Open Letter

Hi to all my family & friends,

As if you didn’t know, I am planning to receive a referral for my daughter! I’ve talked about this for quite a while and it looks like the time has finally come. Pirate is also ready for a sister!

Anyway, I’m very pleased & excited to make this announcement that China is almost at my LID (log in date). There is an itty bitty chance that I will receive my referral in the beginning of October but I am thinking it will be the beginning of November. So, officially, here is a little bit of what I know…and what I don’t.

WHO
I am requesting a 0-18 month old daughter at the time of her referral. I don’t know who she is yet, there are no pre-existing pictures to choose from or anything like that – China doesn’t generally do pre-identified adoptions, except in a few special needs or older child (meaning older than 5 or 6) cases. I also have made my final decision on an American name for her, It will be Giorgia (pronounced Georgia with nicknames of Giorgi and/or GiGi) Danette (my middle name too), her Chinese Orphanage Name will become her second middle name, and then we will also share my last name. Most adoptive parents choose to keep her Chinese Orphanage Name as either her full name or a middle name. Our children come to us to us with nothing but their beautiful faces and a name that those who cared for them gave them until they found a family. It’s a way of preserving the one little last tie that they have to their birth country. Yes, it’s a lot of names but I have decided that when she gets older she can choose to drop one or keep them both. I am fine whichever she chooses to drop or to keep them both.

WHEN
I just finished the process of collecting the documents FOR THE THIRD TIME!! I started in May of 2005. My documents made their way to China to be translated on January 13, 2006. This is referred to as my DTC date. (Dossier to China) Then my documents are officially registered to the CCAA in China on February 17, 2006. This is referred to as my LID date. (Log in Date) A referral date is the KEY DATE in which the dossiers are processed and the order in which all international adoptive parents receive their referral for a Non-Special Needs Child. When I began this process, A referral took about 6-7 months but as you know, times have changed and I’ve been already waiting 31 months! When my time comes, my agency will give me “The Call”. I will receive basic information and a tiny photo, sometimes 3 and a 1-page medical report. I have 1-2 days to accept the referral. My agency will then mail out my acceptance letter and I will wait for a Consulate Appointment and Travel Approval. I will travel in about 6-8 weeks. I believe I am looking at a December/January Travel timeline.

WHERE
To China, of course! My Agency has a full time facilitator in China who accompanies all their adoption groups (usually 8-12 families), and their trips are usually 14-16 days. Lucky for me I know most of the adopting parents I am traveling with!!!

HOW
One big milestone is the homestudy, which “approves” me to be a parent. My social worker Aileen needed 9 reference letters (from friends, relatives & coworkers), local police clearance, state child abuse clearance, guardianship papers, various health & financial statements, and an autobiography from me. I was required to have two home visits with Aileen and two office visits with Diana. Her report is now written and in my hands (it’s 8 pages long). She will also be required to visit us twice after the adoption. I’ve repeated this process now for the THIRD TIME!

The 2nd biggest milestone is getting INS clearance to bring an “orphan” into the country. There’s a specific form required, which I filed with the INS back in May along with copies of my birth certificate. They also took fingerprints from me, which go to an FBI clearance center, and then they needed my homestudy report. I received my first INS form with the clearance in mid-July of 2005, about 2 weeks after they received the homestudy. I’ve repeated this process now for the THIRD TIME!

Finally, there are the rest of the documents that make up a “Dossier” that gets sent to China. These include new physical forms from my doctor that are in specific formats decreed by China, a specific form for a financial statement, proof of employment, copies of our birth certificates, copies of passports, and an “application” letter to China stating my request to adopt. Counting the homestudy and the INS clearance form, there are 14 documents in all. Almost all of these documents need to be notarized, then certified by the state, then authenticated by the Chinese consulate (I was covered by the one in DC). I also put together selections of 10 pictures of my family at home and doing various activities. They then send the dossier to China, where it gets translated, and then the waiting for the referral begins. The “matching” is done by a government agency in Beijing called the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) and is a pretty secretive process.

For those of you with Web access, there are a number of sites that discuss “the paperchase process”, if you’re interested in more details I’ll send some sites along.

By the way, travel in China is very safe - even immediately after the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, adoption groups were traveling and referrals were still made. There is almost nothing in the political world that affects the adoption process, and although the Chinese are not fond of the US government, they are very friendly toward adopting families.

In the meantime, I’ll keep you all updated. I’ll let you know of progress as soon as I hear anything!

Love, Stephe & Pirate