| Jan 2000 | phoned DOCS. |
| Feb 2000 | received newsletter & order form for video $25?. |
| Feb 2000 | received video & application form. |
| 20/3/00 | receipt EIO2000/178. |
| 5/6/00 | invitation to compulsory workshop in October 2000 (delayed due to Olympics!) $130 - at end of workshop receive application form. |
| 18/10/00 | lodgement fees $417. |
| 17/10/00 | fingerprints forwarded by police to DOCS ($55 each). |
| 26/10/00 | older child compulsory workshop $130. |
| 15/11/00 | DOCS acknowledge receipt of application and contact referees. |
| 20/11/00 | DOCS request more info from our doctor. |
| 5/12/00 | our doctors reply. |
| 20/12/00 | preliminary screening complete ref 2000/355 and $1300 paid for social worker report. |
| 02/01 | social worker finally makes contact, DOCS had only just sent our files to her despite promising to do so before Xmas. |
| 5/03/01 | 1st visit from social worker. |
| 23/3/01 | 2nd visit from social worker. |
| 10/04/01 | 3rd visit from social worker. |
| 1/6/01 | 4th visit from social worker. |
| 18/6/01 | phone DOCS to check they have the social worker’s report - eventually they find it. |
| 20/6/01 | phone DOCS to see what is happening with the report and they say it is unlikely to be dealt with for a while! |
| 27/6/01 | phone DOCS again - no joy. |
| 13/7/01 | referee receives last year’s form - I phone DOCS to find out what they're supposed to do with it - no one there that day who can give an answer - I phone to check that all referees weren't sent the old form. |
| 16/07/01 | DOCS phones referee to say it was a mistake - referee asks when are they likely to be phoning her for the referee’s chat & DOCS says the social worker’s report has not been read yet!. |
| 20/07/01 | phoned DOCS but appropriate person not working today - left message for her to phone me on Wednesday about where we are in the process. |
| 27/07/01 | no call so I call her - she says she started reading yesterday - I tell her that one of my referees is overseas & she says that depending on what he wrote she might not have to talk to him - it's discretionary. |
| 1/08/01 | phoned DOCS again - said she was checking details with social worker but she had not called back yet! Then it will go to manager to read. She swears this usually only takes week - sure! I told her what I thought of the whole thing and she said I could complain to the Manager. I phoned social worker to double check DOCS’s story. |
| 2/8/01 | faxed letter of complaint and one hour later Manager phoned to say we were approved but also got a lecture on how DOCS was not a Service to the parents but rather a service to the child - I arranged to pick up our next set of documentation from Parramatta that afternoon “on my way” into a meeting at University of Sydney. |
| 3/8/01 | dropped medical forms into our doctors and Geoff picked them up on Tuesday (7/8/01) when he was in there getting a cut on his leg seen to (7 stitches and infected due to a fight with a power tool). |
| 4/8/01 | to the police station for new set of fingerprints (price doubled to $110 each). Prepared our letter and photo album. Got financial statement from our employers etc (Geoff's was couriered from Minneapolis). |
| 13/8/01 | drove to Parramatta to get our file notarised ($165) and delivered it to DOCS ($259). We are file #5 in batch #7 but DOCS says they want to wait a few days to see if another file arrives - grhhh! Manager had promised there would be no more delays. |
| 17/8/01 | phone DOCS to see if batch #7 ready and to see if our new police checks were there as we had received a letter from the police dated 13/8 saying they had been sent - one more file had arrived - she said she would prepare the batch on Monday as she had a headache today! |
| 22/8/01 | phoned DOCS but appropriate person out of office - left a message to return my call. |
| 24/8/01 | phoned DOCS again as my call had not been returned. She said the batch had gone to Foreign Affairs on the 23rd (4 days after the promised Monday!) and that she had used the latest police check - reminded her that WE needed copies of the police check and a copy of the home study sent to us - she assured us that she hadn't forgotten. |
| 3/9/01 | phoned DOCS as it has now been 12 days and no word - she said that the batch came back from Foreign Affairs late last week but there were no cars to take the batch to the Consulate but it would go tomorrow morning and she would phone us with the amount we owed tomorrow - does nothing happen unless you phone!!!. |
| 4/9/01 | yes she did phone - $210 is the amount and the files are due to be picked up from the consulate on the 11th, no sooner! She also said she would start letting the batch know my details so we could contact each other. |
| 5/9/01 | Raced to bank next morning to organise bank cheque for consulate and posted to DOCS. That night one of the batch couples phoned us. Batch 7 starts to make contact. |
| 11/9/01 | phoned DOCS to see if files had come back from Chinese Consulate as promised - yes!!! DOCS says hops to photocopy and bundle the batch off to China tomorrow - reminded her we still had not received a copy of our home study and she faxed it to me immediately. |
| 13/9/01 | phoned DOCS to see if batch had left - she said that she was now awaiting an extra file from Queensland - double grrrhhhh!. |
| 14/9/01 | 2pm phoned DOCS to see if batch had left for China - still awaiting file from Queensland and had given them a 4pm deadline. |
| 17/9/01 | 3pm phoned DOCS to see if batch had left - stiiiillllllll awaiting file from Queensland but was assured it was on its way by QANTAS courier - I stressed that it had now been 5 weeks since the batch had been formed and that the Manager had promised no more delays - 5pm received email from DOCS saying that Queensland file for some reason was on a plane to Canberra so they would not delay the batch any longer - promises that it will leave tomorrow. |
| 18/9/01 | DOCS sent email to say that the QLD file had arrived and everything was ready for courier pick up in the afternoon so…. DTC is 18/9/01. |
| Nov 4th 02 | US Sep DTC start receiving referrals. |
| Nov 6th | Irish referral, Then France, Holland, Denmark, UK, Sweden but still no Aussies. |
| Nov 10 | email DOCS with info about referrals - replied. |
| Nov 15th | sent another update - no reply. |
| Nov 19th | sent update and plea to check whereabouts of our file - reply. |
| Nov 22nd | Geoff phoned DOCS to no avail. |
| Nov 26th | sent another sterner email - reply received but DOCS won't contact China. |
| Nov 27th | I send return email. |
| Dec 4th | 1.45pm THE CALL - we are very happy and I promise to stop being obsessive about keeping diaries of dates and events. |
