Our Story
As with many families, we have been on a very long journey waiting for our baby. For a long time we have wanted to be parents. We started our adoption jouney in 2004. We decided early that we wanted to adopt a daughter from China and quickly settled on GWCA as our adoption agency. We contacted GWCA on May 19, 2004 and received an application from them on June 3, 2004. We were approved by them on June 7, 2004. At that time people were receiving their referrals for their babies within a short time frame - around 6-8 months. To find out more about the infamous Dossier process we went to New Jersey in on October 23, 2004 for an East meets West conference put on by the agency. This was very useful as we find out a lot about the home study process and the daunting paper trail process to complete the Dossier. After that time we started to work on gathering our paperwork and choosing a homestudy agency. The paperwork involved in the dossier could be its own single blog. We had to both have physicals, have Virginia police clearances and child abuse clearances, we had to have letters of references (thanks to our dear friends who wrote such heart warming letters that touched my heart), we had to have letters of employment, we had to proffer all our personal financial history, we needed birth certificates, wedding certificates and DMV clearances for the homestudy. We had to have a homestudy which comprised of four visits from a social worker including an inspection of the home. We also had to be fingerprinted. Once each of these documents were obtained they had to be notarized, then certified by the State Department and then taken to the Chinese Consulate for authentication - lots of seals and lots of money. We also had to submit to USCIS (previously INS) an I600A application to petition to adopt an orphan child. We finally received the last document that we had been waiting for - the I171H which was the USCIS approval of our petition to adopt. Once we received this document in early October 2005, we ran it around to get all appropriate seals and then we put the whole dossier together and sent it off to GWCA on October 7, 2005. The Dossier was mailed to China on October 14, 2005 and we then received our official LID (log in date) of October 28, 2005. We have been waiting since then to hold this precious and much wanted and needed child in our arms. The original referral period starting lengthening right before our LID date and the child that we first thought we would receive by summer of 2006, we now hope to bring home in summer of 2007 but she will be the perfect child for us. We thank every one of family and friends who have so wonderfully help us survive this painfully long wait. This little girl is going to be so loved!! 
As with many families, we have been on a very long journey waiting for our baby. For a long time we have wanted to be parents. We started our adoption jouney in 2004. We decided early that we wanted to adopt a daughter from China and quickly settled on GWCA as our adoption agency. We contacted GWCA on May 19, 2004 and received an application from them on June 3, 2004. We were approved by them on June 7, 2004. At that time people were receiving their referrals for their babies within a short time frame - around 6-8 months. To find out more about the infamous Dossier process we went to New Jersey in on October 23, 2004 for an East meets West conference put on by the agency. This was very useful as we find out a lot about the home study process and the daunting paper trail process to complete the Dossier. After that time we started to work on gathering our paperwork and choosing a homestudy agency. The paperwork involved in the dossier could be its own single blog. We had to both have physicals, have Virginia police clearances and child abuse clearances, we had to have letters of references (thanks to our dear friends who wrote such heart warming letters that touched my heart), we had to have letters of employment, we had to proffer all our personal financial history, we needed birth certificates, wedding certificates and DMV clearances for the homestudy. We had to have a homestudy which comprised of four visits from a social worker including an inspection of the home. We also had to be fingerprinted. Once each of these documents were obtained they had to be notarized, then certified by the State Department and then taken to the Chinese Consulate for authentication - lots of seals and lots of money. We also had to submit to USCIS (previously INS) an I600A application to petition to adopt an orphan child. We finally received the last document that we had been waiting for - the I171H which was the USCIS approval of our petition to adopt. Once we received this document in early October 2005, we ran it around to get all appropriate seals and then we put the whole dossier together and sent it off to GWCA on October 7, 2005. The Dossier was mailed to China on October 14, 2005 and we then received our official LID (log in date) of October 28, 2005. We have been waiting since then to hold this precious and much wanted and needed child in our arms. The original referral period starting lengthening right before our LID date and the child that we first thought we would receive by summer of 2006, we now hope to bring home in summer of 2007 but she will be the perfect child for us. We thank every one of family and friends who have so wonderfully help us survive this painfully long wait. This little girl is going to be so loved!! 
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