MerrinDonahue.com

I never talk about it over here, but I’m too excited today to hold this in. Our dossier has officially made it through the Review Room in China. I know that most people have no idea what that means, so let me explain. We sent our dossier to China 15 months ago. Our dossier is a collection of several documents that have to be notarized and authenticated by various levels of both US and Chinese government. Most families either have their agencies collect this paperwork, or they hire someone to do it. It is an extremely tedious process, and it all has to be done 100% perfectly. I managed our entire dossier by myself. It took about six months to gather all the necessary paperwork, and I wanted to scream most of the time, but I did it.

China logged our dossier into their system on 10/18/06. The next step was for China to review our documents and approve our application. Many families get questions about their dossier when they are reviewed. Believe me, everything from finances to weight problems are scrutinized. I’ve been getting antsy lately because I knew of several families who have been asked to submit supporting documentation for their dossier, or who have been questioned over seemingly innocuous things in their homestudies. I kept waiting for the questions to come our way; after all, I flew solo on prepping our paperwork. My agency was always available to help, but I felt that it was important that I do it myself. It helped make everything a little more real.

I started out this day like I start every other: check my email, check the boards, see what’s going on in the crazy world of China adoption. And lo and behold, we’re official. Not only does this mean that I did all of our paperwork correctly, it means that China thinks that we are suitable prospective parents. It means that we’re a little more pregnant than we were yesterday. Sure, this wait is killing us, but days like this make it all worth it.