DTC LID LOA TA What does it all mean?

Lots of you are asking, "Now that you're matched, what's next?" Here's a peek into all the acronyms that make up the journey of adopting a child from China. (Every country has their own set of papers and "letters".)

From February to today we have been working on the dossier. The dossier consists of paperwork that China will review to approve us as people they will allow to adopt a child from their country. It includes:
birth and marriage certificates
physician reports (about our health)
social worker's home study
police reports
employment letters
Homeland Security's fingerprint approval

Here are all the remaining steps:
DTC (Dossier To China)
LID (Logged In Date: the date China logs our dossier into their system)
LOA (Letter Of Approval) Letter from China approving us to adopt Sophie
NVC (National Visa Center) sends a letter to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China
Article 5 - US Consulate reviews Sophie's travel visa and gives TA
TA (Travel Approval) buy tickets to China! leave in appox. 2 weeks

Whew!
THEN....
Once we arrive in China we have a pretty busy 2 weeks with Civil Affairs, Consulate appointments, etc before we arrive HOME WITH SOPHIE!!

At this point we think travel may happen in February/March, 2012. As you can see it's a guess with all these steps that have to happen and not all of them happen in a standard 2 weeks! For example, LOA can take 6 weeks to 4 months.

Thanks for joining us for the ride. Please pray with us to be willing to accept God's timing, whatever it is. And pray for our daughter's heart to be open to us and to bond and attach quickly with her new family.