Just a little education

I wasn't sure if everyone was actually familiar with the the world of international adoption but I thought that maybe I should do a little educating! The first big decision to adopt internationally is which country. We chose China because the program is stable and we also have a little cousin who is Chinese. The next step was to choose an adoption agency. There are ALOT of great agencies out there but we chose FTIA based on a referral from a family that had adopted 2 girls from China and had used FTIA both times. FTIA stands for Families Thru International Adoption and they are based out of Evansville, IN. Our application was approved July 2006 and the paperchase began. The paperchase consists of compiling documents (i.e. birth certificates, marriage license, health exams, financial statement, employment letters, criminal history checks), applying to immigration a petition to adopt and having a homesudy done. This took us approximately 4 months to complete and in December 2006, all the paperwork was sent to our agency to review. This paperwork became our completed "dossier". It was sent to China by our agency and became officially "Logged into China" on December 31st, 2006-this is what is know as our LID date. Then next process is for the dossier to be sent to the review room. We recently (about 1-2 months ago) learned that our month is out of review! Yea! In the review room, they may question your paperwork, so to be out of review is a good thing! We passed, no questions asked! The next step will be the matching room, where someone compares our paperwork to that of a little orphan in China and decides we match. This brings us to our last leg of the journey. Once we are matched with a baby, the referral is sent to us. (I dream about this day all the time! The day that we will get to see our little girl!) Then a whirlwind of activity will start, getting our visas, getting travel approval and making travel arrangements....with the help of our agency of course! Our stay in China will be approximately 2 weeks, and we will return home with a daughter! What a journey it will be. Please just keep us in your prayers, for patience and acceptance of this journey God has given us. We are certain the end result will DEFINITELY be worth the wait.