Obviously our penchant towards Disney is going to be thrust upon the young impressionable one being brought into our home. That poor child will never be the same again - not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
December 15, 2006
Nursery's Done
We're not sure if this is a good thing, but we've pretty much completed the room. Sitting in there you can almost hear the laughs (and the cries as well). Makes you sad to know that the future occupant has probably already been born and is waiting for our arrival.
Obviously our penchant towards Disney is going to be thrust upon the young impressionable one being brought into our home. That poor child will never be the same again - not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
Obviously our penchant towards Disney is going to be thrust upon the young impressionable one being brought into our home. That poor child will never be the same again - not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
December 01, 2006
CCA Update - December 01, 2006
CCAA Update - the CCAA has now completed the placement of children whose adoption application documents were registered before September 8, 2005.
Net impact - moved forward 14 days, 48 days 'til our LID.
Referrals are sent once a month, usually at the end. We're not sure what's going to happen with the referrals for December. There will most likely be a hiatus over the holidays, but not sure what impact that might have.
Net impact - moved forward 14 days, 48 days 'til our LID.
Referrals are sent once a month, usually at the end. We're not sure what's going to happen with the referrals for December. There will most likely be a hiatus over the holidays, but not sure what impact that might have.
November 24, 2006
Steven Curtis Chapman - When Love Takes You In
We ran across this video on one of the other adoption blogs, and is posted on YouTube. It's a great video, and the words are so appropriate. Just click the play button in the middle - twice.
November 17, 2006
Step 3 - The Wait
Then the waiting begins.
The main thing to be done during this period is to make preparations for when we get our referral package. This includes things such as getting the appropriate immunizations, contacting doctors and the adoption practitioner who will be required later in the process, and of course preparing the baby's room.
So, what's happening in China at this time? The first step is a detailed review of the dossier by the Foreign Affairs Department. This is where all the time spent earlier with the adoption practitioner and the adoption agency pays off. If everyone has done a thorough job of preparing the information, there should be no problems. Hopefully the worst thing that happens at this time is that you may be contacted by China to provide additional information or clarification, after which time your application is approved. Our team must of done everything right since we didn’t’ receive any calls.
Once the approval is obtained, the file is forwarded to the “matching room”. There are many views of what the matching room is, but consider it as a group of women who review the information in your dossier and compare that to available children. One of the amazing things that we have seen from people who have already adopted is how well suited their children are for them. There’s got to be some magic going on in the matching room because, outside of the difference in race, it’s hard to believe that they’re not biological children to the adoptive parents.
The main thing to be done during this period is to make preparations for when we get our referral package. This includes things such as getting the appropriate immunizations, contacting doctors and the adoption practitioner who will be required later in the process, and of course preparing the baby's room.
So, what's happening in China at this time? The first step is a detailed review of the dossier by the Foreign Affairs Department. This is where all the time spent earlier with the adoption practitioner and the adoption agency pays off. If everyone has done a thorough job of preparing the information, there should be no problems. Hopefully the worst thing that happens at this time is that you may be contacted by China to provide additional information or clarification, after which time your application is approved. Our team must of done everything right since we didn’t’ receive any calls.
Once the approval is obtained, the file is forwarded to the “matching room”. There are many views of what the matching room is, but consider it as a group of women who review the information in your dossier and compare that to available children. One of the amazing things that we have seen from people who have already adopted is how well suited their children are for them. There’s got to be some magic going on in the matching room because, outside of the difference in race, it’s hard to believe that they’re not biological children to the adoptive parents.
November 10, 2006
Step 2 - The Dossier Defined
We've covered off the process up to the point that our dossier has been sent and registered in China - which is where we are in the process today. If you haven't read the earlier entries, you may want to scroll down to get caught up before reading this.
So what exactly is in this dossier, and why does it take so long to prepare it? We won’t go into the details of what it takes to prepare this, but we will list what needs to be included. Suffice it to say that somebody who wants to adopt certainly has to go through a lot more than anybody who has biological children. We know that this is all to ensure the welfare of the adopted child, but who’s ensuring the welfare of the rest of the children in this country? That of course is a completely different discussion and one that’s outside the boundaries of what is discussed here.
The information sent to China has to include all of the following:
So what exactly is in this dossier, and why does it take so long to prepare it? We won’t go into the details of what it takes to prepare this, but we will list what needs to be included. Suffice it to say that somebody who wants to adopt certainly has to go through a lot more than anybody who has biological children. We know that this is all to ensure the welfare of the adopted child, but who’s ensuring the welfare of the rest of the children in this country? That of course is a completely different discussion and one that’s outside the boundaries of what is discussed here.
The information sent to China has to include all of the following:
- Letter of application to adopt
- Original letter of approval/recommendation from Ministry of Community and Social Services
- Signed original home study from the adoption practitioner
- A guardianship statement advising who would be responsible for the child should something happen to us
- Letters from each of our employers stating occupation, terms of employment, annual income, length of employment and prospects for continued employment
- Letters of recommendation from family, friends, and co-workers
- A full financial statement
- Copies of physical examinations from each of our doctors, not more than 12 months old
- RCMP Interpol security clearance
- Copies of marriage certificate and both our birth certificates
- Copies of our passports
- Pictures, which at a minimum include passport size photos of each of us, picture of our house, and at least 6 lifestyle pictures of us and our family and friends
And that’s it.
November 03, 2006
CCAA Update - November 03, 2006
CCAA Update - the CCAA has now completed the placement of children whose adoption application documents were registered before August 25, 2005.
Net impact - moved forward 16 days, 62 days 'til our LID.
Referrals are sent once a month, usually at the end. We're not sure what's going to happen for the referrals for November going into December. There will most likely be a hiatus over the holidays, but not sure what that might be.
Net impact - moved forward 16 days, 62 days 'til our LID.
Referrals are sent once a month, usually at the end. We're not sure what's going to happen for the referrals for November going into December. There will most likely be a hiatus over the holidays, but not sure what that might be.
October 28, 2006
Step 1 - Paperwork
We know that this has been a long time coming, but better late than never.
As you are all aware, the processing in China has been slowed considerably over the past year. As a result, what was originally a 7 month process has now turned into what appears to be an 18 month process. What this means is that it looks like our current timelines for travel to China will be somewhere in the April/May timeframe.
We’ve discussed different aspects of this process with many of you since we’ve started this, but we thought that we’d take some time to give you a bit more detail of what we’ve gone through to get this far. We won’t go through everything that led us to making the decision that we wanted to adopt, and why we chose China, however suffice it to say that we are extremely happy with the choice that we’ve made and the path we have taken.
One thing that you discover quickly is that this is not something you can do on your own. The amount of process, paperwork and logistics that you have to go through would be absolutely impossible if you tried to do it without an experienced agency. After researching a number of agencies that specialized in International Adoption from China, we selected Children’s Bridge (http://www.childrensbridge.com/). We have friends that have worked with this agency and all were very pleased with the service they received. From what we’ve seen so far, we couldn’t be happier. This, as we were about to find out, was the easiest part of the process.
As a high-level overview of the process that came next, we’ll start with the key activities that needed to be completed.
Selection of a registered adoption practitioner (social worker)
..... Completed Mar. 2005
Completion of a home-study
..... Completed Aug. 16, 2005
Collection of all required paperwork to support home-study
Submission of the completed home-study to Ministry of Community and Social Services for approval
..... Approval received Sep. 9, 2005
Collection of additional documentation required for ChinaTranslation and notarization of dossier to send to China
..... Submitted to Children’s Bridge on Aug. 29, 2005 for translation
Submission of dossier to China
..... Sent to China on Sep. 30, 2005
At this point the waiting begins. You are now given the first date that you start to track – your DTC (Dossier to China) date. This is the date that the completed dossier was sent to China – pretty obvious. Children’s Bridge also assigns you to a travel group. We are in Group 247 with 13 other Canadian families.
The next date you get is the LID (Logged in Date). This is the date when you receive confirmation that your information has been received and registered in China, and is used to track where you are in the process in China. Our LID is Oct. 26, 2005. You now start to watch the China Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) website (http://www.china-ccaa.org/) for two “Document Processing” milestones. The first is how far they are in terms of reviewing the documents registered in their office - ours was completed in July, 2006. The second is how far they are in the placement of children. As of Sep. 30, they have reviewed the documents received before Dec. 31, 2005, and have placed children to families whose documents were received before August 9, 2005. The good news is that they have reviewed our documentation and there were no questions or concerns with our application, the not-so-good news is that we still have a bit of a wait until we actually receive our referral. But we’ll outline that process in a following posting.Stay tuned.
There’s more information to come.
As you are all aware, the processing in China has been slowed considerably over the past year. As a result, what was originally a 7 month process has now turned into what appears to be an 18 month process. What this means is that it looks like our current timelines for travel to China will be somewhere in the April/May timeframe.
We’ve discussed different aspects of this process with many of you since we’ve started this, but we thought that we’d take some time to give you a bit more detail of what we’ve gone through to get this far. We won’t go through everything that led us to making the decision that we wanted to adopt, and why we chose China, however suffice it to say that we are extremely happy with the choice that we’ve made and the path we have taken.
One thing that you discover quickly is that this is not something you can do on your own. The amount of process, paperwork and logistics that you have to go through would be absolutely impossible if you tried to do it without an experienced agency. After researching a number of agencies that specialized in International Adoption from China, we selected Children’s Bridge (http://www.childrensbridge.com/). We have friends that have worked with this agency and all were very pleased with the service they received. From what we’ve seen so far, we couldn’t be happier. This, as we were about to find out, was the easiest part of the process.
As a high-level overview of the process that came next, we’ll start with the key activities that needed to be completed.
Selection of a registered adoption practitioner (social worker)
..... Completed Mar. 2005
Completion of a home-study
..... Completed Aug. 16, 2005
Collection of all required paperwork to support home-study
Submission of the completed home-study to Ministry of Community and Social Services for approval
..... Approval received Sep. 9, 2005
Collection of additional documentation required for ChinaTranslation and notarization of dossier to send to China
..... Submitted to Children’s Bridge on Aug. 29, 2005 for translation
Submission of dossier to China
..... Sent to China on Sep. 30, 2005
At this point the waiting begins. You are now given the first date that you start to track – your DTC (Dossier to China) date. This is the date that the completed dossier was sent to China – pretty obvious. Children’s Bridge also assigns you to a travel group. We are in Group 247 with 13 other Canadian families.
The next date you get is the LID (Logged in Date). This is the date when you receive confirmation that your information has been received and registered in China, and is used to track where you are in the process in China. Our LID is Oct. 26, 2005. You now start to watch the China Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) website (http://www.china-ccaa.org/) for two “Document Processing” milestones. The first is how far they are in terms of reviewing the documents registered in their office - ours was completed in July, 2006. The second is how far they are in the placement of children. As of Sep. 30, they have reviewed the documents received before Dec. 31, 2005, and have placed children to families whose documents were received before August 9, 2005. The good news is that they have reviewed our documentation and there were no questions or concerns with our application, the not-so-good news is that we still have a bit of a wait until we actually receive our referral. But we’ll outline that process in a following posting.Stay tuned.
There’s more information to come.
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