DTC!

We got "the e-mail" yesterday.  It was the date marking four weeks exactly from the time we began authenticating our dossier.  It was the maximum time of their 2-4 week approximate timeline.  I'd popped in to check on things last week and sort of got a mixed response of, "yeah....your dossier should be close to done...it should be somewhere...our email hasn't worked, etc."  It was a bit vague and open ended.  So yesterday I wrote and thought I'd press for more detail of exactly where it was.  Our social worker responded quickly and said she actually had an update for us.  We should be DTC that day!  I told her I needed to know when we were officially DTC so we could celebrate with our Chinese family dinner.  She wrote back in about another hour and gave us the green light to eat Chinese for dinner!  Wahoo!  We are DTC!

So, I know no one outside the adoption world knows what DTC means.  It represents the words "dossier to China."  Even translated, I know that still means nothing to lots of folks.  This means our dossier--all sealed and authenticated for validity--all those documents we chased for weeks and month, they are now uploaded to China!  They are also being mailed.  This means we exist on paper as a prospective adoptive family in China.  We are "in line" for a placement (though there really isn't such a thing as a line).  DTC is a BIG milestone. 

What next?  We wait for China to confirm they actually received our dossier and we really, really exist to them.  We will be "logged in" to their system.  This is called "logged in date" or LID.  LID is our next big step and ought to take about three weeks from the date of DTC.  After we are LID we are officially waiting for "the" call or "the" email from our agency.  The one that says, "we have a file we would like you to review for a possible match."  This is "the" call and email that would lead us to potentially staring in the face of our future daughter.  This wait can be long.  Our agency says anywhere from 6-9 months waiting after LID to be matched with a child of our specifications.  We could move faster....or slower.  It just depends on the files available and how closely they match our ideas of what we can handle (and our social workers ideas, as well).

Now is the time to pray.  Financially there will be lots of fees once we commit to a child.  Spiritually it will be difficult for us to take that leap of faith and commit to a child we only read about on paper.  While I am thrilled to be to the point of waiting for "the" call, I am also a touch terrified.  Saying yes is a big deal.  Saying yes will alter our family forever and we want to be ever so wise....for the children we currently have and for our future daughter.  Please pray our daughter is safe, well loved, and bonded with at least one caregiver.  Pray her belly is full and she is warm at night.  Pray her time in the orphanage will be short.

So, LID, here we come!