Those three words are the three steps all our US documents have to go through before heading to China. Each stamp of approval pushes that paper up the next round of approval, inching us closer to meeting Silas!

So… this is where we are:
√ All Minnesota & Texas documents have been notarized
√ All Minnesota & Texas documents certified by their Secretary of State
*Still need: One document from Puerto Rico to be authenticated in D.C. (it's a special, extra step)

Then….
We send these three chunks of papers (from MN, TX, & PR) as one united stack of USA documents to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago for their authentication. Basically, the Chinese Consulate here will vouch for the validity of these documents before the CCWA in China sees them. 

After we get those back, we send Our Dossier (what's listed below) to our agency for review and translation:

• Consulate-Authenticated stack
• Some family photos & IDs
• Chinese Police Report {*Still in transit here}
  
• A big check

And they'll send it to China!
Once someone in China touches our dossier (within 2-3 weeks), it will be Logged-In. This will be a great day, it is our LID (our Logged-In Day) which gives us a marker of 4-6 weeks for when we'll be traveling! 

Note the two *asterisks* above of papers that are not in our hands at the moment. That's your wink and nod to pray for these arrive safely and quickly so that this timeline moves forward.

January 18 marked the beginning of our 90-day extension to have our papers LID!

Getting a handle on the lingo?

Thank you mucho!!!!
A