DTC! (Dossier to China)

Today is a very important day in our adoption process. All the paper gathering, certification, and authentication has ended for now. Our adoption agency has our "dossier" together and will send it to Beijing today. This is known as the DTC(dossier to China) day.

Now we wait for our referral of Hannah. The referral is when we are actually matched with a child and notified of the match. Soon thereafter, we will receive a picture and a report of the child's name, weight, age development, personality, and health from the Chinese government and be asked to accept or refuse the referral. We have read and been told the referral day is a very emotional day. We will lay eyes on our child for the first time that day. What a day that will be!

There is one more very important day that the referral is loosely tied to. This day is known as the LID (log in date). This is the day the Chinese government officially receives our dossier. Recent posts on internet message boards indicate LID is usually ten days after DTC. The referral wait from the LID is running in the six month range. The Chinese new year begins February 9th and ends the 13th. If our dossier is not LID before the Chinese New Year we may have to wait a little longer than expected. Many people in China vacation during the Chinese New Year and the government is shut down during that time, as we understand. We will not know our LID until sometime in March (we hope).

I am very emotional as I type this and I just want go get Hannah right now! The wait, the horrible wait.