homeland Security in Charleston, SC.
01/08/07: Sent marriage certificate and accountant letters to courier in Jefferson City to be
certifed at the
MO Secretary of State.
01/11/07: Got certified documents back from Missouri
01/16/07: Documents: birth certificates, marriage certificate, accountant letters sent to courier
There's Always Hope in Chicago for authentication at
Chinese Consulate.
01/18/06: Chicago courier
received documents. Sent pictures and
home study copy to
CCAI in Georgia.
01/20/06: The
Home study copy and pictures are lost, never made it to
CCAI. Re-ordered pictures on snapfish.
Got the pictures back the following week and sent another copy of the home study to CCAI. 01/29/07: Received authenticated documents from Chicago.
01/30/07: Fingerprint appointment at the
USCIS Application Support Center in Charlotte, NC.
02/02/07: Stacey hand carried the original home study, police clearances, financial statement, physician forms, and adoption petition to
SC Secretary of State in Columbia for certification.
02/06/07: Documents authenticated in Chicago sent to
CCAI. Documents originating in SC sent to Washington DC, via courier:
Assistant Stork to be certified by the
State Department and authenticated by the
Chinese Embassy.
02/08/07: CCAI and Courier
received documents
02/09/07: Laura at
Assistant Stork let us know that the documents were finished at the
State Department and have been left with the
Chinese Embassy in Washington. Charleston office of the
USCIS called requesting additional copies of some documents, shipped today.
02/12/07: USCIS received package.
02/20/07: Received authenticated documents from Washington.
02/21/07: Got call from
USCIS that they will be sending us a 171, but with Jeff's name as it was on his original birth certificate
02/22/07: Met with Brenda Ballard in our US Representative's Bob Inglis office.
02/23/07: Received the I-171H with Jeff's name spelled wrong.
02/26/07: Fedex'd all our documents that were authenticated in Washington DC to
CCAI02/27/07: Brenda faxed us the letter from Michigan stating it was common procedure in 1959 for the county clerk to change the name on a birth certificate when there was a
misspelling without a court order. The letter has also been sent to the
USCIS02/28/07: Dossier in Critical Review at CCAI, with exception of I-171.
03/09/07: Jeff drove to Charleston and picked up the I-171, notarized a copy and stopped in Columbia to have it certified. Then sent it to Washington
03/13/07: I-171 authenticated by State Department and Chinese Embassy
03/14/07: Got the I-171 back from DC
03/15/07: Hand delivered the I-171 to the Atlanta CCAI office. Dossier sent from Atlanta CCAI office to Colorado CCAI office to be translated into Chinese
03/20/07: Dossier sent to China
03/26/07: Dossier delievered to China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in Guangzhou, China.
04/05/07: Dossier logged-in at CCAA
05/09/07: Sent Medical Conditions Check-list to CCAI
07/17/07: Got the "Brown Envelope" from the Consulate in Gauangzhou.
Got back from Helen's and started helping Carla with some stuff, card tables, food, etc. Everybody got there around 1100. Next year Carla said she would send out a "food" list since we had 4 corn dishes and 5 different kinds of cranberry sauce. I don't think that has ever happened in our family.
After we had dinner, everyone gathered in the family room to open presents. I wish I had written down exactly what Carla said, but I didn't. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place after Carla talked about the hardships they had faced in the last year and how our family and God had been faithful to them all along. She said they had decided to move along with their adoption plans and that their baby would have a cousin when we brought our baby girl home from China!
