Brock's Day at the Consulate

Brock left at 4:30 a.m. yesterday to drive up to Chicago to go to the Chinese Consulate with our I-797 (our approval from U.S. Citizenship & Immigration to adopt internationally). I had taken it to the Secretary of State for Certification on Thursday. He was taking it to the Consulate for Authentication.

We were gambling, because their instructions said you can mail in forms for authentication and pay $20 per document (which is what we had done for the previous 12 items also needing authentication), but it takes two weeks to get them back, or take them in in person and pay $50 for next day service. I had heard that it was possible to have same day service if you got there right when they opened at 9 a.m., but there was nothing official verifying that.

Brock paid $13 to park a few blocks away, then walked down to the office. He discovered a sign on the door indicating that for passports, visas, and document authentication, you had to go to a different location. Ironically and fortunately, the other location was right by where he had parked. He said that at 9 a.m., there were already 50 people in line. When he finally got up to the counter, they indicated that the person who would do the authentication was not in yet, so they were unsure when our form would be completed. He said there were about 150 people in the room by then. Some were there for pick-up, some for visas, some for passports, and he was the 11th for document authentication.

He left to get something to drink and read his book. He returned just before they closed for lunch (noon) and was told that the person who would do the authentication WAS there, but still no promises on when our form would be done. They asked him to return before 2:30 (afternoon walk-ins end at 2:30). He walked a mile over to Lake Michigan to take in the view, then walked the mile back. He was absolutely soaked (due to the heat).

He returned around 1:45 and waited in line. When he got to the front he was told our document was not ready. Not knowing what else to do, he got in line again. When he got to the front he still was told our document was not ready and to take a seat. Even though it was already 2:30, he waited around. At around 2:40, there was announcement for people wanting same day service to get in line again. He was about 20th in line. When he got to the front, our document was ready!

Next on his agenda was to go to a FedEx location (which was just around the corner) and make copies of everything (one for our records, one extra copy to accompany the original to our adoption agency). He then sent the appropriate items to our adoption agency via FedEx Overnight. If all goes as planned, they will receive them on Monday. Since they have everything else needed for our dossier already, they might be able to submit our dossier as early as that day to China!

That means we will be able to celebrate the acronym DTC (Dossier To China). After that, we will receive an LID (Log-In Date) from China, confirming they have it and it's under review. The next acronym is LOA (Letter of Approval), which is a letter we have to sign, confirming we want this particular child. Those 3 acronyms together will take 2-4 months (although with some families recently, it's been LESS than 2 months). There are some steps to do after that as well, but it feels so huge to finally get this paperwork in China's hands.

We had our second Chinese class this morning and that is still going well, but slow. It's just so entirely different than English.