Decision to Adopt: December 2005
Started the Process: January 2006
Selecting Adoption Agency and Screening process: January – March 2006
Adoption Paper Chase: March 2006 – August 2006
There are many documents that you must collect, have notarized and then authenticated by their State of Origin and then again by either the Chinese Embassy or Chinese Consulate depending on their state of origin. This part takes the tenacity of a bull dog! Examples of the type of documents are our birth certificates, marriage license for South Dakota, our health records, criminal background checks, employee verifications, etc. We went ahead and got a FedEx account due to all the deliveries we had to make also this way we could track the packages. If we were to lose the originals of anything we would had to start over adding months to the process, luckily we have had very few issues.
Dossier or collections of authenticated documents sent to China: August 2006
Dossier logged into Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) called a LID or Log In Date: Sept. 19th, 2006
Motivation and why China: My interest in adoption began over seven or more years ago when I heard a radio program in which a Chinese lady spoke about her personal experience as an orphan living on the streets of China. This lady’s story made a lifelong impression on me and is the catalyst behind my interest in adoption, particularly China. I had mentioned my interest to Scot a few times in the past but never really did it seriously. Other things would happen that would remind me of that desire again, one reminder came as Alex nudged my ribs a few times during church as we watched a video on Chinese adoption; this was just another reminder that God was sending me – Alex at this time did not know that I had already considered adopting from China. In December I mentioned it to Scot again and he said “Let’s do it!” wow, now I was scared, because this could actually be a possibility for me. I had remembered that Scot had been interested in adopting but had always wanted to adopt domestically. I don’t know how to explain it but my heart is constantly being pulled toward China. Now as we continue to wait and it’s been almost two years since our Dossier has been logged into China I get a lot of comments about going somewhere else, I have to explain to them that at this point no other option feels right. I do have to check myself and make sure that I’m not so set on China that I’m not open to another avenue that God has opened up for us, please pray that in whatever happens that our utmost calling is to be obedient to whatever the Lord has for us to do.
Currently we are in the waiting process, the adoptions are first in first out and right now the parents with LID of January 25th, 2006 have just received their referrals. A referral is a picture of a child that you can accept or reject (everyone always accepts of course), once you accept your child it will take approximately 6-8 weeks before you can travel to pick up your child. During this time you are getting your Visa and preparing everything for travel, we will be in China for approximately 2 weeks. As of late China has been only processing approximately one week’s worth of Dossiers, when we started the process the CCAA would process one month’s Dossiers per month making it a 12 month wait. If the process stays as is we are looking at late 2009 or early 2010, because of this extended wait we have to continue to renew three different documents that are quite costly, we have renewed our home study performed by a social worker, which expires yearly twice already. The other two documents are renewed at the immigration office which we will have to renew again this fall and next spring for the second time. Needless to say this is costing us more then we originally thought. I plan to see this through even if I’m 50 years old by then! God give me the strength! Until next time….
Regards : )
