"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break." Ancient Chinese Belief
"To those who wait, time opens every door." Chinese Proverb
I reconnected with a very special person in my family today. I think our busy lives have impacted the amount of time we had to spend together just talking and hashing out life in general. I realized today how much I have missed those conversations as well as how much this person means to me. During that two hour phone call-we talked a lot about my little families pending adoption and the choices we have made to bring a child into our lives who may or may not have a "disability." After the conversation ended I made the desicion to share our Medical Conditions Checklist with people, which we have not done until today. Not out of a desire to keep secrets, just simply because these are personal decisions that we made as husband and wife.
Our decision to adopt a child with or without a disability is born from our desire to grow our family. We wish to make a difference in a child's life and be the family that a waiting child needs. What we know is that there are children who are considered "unadoptable" in China's eyes because they are termed less than perfect. I thank God that in our family we view human life with more respect. We did not arrive at any of these decisions lightheartedly. A lot of thought and research was done prior to filing our Medical Checklist. I feel we have been led to this point in our lives and guided in these decisions. I know as a family we will all come together and embrace this new child in our lives and I am so thankful for the love and support we have been given. So here is our checklist.
We have said Yes to the following medical conditions: Congenital heart disease-minor; club foot/feet; malformation of the fingers/toes; missing fingers/toes; hypospadias; anemia; birthmark/hemangioma-non facial; eczema; extra fingers/toes; hernia-umbilical/inguinal; malnutrition; physical development delay; premature/low birth weight; scar/burn-non facial; torticollis; undescended testicles; vision-strabismus. We have said Maybe to:Imperforated Anus; hearing loss-partial to moderate; vision-cataracts.
So there it is, I think this sums it up pretty well and I quote (from two exceptional teens in our life) "thats it-they really give kids up because of those things..."
If any of you would like to do your own research on these Medical Conditions there is a "Waiting Child Adoption" CD available for purchase from Love Without Boundaries. I would loan out ours but it is inexpensive and purchasing it goes to help save the lives of medically fragile children in China. Feel free to check out their website: www.lovewithoutboundaries.com Also, if you have not viewed the videos from LWB at the bottom of our blog-please do so, they are very informative. I couldn't decide between them so I included them all.
Our Dossier was reviewed and "Logged In" in China only two days after its arrival. I can't believe it was such a short wait for our LID. Now we wait for referral. Amazingly enough, on the yahoo group that we are a part of there are only two families ahead of us waiting for referral. The yahoo group tends to be an approximate of half the real number of people waiting from our actual agency. So there may be from 2 to 4 people waiting before us. We could even see a referral in January on the next list of Waiting Children to come from China.
While we are waiting for our dossier to get "Logged In" in China we have decided to refile our gender preference to either, rather than girl only. We are really excited about this and look forward to getting the call for referal just like waiting for Cailtin's birth. The nurses swore her heart rate indicated she would be a boy! I know we will be overjoyed with either gender, and feel like now it is in God hands- phew! What a load off my mind. Well and of course in the hands of CCAI-who will do the choosing for us...
Our Dossier arrived in China Monday the 26th of November. Now we are waiting for the CCAA to give us a log in date. If we were only in the traditional non special needs program the log in date is the date from which your true wait for referal begins. Our Medical Conditions Checklist symbolizes our Log In Date for the Waiting Child Program. We are also very seriously considering changing our preference to either a girl or boy. If we do so we are far mre likely to get a boy than a girl. We are really excited about this change and Caitlin is steadfast in her desire for a brother. I think she just wants to retain her Princess standard of living!Pray for us as we make this decision.
CONGRATULATIONS, Pat & Kim,
Here’s the news you’ve long been waiting for—your dossier was sent to China today (11/21/2007)!
Here’s what to expect for the next month:
The CCAA will receive your dossier in approximately 3-5 days. Our China Department will contact you by email once your dossier has been received by our representatives in China and hand-delivered to the CCAA.
The CCAA usually logs in dossiers within 4 weeks of their receipt. This Log-In Date is called your LID, the date that you may “count down” to your referral. As the CCAA is the ultimate authority in logging in your dossier, we are unable to estimate your LID. The CCAA should notify us of your LID within the next 8 weeks. We will e-mail you as soon as we have confirmation of your LID and will then give you instructions on how to download your LID Packet.
Our dossier made it to Colorado today. Here is the info we got back from them...
Your dossier will now go through the following steps:
Check-in: Your dossier package is checked to ensure all necessary dossier items are present. If your package is missing any item(s), we will let you know. If all dossier items are present, we will begin the review of your dossier! Please do not be alarmed if your fees are not checked-in immediately; they are handed to the Accounting Department and are processed on a different timeline than the rest of your dossier.
Critical Review and Translation: Your dossier will be here for 9-11 business days if it is complete and problem-free. During the critical review process, your dossier is looked through another 3 full times for any mistakes or errors. This review includes a careful inspection of the document in terms of content and format, possible translation problems, and dates. A thorough check of the notarization, certification, and authentication pages are also made at this time just to make sure all is in perfect order. We will notify you once this step is complete.
Once your dossier is complete and the critical review is finished, a summary translation of your dossier is completed, making sure the most important information is easy to locate when your dossier is received by the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in China. This also helps decrease the chance this important information is mis-interpreted during the full translation of your dossier in China.
Binding: Your dossier is bound together in a very professional red folder, with photos being mounted and documents carefully lined up and ordered according to the CCAA’s preference.
Mailing: Lastly, your dossier will be carefully packaged and sent to China via international express mail!
...unless you really know about web design. I tried to download a seasonal and totally cute template for Fall. Even though I did the save process recommended, when it converted to the new design I lost everything except my postings. My adoption timeline is gone- and guess what, it was't written anywhere else with that much detail. I'll never be able to re create it. Beware-don't try to be too fancy! I could throw up I'm still so upset.
We sent our dossier in to CCAI today. What sweet relief. Four months of work and its somewhere in post office land enroute to Colorado. CCAI will partially translate our documents and send them off to China. CCAI also got a new list of children for their special needs program. They average about 30 children per list and a new list every three months. We are well into the 100's as far as "seniority" so our wait will be long regardless of whether we receive a special needs or traditional program referral.
Our last document, the I 171H arrived last night in the mail from the Chicago Consulate. I will photo copy it today and then our dossier is done. So much for getting it done over summer vacation. What a process. I am amazed by the people who go through this time and again for multiple adoptions. We forgot to mention earlier that we have filed our Medical Conditions Checklist as well. Basically that means we are willing to adopt a child who may have some minor disabilities which are considered pretty debilatating over in China still. We are praying for a referal from the special needs process sometime next summer. Our agency is waiting on their next list and we are far down the food chain so our wait will be long never the less.
Well our I 171h was sent out on the 18th and promptly returned because I didn't include everything it needed. We re sent the document and are not so patiently waiting for its return so we can finalize our dossier. It was sent out for the 2nd time on the 24th so it has been 9 days and counting.
So Pat and I celebrated our Anniversary this weekend at my favorite place on earth. Silver Lake Sand Dunes. We were there withour dear friends Kim and Vince. Unfortunately, my dune driving skills are a little lacking. I was going to fast and the Jeep went airborn. When we landed (hard!) Pat fractured a vertebrae in his back. The doctors say it will heal- thank the lord, but I will always be guilty of breaking my husbands back. He is healing well, his spirits are good and for some reason he still loves me.
We got our last document from the USCIS on Friday the 5th of October. We are so excited to have this last document that needs to be notorized, certified and authenticated. As soon as that is all done we can send our complete dossier to our agency. Once they receive it they will do a partial translation and send it on to the P.R. of China. The Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs will then give us a log in date or LID, which is how dossiers from all over the world are tracked through the process of referral.
We celebrated Caitlin's Birthday on Saturday. She got many wonderfula nd generous gifts. She greatly enjoyed having her family at our new home in the woods and is completley exhasuted today.
We posted the ticker on our website to count the days since sending our documents to the Consulate General in Chicago for authenticating. Well we were greatly surprised when they arrived today within nine days of being sent off. I am so glad to have them back as it was a weird feeling to have them gone. All the hard work that went into compiling them... Anyway, we need to make the copies and send them off to our Adoption Agency and hopefully, even though our I171-H is still on someones desk, hopefully they will start reviewing them.
Caitlin had her first day of preschool today. She was wonderful while her mother was a wreck.
So I guess I am into this blogging thing now. Here is my most recent favorite of Caitlin. She caught this feather and I can't believe I caught the shot!
No not quite, the Holiday weekend is almost over and I can't even tell you how many hours he has worked. Besides all the summer outdoor projects and just dealing with me- he has a full plate!
Hello again, Just thought I would add something for fun. This summer we have been enjoying the bird calls in the woods. We know a couple, albeit very few, such as the chirp of a humming bird and rat a tat of a woodpecker. We are always saying to Caitlin "Listen, that is a ..." Well the other day the three of us were home, and as usual we were enjoying our new home in the woods when Caitlin stopped in her tracks and said, "Hey, did you hear that hummer pecker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Well we are moving full steam ahead on our adoption. It has been a very busy summer with all the "paperchasing" and running around. Caitlin and I had tons of fun playing and just hanging out at home. School is about to begin and Caitlin will have her first day of preschool on Wednesday. I just can't believe it! We have been talking a lot about adoption in general and Caitlin is starting to pick up on it. A while ago she was playing with her babies and she said "Momma, this is my baby and she is adopted." I think that is so cool. Hopefully we will be able to keep feeding her information so she can better understand the whole process. We haven't come right out and told her we are going to China because we think the timeline is just way to long for her to understand. Happy Labor Day!
Well this is my first posting. We are creating this blog to keep our family and friends up to date on our long journey to adopt a daughter. So far this adventure has been filled with paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. We have been really impressed with the Agencies we have chosen to lead us through this adoption adventure. They have all been very helpful and easy to get along with. We will be meeting with another counselor from FTA (Families Through Adoption) soon for our home based visit. I guess I had better start cleaning.
