DTC

We received congratulations yesterday from our adoption agency.  As of February 19th, we are DTC - or Dossier To China.

This means that all of the paperwork we painstakingly gathered over the last 9 months have been gathered together into a dossier and mailed to China.  These were mailed by our agency and in a batch.  Presumably, we will pick up Mei Mei with this same batch of people.

Now we wait for our Log In Date (LID).  That is the date that CCAA enters our information into a computer and we officially join the line of expectant parents.  That should happen in the next few weeks, although it may happen notably before we hear about it.

As an expedited family, the current expectation is that we will receive our referral 19-20 months after our log-in date.  If all goes at current rates, we will follow the following schedule:

March 2009 - Log In Date

December 2010 - Receive Referral

This is when CCAA mails information on a specific child to us, giving us the option of accepting or refusing that child as our own.  Once we accept our referral, we begin a busy 6 weeks or so of preparing to travel.

February 2011 - Pick up Mei Mei

In adoption circles, this reaches its pinnacle on Gotcha Day.

The interesting question is where we will be living once it is time to travel, and how difficult it will be to make those travel arrangements at that time.

Uncertainties aside, DTC still feels a bit like a positive pregnancy test.  Wow - this will really happen!