Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

I sometimes joke that I wish I were Jewish by heritage because I love the cultural emphasis on family and tradition. Though our preparation and education of the Chinese culture, I've recently started to realize that we have the amazing opportunity to bring beautiful Chinese celebrations into our home.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is centered around prayer, friends and family and thanksgiving. The harvest festival is held on the full moon between late September and October and dates back to the Shang Dynasty 16th-10th century BC. Traditionally, the celebration has been centered around moon worship as the waxing and waning of the moon is reminiscent of a woman's monthly cycle and that of pregnancy and birth (full moon = pregnant lady, crescent moon = giving birth).

These days, lanterns and moon cakes are staples of the celebration -- beautiful paper lanterns and yummy desserts?! Count me in!

I'm thankful for my college friend Wei who, nearly 10 years ago, introduced me to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Who knew she'd be a source of inspiration for Nathan and I choosing to adopt from China and a continued resource as we learn more about our little one's culture?! I'm grateful for you, Wei, and look forward to the beautiful moments your family will experience in the coming months.

(photos from 2007)

Welcome, friends!

I think I'm finally braving-up and sharing this thing. Thanks for caring :)

Why is Adoption So Expensive

Our adoption is estimated to cost $40,000. **Cue the record scratch.**

I know, right. It’s a hefty sum. But here’s the deal, China is not trying to extort money from my family and we’re not “buying” our child (please learn to not say this to an adoptive family – it’s not true and it’s an awful, illegal concept).

Each dollar we are spending on this adoption is tied to a specific cost and it basically boils down to (1) Home Study, Fingerprinting & Document Charges, (2) Agency and Legal Fees and (3) Travel and Accommodations. I just read a short-but-thorough blog post about this subject – will you please click that link and read it? And pretty please leave a comment here if you learned anything??

Why is Adoption So Expensive by Meg H Miller

Thanks as always for supporting us in bringing home our little one. If you care to help us financially, we would absolutely love your help as we work toward our $4,000 matching grant goal on our Brittany’s Hope Seedling Gift site.

PA & Brotherly Love

When I was researching various aspects of the adoption process, I kept running across the acronym "PA." But when I googled "PA + adoption," wouldn't you know, all the results were about Pennsylvania adoption agencies and legalities! Haha!

Turns out it stands for Pre-Approval and we officially have ours! China has deemed us worthy of considering to be our little boy's parents. One step closer to a family of four!

Dossier Deforestation

Adoption is beautiful. It gives children the opportunity to know love and family and stability. It also destroys entire forests in no time flat. THE PAPERWORK PROCESS IS NUTSO.

Part of the adoption process includes sending a dossier, a packet of information all about our family, our finances, our psychological state, our criminal background and more, to China as they determine if we're fit to parent our newest little one.

Each piece of the 17-document report must be notarized and then "state-certified" in the state that the document originated. So, we had to order new, certified copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificates from Indiana only to put them back in the mail for Indiana's Secretary of State to stamp a seal of authentication.

Then, we had to ask our home study agency to sign an agreement from our placement agency and have that notarized. It was mailed to us and then we had to put it back in the mail, bound for Nevada as the home study agency is located in there and needs that state's authentication.

The other 13 documents originated in Utah, so I dropped them off at the Lt. Gov's office on Monday and then got a great phone call a few days later letting me know the documents were ready! On Friday, Lachlan and I made the trip up to the State House pick up those precious pages that get us a little closer to Little Brother.

And while Indiana is awesome and doesn't charge for this service, Nevada charges $20 per document and Utah charges $15 per document. So, that was a $215 process (good thing I coupon in order to get my reams of paper for free!).

I'm pretty sure need to plant a few trees to offset both the document paper used as well as the checks I've been writing ;)

Brittany's Hope Matching Grant!

Wonderful news! Our family has officially been approved for a Brittany's Hope adoption matching grant! We just have to raise $4,000 from family and friends and Brittany's Hope will match that dollar-for-dollar! And each donation is 100% tax-deductible! Winner winner, Chinese dinner!

Will you please consider heading over to our Seedling Gift page and donating? To quote Lachlan's current favorite saying:

(seriously, he says this all the time and it's HI-liarious!)

Granting Favor

Seven grant applications submitted via postal mail and two via the web today! Praying that we get some good news in the next 3 months or so :)

Home Study Approved!!

We are in Vernal on a little Grandparent-Dinosaur-Getaway and just received wonderful news! Our HOME STUDY WAS APPROVED!

(clearly, this is our photo and I absolutely did not steal this image from Google)

Now we can submit our application to immigration for fingerprinting. And it's the biggest component for our dossier. ALSO, I can finally apply for grants as they all require copies of our approved home study.

Adoption Acronyms

Here's a handy list of adoption acronyms specifically related to China adoptions. I copied and pasted it from a China Adoption FB page, so I can't take credit :)

1. HS - Home Study
2. I-800A - Application to USCIS to adopt a child from China
3. I-797 - Notice Of Action I-800A approval
4. DTA - Dossier To Agency
5. DTC - Dossier to China
6. LID - Logged In Date
7. OOT - Out Of Translation - dossier has been translated into Chinese and is "in progress"
8. LOI - Letter of Intent
9. PA - Pre-Approval
10. LOA - Letter Of Acceptance also called LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation)
11. I-800 - Application to adopt a specific child from China
12. A5 or Article 5 - Final approval from the United States for the adoption to take place
13. TA - Travel Approval
14. Gotcha Day - A day like no other
15. CA - US Consulate Appointment in China

SW - Social Worker
WC - Waiting Child
AP - Adoptive Parent
SF - Special Focus
SN - Special Needs
NSN - Non Special Needs
PAP - Pre Adoptive Parent
USCIS - United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
NVC - National Visa Center
CCCWA China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption
SWI - Social Welfare Institution
CWI - Child Welfare Institution

Dossier - a series of documents, that you compile, that tells the CCCWA about you, your family, your health and your finances

Cabled - where the NVC sends the Embassy in Guangzhou notice that the I800 has been approved, so that once the agency's person in Guangzhou takes the family's DS230 paperwork (the paperwork for the child's American visa to be created) to the Embassy they can match it with the cable of approval to start the Article 5 process.