What still needs to be done?

On Monday, I received a packet in the mail. It was instructions from our adoption agency about the next steps in our process. It included the following timeline:

Dossier to China (DTC) to Log-In Date (LID) - one to two weeks
LID to Letter of Seeking Confirmation (LOA) - six weeks to four months
LOA to I-800 Provisional Approval - two weeks
I-800 Provisional Approval to NVC Notification - one week
NVC Notification to Article 5 - two weeks
Article 5 to Travel Approval (TA) - two to three weeks
TA to Consulate Appointment (CA) - two to three weeks
TA to Travel Departure - two weeks
Time in China to complete adoption process - two weeks

Remember we were DTC last week (8/17/2010), with China actually receiving our documents on 8/20/2010. We are still awaiting our LID, which is their official notice that they have our documents and are reviewing them. The LOA is a letter that China sends to us; we have to sign it, confirming we still want this specific child, and return it.

I-800 Provisional Approval comes from U.S. Citizenship & Immigration/Homeland Security and is approval for us to classify Shaling as our daughter. NVC Notification confirms that our case has been forwarded to the U.S. Consulate in China. Our travel will center around the Consulate Appointment, which is

I have begun the task of filling out several forms that will be due once we get our LOA: the I-800 (Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative), the I-864W (Intending Immigrant's Affidavit of Support Exemption), and the DS-230 (Application for Immigrant Visa).

We also received an informational/instructional packet about our actual trip to China. I have not read through this yet, but am looking forward to doing so. I'll share some of the more interesting excerpts in a later blog post.