Where we're at

It's been a while since I laid out exactly where we are at in our adoption process. Last thing I explained was when we found out about China's new law that put us back a few months. Since then we've been working hard to get all the paperwork and legwork done in order for our dossier to be complete. The dossier is the entire compilation of everything we've done up to this point and then some. It gets sent over to China for approval and THEN we can get matched with and locked into a child.
Some of the things that are included in this process are....
~background checks and fingerprints (both with our local authorities and the federal immigration office)
~more writing about how, when, and why we want to adopt....very specific (think, 5 paragraphs...first says this, second says that, third states your "definite desire" to adopt...be sure to use the phrase "definite desire") The Chinese are nothing if not particular....whew.
~again, a very specific collection of family pictures (i.e. no posed shots, only things showing activity, 4 with dad and kids, 4 with mom and kids, front of home, adopted child's room/bed, etc....)
~new fees
~employer letters stating our work position, time at company, salary, etc.
~certification of Jason's out of state birth certificate through the Illinois Sec. of State
~letter of good standing for each of us written by our local police station saying we are upstanding citizens
~tons of financial documents
~more fees
~physicians forms that are so specific they had to be done as much as 3 times by our doctors.
~new marriage and birth certificates issued again because they have to be issued within the last 6 mos. at the time China gets it
~all MN documents sent to our Sec. of State for certification
~fees, fees, fees.....did I mention fees

So, there's that in a nutshell. And that's not even everything, but you get the point. It's madness.....I swear, they act like you're trying to adopt a kid or something. :)

The one good thing about having to do all this before getting locked into a child is that it won't have to be done AFTER we're locked in which is how it might have been otherwise. So, I'm hoping that this means we won't have as much time between our lock and travel. Hope. Pray. I'd still love to go by the end of the year, but I'm less sure of that than I was.
We did hear from the woman at the agency that watches the special needs list for matches and she said that there were definitely kiddos in the last batch added to the list that matched our family, but we couldn't be called on them since we don't have our dossier logged in yet. Hmm.....I wasn't sure if I was sad to hear that or happy. Sad cuz we could have had that picture by now....happy though to hear that there are girls out there who need us and who would be a good match for us. I have to believe though that this timing is all for a purpose and that when we finally do get matched and we finally get to travel to the other side of the world to get her, we won't be able to imagine it being anyone else. She's already been chosen, we just have to wait until we're privileged enough to meet her. I can't wait.