This page is a dated journal of our adoption process.  It includes all the significant dates and event of our adoption process. 

The 1st Month
04 December 2004	Decision was made to adopt a baby girl from China.
	Requested application package from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) via e-mail through web site:  www.chinesechildren.org
06 December 2004	Received application package from CCAI in mail.
09 December 2004	Completed application package with our general information and information about our health, extended family, and financial status.
10 December 2004	Mailed application package to CCAI.
13 December 2004	Called Arizona’s Children Association (AzCA) in Tucson to contract as our Home Study agent.  Web site: www.arizonaschildren.org CCAI notified whole month of June 2004 LID families with their referrals.
15 December 2004	Received e-mail from CCAI stating our application has been approved and included an attached Orientation Package document.
16 December 2004	Mailed Fee Policy/Agreement and Service Agreement to CCAI.
Beginning of PAPER CHASE  Process	Mailed I-600A (Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition) to U.S. Citizens Immigration Services (USCIS) in Phoenix.  Other documents mailed included copies of: Bonnie’s original Birth Certificate, Rick’s Birth Certificate and U.S *Citizen Certificate (*Rick was born overseas on Air Force Base, thus US Citizen born abroad), and Marriage Certificate.  Once the USCIS receives our Home Study Report and FBI fingerprinting, they will process and sent us our I-171H (Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition) if all goes well.  The I-171H is usually the last document received because of the steps involved.  Because of this, we elected to start this process first.  The USCIS will also sent our advanced processing application to the American Consulate in Guangzhou, China.
	Mailed Application for Rick’s Certificate of Report of Birth (CRB) from the U.S. Dept. of State in Washington D.C.  The CRB is an official birth document used for U.S. citizens born abroad.
19 December 2004	Rick and Bonnie have Passport Photos taken.
20 December 2004	Received Home Study Documents from AzCA in mail.
21 December 2004	Completed Home Study application documents and mailed to AzCA. Received e-mail from CCAI introducing us to their web page Parent Access Network (PAN).  The PAN is our personal web page that identifies each milestone of the adoption.  CCAI uses the PAN to notify families when it's time to download various information packets.  At this time we downloaded the Dossier Guide and China Home Study Report Packet.
23 December 2004	Bonnie had her Physical Exam and blood work done.
28 December 2004	Went to Police Department for fingerprints (needed for home study report) and requested Police Clearance Reports.
	Order Bonnie’s Birth Certificate via web site: www.vitalchek.com.
	Called County Clerk Office and ordered copy of our Marriage Certificate.
29 December 2004	Met with AzCA Social Worker for the first 2 of 4 interviews required for our Home Study Report.
30 December 2004	Picked up both of our Police Clearance Reports from Police Department with notary.
	Submitted Rick and Bonnie's Passport applications.
The 2nd Month
01 January 2005	Received Bonnie’s Birth Certificate in mail with intrinsic notary.
03 January 2005	Received Marriage Certificate in mail with intrinsic notary.
	Mailed Bonnie’s Birth Certificate to North Carolina’s Secretary of State (SoS) for first part of Certification.
04 January 2005	Mailed Marriage Certificate to New Mexico’s SoS for Certification.
	Rick had blood work done prior to physical exam day.
05 January 2005	Received Bonnie’s Employment Verification with notary.
06 January 2005	Received Rick’s Employment Verification with notary.
07 January 2005	CCAI notified July 1st-22nd 2004 LID families with their referrals.
08 January 2005	Received Bonnie’s Birth Certificate back from North Carolina’s SoS with 1st part of Certification.
10 January 2005	Mailed Bonnie’s Birth Certificate to U.S. Dept. of State for 2nd part of Certification.
	Received Marriage Certificate back from New Mexico’s SoS with Certification.
11 January 2005	Received Rick’s CRB from the U.S. Dept of State.  The CRB is an official U.S. document from the Dept. of State, thus the notary and certification are intrinsic.
12 January 2005	Rick had his Physical Exam.
	Received both of our Medical Reports from our doctors for both AzCA’s (Home Study) and CCAI (Adoption Agency) with notary.
	Rick completed his Autobiography needed for Home Study Report.
13 January 2005	Completed our Adoption Petition document with notary.
	Completed our Financial Report document with notary.
	Bonnie completed her Autobiography needed for Home Study Report.
	Received Rick and Bonnie's Passports in the mail.
14 January 2005	Met with AzCA Social Worker for the second 2of 4 interviews required for our Home Study.
21 January 2005	Received Bonnie’s Birth Certificate from U.S. Dept. of State with Certification completed.
	Mailed Bonnie’s Birth Certificate and Rick’s CRB to the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. for Authentication.
28 January 205	Received call from AzCA with information that a Copy of our Home Study Report was sent to USCIS in Phoenix and the original was sent to Sierra Vista’s County Court for Certification.
30 January 2005	Received Bonnie’s Birth Certificate and Rick’s CRB back from the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. with Authentication completed.  This completes the paper chase process for our Birth Certificates to include the Notary, Certification, and Authentication.
31 January 2005	Called USCIS in Phoenix to verify receipt of Home Study Report copy and enquire about FBI Fingerprinting date.
The 3rd Month
02 February 2005	CCAI notified July 23rd - Aug 23rd 2004 LID families with their referrals.
04 February 2005	Received letter from USCIS in mail with our fingerprinting date in Tucson.
05 February 2005	Went to Tucson for our USCIS Fingerprinting.
14 February 2005	Received call from AzCA with information that they have received our Certified Home Study Report back from the County Court.  This means that the County Court officials have deemed us as acceptable adoptive parents.
17 February 2005	Received our Adoption Certification Order from AzCA in the mail with letter from County Court certifying us as acceptable to adopt minor children, dated 11 February 2005.
23 February 2005	Received Final Home Study Report in mail from AzCA with notary.
24 February 2005	Received I-171H from USCIS in mail today.  This is the “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.”
25 February 2005	Drove to Tucson’s SoS Office to have the following 10 documents Certified:  Adoption Petition, both of our Employment Verifications, Financial Statement, both of our Physical Exam Reports, both of our Police Clearance Reports, a Copy of I-171H, and the Final Home Study Report.
	Mailed the 10 documents mentioned above plus our Marriage Certificate to the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles for Authentication.
The 4th Month
17 March 2005	CCAI notified Aug 24th - Sept 20th 2004 LID families with their referrals.
18 March 2005	Received in mail the 11 documents back from Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles with Authentication.  This completes the paper chase process for all documents needed for the dossier, to include the Notary, Certification, and Authentication.
	Copied all 13 documents needed for our dossier to include the Original Document, Notary , Certification, and Authentication pages.
End of PAPER CHASE  Process (92 Days, not bad)	Compiled all 13 Original Documents packets with 13 complete copies, 3 Couple Photos, 8 Family Life Photos, 3 Passport Photos, and copies of our Passports (2 each).  Mailed Completed Dossier to CCAI in Colorado. Yeah Baby!  The paper chase process is DONE!!!
19 March 2005	Dossier received by CCAI and is awaiting critical review.
24 March 2005	Received call from CCAI Dossier Dept. stating the critical review has been completed with no errors or correction required. Dossier has been sent to the Translation Dept.
30 March 2005	Receive e-mail from CCAI, Dossier has been sent to China.
The 5th Month
04 April 2005	Received e-mail from CCAI with news of Dossier arrival at the CCAI Beijing office, and has been delivered to the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA).  This is known as the Dossier to China (DTC) day.
16 April 2005	Received brown envelope from the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou China.  Envelope contained our case number and documents required for adoption processing to include Immigrant Visa Application, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, and Adopted Childs Medical Exam Report and History.
19 April 2005   Beginning of the 6-8 month waiting period.	Official Dossier Log in Date (LID).  Start of 6-8 month waiting period. CCAI notified Sept 21st - Oct 21st 2004 LID families with their referrals.
22 April 2005	E-mailed CCAI our USCIS (Guangzhou, China) case number.
The 6th Month
11 May 2005	Checked our Parent Access Network web page at CCAI and we now have our Dossier Log in Date (LID).  Our official Dossier to China (DTC) LID is the 19 April 2005.  This is the day that our dossier information was entered into CCAA computers.
24 May 2005	CCAI notified Oct 22nd -Nov 20th 2004 LID families with their referrals.
One month down.
The 7th Month
06 June 2005	Rick received the first series of the Hepatitis A & B shots and Tetanus shot.
10 June 2005	Received e-mail from CCAI stating it is time for us to download Travel Packet 1 from their web site.
16 June 2005	Received in mail CCAI's "Adoption & Bonding" and "Travel Training" DVD's.
27 June 2005	Bonnie verified with her Doctor that her shots are up to date. CCAI notified Nov 21st - Dec 20th 2004 LID families with their referrals.
Two months down.
The 8th Month
09 July 2005	Joined the following yahoo adoption groups:  ccaimaillist, marchapril2005dtcccai, and AprilDTC2005.
11 July 2005	Rick received the second series of the Hepatitis A & B shots.
29 July 2005	CCAI notified Dec 21st 2004 - Jan 27th 2005 LID families with their referrals.
Three months down.
The 9th Month
23 August 2005	Received e-mail from CCAI stating it is time for us to download the Waiting Family Support Packet from their web site.
27 August 2005	Evan and Eric have Passport Photos taken.
30 August 2005	Eric received the first series of the Hepatitis A shot. Submitted Evan and Eric's Passport applications.
Four months down.
The 10th Month
03 September 2005	CCAI notified Jan 28th - Feb 28th 2005 LID families with their referrals.
09 September 2005	Evan received the first series of the Hepatitis A shot.
19 September 2005	Received Evan and Eric's Passports in the mail. Received e-mail from CCAI stating it is time for us to download the Pre-placement Packet from their web site.
Five months down.
The 11th Month
04 October 2005	CCAI notified March 1st-15th 2005 LID families with their referrals.
17 October 2005	Received e-mail from CCAI stating it is time for us to pay Post Placement Adoption fee.
18 October 2005	Mailed Post Placement Adoption Fee to CCAI.
Six months down.
The 12th Month
10 November 2005	CCAI notified March 16th-31st 2005 LID families with their referrals.
Seven months down.
The 13th Month
09 December 2005	CCAI notified April 1st-14th 2005 LID families with their referrals.  We are LID April 19, thus missed the cutoff by 5 days.  This means we are next for a January referral.
30 December 2005	CCAI send us an e-mail stating the referrals for April 15th-24th 2005 LID families have been sent from CCAA.  That's US.  Yea Baby! Here she comes!
Eight months down.
The 14th Month
05 January 2005	At 9:46 am Arizona time we received "The Referral Call" and the e-mail with the first photo of her.  See photo here, select Referral Photos.
Finally Received Our Referral after 9 1/2 months.  Whooohoo!
	CCAI also notified all the other April 15th-24th LID families with their referrals.
06 January 2005	Received FedEx Stork (photo here) letter with all of her information:  Accepting letter, 2 more photos, health status and medical records, her state of growth info, province, city, and social welfare institution info.
07 January 2005	Returned our "YES" accepting letter via FedEx next day.
13 January 2005	Sent Care Package to Emily.  See photos here, select Care Package. Received e-mail from CCAI introducing us to the Travel Department and informing use about Travel Packet II.
16 January 2005	Received e-mail to download Travel Packet II from CCAI's web site. Downloaded Travel Packet II documents from web site and reviewed. Downloaded Visa application from CCAI's web site.
17 January 2005	Signed and Notarized Travel Packet II documents.  Included: Adoption Placement Agreement, Adoptive Parents Adoption Travel Release, Travel Agency Release, Social Worker Contact Information Sheet, CCAI Travel Companion Acknowledgement Form, and Minor Child Travel Companion Adoption Travel Release.  Dropped off Travel Companion Physician's Release Forms at Evan's and Eric's Doctors office. Completed Visa Application Forms for all of us.
18 January 2005	Picked up Evan's and Eric's Doctor signed Physical Release Forms. Signed and Notarized Affidavit by Adoptive Parents. Mailed Visa Applicatiion Forms to JC-Travel.
19 January 2005	Mailed all Signed and Notarized Travel Packet II Documents to CCAI.
23  January 2005	Received letter from CCAI with updated development information for Emily.
25  January 2005	Received e-mail from CCAI with more updated development information and a dual photo (photo here, select Referral Photos) of Emily.
31  January 2005	Received e-mail from CCAI with news they have received Travel Notices for our group, and have faxed the US Consulate in Guangzhou requesting appointments for the week of February 27th.
The 15th Month
02 February 2005	Great News!  Received e-mail from CCAI  that they have  received our Consulate appointment confirmation for our group to be March 1, 2006.  We are required to arrive in Hong Kong before 2/17/2006 and are to depart after 3/3/2006. Received e-mail from JC-Travel with tentative travel itinerary information.
03  February 2005	Received in mail our Passports from JC-Travel with visa stamps. Received e-mail and call from CCAI Travel Dept. with general questioning and information as to what is going to transpire the next few days. Called JC-Travel and confirmed our international airline reservations.
07 February 2005	Received e-mail from CCAI with our Final Travel Package.  Our final travel itinerary is posted at the bottom of the China Trip page.
08 February 2005	Had conference call with Josh, Lily, and our Travel Group.
10 February 2005	Bonnie went to her Soccer Mom's baby shower.  Thanks everyone!  Here is a quick photo.  Others photos will follow later.
The 16th Month
01 March 2005	Blank