CA

Today we had our CA (Consulate Appointment) which is the final step in the adoption process, and the final acronym in a long line of letters. As we signed our DS-230 form, the lady told us that this is the last form we fill out and the last time we sign our name. So quite literally, our adoption is done.

The US Consulate in Guangzhou is very similar to an Embassy. However, Consulates deal more with visas, immigration, and unvaried paperwork, instead of big stuff like politicking with communist governments. There are four US Consulates in China but only one Embassy. Every family from the US who adopts from China must come to this Consulate in Guangzhou to allow their children to immigrate to the US. Today was our turn.

We’d post pictures, but they are not allowed. Basically we went into a room, made an oath that every immigrant has to make (stating that everything on our paperwork is legit). Then our name was called, we presented the packet of paperwork which contains our final adoption certificate, visa and immigration information for little man, medical information, and more. The lady loudly stamped it several times, thumbed through it like a bored college professor’s teaching assistant, and told us we were done. Anticlimactic. What all this means is that when Judd lands on US soil, he is immediately a US Citizen.

I really can’t believe we are at the end of this process. We’ve been at this for a year and a half, buried in paperwork, overwhelmed with details, selling piles of t-shirts, wondering and imagining what this little Chinese boy is like, waiting and praying and waiting some more... and now we are done. In less than two days we board a plane, fly to the US, and figure out life as normal for a family of five.

And that’s what this adoption is all about. It’s not about LIDs and LSCs and TAs and CAs and other confusing acronyms. It’s not about shuffling paperwork across the Pacific; that's just means to an end. It’s about Judd having a family and us having one more to love, teach, laugh at and with, and wrestle with on the floor. So let’s get this thing on. We are ready for life as normal, whatever that means.

 -Chris