Our Adoption Timeline

Our Adoption Timeline

• Years of planning and dreaming!

• December 17, 2012 - Learn from Holt that adopting from China is a possibility for us! We had come to believe that it wouldn't be possible because of BJ's health conditions. Starting now with doctors visits and medical paperwork to find out for sure.
• January 4, 2013 - Jessie's physical and lab tests
• January 23, 2013 - Receive notarized medical letter in the mail from BJ's immunologist
• January 25, 2013 - BJ's physical and lab tests
• January 26, 2013 - Get our dog up-to-date on his shots and get confirmation of this for our home study
• January 26, 2013 - Receive notarized medical letter in the mail from BJ's cardiologist office 
• February 8, 2013 - Jessie's CT scan (needed because of some bad lab test results at my physical)
• February 8, 2013 - Get our Holt service agreement signed and notarized
• February 13, 2013 - Receive official results from Jessie's CT scan - all is well!
• February 14, 2013 - Get the notarized paperwork we need from our primary care doctor (another letter and two copies of a form - based on our lab results - for each of us)
• February 15, 2013 - Send Holt all of our medical paperwork and receive confirmation that we are eligible to adopt from China! YEA!!!
• February 16, 2013 - APPLICATION START DATE
  Submit our application to Holt online and mail in the paperwork to support our adoption application (service agreement, photos, financial records) and our child medical checklist
• February 18, 2013 - Mail in our home study application
• February 22, 2013 - Discover that our home study was not sent out because I was short $.20 postage. Just lost 4 days. Arg!! Attach $.23 cent stamp. Resend.
• February 22, 2013 - Receive the boys' medical forms from their pediatrician
• February 23, 2013 - FBI fingerprinting
• February 27, 2013 - Send out the remainder of our home study documents
• March 1, 2013 - Surprise Grandma Sue and Papa John with the news that we're adopting!
• March 4, 2013 - Jessie's police clearance completed and all of our paperwork reorganized
• March 8, 2013 - BJ's police clearance completed
• March 22, 2013 - Our first home study with our social worker
• April 5, 2013 - Our second home study visit and more paperwork notarized 
• June 19, 2013 - Home Study Approval
• June 24, 2013 - Our i800a is received
• June 26, 2013 - Text confirmation that i800 is being processed
• July 10, 2013 - Jess is fingerprinted by USCIS 
• August 19, 2013 - We have been assigned a USCIS officer!
• August 23, 2013 - i800a Approval 
• August 29, 2013 - 797 (I-800 approval) arrived! Indy trip to have it certified and sent to the Chicago Consulate 
• September 13, 2013 - Dossier sent to China (DTC)!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
• September 18, 2013 - LID - We are logged in! This means that we can now be matched with our daughter from the shared list! Our wait to be matched has officially begun!
• January 15, 2014 - OOT - Not sure how long we have been OOT, but on this day we received confirmation that we are "Out of Translation", which means our dossier has been translated and is ready to be reviewed!
• February 25, 2014 - Referral and LOI (Letter of Intent)
• February 27, 2014 - LOA (Letter of Acceptance)
• March 19, 2014 - I-800 Approval 
• March 26, 2014 - GUZ# by email & Filed DS260
• March 26, 2014 - Received Chinese Visas
• March 27, 2014 - PDF of NVC Letter
• March 31, 2014 - Article 5 Drop-Off
• April 17, 2014 - Article 5 Pickup
• May 5, 2014 - Travel Approval
• May 14, 2014 - Off to China!!!
• May 19, 2014 - Gotcha / Family Day!!!
• May 30, 2014 - HOME!!!