DTC/Dossier To China Today, January 15th, 2008

Our paperwork is finally DTC or "Dossier To China" today. It has been over 5 weeks since we sent it in to AGCI in December, so we certainly weren't expecting it would take this long for them to review it since there weren't any issues with our paperwork.

Sadly this domestic delay pushed our review time into future delays with the Chinese New Year when the CCAA shuts down for at least a week and also probably will interfere with the Guangzhou Trade Show in April when many things in China are out of sorts so AGCI doesn't like to have families traveling than either.

So there goes the hope that George will be in the US in time to register for school and have assessments and IEP reviews for the 2008-2009 school year in the Spring and be ready to go planfully in the Fall in his new school. If he doesn't get here until the end of May or Summer they can not and will not do a thing with planning for him for the Fall. And assessing and developing his ELL, Speech and any other Academic or Developmental services will take months at the beginning of the new school year to put together. Also if he doesn't have services in the Spring there is no way to get anything he might need in the Summer. Now he will have to do without.

To make matters even worse, I guess we will be traveling in May and disrupting the other kids in the familiy's end of school field trips, dance and music recitals and Nicole's Special Olympics activities. Fabulous! If it gets too tight because of the
5 weeks it took to review the Homestudy and the 5 weeks it took to get the Dossier Translated and Authenticated than we can even imagine that we are going to get caught in new rules enacted especially for the Summer Olympics dealing with Airline Security and Visas. Also flights will start to get outrageous in June, and July and August will be when everyone for miles around heads to Beijing by planes, trains and automobiles!

Don't get me wrong since we have been working on our Dossier for the last 7 months, I am still thrilled it is finally headed overseas. I have filled out papers, lost papers, found papers, answered interview questions and tried to figure out much greater issues than I normally am called to do while staying home with the kids.

But as of today I should be able to start forgetting about the pain. All of that mental effort for a stack of papers that fits into a legal size manilla envelope.

Oh well if George is a little closer to coming home to stay then it was worth the blood, sweat, tears and 7 months of this Mom's life.


From Tiffany......

"Good Afternoon Jim and Christina!

Great news!! I will be express mailing your completed dossier to China today with your original PA and my staff in Beijing will be receiving the package by Monday with a hopeful submission date of this coming Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. As soon as the dossier arrives they will match everything up with the translated documents and immediately submit your dossier to the CCAA. Once your dossier is submitted it will be approximately 12-17 weeks for your Letter of Seeking Confirmation (LOC) and then your Travel Approval (TA) will be here 2-4 weeks later, and then you will leave about 2-3 weeks later. Keep in mind that holidays, paperwork problems, etc could cause this timeframe to extend, this is just an estimate. I will be in touch once I receive word that your file was officially submitted. This can take up to week for me to get from our staff. If you have any questions in the mean time, please let me know! Have a blessed rest of your week!

With Joy,

Tiffany"

The best Christmas Present ever from George and a family touring EnMei.

Here is a gift that we got from our son George on Christmas Eve from another adoptive parent. We have never met Debbie or her family but we had exchanged emails on line. They were adopting a daughter from the same orphanage that George lives at this week in China. During their tour they asked the Director if they could take a picture of George for us to send back. The Director graciously agreed and we were so excited to have his smiling face pop up in our email on Christmas Eve.

This is a copy of the email letter she sent to talking about her meeting with George. It is priceless and we can't Thank her and her family enough.


"Hi Christina---

Shen Yong is beautiful!!! He is such a happy boy! I asked the director if I can see him--when they brought him to us he ran over w/ a huge smile! They told him we wanted to take a picture for his mama and he gave an even bigger smile!! When he left, he skipped happily away.

The big room is a group room, there is one of the classrooms for the older kids, one picture of our daughter with her teacher, and then the playground. They really do care for the kids there. When we got there, Kayley was mobbed by all the nannies. They were so happy to see her! The director is very kind and caring. She gave us a bag of snacks for my two boys and for Kayley!!

When do you expect to travel? Are you and your husband going together? It really is an amazing journey!!!

Talk to you soon!
Merry Christmas!!
Debbie"


We just wanted to share the amazing blessing!

Really neat!

Love,
Christina

A Healthy Bouncing 7 year old baby boy, DOB February 29th, 2000.

Hello to all,

Here are some current pictures of George Yong Shen Copeland the upcoming addition to our family.

A healthy, bouncing 7 year old boy, DOB, February 29th, 2000!

George is currently in Ningbo City at the EnMei CWI, just South of Shanghai on the Eastern Pacific Coast, in the Zheijiang Province of China until we can travel to pick him up sometime in late Winter early Spring of 2008.

He seems to have recently lost his two front teeth but will probably only have one in time for Christmas!

Jim, I, Nicole, Sylvia, Sofia and Finneas could not be more thrilled about our new son and brother. What a fabulous Christmas gift to know we are well on our way to having him here with us soon.

We are grateful to God and to all of whom have prayed to get us here so far.

Love,
Christina and Jim Copeland


As a proud Mommy I sent around the pictures to all our family and friends by email and I got so many congratulations and well wishes back that I can tell how well loved George is already and will be forever once he gets to the US.

We received updated pictures of George today!

We were all so excited to receive pictures of George that were taken by the Director at George's Children's Home. When Finneas saw them he said, "When is he ever going to get here? I can't wait!" Sylvia, Sofia and Nicole were very happy too and it was neat to see him looking so healthy, happy and enjoying himself hanging out with some friends on the playground where he lives. He was also looking much bigger than the last pictures we had of him so we can tell he has been growing lately. And he is missing a couple front teeth on these ones. The disposable cameras that were in the care package along with the translated letter we had sent back in November through Blessedkids.com will be returned to us when we meet George in Hangzhou next year. So these will have to tide us over until then and we are greatful for them that is for sure!

Dossier to AGCI for Translation and Authentication 12/10/07

We sent in all of the documents needed for our Dossier to AGCI to be Translated into Mandarin and Authenticated as needed. We are hoping our Dossier is ready to head to China and goes in by the end of this month. It was nerve wracking to send paper originals and copies off in the mail after so many months of sweating every I and dotting every T and working so diligently to make so many extra appointments, medical forms, 4 rounds of fingerprinting, waiting on Passports, and completing our Home Study. But today it is off to be worked on by others for a while and hopefully I can recoup before the Christmas rush begins!

More Chinese Holiday Hoopla that will keep George in China a little longer.

Hello China Special Needs Families!

I wanted to let you know that we heard from Benjamin this morning and he gave us some concrete dates for the Chinese New Year. It looks like it begins on February 6th and does not start up again until February 13th , so the last day families can travel is January 25th (Guangzhou is January 18th), and the soonest you could leave in February would be the February 15th. Let me know if you have questions about this!

FDL/Favorable Determination Letter dated November 30th, 2007 from USCIS!

The following is a letter from our AGCI Social Worker that we got today.

"Congratulations on getting your FDL! Hooray! That is wonderful news!

I am thrilled to be expecting your dossier Monday. So glad Shen Yong got his care package too. It would be great to see your dossier submitted before Christmas!

Take care and let me know if I can help with anything as you are getting everything ready to send in!"


US Citizenship and Immigration Services processes the paperwork and fingerprinting needed to provide the FDL document that adoptive parents coming from the US are legal US citizens, without serious criminal records and are allowed to adopt children Internationally.