inspiration

I have come up with an idea. It is not original, but I will definitely give credit where it is due. Today we have been "officially" waiting 2 months for our child! I'm still not sure of too many people read this, there's never much to comment on so I don't expect ya'll to say anything, but for those of you who do read it I wanted to give you something to look forward to. The 20th of every month I will feature a "Cute Item of the Month." My inspiration: Aaron and Christa Wiens. Some of you know them so you know about the Ugly Item of the Week, but for those of you who don't here is what it is. Aaron and Christa lived in beautiful (hahaha) Florida for what seemed like an eternity to them. They lived in a tiny little, fully furnished place. Well, the furnishings were hideous, so they began a weekly blog showing some of the wonderful items they got to look at and use every day. It was one of the ways that they tried to smile at a not so pleasant experience, sort of like a count down until they could leave. So, with that in mind I am going to try and have fun while I wait to bring my child home.

Like I said before, the 2oth of every month, which will act as a countdown (or up really, but that sounds funny) until we receive our referral. You will also get a glimpse of things purchased for her or her room. So here is the very first Cute Item of the Month:

This was the very first item purchsed for her room. I saw these lamps and had to have them. I bought two of them and will decorate her room around them. I guess you could call the motif retro, but not over the top retro.

hm...

So, our agency does not send us too many emails. They do, however, send us important information. So after a conference that the two directors attended they had some important things to say to those of us adopting from China. First, our wait will be longer than 18 months. This is something we already knew, but it kind of hurts to hear someone "in charge" say it. Also, they explained that the reason for the long wait is due to the high number of dossiers in China. The process to get a baby ready for adoption takes a ton of paperwork. This paperwork is actually what makes China's such a stable program. So, they just cannot keep up with the number of requests. There are still many children in need of homes, but the paperwork required to get them ready just takes a long time.

Just thought I'd share everything I know.

we have a date

A log in date that is. I just received an email from our agency that we were logged in on February 20th! It happened really fast. Our dossier was sent to China on February 9th, so it only took 11 days to get us logged in. From some email groups I am a part of people have been saying it took about one month to get logged in. We feel so blessed!

So we have officially begun our wait and are already 7 weeks into it. Nevermind that over the last two weeks the wait went from 17 months to 18 months, I just know that we are offically waiting. As weird as this sounds, we are so happy!

LID 2/20/07

seminar

Kevin and I got the privilege of attending an adoption education seminar hosted by our agency. We agreed to attend at least one of these (they are offered every 6 months) before our child arrives. We chose to attend this one, even though we could have waited.

It was incredible. We learned so much. We got to hear from the social workers, who are our coordinators, about the "normal" things you would expect from infants and toddlers and how that might differ in our child. Then a psychologist spoke to us regarding attachment and bonding, amazing! Then a pediatrician who has an international adoption clinic (who knew?) spoke to us regarding health issues unique to internationally adopted children. We also had in informal panel of adoptive parents. One couple had a little girl from Kazakhstan and little boy from China, and there was a single mother with a little boy from Ukraine and a little girl from Guatemala. Their stories were incredible and very encouraging to those of us who are still waiting. It was an all day thing, 9am-5pm jam packed with info.

I know I have never raised a child, but I have been a close observer of my friends and family. I can tell you this, everything I thought I knew about young children was pretty much flushed down the toilet in regards to our child. Due to the fact that she will have been in a orphanage or a foster home, the way things are done are very different. I know we have only reached the tip of the iceberg with international adoption. Hearing about all the needs of these children just made it so much clearer (as if it wasn't clear enough already) that we are doing the right thing. God has been equipping us for this journey for so long, and we didn't even know it. He is AMAZING!

random post

There is no new news to report. I feel like I need to post something at least once a month on this blog, because I know there are a few people who look at it.

Our close friends, that we talk to regularly, have already stopped asking questions because they know that if something happens we will tell them. Our families, due to the distance between us, ask tons of questions and just want to make sure they don't miss out on anything. What makes me feel bad is that I have nothing to say. We've done all we can do, now we wait...for a LONG time. I wish I could update people on the latest, but nothing has changed. It does make me smile when people ask questions because I know w are being thought about, and more importantly that people are excited about the arrival of our child!

I had planned on decorating the baby's room this summer. It seems premature, but with the current wait being 16 months we could have a referral in July 2008, then traveling in September. With my school schedule I have no time to decorate a room during the school year; being optimistic I thought that maybe the wait time would shorten over the next year (probably not), so that means I only have one summer before we travel to China. Honestly, I think I talked myself into it because I love the thought of decorating a room! Truth is, I will probaby have plenty of time in the summer of 2008, so I may have to rethink my plans.

I think Kevin is already tired of me talking about names. For those of you wondering we do not have one picked out. I always ask Kevin, "What do you think about _____?" He always responds, "I don't know." Someday he'll have to agree or disagree, but until then we will have many conversations like this! We throw around a bunch of stuff, but nothing really serious. It's hard to name a child, I think it will cause me a lot of stress the closer it gets. Kevin wants to wait until we see her face. We get the luxury of seeing our child months before we have to give her a name, so we may take advantage of that.

Well, there was the random adoption post. Nothing exciting, just something to read. Hopefully good news is on the way!

DTC

Well, I have no official word, but our dossier should be in China. Yippee! In the next four to six weeks we should get a log in date (LID) and a packet of information from the Embassy in China. Not much, but one more step in the right direction

**UPDATE 2/14/07**
As of last Friday our dossier was on it's way to China. We could be getting our LID sooner than expected, instead of four weeks it could be two! We could have a February LID instead of March...that's GREAT news!

explanation

I feel like I should explain a little better about the wait time for our referral. I know I have said it can change, but I would like to give an example. The people who are receiving their referrals right now (actually 2/1/07) were LID in between 9/28/05-10/13/05. When they began the process they were told that their wait time would be 6-9 months...it ended up being 16 months. I say that so you can understand that NOTHING is guaranteed. We can only guess based on what we see right now. A lot of people think the wait time will get longer and longer, maybe up to 24 months. However, there are some new restrictions that the CCAA has put out that will take effect 5/1/07. This will reduce the number of applicants significantly, but that will not decrease the number of applicants who have already been logged in. I don't know if I made this more confusing or cleared things up. I guess I say this so everyone knows that my estimate on when we will get a referral is just a best guess. Over the course of the next 16 months this could change 20 times, so just be ready.

good news!

This is the email I got from Dawn today:

Hi Allison, your dossier is now complete and on it’s way to our coordinator for translation. Yeah! I would expect it to be in China in a week or two, then logged in about a month later. So you may have a log in date sometime in March.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Now the long wait begins. We will stay in touch and keep you informed of any changes.

Do you know what that means? We are one step closer! I am so excited. I feel like we have finally accomplished something. All of our documents have been given the stamp of approval from the US government. June will translate them into Chinese and then send them to her mother Shulan (not sure of the spelling) who lives in China. Shulan will then hand deliver them to the CCAA. Once the CCAA "receives" them they will give us a log in date (LID) and then the wait begins...16 months right now. So, if we have an LID sometime in March that means we can expect to see our sweet baby girl's face in July 2008...and bring her home in September. WOW!

I think I have said this before, but this coming Spring and Summer there may be a decrease in the wait time. We are praying that is the case. The only way we can find out is by the families who are currently waiting and close to receiving their referral. The families who received their referral two weeks ago waited 16 months, so that is how we are given our wait time.

The next things we will be told is our LID, I will be sure to let you know as soon as I do so we can all start the countdown!

It's here!

The very last paper in the paperchase portion has arrived! We have been approved by the USCIS to adopt a child from China. Tomorrow I will go sign the final paperwork before it is sent off to be authenticated. I am going to repeat myself, but authentication takes about 4 weeks and translation takes about 2 weeks. So, we are hoping to get our dossier to China (DTC) in the last week of February. Please pray that everything continues to go smoothly.

CNN

Tonight on CNN with Paula Zahn (8pm EST) there is a segment about Chinese adoption. This segement is in response to another segment that ran last Friday where a panel of "experts" reported that people who adopt from China are simply looking for an intelligent child.

Here is an exerpt from the transcript. It is in response to the question "What's the big deal with Chinese children? What's the infatuation?"

MARTIN: Maybe they think they can adopt a smart kid that is going to grow up to be a doctor? I don't know. They need to realize that's called training, not just inherent, it will happen when they're born. Angel, help me out.
MALDONADO: Absolutely. This is something I've been looking into for a long time. Americans have this love affair with girls from China. There is this belief, this perception, irrational as it might be that if you adopt a little girl from China, she's going to be intelligent, she's going to be more lovable.
MARTIN: Like the porcelain doll.

Well, needless to say the International Adoption Community went nuts. Thousands of people sent emails and letters so CNN decided to have another discussion tonight. This time the panel will have adoptive parents and representatives from adoption agencies. This will probably not interest most of you, but since we are all involved with international adoption from this point forward I thought you might want to know what some people say about it.

baby steps (no pun intended)

So I got word from Dawn today that our USCIS form is being approved. We should get the clearance we have been waiting for sometime next week. That means it will have only taken 5 weeks! We were told it would take 7 weeks, praise the Lord.

blessing or curse?

I'm talking about the internet. Isn't it nice to have access to SO much information? I mean without the internet I could not see pictures of my friends halfway across the country on a daily basis and you could not see what is happening in my life. However, in terms of the international adoption world sometimes ignorance is bliss, so the internet can be a curse. There are TONS of websites, blogs and email groups related to international adoption, China specifically. I can go online at any time of day or night and find out new information. It is a very slow time at work right now, so my internet use is up. Lately the "rumor" is that wait times are up...again! When we applied, just last September, the wait had recently gone up from 12 months to 15 months, now it is looking more like 16 or 17 months. Friends, this is from the time our dossier gets to China, that doesn't count the 3 months we have spent gathering papers and the 3 months we will wait to get everything authenticated and translated. I guess I am saying this myself (and the rest of my family who wants my daughter here as much as I do!) when I say...NO MATTER HOW LONG THIS TAKES THERE WILL BE A CHILD AT THE END OF THIS JOURNEY!

I guess this would be a great time to share an old Chinese Proverb with you. It is one used very frequently by people adopting from China, and I think it is very fitting.

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,

regardless of time, place, or circumstance.

The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.

it's official

The documents are now in the hands of Hope International. We are done with our portion of the adoption process. They will be finishing up the rest of our packet before it get sent to China. I'm telling you, my posts will be very boring, we take one baby step at a time now.

Now we wait to receive our 171H...

the paper chase...

IS OVER!

Well, at least the hardest part. We have collected everything we need. We are still waiting on the 171H form (the approval) from immigration, we should receive that between now and mid-January. So, on Wednesday I will drive all the paper work to our agency (I don't trust the post office with my important stuff during the holidays). Hopefully at that point she will say "Great, that's all we need from you." Then (I'm sure I've said this before) we get the documents authenticated, I think that takes about 4-6 weeks. Then they have to be translated, I think that takes a few weeks as well. So, all of this could still take another 3 months. Then the papers get sent to China. I'm learning that once your papers are in China it is possible to "track" them. I'm not sure how fun it will be to track papers for 15 months, but I guess it will show some form of progression. Again, as soon as our papers get to China we can start the countdown!

Prayer request
Please pray about the wait time for our referral; the trend shows it is steadily climbing. Dawn mentioned that at the beginning of each year you could see changes in the length of wait time, but that also could mean it is longer.
GLAD GAME: The increase in wait time for international adoptions is directly related to the number healthy children available. This means that there are less children being abandoned and more people willing to adopt! For that we can praise the Lord!!!

the paper chase

This portion of the process is called the paper chase. Its called that because there are so many different documents you must have, the hard part is tracking them down. I talked to Dawn today and got the final instructions for our dossier: (updated 12/19/06)
1. We already completed the physicals, but they were filled out in black pen and signed in blue pen...unacceptable. I have to have our doctor fill them out again. DONE
2. We already received proof of employment letters, but my social security number was written as XXX-XX-2161(for privacy reasons I guess)...unacceptable. I had to ask the HR department to write a new one. DONE
3. We already filled out a financial statement listing all our assets and liabilities, but I added them up wrong (oops!)...unacceptable. I have to fill it out again. DONE
4. We have to order certified birth certificates from Kern and Fresno counties. DONE
5. We have to order a certified marriage certificate from Kern county. DONE
6. We have to get fingerprinted for our state clearance form. DONE
7. We have to get fingerprinted for immigration. DONE
8. We have to write a letter to the CCAA requesting a little girl, of a certain age, promising to love her, provide a good home, treat her as a biological child, never abandon her and provide her an education. DONE
9. We have to send six pictures of our home including the front and backyard and our child's room (This is actually pretty humorous to us because we have people living in our child's room. I was told I just had to prove that I had a room for a child, I think Ethan's room would be a much better choice!). DONE

THAT'S IT!!! That's all we have to do!

How do ya'll do it?

Ok, so most folks have nine months to prepare for their child. I have twice that long and I feel rushed! Well, not really rushed, but like I have SO much to do before she gets here. I have so much respect for working mothers-to-be (and working mothers for that matter). I don't have time to be figuring out what to name her, what to do with her room, what kind of stuff we will need when she gets here, stocking cabinets with kid dishes and cups, baby proofing my house...oh my word!

Updates

I have been inspired by the hundreds of other families who do an adoption blog. I have been reading them when I have some time to sit at the computer and am completely touched. Many of them begin from the moment they start the process. I am about two months late, but now is better than never.

So, from now on any adoption related news will be posted here. Things like when we become DTC, which means our dossier (all of the necessary paperwork) gets sent to China. Or when we have a LID, which is the date our dossier gets logged in to the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs). You will see pictures of her nursery here when the time comes, and this is where we will post the first picture we receive of our daughter...at that time we will tell you her name!

As mentioned on our other blog we just finished our home study, and today (11/21/06) our paperwork was sent to the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services). Now we wait to receive our next instructions.

Thank you for all of you who are praying for us on our journey. It will undoubtedly be a test of our patience, but well worth the wait.