Questions About the Adoption Timeline

"Congratulations!" is one of the common reactions we've received in the weeks since we officially announced our plans to adopt from China.  That always catches me off guard because I don't feel like I have anything tangible to be celebrated yet.  We've started a process with no definitive timeline and no guaranteed outcome.  Naturally, everyone is excited, though, and want to know when we're going to welcome a new son or daughter into our family. 

This timeline shows some of the important steps or milestones for adopting from China.  The time frames are estimates only and can vary greatly.  Vacations, holidays (both in the U.S. and China), politics and, not surprisingly, bureaucratic red tape, can slow any of these steps down.  Our social worker's upcoming jury duty is pushing our timeline back.  We won't be able to complete our interviews until around Labor Day and then I'm not anticipating much getting done right before and after the holiday.

China Adoption Timeline

• Home Study (2-3months) - This consists of  interviews, a home visit, paperwork, and assessments that are required by the U.S. government. We hope to finish in about two months by mid-September.
• Dossier (2-3 months) - Sometimes known in adoption lingo as the "paper chase," this is the set of legal documents we prepare to send to China to request to adopt an orphan.  It includes a letter requesting permission to adopt a Chinese orphan, home study, police reports, immigration approval, reference letters, medical reports, marriage certificate, birth certificates, letters of employment, and photos of your family and house. We generally can't do much for dossier preparation until the home study is complete, so we don't anticipate we'll start on this step until after Labor Day. 
• Log in Date (LID) (30 days) - The dossier is mailed to the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA), which is the division of the Chinese government that handles all of China's adoptions, where it will be registered and translated.  That is when we should receive our Log-In Date (LID), which means we are officially eligible to be matched with a child.
• Referral (1-6 months) - The referral is adoption lingo for "match".  China releases a list monthly of the children eligible for international adoption and agencies around the country work to match those children with the right families.  If there's not a match, you generally wait until the next month for another opportunity.  Families have 72 hours to accept a match and it's not unheard of for a family to go through one or two failed matches if they decide they are unable to parent that child, often because they discover the medical issues are more than they think they are prepared for. 
• Travel (6 months) - From the time we accept a referral to the day we meet our child in person is about six months.