June 2003 - Made the decision to adopt

January 2005 - Proceeded with adoption from China

January 2005 - Applied with CASI Foundation for Children

March 2005 - Received our approval from Health and Welfare

March 2005 - August 2005 'The paperchase'

August 2005 - The 'Home study'

August 26 2005 - Applied to USCIS (Form I-600A)

September 14 2005 - Received the I-171H! (This is the form giving us permission to go to China to adopt)

September 16 2005 - Turned in dossier for processing

October 12 2005 - We are now DTC (Dossier To China)!! This means our dossier was mailed on this day to China.

October 16 2005 - Our dossier was received by CCAA

October 28 2005 - We have our Log In Date! We are LID today!

December 1 2005 - Received the infamous 'Brown Envelope' from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou

March 3 2006 - Still waiting, referrals have been coming in 1/2 month batches. This leaves us speculating on a referral in the Aug - Nov. timeframe

April 12 2006 - Happy birthday to Carolyn! The CCAA is now reviewing October referrals, however they have only referred people with a log in date of 5/30/05. This makes review now 5 months ahead of referral. What does it mean? We don't know, we just hope and pray we are matched to our daughter soon

June 12 2006 - The CCAA is supposedly still reviewing October log in dates. They have only placed log in dates up to June 15th. The cause of the slowdown is largely unknown at this point. We just pray everyday it speeds up.

June 22 2006 - The CCAA placed families with log in dates through June 28th. While not a whole months referrals, it is better than the 5-7 days they have been doing the last couple months.

June 23 2006 - We're officially out of review as of today! The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before October 31, 2005

Jan 17, 2007 - I haven't updated in awhile because of the slowdown. But it's now getting close and I know people want to know how it is going. In December, the CCAA referred people with LIDs through 9/27/05. Our LID is 10/28/05. It is taking the CCAA about 2-3 months to do 1 months worth of LIDs. For this reason, we are guessing we will receive our referral in late March. February is possible, but I am skeptical of that. The CCAA generally puts out the referrals late in the month or early in the following. Therefore, we will have another update in late January or early February. We are also beginning to make our packing list and orphanage package contents.

Feb 1 2007 - The CCAA got through 10/13/05 this batch. Due to Chinese New Year, the next batch most likely will not be until the first week of March. This now leaves us on pins and needles for the month because it's difficult to predict if they will get through the 28th on the next batch. What we can say is it is very likely we will be either in the next batch, or the batch after that i.e. March or April 2007.

March 6 2007 - The CCAA got through 10/24/05 this batch. We should be included in the next batch.

May 1 2007 - It is with great joy and honor to God that we announce the referral of our daughter Tong Min Li, see the referral page for pictures!

May 8 2007 - Sent package to the orphanage with disposable camera, blanket, stuffed bear, candy for the nannies. We hope they will use the camera to get pictures of Elizabeth and return it to us when we get her in China.

May 24th 2007 - Happy 10 month Birthday Elizabeth we'll be there soon!

May 31th 2007 - We received our Travel Approval today!

June 5th 2007 - We have our consulate appointment! It is set for July 2 2007. We also know "Gotcha Day" will be 6/25/07.

June 6th 2007 - Our travel is now booked, we leave June 20th.