Our Timeline

As anyone who has gone through the adoption process knows, it can be a long and drawn-out proceduture. For those of you who might not be familiar with the process, below is our timeline to date. Listed are information seminars and conferences we have attended, imporant dates related to the paper chase preparing all of our documents, and other items of interest. We will be adding to this list as time goes by leading up to our trip to China when we will bring our daughter home!

DATE	EVENT	NOTES
March 2004	Seminar	Introduction to Adoption Seminar hosted by the Adoption Council of Ontario
April 3, 2004	Conference	1st Adoption Conference, Adoption Council of Ontario
May 2004	Seminar	Information Session on Domestic Adoption, Peel Children's Aid
August 15, 2004	Seminar	Children's Bridge International Adoption Information Session: This was our first introduction to the Children's Bridge adoption agency.
September 12, 2004 - Feburary 23, 2005	Home Study	Series of meetings with an Adoption Practioner in order to complete the required Home Study
September 2004 - March 2005	Paper Chase	Collecting all necessary paperwork for Home Study and China Dossier
November 13, 2004	Conference	2nd Adoption Conference, Adoption Council of Ontario
December 4, 2004	Seminar	International Adoption Seminar: One day seminar
January 25 - February 22, 2005	Seminar	Children's Bridge Adopt-Talk Seminar Series: Five-part series on adoption and parenting issues.
January 29, 2005	Cultural Event	Children's Bridge Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration
January 31 - March 21, 2005	Language Classes	1st set of beginner Mandarin classes, Night School Mississauga
March 8, 2005	File to Ministry	Completed Home Study sent to the Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services for approval
March 11, 2005	Pre-Travel Preparations	Applied to update Canadian passports in preparation to travel
March 17, 2005	Paper Chase	Last of paperwork for China Dossier sent to Children's Bridge for notarisation and translation
April 16, 2005	Conference	3rd Adoption Conference, Adoption Council of Ontario
April 17, 2005	Seminar	Children's Bridge Grandparents and Special People Day - Information Session
April 21, 2005 (weekly)	Language Classes	1st of our weekly Mandarin lessons with our tutor, Zhang 'Laoshi' (teacher)
May 17, 2005	Ministry Approval	Call from Children's Bridge with our Ministry approval!
May 26, 2005	Dossier to China (DTC)	Call from Children's Bridge that our dossier has been sent to China and we have been assigned to Group 234!
May 29, 2005	Pre-Travel Preparations	Group 234's Yahoo chat group is set up in order to get to know everyone better.
June 1 - August 2, 2005	Language Classes	Zhang 'Laoshi' visiting family in China. We decide to take Mandarin classes at the Chinese Cultural Centre until she returns
June 9, 2005	Logged In Date (LID)	Our dossier has been officially logged in at the Chinese Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) offices in China. It is now thought to be a 10 month wait from this date to referral!
June 11, 2005	Paper Chase	Immigration paperwork mailed
June 23, 2005	Paper Chase	Immigration file number received (sponsorship approved) and sent to Children's Bridge - no more paperwork until referral!
June 25, 2005	Cultural Event	Our Wedding Anniversary! Went to the Dragon Boat races on Toronto Island.
June 29, 2005	Pre-Travel Preparations	Visit to travel clinic for vaccinations needed to travel to China
July 8, 2005	Cultural Event	Attended opening night performance of "Senses - A Celebration of Chinese Womanhood". A fundraising gala for the Chinese Cultural Centre.
July 21, 2005	Pre-Travel Preparations	Logo for Group 234 designed
July 25, 2005	Pre-Travel Preparations	Group 234 website design presented to group. This will be used to introduce others to Group 234.
August 3, 2005	Pre-Travel Preparations	Creation of this website for family & friends to follow along our adoption journey.
August 13, 2005	Fun Event	Children's Bridge GTA picnic
August 19, 2005	Cultural Event	Attended opening night performance of "Chun Yi - The Legend of Kung Fu"
August 21, 2005	Language Classes	Zhang 'Laoshi' is back from China, Mandarin tutoring continues weekly
September 17, 2005	Cultural Event	Mid-Autumn Festival at the Chinese Cultural Centre
September 18, 2005	Seminar	Children's Bridge GTA Preparing for Baby & Pre-Travel Information Seminar
October 7, 2005	Cultural Event	Twelve Girls Band Concert
October 15, 2005	Seminar	Children's Bridge Adoption Panel
November 10, 2005	Seminar	Transracial/Cultural Parenting Forum
November 26, 2005	Fun Event	Children's Bridge GTA Holiday Party
January 9, 2006	Paper Chase	Our 7 month LID anniversary. We had hoped to recieve our Refferal by now but the process in China has slowed down to 10 months or more. We now expect our Referral in April.
January 22, 2006	Cultural Event	FCC (Families with Children from China) Chinese New Year party and dinner.
January 24, 2006	CCAA Aproval	The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application dossiers registered in June 2005. That means we're on to the next stage towards Referral.
January 28, 2006	Seminar	Children's Bridge GTA Pre-Travel Info Seminar - we attended a second time as Hector's mother Joan will now be joining us and wanted to go to the seminar.
Febuary 4, 2006	Cultural Event	Children's Bridge GTA Chinese New Year party
April 8, 2006	Conference	4th Adoption Conference, Adoption Council of Ontario
April 22, 2006	Seminar	Susan Soon-keum Cox Seminar, Children's Bridge
May 23, 2006 (12:39 a.m.)	CCAA Web-site Update	CCAA web-site indicates: "The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before June 15, 2005."
May 23, 2006 (10:39 a.m.)	Referral Enroute	E-mail from Jenna Ryan at Children's Bridge confirming that the CCAA has matched files up to June 15, 2006
May 25, 2006 (around 4:00 p.m.)	Referral Phonecall	Phone call from Donna Paonessa at Children's Bridge with the incredible news - the referral of our daughter!!!!
May 25, 2006 (4:25 p.m.)	Referral Photos	E-mail from Jenna Ryan at Children's Bridge with the photos of our daughter Dong YiYi - so cute and wonderful!!!!

Contact Us: adoption@hectorturner.com