Adoption Timeline

Many of you have asked about the timeline for this adoption.  I will try to summarize as best I can, I still don't fully understand all of it myself. 


The entire process is pretty much divided into two parts, everything you do to get your paperwork to China and then everything that happens after you are matched with a child.  For us, we are expecting to send our dossier off to China hopefully in August.  After officials in China get it logged into their system, Holt is notified and then we are eligible to be matched.  This could take anywhere from a month to six months, but because we are looking at adopting an older child with a special need, most likely it will be on the quicker side.  When a child is referred to us, we will receive the complete medical file, photos, and any other information on that child (such as where they have been living, where they were born, etc.)  We will have an international adoption doctor review the file and then we have a few days to make a decision on whether or not we will accept that child. 


If we do accept the referral, then we submit an official LOI, a letter of intent to adopt.  We have to wait for the LOA, letter of approval from China, which can take awhile.  There are more steps after that which I will explain when we get closer to that point.  All together it is about 6 months from the time we accept a referral until we travel to China.  We should be traveling sometime late next spring or early summer.