Olivia's story...

My Story
My parents started the "paper chase" portion of my adoption,just after Labor Day, 9/2005, after my brother had been home for one year. They were actually able to gather the dossier in 3 mo. time (which is really short); this is an official package of info. for China. There are forms upon forms, back ground checks, fees, Dr. appts., gathering of original documents, everything notorized, signed and whatever...quite a large package and process. Then the entire thing is translated to Chinese and finally mailed off to China. Also, during this time, my parents began the US end of things by having more fingerprints done and filing more forms and fees with the US govt. As far as the dossier was concerned, my parents were able to send off the documents (DTC 12/2005). Their dossier was logged in (LID) 2-6-2006. Chinese New Year occurred just prior to our LID. We expected a referral in the next 6 to maybe 9 months. My parents were still thinking and expecting me to be home way before Thanksgiving (11/2006). Our first inkling of "this might take longer than expected" was when we realized, that I (Olivia) might not be home or a referral till Thanksgiving. So I've taken a little bit longer than we all anticipated, but I'm here and getting ready to come home to my family. Our referral was 9-2-2008.