The one where we explain DTC, LID, & speculate about the future (again)

When you're adopting--doesn't matter from where--every phone call from an unknown number, every email that comes in, every alert of a new message means it could be THE ONE. 

THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. 

but....the reality is that most of the time they're not: they're simply telemarketers & junkmail

or they're the type of contact you really didn't want to get; like the one [or 2 or 3] in our case where something wasn't quite right with our paperwork & we needed to chase down someone, make a day trip to Raleigh (again), or call in a favor.

BUT sometimes....oh my....sometimes THEY ARE ACTUALLY THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

Friday, July 25th= Dossier to China

We are DTC!!!

In short, our Dossier is a compilation of 13 documents about Jonathan & I, who we are, what we do, our finances, our home study, etc--that have been legally approved by Cabarrus County, the North Carolina Secretary of State, the US Secretary of State, the office of US Immigration Services, & the US Chinese Consulate.  The completed & approved packet was reviewed for accuracy & translated into Chinese by our agency & mailed to China on July 25th, 2014---or our "DTC Day"!!

Next step, wait.

We were notified Monday, July 28th, 2014 that our dossier had made it across the world & had been delivered to the China Center for Children's Welfare & Adoption (CCCWA).  They are the people/organization that approves us to adopt our boys, so they are pretty important to us & we pray for them DAILY.  For real.

Then today, oh today's news came much quicker than we anticipated!

We are LID!!

This means today is our "log in date": the date that our dossier has been logged into China's system!  We're on their radar now folks!

So what now?

We wait.

But if you've been following our blog or know anything about international--or domestic for that matter--you probably already knew that :)

So sometimes the process moves REALLY fast, like this week, even when you least expect it.  Other times....oh the other times it moves so.very.slow.

Next step for us is to wait for our "letter of approval" [LOA].  This is the letter stating that the CCCWA has reviewed our packet & approved us to adopt the specific child(ren) we are currently matched to.  Rumor is an approx wait of 5-6 weeks for LOA from LID.  That puts us LOA around the week of September 11th. 

We are matched to our little "Teddy" (2.5 year old boy) & are still waiting to hear about the older kiddo we requested about originally.

We would LOVE for you to pray with us to move our paperwork through the system & get our boys home in time for Christmas!  What an amazing present that would be :-)