China Adoption process...how does it work?

This is probably the most frequently asked question after, "Congratulations, how exciting!"
So here it goes....

• In July 2005 we selected two agencies to help us with the adoption process
• Vista Del Mar (1st agency) is responsible the handling the U.S. related paperwork:
  1. Social Worker interviews, autobiographies, medical evaluation, birth and marriage certificate, employment verification, tax returns, police clearance and so on...
  2. The agency, after gathering all the above data, produces a "Home Study" packet that we can use to submit to the second agency
• U.S. Asian Affairs (2nd Agency) is responsible for gathering all the paperwork required by China and facilitate the adoption process in China:
  1. Translate the "Home Study" packet into Chinese
  2. Collect more information from us and translate those
  3. Compile the above translated data into a family profile known as our "Dossier."
• In Octber 2005 our "Dossier" was sent to China and officially logged into the their government system. Our agency assigned all family "Dossiers" for that month Group 115. There are 14 families in this group
• The Chinese government systematically goes through each "Dossier" and process chronologically...because there are so many applicants, our "Dossier" is just getting process around January 2007
• The Chinese orphanages are filing a profile for each baby (or as many as they can) and the babies profiles are logged into the Chinese government system also
• The Chinese government literally reviews the prospective parents "Dossier" and the babies profiles so they can find a good MATCH.
• Once a MATCH (known as the "Referral") is made, our agency will give us 3 calls and then we travel to pick her up!
• 1st Call - "A MATCH has been made! You'll travel to China in approximately 2 months."
• 2nd Call - Usually a week or two after 1st call. "We will fedex your "Referral" tomorrow." "Referral" usually includes a couple pictures of our baby, a medical sheet, and other personality data
• 3rd Call - this happens a few weeks after 2nd call. Our travel itinenary is provided. The agency arranges for flights, hotel, governemental appointments and just about everything else while we're in China. We are required to stay in China for approximately 2 weeks.
• We will be flying out of LAX with most of the families in Group 115. We already met 7 of those families over dinners, BBQ, Dim Sum and lots of e-mail chats!! Although the wait has been long, but it certainly has not been lonely.