DTC-TODAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!!! 

And what a birthday it is!!!  We are DTC as of 11:30 this morning, when DHL sent over a notification via email from our agency to say our paperwork is in the process of shipping to China!!!! 

Unfortunately, daddy is in China and given the 13 hour time difference and the fact, daddy was sick with food poison yesterday, I don't have the heart to call and wake him.  (It's now in the middle of the night!)

I can't wait to share the glorious news with him.....think it's safe to speak on his behalf and say, DTC is the best birthday gift, he's ever received!!!

NEXT STEP: LID!!!  (Log-In Date)

LID is the day our dossier (mounds of paperwork) is logged into the China Center for Adoption Affairs computer system.  This will start the "real" countdown for bringing Miao home!!!

The typical time for the LID is about 2-4 weeks after DTC but with an older child, it has been known to come much quicker.  (yea!)

Several families I've met through the Yahoo China Adoption Networking group, who are also adopting older children from the same orphange, have received their LID (Log-In Date) within a couple of days.  Here's praying we are equally as blessed and will receive our LID in the next day or two. 

Our agency makes a habit of "flagging" the dossiers that are to adopt older children.  They flag it by placing a note as the top page, specifying the dossier is specific to an older child and to PLEASE EXPEDITE.  Since our daughter is 13 years old our dossier was flagged!!! 

When flagged dossiers arrive to China, the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) is suppose to keep the file separate and not add it to "the stack," with hundreds of other dossiers wiating their turn to be logged-in.  Flagged dossiers should be handled as an expedite and logged-in ahead of those waiting dossiers.  However, agency also said, no promises...what should happen and what normally happens..doesn't always happen.  SIGH! Let's pray it does happen.............

It would be such a blessing to have our LID by the time Earl returns home from his business trip in China!!

COME ON LID!!!!!!  COME ON LID!!!!!  COME ON LID!!!!!