Our piles of paperwork left the US on Friday, January 18, 2013 - DTC (dossier to China).
Our box traveled from Herndon, VA (our adoption agency's office) to Memphis, TN, then on a direct flight to Beijing, China! Our package was delivered to our agency's counterpart in Beijing on Monday, January 21, 2013 at 10:01am.
Then our agency's employee delivered our notarized, state authenticated, US State Department approved, Chinese Embassy stamped dossier to the CCCWA for review.
We were told it generally takes about 7-10 days to process the paperwork and have an official log in date (LID). But it could take 2-6 weeks to be notified of our official date.
So we were surprised when we received email notification on February 6, 2013, that our LID was January 30, 2013. Coincidentally, 15 years ago on January 30, 1998, Brian and I had our first date :)
And now we wait.
The last Monday of each month the CCCWA releases shared list orphan referrals. Our agency also has some orphanage specific relationships, and they receive referrals with no specific schedule. We weren't eligible for the January shared list referrals (but there were 8 families that accepted referrals). Yesterday, we received notification that the next shared list would be released on Monday, February 25. And they received and matched 8 referrals from one of their orphanage relationships on Thursday. They expect to receive more orphanage specific referrals in March (possibly 10).
We've been told our wait could be anywhere from 1-12 months - probably closer to 12 months - since we requested a 0-12 month girl with minor correctable medical needs. We are still hopeful that we will be introduced to Emma very soon and be able to travel to bring her home in 2013.
