Adoption Timeline

Here's the important dates along our adoption journey:

• October 31, 2007 - we officially submit our application to America World Adoption for the China program
• January 16, 2009 - we finally complete all aspects of our dossier (authenticated documents, approved home study) and is sent to China (DTC)
• January 28, 2009 - The CCAA officially logs our dossier into their system (LID)
• August 4, 2010 - our future daughter is found abandoned at a first aid station in Guiyang City and is enrolled in the city's orphanage the following day
• April 15, 2011 - our family officially moves from The Woodlands, Texas up to New Albany, Ohio
• May 1, 2011 - the original I-800a approval expires
• February 27, 2012 - our Ohio home study is completed
• June 12, 2012 - we are officially accepted into the Waiting Child program for China and we change our target age range to 3-8 years old instead of under 3 years
• July 6, 2012 - we receive a phone call from America World asking if we would like to review the medical file for Jin Guo. This occured on a Friday, so we spent the weekend talking to doctors and preparing for our acceptance
• July 11, 2012 - we submit our electronic acceptance (EA) documentation for Jin Guo's referral
• July 12, 2012 - we submit our I-800a application form again to the USCIS since our original expired in mid 2011
• July 20, 2012 - we receive our Pre-Approval (PA) from China
• July 27, 2012 - the CCCWA issues our referral acceptance letter (RA) for us to adopt Jin Guo
• August 9, 2012 - we receive our I-800a approval letter (I-797) from the USCIS
• August 14, 2012 - we submit our I-800 application to the USCIS
• August 24, 2012 - we receive the notice that our I-800 application was received by the USCIS and to expect action on the case within 10-14 business days

• September 4, 2012 - we receive our I-800 provisional approval and send off our Chinese visa applications

• September 10, 2012 - the National Visa Center (NVC) cabled our visa petition for Jin Guo (Mia) over to the US Embassy in Guangzhou

• September 27, 2012 - the US Embassy in Guangzhou issues the Article 5 letter for Jin Guo (Mia) and the America World Adoption representative in China delivers the letter to the CCCWA.

• October 17, 2012 - we receive our travel approval (TA) from China.

• November 1 - 17, 2012 - our travel dates to China - we fly from Columbus through Chicago to Beijing on United Airlines. We will return through Hong Kong, back through Chicago and then finally home to Columbus.

• November 4, 2012 - GOTCHA DAY!!!

Some interesting tidbits of information that I calculated about our adoption:

• We started the adoption process 2.7 years BEFORE our daughter was abandoned at the first aid station and entering the Chinese orphanage
• She was slightly older than 2 years old when we started all of this
• Jin Guo was orphaned while Ginny was in the hospital with Austin's pregnancy

• Our expected adoption process length will be slightly over 5 years long