WARNING : this post contains words like ovulation and date night, if these words or concepts make you uncomfortable, hit your back button. 
So… we got our I 171H form… very very exciting for us, but for our friends, well they don’t even know what the form is or means, so the question we get everytime we tell someone we got it, is “So do you get the baby now….” NO!!!! Just kidding. I am not upset about it, but I do want to take this time to educate people on my view of adoption timelines and put them into an easily understandable standpoint.
OK — so Parents A decide they want to have a baby. They begin the process of trying to conceive, you know – date nights, candles, soft music and … well we all know the drill. During this time they may tell thier friends that they are trying. They map out thier ovulation cycles, find the best times to try, and do other asundry tasks to make sure that they get pregnant. One day, the woman realizes that she is late, and take a pregnancy test. It comes out positive. Wooo Hoooo. She tells all her closest friends, but she and her friends know that until it is confirmed by the doctor, it is still “up in the air”.
Eventually it is confirmed by the doctor, which is great and now family begins to find out. But still everyone knows that for 3 months there is a stronger chance of miscarriage, so there is still a reservation about telling everyone about the pregnancy. Once that 3 months goes by – baby showers get planned, and everyone finds out. Happy day…
For an adoption, the time lines are not a whole lot different, but people seem to think that adoption happens like this.
Parents B decide to adopt, a week later they are happy parents and the world keeps spinning. hmm. Not so much.
In reality -
Parents B decide to adopt — spend a couple of months researching adoptoin agencies and home study agencies. Finally decide on acceptable agencies and apply. Several freinds find out they are going to be adopting (especially those who may need to provide reference letters). The next 3 – 6 months are spent gathering every document that has ever been created with your name on it. Then you request permission from the US government to bring a child into the country (i-600A). Date night and candles are also apart of this process, but for different reasons.
After your I-600A is filed and processed you get fingerprinted and then eventually you get the I-171H. To me, this is the timeline equivelent of determining your ovulation cycle and realizing that today is the day.
not pregnant, but major accomplishment.
You get the I-171H and all the other documents that you need and they get sent around the country to various Secretary of States to get Authenticated. Once Authenticated, they go to the Agency from approval, and then they are off to China. At this point you are DTC. This would be the equivalent of taking the pregnancy test and having it come out positive. Wooooo Hoooooo.
Still – your DTC – not LID (logged in). So there still needs to be “confirmation from the doctor”. A couple of weeks later your are Logged in by the CCAA. This is the confirmation by the doctor. Friends begin to find out and a couple of months go by and the baby showers start to get planned and nurseries are created and all the other baby stuff happens.
So — to sum up this extremely long lesson in adoption and conception timelines. We are not yet pregnant, but we have determined the day of ovulation and we are ready to get the ball rolling.
Hopefully, if all goes well, we will be DTC (pregnant) sometime in May…. Come one May….
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