"Waiting" is the theme of Chinese (and probably every other) adoption. For those of you who are not familiar, here is the procedure for adopting from China: First, you have a Home Study done. A Home Study is written by a licensed social worker and tells about your home and the people in it. It basically tells whether you are fit to adopt. You send that Home Study (and the required application, forms and of course, money) to US Immigration (USCIS). They have to give you permission to "bring a foreign orphan into the United States". While the Home Study is being written and USCIS is reviewing it, the adopting family is collecting documents required by China to prove the family meets their standards for adoption, including birth certificates, marriage certificates, employment verifications, income verification, medical exams, etc. This is your "dossier". All of those documents, including the USCIS approval form, have to be notarized, certified by the county, certified by the Secretary of State and authenticated by the Chinese Consulate for your state. After you have all the papers with all the necessary seals and stamps, you send it all to China. If you are doing the type of adoption we are, you are usually matched with a child during this paperchasing-time, also. China will look over all your documents and proclaim Yes or No to your adoption request. Then you wait about a month for Travel Approval and you can finally buy your airline tickets and get your child.
You wait during all the stages of this process. You wait for your home study (2-4 months), then you wait for USCIS approval (3-4 months), then you wait for China to review your dossier and send you their approval (3-4 months), then wait another month or longer for Travel Approval. It teaches you patience if nothing else. And anything can happen during the process to slow you down. For instance, we got the email from USCIS on Dec 17th that we had been approved. But because of Christmas, we didn't get the official form until Dec 26th. That was the Friday after Christmas and every State and Federal office was closed, so I couldn't get the local notarizations, etc., until the next Monday, the 29th. Then there was New Years, more down time. Now we're STILL waiting for the Chinese Consulte to send back that USCIS form with their stamp of approval. When it comes, I'll run all the dossier docs to the adoption agency. They will have it for 1-2 weeks for "critical review". Then they'll send it to their Home Office in Colorado where it will be bound and then sent to China. So, it's been almost a month since USCIS approved us and we still haven't gotten the paperwork to China. It can't even go to the agency yet! AARRGGHH!!!!
But when it does - the clock will really start ticking. We're hoping to travel in May or June. We have a little 2 year old girl waiting for us in Henan. Her Chinese name is Qian Ke Xin (pronounced Chee-en Cuh Sheen) and her birthday is 2 years and 1 week after Olivia's. Hmmm... How are we going to handle birthday parties? She is very tiny, 22lbs at 26 months old, and has a sweet, solemn face. We only have 1 photo of her smiling. An orphanage isn't the most fun place... We're hoping she and Olivia will grow to be close sisters. Olivia has always done well with the children we have fostered and she's looking forward to having a sister who doesn't "leave".
That's enough for today. I'll post again when something happens.
Here are 2 recent photos we received of Ke Xin with her orphanage update!
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