Because we have never been able to experience the memorable moments that most couples experience with being pregnant, we are seeing every monumental step we take in this adoption process as part of our “pregnancy.” On August 11th, our adoption agency told us they had received our dossier and that all of our paperwork was complete and ready to be prepared to be sent to China. This was like us seeing a “+” sign on the pregnancy test.
Then on August 14th, our agency told us that our papers had all been translated and our dossier was being mailed to China. At that point, I was definitely nervous. I know they take every precaution to make sure the papers don’t get lost on their way to China, but after all the work we put into that dossier, I was definitely praying and anxious to hear of its safe arrival to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). After almost a week of being nervous, on August 19th, we received word that our dossier had been hand delivered to CCAA. What a relief! To me, that was like getting to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time at an ultrasound appointment.
At this point in the process, it is typical to have to wait up to 3 weeks before we receive what is referred to as our official log-in date (LID). Even if we were adopting a waiting child (a child with special needs), they said it’d take up to 1 week. However, today, after only 5 days, we were told that we have our LID. So officially, our LID is August 21, 2009! It only took CCAA 2 days to review our dossier! Anytime things go faster than expected in this process, it’s definitely worth celebrating over.
The significance of this LID is that it’s basically our number in line. China matches families with children according to their LID, which works very much like when you take a number at your grocery store deli counter. You get “served” according to your LID. For couples who are of Chinese descent, we are classified as expedited couples. Currently, expedited couples with log-in dates from April 10, 2007 have just received their matches. As you can see, it is taking over two years even for expedited couples to get their matches.
At this point, we wait and at a later point, we’ll have to update some of our paperwork since some of it will expire while we wait. It’s not too disappointing, since we know that’s part of the process. We’ll just continue to take it one day at a time.
What we are most excited about today is that there is a date to pray toward. We have been told that it should be no longer than 24 months from our LID when we’ll receive our match. Would you all please pray with us that the Lord would continue to move in this and bless us with a match in less than 24 months? We trust that whatever length of time we have to wait is what will lead us to the child/children God has planned for us; however, to be honest, waiting is never easy, right?
Everyday I pray for our child/children, knowing that he/she may not even be conceived yet. We are looking forward to the day when we’ll get our match and get to actually see a face to this child we are praying for. In the meantime, our hearts are already filled with so much love for our future baby/babies.