Our dossier is on its way!

Kevin took our dossier (translation: pile of important paperwork) to Fed Ex today and sent it on its way to our adoption agency for review!  They will get it tomorrow (Wednesday), review it and let us know if we need to change or add anything.  Once it looks good they will send it on its way to China!  It feels so good to have the paperwork out of our hands (we had it locked in a safe!) and working its way to the other side of the world :)

We were originally waiting to send in our dossier until we received a referral, but China changed the process for how they make special needs children available for adoption - for the better, I believe.  It used to be that individual adoption agencies could have their own individual list of children, to kind-of get the word out and help find a family for the children.  Now, the only way an agency can have an individual list is if they host a child's camp in China - then the agency can post pictures and information about the camp kids. (Hopefully this will lead to even more camps for the children in China!)

So where do all the children go that aren't on the individual agency lists any more?  They go on the shared list - the one that all the agencies who work with China have access to.  The shared list was there before, but now you have to be "logged in" (have all your paperwork in China) if you would like the referral of a child who is new to the shared list.  Once a child has been on the shared list for a month, then you don't have to be logged in to pursue the adoption of that child.  The goal is to make it so that a child doesn't have to wait as long to get home to their new family - it should make the process a lot quicker for a family to go get their child because the paperwork is already done.  What great news for those precious boys and girls who need a family!

I'll let you know when that paperwork leaves our agency's hands and moves on into China!

In His name,

Karen