dtc

The adoption process is one of paperwork, legalese and acronyms. Every week Anne and I are trying to remember the difference between a LID, PA, and LOI. Well, today we got three letters... DTC.

DTC is "Dossier to China." Maybe you don't see the significance. Let me explain. Dossier is a French word for our American paperwork written in English that is going to be translated into Chinese. Not helpful? Maybe the D isn't as important as the TC: "to China." Our 87 lbs of paperwork that has taken ten months is leaving on a jet plane and won't be back again. We are watching our FedEx tracking number daily as our dossier passes the Dharma Initiative and Tom Hank's friend Wilson to arrive in China Thursday.

The reason this is a big deal is that we are totally done with all American paperwork. Finished. Called a day. Dun. Within a couple weeks we should get our LID (Log-In Date) meaning we are officially in the Chinese system and ready to be referred a child. Other special-needs Chinese adoption blogs we have looked at had this timing: DTC, two weeks later a LID, a few weeks later the here's-your-kid picture. All this to say, we are literally weeks away from finding out who our boy is. Then we'll go get him in four to six months.

So to review. DTC- done. LID- next. All this for a KID. 10-4? K.
-cg