Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NASB)
~ Time Line ~
3-13-07 - We saw a young boy, Zhong Zi Chang, on the All God’s Children International (AGCI) website and knew he was our son. We called Tiffany to see if we could adopt him and she said “no,” because we hadn’t been home long enough with Zeke.
4-13-07 - Tiffany called, out of the blue, on a Friday during lunch, and asked if we’d still be willing to consider Zhong Zi Chang? We were thrilled because we were still praying about him and wanted him as our son. She would email his file to us and we agreed to call her back on Monday with an answer.
4-16-07 - We said “YES!”
4-16-07 - We signed a contract with our local agency, Adoptions Plus in Albuquerque, NM, and paid the required fees for our third home study.
4-16-07 - Steve came home with a check required for submission of our I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.)
4-17-07 - We completed and submitted our I-600A, check and request for fingerprints to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (U.S. CIS). We would now await the issuing of our I-171 (FDL = Favorable Determination Letter)
4-18-07 - We signed a contract with AGCI, and paid the required fees for our third adoption with them.
4-23-07 - We completed and submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt Zhong Zi Chang to AGCI.
4-28-07 - We were fingerprinted at the U.S. CIS field office
5-08-07 - This is our official LOI submission date to the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and our countdown to our Preliminary Approval (PA).
6-11-07 - We were told that the CCAA denied our adoption due to our family size. We appealed this decision since family size (maximum of 5 children living in the home) is exempt for a special needs adoption, according to the CCAA rules of May 1, 2007.
6-22-07 - We were told that the CCAA reconsidered our adoption given the rules as stated and said yes. AGCI requested our PA. 6-25-07 - Adoptions Plus called to report that our I-171 (FDL = Favorable Determination Letter) had been issued by the U.S. CIS.
6-28-07 - We received our I-171 in the mail.
6-28-08 - We drove to Santa Fe and had everything in our dossier state certified.
6-30-07 - Our original dossier, 4 copies, plus other stuff required by China/U.S. was FedExed to Tiffany at AGCI.
7-02-07 - Tiffany received our dossier, reviewed it and pronounced it complete. 7-03-07 - A copy of our dossier was sent to China for translation and a copy was sent to Washington, D.C. for authentication.
7-09-07 - Samuel’s PA arrived today.
7-17-07 - DTC (Date to China): Our authenticated dossier and PA were sent to the CCAA in China. 7-23-07 - Log In Date: Our dossier and PA were submitted to the CCAA. Now we pray that there will be no hold ups with our paperwork, and that our Letter of Commitment (LOC), followed by our Travel Authorization (TA) will arrive in the time frames expected. The average wait from LID to LOC is currently 80 days. Once the LOC is signed and sent back to the CCAA the TA should arrive within 2 -3 weeks.
