Adoption timeline

For those wondering where we are in the adoption process, here is your post! This will also provide some guidance for those looking to adopt from China and curious how long the process may take. For those adopting from other programs, your timeline will look very different.

We are adopting a little girl from China with special needs. We are unsure of the special needs she will have at this point until we are matched. This type of adoption, on average takes 18 months. We started October 2014 so we are 4 months in. There is a ton of paperwork and Jake and I have started to call it a labor of love!

10/6/14 application faxed to CCAI and medical checklist completed
10/10/14 initial application approved
10/11/14 home study application sent
10/15/14 notarized and mailed fee/ service agreement
10/20/14 dossier and home study packets sent
11/8/14 first social worker visit
11/30/14 home visit in our home

12/23/14 Home study approved

01/14/15 USCIS (1800A) application sent in

02/14/15 FBI Fingerprinting appointment

 

And there we are! We are waiting for our USCIS approval. Once this is complete, it has to be notarized/ certified and then we compile our dossier documents. The last step before our dossier is sent to China, is a trip to the Chinese Embassy in Houston TX. Documents have to be hand delivered there and hand picked up in Houston...so a road trip is in our future! It would be close to a miracle to have her home by the end of this year so we are looking at early 2016.

 

 Here are some wonderful gifts we received at Christmas

 Paperwork upon paperwork

 See how excited Jake is?!

 Claire helping in the process!

 Waiting on police reports, its a team effort

And the USCIS documents mailed