The international adoption process has a whole mess of new acronyms to become familiar with. DTC stands for Dossier to China. This means that all of the paperwork we gathered this fall has been double stamped, sealed and “apostilled” and certified by the State Department. Apostilling was explained to me as a notary on steroids.
Our certified copy of our Illinois marriage certificate we got from the St Clair County Courthouse had to be sent off to the Illinois Secretary of State office to “verify” that it really was a certified copy. I’m guessing the raised seal on the certified copy wasn’t going to quite cut it. So on and so forth with our other documents. You get the idea. So, that’s all done. Our agency was very helpful with the process but it was not cheap getting all of this stuff done. Bottom line, the Department of Homeland Security has approved our I800-A (petition to adopt from a Hague Convention Country) and our dossier has been authenticated and sent off to China, where their adoption authorities will review it. Whew! All in all, I cannot complain too much. Our process so far has gone very quickly and smoothly.
So, now we are waiting for China to give their formal approval of our adoption, which will be followed by their approval for us to come to China. Still have a ways to go, but we are moving, people!
Our certified copy of our Illinois marriage certificate we got from the St Clair County Courthouse had to be sent off to the Illinois Secretary of State office to “verify” that it really was a certified copy. I’m guessing the raised seal on the certified copy wasn’t going to quite cut it. So on and so forth with our other documents. You get the idea. So, that’s all done. Our agency was very helpful with the process but it was not cheap getting all of this stuff done. Bottom line, the Department of Homeland Security has approved our I800-A (petition to adopt from a Hague Convention Country) and our dossier has been authenticated and sent off to China, where their adoption authorities will review it. Whew! All in all, I cannot complain too much. Our process so far has gone very quickly and smoothly.
So, now we are waiting for China to give their formal approval of our adoption, which will be followed by their approval for us to come to China. Still have a ways to go, but we are moving, people!
CNY=Chinese New Year! The Asian cultures celebrate the Lunar New Year. This is the Year of the Dragon. (an aside: Doodlebug was born in the Year of the Tiger, so this should lock in his official fan status with our favorite baseball team!). So, when we decided to make the commitment to add this child to our family, we decided to do what we could to preserve his heritage. So, we have a new holiday to celebrate! I started early. I have learned to make a couple of what just might be fairly authentic Chinese dishes – a sticky pork roast with rice (real not instant people, be impressed) and spicy lettuce boats. The lettuce boats are similar to the PF Chang’s lettuce roll appetizer.
I’ve added some new condiments to my pantry: Chinese Five Spice, Sesame Oil, Minced Ginger, and Fish Sauce. The sesame oil is wonderfully fragrant and I love it. The fish sauce is fragrant in a different way. Just a squeeze was added to the minced turkey in the lettuce boat filling. Man, does it stink. Bad. Ugh. I’ve got another recipe for some Thai soup that calls for fish sauce. I’m not sure what it adds to the recipes and I’m considering leaving it out next time, although my minced turkey filling did not taste at all fishy.
I’ve added some new condiments to my pantry: Chinese Five Spice, Sesame Oil, Minced Ginger, and Fish Sauce. The sesame oil is wonderfully fragrant and I love it. The fish sauce is fragrant in a different way. Just a squeeze was added to the minced turkey in the lettuce boat filling. Man, does it stink. Bad. Ugh. I’ve got another recipe for some Thai soup that calls for fish sauce. I’m not sure what it adds to the recipes and I’m considering leaving it out next time, although my minced turkey filling did not taste at all fishy.
I’m posting a picture of the lettuce boats – they were not really spicy until we added the Sriachi sauce, which I think is actually Thai. This sauce is some good stuff, if you like a little bit of heat. I made this meal for a group of 8 people over CNY along with some steamed pork and vegetable dumplings (yes, I cheated and bought them from the freezer section, don’t judge). Everyone loved the food, although that might have had something to do with my abundance of carefully selected wines. It was a good night. Next year I will do more decorating and bust out some red envelopes. Whoo hoo!
So…February is here and we’re moving forward. Last year at this time, beginning this journey wasn’t even an idea that had popped in to my head, so all things considered, we’re moving at a pretty good pace. Cheers!
