grrlTravels: A Little Something from China

December 14, 2004

A Little Something from China

Yesterday I forgot to get the mail. I do this at least once each week, and sometimes, embarrassingly, many more times than once. I wonder what Joe, our mailman, thinks of us.

So I go out to the mailbox and lo and behold, there was something exciting in there. Well, sort of exciting. Or maybe not. I'm really not sure, because I don't know exactly what it was that was in there. It was a big brown envelope that has the following return address:

Consular Section
Amcongen Guangshou
U. S. Dept. of State
Washington DC 20521-4090

(Disappointingly, the postmark was Washington, DC. And there weren't any stamps. So I think it was kind of a fraudulent return address.)

I open it. I can't believe it's really anything too important because we don't have a DTC date yet and I think our precious papers are still in the hands of the agency. So I think it's just more paperwork, and I think it's actually paperwork for when we are in China. It has some pages with Chinese characters on them, so that's cool. It makes me feel just one tiny step closer to the end of the paperchase and our new daughter.

It occurs to me, as it has on many such occasions since we finished the paperwork, that I have little to NO IDEA of what is coming next. I don't know whether the DTC date or the Log In Date is first. (In fact, I forget what the abbreviation for the Log In Date is.) I always thought the Log In Date was first, but does that make sense? I have no idea what this pack of paper from the American Consulate General in Guangzhou, China is for. And I have no idea what our daughter's name is going to be. I think I had better get back on the research bandwagon and figure all of this stuff out.

For quite some time that I was saying we aren't going to think about a name until the paperwork is finished. Well, guess what. The Paperwork Is Finished. We need to start working on a name. Eeeek.

Posted by grrlTravels at December 14, 2004 4:58 PM

Comments

Woo, the brown envelope! It's a good thing, it means that the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou knows you exist. And you have a case number! For some reason, that was exciting to me.

Now just don't lose it. Why they send you the paperwork that you can't even fill out until you get to Guangzhou, I have no idea.

Posted by: Jen at December 19, 2004 12:22 AM

Your DTC date comes first. DTC means Dossier to China. Your Log in Date--LID--comes next. That's when you are logged in at the CCAA in Beijing.

Congrats on getting your brown envelope.

Posted by: Tracie at December 20, 2004 1:01 PM