Awaiting Aislinn

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Over the last few days, I have been getting a lot of questions about what exactly our process will be for the adoption, the following is a brief summary of what it will take to bring our daughter home.
Adopting a child from China is a process that naturally divides into three phases: Assembling the paperwork that will to go to China, waiting, and the trip to China to adopt the child. The paperwork is generally known as the dossier and consists of ten or so documents that actually go to China and other documents required by State, County and adoption agency rules. The paperwork that goes to China must have a series of certifications that attest that the document is authentic and not something created with a good graphics program. The parent(s) must also submit documents to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. After all of the documents are collected and authenticated, the entire package is sent, usually in a group of 3-10 dossiers, by the adoption agency to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in Beijing.

For the parents, this is the beginning of the waiting period. After all of the hustle and work of getting all the paperwork assembled and processed, there is little to do but wait.As of this week the wait time is just about 12 months. In Beijing, the dossiers are entered into the registry and then translated or have the translation done in the US checked. After this step, the documents are checked to ensure that all of the legal requirements have been met. In parallel with the parents, the Childrens Welfare Institutes (orphanages) all over China have assembled a dossier on each child available for international adoption that includes a photo and medical report. These are also sent to CCAA in Beijing. Finally, the two sets of dossiers come together and a child is matched up with a family. The medical report and a (small) photo are sent back to the adoption agency in the U.S. This long awaited document is called the referral or offering. It specifically says to the family, here is a child that is available for adoption, would you accept this specific child to be part of your family? After translation into English, the medical reports and photo are sent to the family that has been waiting for many months at this point. Except for very unusual circumstances, the family accepts the referral. This acceptance is sent back to China and the second part of the waiting starts. In China, the acceptance leads to further paperwork in Beijing along with notification to the Childrens Welfare Institute that a family has been identified for that specific child. After the paperwork is complete, CCAA sends a permission to travel document back to the adoption agency.

This permission to travel document initiates the third phase of the process, the trip. The agency may set a date, or the group of families may decide on the date for travel to China, plane tickets are purchased and arrangements made with guides/translators in China. The trip usually lasts between ten days and two weeks. The group may travel together from the U.S. or meet up in China on a specific date. In China, there is Chinese paperwork to complete at both the Provincial level (equivalent to a State) and at the local level. At the completion of the Chinese paperwork, the adoption is final and is recognized as final by the U.S. and Chinese governments. After completion of the Chinese documents, the new family travels to Guangzhou, China to the U.S. consulate there for processing of the INS documents to allow the child to legally enter the U.S. This usually is completed in two to three days. Then we get to fly home to the U.S. and our waiting family to begin the next chapter in our lives.
As always Be Good and Be Safe!!!

Labels: Adoption

| posted by Unknown at 10:25 AM

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This is an account of our lifes as we head down the path of life towards our first child. An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break." --An ancient Chinese belief

Name: Unknown

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DTC 4/20/07...LID4/26/07. ...Referral 5/27/10~Waiting for our TA...Aislinn Day is March 6,2011