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What's next?-----1. We officially accept our baby and sign the paperwork and send it back to our agency who will, in turn, send it, along with the other family's paperwork back to China. 2. China sends us official "Travel approval" 3. We secure an appointment day and time at the Embassy/Consulate in China. 4. We plan a trip according to the consulate appointment date 5. We'll travel in 6-8 weeks to get her and stay from 10 days to 2 weeks in China. Once we bring her home, she will be an official American citizen! Costs-- United States Expenses 3. Agency fee$4,950 --Paid 5. China Center of Adoption Affairs $650--Paid Expenses to China (assumes two adults traveling) $2,500 - $4,200
Number of Adoptions from China:
We chose China for several reasons. After researching adoption, we soon learned that the adoption process through China is incredibly smooth and easy compared to other countries. The cost is less than other countries. There is only one trip required to adopt in China. The babies are relatively healthy as the birth mothers tend to not have drug and alcohol issues that there may be in other countries. The process takes less time than many other countries. And last but not least, the babies are just darned cute!
The process is quite involved and extensive. First there is what is called "the paperchase". This is the gathering of all of the legal documents that are necessary to adopt. The documents must be legal and notarized. This takes several months. This includes a trip to the local police station for fingerprinting, as well as to Birmingham to the INS office for fingerprinting. We also have to have complete physicals by a physician. The homestudy involved a social worker coming to our home on 4 separate occasions to interview us and make sure our home is safe for a baby. She then writes up an extensive report. The homestudy and an application is sent to the Department of Homeland Security to verify that we are not terrorists or are not adopting a terrorist. Once they do a complete background check on us, they notify us that we are cleared to adopt internationally. Then the documents are sent to the Secretary of State office (for us it is in Alabama) to authenticate the accuracy of the documents and verify the notary. After that takes place, the documents are then sent to our adoption agency where they are thoroughly searched for any discrepancies and any problems. Finally, the completed documents (called a dossier) are sent to China where they are logged in at the China Center for Adoption Affairs. After the documents are logged in, they sit in a pile and wait to be translated into Mandarin Chinese. That takes a couple of months. Then the dossier goes to the matching room where someone scans through the pictures and descriptions of the babies as well as our profile and our passport photos and matches us with the right baby. Again, this can take several months. Then we will receive a referral of the baby. It will include a picture of her and a description of her. Once we have the referral, then we must receive approval from the Chinese government to travel to China. It is then that we finally know when we will become new parents.
No. Not really. Once the dossier is in China it gets in line behind all of the other families who are adotping from China. If a familiy is adopting a special needs baby, they do get shuffled to the front of the line and it usually doesn't take quite as long.
??? Based on the length of the process those ahead of us have gone through, it is approximately 6 months from the time the dossier gets to China. The CCAA in China doesn't divulge any secrets on what their schedule is. Our best guess is around November or December, maybe even January.
We want you to meet her.!!Short visits are ok. But, I'm sorry, we can't let you hold her. From a developmental perspective it is critical that Chris and I bond and attach to her as soon as possible. She will be taken from her familiar environment and shuttled across the globe to a strange place with people who speak giberish (she won't understand English). She will be accustomed to having many babies around her and many different care givers. She will not have any idea that she is in a permanent home and will not know that we are the new parents and will not abandon her. Once we feel that she has attached well, we will be able to have her around others. We want our daughter to be an independent and strong individual who relates well to a lot of people. We have to first make sure she relates to us. (see the link on attachment)
No. We have a short list but have decided we will wait until we see her picture before we name her.
We won't know that until we get the referral.
Our agency, International Family Services, will have a guide that we will be with the entire time we are in China. Peter handles all of the in country business. We just go where he tells us where to go and when to sign the papers he tells us to sign. We will likely travel with a few other families from our agency who will also be adopting their daughters. We will first go to the proviince where our daughter has been living and get her. Then we will travel to Ghoungzau, where the American Consulate office is located, and complete the final paper work. There will be hundreds of other adopting Americans in Ghoungzau while we are there. There are a couple of hotels that cater almost entirely to adoptive parents. There will also be places to get American food and do some shopping. We will be in China 10-14 days.
The following excerpt and pictures are taken from someone else's web site. I thought she did a good job describing some of the conditions in "the better" orphanages. -Jeanne
A Dose of Reality Hearing of my friends' visits to their babies' orphanage has left me very sad. I have been on such a high- and then all at once, I was hit with this dose of reality. Most orphanages in China are closed to the public. I have heard that the orphanages open to visitors are the "showcase" orphanages- the most clean and modern. When my friend heard that her baby was from this one, she was so excited- because it has such a great reputation. We can only wonder what the closed orphanages are like. Sophie's is one of them. While these parents now know for certain how and where their babies have been living and sleeping for the first part of their lives, I will never really know about Sophie. While we have heard that our small group of babies from her orphanage received foster care (and I did meet the foster mother), we are all very skeptical of the truth and also the quality of care. At 13 months, Sophie is the youngest. Yet none of them are crawling or walking (except a 2 year old boy) in our group. Most of them have very flat heads in the back- and are very uncomfortable being on their tummies. We think they were left on their backs in their hard cribs much of the time. Many of us were surprised at how inaccurate the information we had been given about our daughters was. Measurements way off, development reports incorrect, and less teeth than reported 7 months ago. We were all given tiny photo albums with pictures of our girls. Every scene was outside the orphanage. Also- most of our babies showed no affection toward their "foster mothers" while they were here. Michael thought Sophie's foster mother was very cold and he said he saw no love in her eyes for Sophie. I don't think we can assume this, and I prefer to think she did love her and just had different ways of showing it. For instance, Sophie has obviously been well fed, and she was wearing new red shoes when she was handed to me. However, the note given to me from the foster mother was very disturbing. She said Sophie needed to be left in her crib by herself. She said she should be fed by a spoon- not a bottle. She said if Sophie cries, it is only because she needs food or to be changed. She said she likes sitting in the stroller. She said that Sophie doesn't like to be held...
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Here are some pictures of the China Center for Adoption Affairs in the "Matching Room" Each agency has a different color to the packet. This puts things into perspective as to why it takes them so long to get the matching done.
