Bethany Christian Services

We had several more meetings with Bethany (BCS) over the next six weeks. We were told that this first stage was really the only step we would have any control over. The name of the game is "hurry up and wait". So we sent off for all of the necessary documents from Texas and Florida. We had every thing triple authenticated by city, county and state. And finally, we finished all of the paperwork, asked every question and turned our dossier into BCS. Bethany checked it over and sent it off the next day to Grand Rapids to have the documents go through further authentication. On December 29, 2005 our dossier was finally on it's way to China! DTC 12-29-05!

The next step would be to wait for our LID or log-in date. Bethany said it would be anywhere from 2-6 weeks. But knowing that the Chinese New Year puts a halt on all adoption processes, we knew it could be longer... The LID determines your place in line to receive a referral and an invitation to travel. A referral packet from China contains a photo of your baby, medical documents, travel instructions and documents to travel with. The referral wait time fluctuates throughout the year, depending upon how many babies are processed each month. When we started the process, the "wait time" from LID to referral was 6-8 months. A friend of ours had a wait time of one year and it ended up being only 6 months, so it could change.

Our LID (login date) is January 17th. Upon receiving that LID, we were told we could get our referral as early as October 17, 2006. But that is not the way it played out. :( That date has come and gone. We are now looking at Late July or August of 2007 before that famous stork brings a little package with a picture of our Ruby...

Welcome to Ruby's blog!

How exiting! I finally got my act together and figured out how to start a blog! I have been wanting to keep everyone as informed as possible as to the process of bringing Ruby home. This wait has grown every month since we submitted our paperwork. From what I understand, the wait has never been this lengthy. It is very hard to be expecting a child for so many months and have to wait, uncertain of the day when we will finally see her sweet little face.

We started the process in August of 2005 by making an appointment with our social worker, Bethany Morrison at Bethany Christian Services. She, being on her way to Italy, gave us two mind boggling stacks of paperwork to begin our paper pregnancy. I remember leaving the office feeling numb but very excited. David and I both were in shock and astounded at the wave upon wave of details and information we had just been flooded with. What a relief and thrill! Our first homestudy was behind us. I think I even felt a little nauseaus! :)