Dossier to China

Oh, for the longest time I've wanted to be able to say we are DTC... and now we are! Two years and twelve days since lodging our Expression of Interest in being assessed, and 8 months and 15 days since being approved (we do things quickly in Queensland, have you noticed?) our dossier is on a QANTAS plane and making its way to China. I saw a QANTAS plane in the sky on my way home from work tonight and choked up a little.

We are officially Qld batch #1 2008. Don't hold your breath, I doubt there will be any further batches from Qld this year. The China officer advised that in 6-8 weeks she will contact the CCAA (China Centre of Adoption Affairs) and find out our log-in-date.

To say I'm relieved is an understatement.

I know there is a massive wait ahead of us, but I do feel like we have finished one chapter of a book and are starting a new chapter. And that feels good!

Can someone say... slow?

Coming out of hibernation for a quick update. Wish it was better news - looks like our excitement at having an August 2008 (08/08) LID was a pipe dream. Probably was a bit too ambitious to think it could take less than nine months from being approved to being logged in.

*blink*.

Anyway,first update came from the Dept's China officer ten days ago:
'The files were sent to the Notary on 8 August 2008. The files have now been sent back from Notary and I received them this morning. I have now couriered the files to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Once I receive the files back from DFAT I will take them to the Chinese Consulate.'

Then another one two days ago:
'I received the files back from the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday afternoon, and have now walked the files to the Chinese Consulate this morning.'

With a promise to keep us up to date.

That's all we know! No clue or indication yet how long things will take at the Consulate. I hope to share some DTC (Dossier-to-China) news in the not-too-distant future, followed by LID (log-in-date) news shortly after that.

And I will still update about the auspiciousness of the number 8 soon!

(photo by Randy Son of Robert via Flickr)

We're still checkin' those boxes!

I spoke with the China officer from the Dept today. Good news, eight couples (yah, I know... eight is news to us too!) are ready to be batched and our paperwork is being sent off to be notarised. There is just one document from one dossier that is missing - whoever it is please hurry! We are now required to get some bank drafts in US currency made up to be sent with our dossier to be paid to the CCAA and also to cover translation services.

It's nice to progress a little.

I asked whether everything is on track for the dossiers to leave on the 15th and was told, "I think so". Apparently the Dept is not sure how long the notarisation will take for eight dossiers, as their usual time expectations are based on batches of approximately five.

I am so hopeful that we will get an August log in date. That would mean eight files in our batch in the eighth month of 2008, and eight is a lucky number for the Chinese. I'll do a post about that later this week to explain why.