DTC

The time has come the new mom said

To talk of many things

Of Xuan and trips and dossiers and calendars and fees.

Gemma With Confirmation Letter

Something about having children makes people start to memorize dates. Before children, most people are unlikely to remember the date
of major life events. Can you remember what date you closed on your first house? The date you met your future spouse? The date on which you broke your leg? When you are young, you only memorize the dates of significant historical events in history, and only in history class.

But parenthood, apparently, turns life events into significant historical events. You can ask a new mother the date she discovered she was pregnant, or ask a grandmother what her due date was when she was pregnant with her now-grown child, and the odds are she will remember.

This is as true for adoptive parents as it is for biological ones, although the dates they remember may be different. The two most frequently discussed dates among adoptive parents are DTC and Gotcha Day. Gotcha Day is fairly obviously named. It is the day when you finally take custody of your new child. Our Gotcha due date is July 29.

DTC is less obvious. It is the acronym for Dossier-To-China. Your DTC date is the day on which the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in Beijing logs your completed application for adoption into their system. While pregnant couples measure their lives against the days remaining till their due date, waiting adoptive parents measure their lives in days (or months) since DTC. Our DTC date was July 12, 2006.

In honor of the one year anniversary of our DTC, and our new historically significant status, here is a list of important dates in the timeline of events in the adoption of Xuan. For all of you non-parents out there, there will be a test later.

Date: Event:

June 5, 2004 ..................Xuan born in Shandong Province

June 8, 2004 ..................Xuan in custody of Qingdao Children’s Welfare Institute

November 26, 2004......Gemma’s 30^th b-day qualifies C&G for Chinese adoption

C&G first meet with Mrs. Dao to discuss adoption

January 30, 2005..........Submit Letter of Intent to Adopt

July, 2005.......................Overwhelmed homestudy, ignore paperwork

October, 2005.................Resume Homestudy

December 23, 2005........Complete Homestudy

April, 2006.......................Submit Dossier to Faith International Adoptions

Begin I-600A Immigration Documentation

Dossier returned for corrections and updates

June 31, 2006...............Submit Dossier to Faith International Adoptions, again

July 12, 2006.................DTC

February 22, 2007........Called Faith to Investigate Special Needs Program

Received Information about Zheng Xuan

February 26, 2007 ........Submitted Letter of Intent to Adopt Zheng Xuan

March 5, 2007................Translated Notarized & Authenticated Letter of Intent to China

April 19, 2007.................Received request for more information from CCAA

April 24, 2007.................Additional information mailed to Chinese Consulate in SF

May 14, 2007..................Translated Notarized & Authenticated Additional Information

hand delivered to CCAA

June 7, 2007.....................Received Confirmation Letter permitting adoption of Xuan

June 12, 2007..................Signed Confirmation Letter returned to China

July 5, 2007.....................Received Travel Approval

July 25, 2007...................Couple Leaves Seattle

July 29, 2007...................Anticipated Gotcha Day

August 6, 2007................Appointment at US Consulate in Guangzhou

August 9, 2007................Family Returns Seattle