Our China Time Line:- August 26, 2008 - We have found out that even though the American Consulate could have gotten us in by the end of September, Luke's Province (Gansu Province) will not let us travel to pick him up until after October 25th :(. So our 'Gotcha Day' (the day we get to pick up Luke) is Monday, October 27th, and our Consulate appointment to get Luke's Visa is Nov. 3rd. So we have 2months now to get everything packed up and ready to go. Tomorrow we are expecting to get all our travel arrangements finalized and to buy our airline tickets.
- Also today we mailed in our application to extend our I-600A approval (form I-171H). Since the approval form we have right now expires September 28th, we are hoping to get this extension of our approval before we leave at the end of October.
- August 21, 2008 - T. called today to let us know that we received our Invitation to Travel from China!! A whole week early!! We are so excited. Now the only thing we that needs to get done is to set an appointment with the American Consulate in Guangzhou, China. Tammy is trying to get that set before Sept. 28th when our Petition to bring an orphan into the US expires.
- August 6, 2008 - T. from CASI (she took A.'s place last month) called today to tell us that they had FINALLY received the Letter Seeking Confirmation. She is over-night-ing it to us. We'll sign it and send it back to China. We should hear back from them in 3 weeks with our dates we are allowed to travel to China. I hope it really does take only 3 weeks!!
- June 20, 2008 - Called and spoke with A. from CASI. She said that since it had been 3 weeks since that last email from China, she will email them again and ask for an update if we don't hear anything from them by this Friday, June 27.
- June 9, 2008 - Rick FedEx new passport photos to CASI, and they overnighted-ed them to China
- June 5, 2008 - A. from CASI called to tell us that China had lost Rick's passport pictures (they required us to send them 2 passport photos of each of us way back when we were turning in all our paperwork).
- May 30, 2008 - A GLIMMER OF HOPE. A. from CASI called to say she had emailed China earlier this week. They emailed back saying (long story short) that we should receive our Letter Seeking Confirmation in the next few weeks. A. said that 3 weeks after we receive, sign, and mail back the letter, we should get our travel dates. Because the Olympics are in August, we will not be able to travel until September. Some of the paperwork we completed will expire September 28, so Arlene is going to try to get us there before then. She said that if we get this letter within the next 3 weeks, we will probably travel the first part of September.
!!! - May 29, 2008 - Still have not heard anything from China regarding our Letter Seeking Confirmation, or about whether or not Luke was harmed in the earthquake, though we do not believe he was. Called CASI today, just to keep in contact; I know they would have called me immediately if they had heard anything regarding Luke. I left A, the director for the China adoptions, a message this morning.
- May 13, 2008 - Magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Chengdu, China (about 400 miles South East of Luke's city.
- April 2008 - Called CASI again, and CASI emailed China. I found out that ours was not the only family waiting more than 12 weeks for this letter, but that there are about 5 of us who should have received communication from China back in march. China emailed our agency back and said to 'be patient'.
- Mar 2008 - The end of March was when we expected to receive our Letter Seeking Confirmation. After checking with our agency, we were told to wait and call back in a couple more weeks.
- Jan 2, 2008 - Sent our Letter of Intent to China. 12 weeks after this is sent, adopting families receive a Letter Seeking Confirmation from China. Then 3 weeks after this is signed and mailed back, travel dates are received.
- Dec 17, 2007 - Informed CASI that we wanted to adopt Luke!!
- Dec 10 - Dec 17 - We sent Luke's medical records to a doctor in Washington state who is familiar with international medical records. He told us that he Luke appeared healthy physically, and was developmentally where he should be for his age . We also talked to Shriner's hospital (every medical facility we talked to about baby Luke's left foot, highly recommended Shriner's Hospital. Shriner's said that when we bring him back to Utah, they would have us fill out an application for treatment at their facility.
- " Children up to age 18 are eligible for care at Shriners Hospitals for Children if, in the opinion of our physicians, there is a reasonable possibility they can benefit from the specialized services available. Acceptance is based solely on a child's medical needs. A family's income or insurance status is not criteria for acceptance as a patient."
- Schreiner's is a no cost, non-profit hospital for children.
- Dec 10, 2007 - We were emailed Luke's file which included more pictures and his medical records. Coincidentally, this is also Luke's BIRTHDAY!!
- Nov 2007 - Our adoption agency, CASI, posted a list they had received from China with pictures and short bios of children with special needs. After much contemplation, we asked to be sent the file of a baby boy the agency had named, Calvin (**we later decided we would name him Luke once we brought him home). We were told that another family had already requested his file, and they had 2 week to decide whether or not they wanted to proceed with adopting Luke. After one week, our agency called to tell us the family looking at Luke's file had decided to not proceed with the adoption, and his file was available to be viewed by us.
- June 27, 2007 - Log-In Date for China (this is when our packet was accepted by the Chinese Government)
- May 2007 - Finally sent Dossier (all the paperwork) to China - moving a couple of times during 2006 and 2007 slowed filling out the paperwork a bit, this process would usually take around 6 months, we took 18 months.
- Dec 2005 - Rick and I (Lorien) started filling out paper work through CASI Foundation for Children to adopt a child from China
Luke at about 8 months:
