Saturday, September 22, 2007



Since we don't have any new news about the adoption, here are some
family pictures of McGregor Founder's Day, celebrating year 125, the
other weekend. Malia's future great grandmother, Frances Hudson, known as GG to her great grandchildren, lives in McGregor, and
it's where Linda (Marc's mom) grew up.




Monday, September 17, 2007

Dossier Specialist

Our Dossier Specialist at Great Wall China Adoption, Stephanie, just emailed us this wonderful update:

Hi Marc and Dianne,

All of your mailer 1 documents have come back from the Secretary of State! I am forwarding them to the Chinese consulate in Houston for the final authentication today. I should have them back and complete in approximately 3 weeks!

Hope all is well!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

The I-171H

If you want to read the details of the next document we need to process
for the adoption of our daughter, read on...
The I-171H: “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application
for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition”
This form is the U.S. Government’s approval for your family to adopt a child internationally. When we filed the I-600A form, we were applying to receive the I-171H. The I-171H is the last document to complete our dossier. Most families receive their I-171H within 90 days of CIS
receiving their I-600A with all supporting documents, fingerprints, and
favorable Home Study report.
The I-171H form will list our names as “Petitioner” and “Petitioner’s
Spouse” and include our address and date of filing and completion. The
I-171H form has an expiration date of 18 months from the time of
completion. We will need the I-171H for our dossier; however we will
not use the original form for our dossier. The original I-171H will be
carried with us to China. To prepare the I-171H for our dossier:
· Make a copy of the original I-171H form.
· Attach a notarial statement to the I-171H, stating that the attached
form is a true copy of the original.
· The notarial statement is the document you are actually having notarized. Take the I-171H with the notarial statement attached to a notary.
· If our fingerprint expiration dates are included on a separate page from the actual I-171H, make a photocopy of the fingerprint page for our dossier. Attach this to the notarial statement and photocopy of the
I-171H.
We must keep the original to take with us to China. The completion date on the I-171H cannot be more than 9 months old when our dossier is sent to China. The I-171H is only good for 18 months from the date of completion. If the I-171H expires before we travel, then we must renew it.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Our First Big Mailer

We just Fed Ex'ed our first big mailer to Great Wall China Adoption Agency. Next we will work on the I-171H Form, “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition”.

The I-171H is a document you ultimately receive from the INS after filing form I-600A - Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, along with the application fee and all required documents. You begin as early as possible because it takes a while. Specifically, the fingerprint check through the FBI can take up to 3 months (and possibly longer). It doesn't always take this long, and seems to vary considerably state by state, but, to be safe, you get this particular ball rolling right away.

Marc, Alex, and I went to South Padre Island for Labor Day Weekend. I'm attaching some pictures. In the first picture, we went to see the Port Isabel Lighthouse, but it wasn't open yet, so we rolled down the grassy hill and sang Wiggles songs many times.