God's Timing

First a quick referral time frame update - referrals that came in this month were once again just for the first week of December 2005 - they incurred a 23 month wait! So hard for them as when they started, they thought they had less than one year and it ended up being almost two! Please pray for peace of mind for these families. If it remains static, which it most likely won't, it will most likely continue to lengthen, we will receive our referral in March 2009 as opposed to our original thought of April 2008!

I'm starting to see God's Plan a little more though. I have a bit of a sense of peace with this long wait right now. Pete had wanted to wait until his promotion in December 2006 / January 2007 to start the process but I felt a sense of urgency to get it started immediately in October 2006. Since I was doing all of the work, Pete agreed to go ahead and start the paper chasing. It turns out it was God pushing me because had we waited, we would have missed the May cut off for the new regulations which we would not have qualified for!

Now the wait lengthens. Originally we thought we would travel in April 2008 to bring Baby K home to us. Now it lengthens even more. Well had our time frame remained April 2008, I don't think I would have been open to listening to God about the move to NYC. Moving to NYC is supposed to start to happen in Spring 2008 - about the same time we thought we were traveling to China! Now China is on hold which allowed us to listen to God and become part of the church planting core team to move to NYC. What an awesome place to raise not only our 3 biological daughters but also our daughter from China! The culture will be wonderful for them.

So bit by bit, as I try to practice listening prayer, I see what God's Plan is for our family.

Current Wait Time

The June batch of referrals came in late last week. I"m not sure if I said this before or not, but China only sends out referrals once per month, generally around the beginning of the month. The batch of referrals that just came in had a wait time of 19 months. That is the wait time from your LID date which for us was April 11. For the past few months, a month of wait has been added on. That is because for quite awhile now they have only been doing one week of each month, each month. I hope that makes sense. So it looks like it will take 3 more months just to get through the last 3 weeks of November 2005. Once they get to 2006, we are praying that the time will speed up or at least remain static because 2006 had fewer dossiers logged in in 2006 than 2005. However, we are also guessing that it will then lengthen because of the rush in 2007 to get in before the requirements changing effective May 1, 2007. Only time will tell. Those are our best guesses.

In Translation

Well it was a quite Mother's Day around here. Nothing special occured. I did however get an update from our agency today. Our dossier is currently in translation. That means the Chinese government are translating all of our documents before they can move into the Review Room which is where they review all of our documents to make sure we have everything needed and that it is all in order. It is also where they sometimes ask questions. We could stay in that room for months.

Log In Date (LID)

We are officially LID April 11, 2007! Yippee! That means the CCAA has officially logged our dossier into their system. It only took them 2.5 weeks. We beat the May 1 deadline by just 2.5 weeks as well. That was just a bit too close for comfort for me. Now we just wait and wait and wait : ) The last batch of referrals that came in this month took 17 months. It is only getting longer each month.

Dossier To China (DTC)

Today we are officially DTC!! We now move into the waiting stage which is currently 16 months. That would put us at meeting our new daughter in July 2008 (right before the Olympics start) if the current wait time frame does not change. However, for the past few months, it has only been getting longer. Please keep our family in your prayers that that does not continue. It took us just over 4 months to get our dossier completed and submitted. Many items were expedited in order to meet the May 1 change of requirements deadline. Our next step is to be logged in (LID) in China. It could be 6 weeks before we know our log in date but hopefully it will be before May 1.

Dossier Sent to Agency

Last week on Friday I sent our dossier to the courier in Chicago so she could take our documents to the Chinese Consulate (just to be on the safe side). I over-nighted them. She called me Monday to say I forgot my birth certificate! UGH! So another $20 to over-night that to her and another $20 to pay for expedited service on the birth certificate so that it was done at the same time as my other 13 documents. Boy am I glad we had very few documents to get certified and authenticated! She over-nighted them back to me yesterday so I received them this am. I had to make copies of everything for the agency and sent that over-night today to our agency. If they received them by 10 am tomorrow, then they would be reviewed and sent to China on Friday! YIPPEE!! Please keep praying that this finishes smoothly for us. I sure hope I didn't forget to send the agency anything. We are 3 weeks ahead of our schedule so we have a little bit of time if something I sent has an error in it. Hopefully it won't as I sent everything over to them to be pre-approved before I had it certified.

I-171H

We received our I-171H today! YEAH! It has been exactly 4 weeks since our fingerprint appointment. It came much quicker than we had expected! I'm so excited!! And Pete is not here to celebrate with me : ) He has been in China/South Korea for the past two weeks. Oh Well. It will wait until Saturday. So now tomorrow I am off to downtown to get our notorial statement certified so that everything can be mailed to the Chinese Consulate to be authenticated. That takes about 4 business days. Then our dossier can be sent to our agency for final review and then sent off to China to be logged in. We are almost out of this paper chasing phase and into the waiting phase! Please keep our family in your prayers that these last few steps go quickly and smoothly.

Fingerprints

I've updated the Timeline with all our fingerprint appointment information. This may seem unimportant but it is very important. The last step that we need to complete before we can mail off our Dossier to China is our I-600A application. The USCIS won't process that without our fingerprints which can only be down at their office in downtown Detroit on Jefferson avenue. We had heard rumors that we could just show up on a Saturday after 1 pm and they would be slow and would probably just process us. We tried that but it didn't work so we had to wait almost another week until our appointment time. It is times like this that I struggle with my patience. I just keep asking God to get me through it and it is all working out so far. We have 8 weeks left if we are going to make the deadline of getting our Dossier logged in to China prior to the May 1, 2007 date of when the requirements for adoption will change and we will no longer be eligible. I know it is all in God's hands but I sure am trying to help him out : )

Up until this point we haven't wanted to think about what we will do should we not make the log in date. But something in me (could be the Type A personality) today told me to start to have a Plan B. So now in my spare time I am researching other countries. It is not ideal for us, but I am researching Taiwan and Kazakhstan. Both countries are Chinese so we would still be able to adopt a Chinese girl. We would of course have to change agencies which we don't want to do. We have already paid GWCA a lot of money and are happy with their services to date. We would also have to spend more money on a homestudy update as well as a new I600A application. It would also mean more than one travel trip which we didn't want to do either and we both want to travel.

Final Home Study Visit

We had our final home study visit today with Wendy from Adoption Advocates at McDonald's. This time she had to meet all 3 girls and make sure they understood what we are doing and how it is going to change our lives. Well as much as a 2, 4, and 6 year old could understand. They were very well behaved and actually spoke to Wendy! That was progress for them! The meeting was just under one hour. We reviewed the final draft our of home study report with her and there were only a few minor changest that needed to be made. Wendy will meet with her Supervisor on Monday for final approval. Then they will over-night one copy to us so that we can mail in our I-600A application next week. Hopefully we should be able to do this on Wednesday. Then we wait approximately another two weeks for CIS to contact us letting us know what our fingerprint appointment time is. Then after we do that CIS will process our application and receive a I-171 H approval from the Depart of Homeland Security. That is the last thing we need to mail off our Dossier to China. Please pray that CIS does not take a full 90 days to process this as their website currently states as the processing timefram.

China from the Inside - PBS Documentary

Airing at 9 and 10 pm on PBS in Metro Detroit.

"China From The Inside" -- New PBS Documentary

Public television (PBS) will air a 4-part documentary beginning on
Wednesday, January 10, entitled "China from the Inside."

According to a preview website at this URL:

http://www.pbs.org/kqed/chinainside/

... the documentary will delve into both China's history and its
current political landscape. It will, among other things, examine
China's treatment of women, its problems with air and water pollution,
religion in China, and the government's slow response to the AIDS
epidemic.

The documentary's 4 parts will consist of the following:

* "Power and the People"
* "Women of the Country"
* "Shifting Nature"
* "Freedom and Justice"

The above website boasts that "through exceptional access to
institutions, government officials, and ordinary people, 'China from
the Inside' brings the complexity of contemporary China to the living
rooms of Americans."

The website touts that the full website (open tomorrow) will "offer a
deeper understanding of the political, economic, environmental, and
social issues facing China" and will allow its visitors to engage in
the following:

* Read projections on China's environmental future, what it will mean;
* Learn about the AIDS epidemic and the government's slow response;
* Delve into an interactive map;
* View a gallery of women activists;
* Join in provocative discussions about China's future;
* Find out how much you know with a China -v- USA quiz;
* Discover the difficulties of filming in China
in an "off camera" interview with the filmmaker;
* Download unique, standards-based content for grades 10-12.

China short on babies?

One of the reasons for the tighter restrictions for Chinese adoptions is a shortage of adoptable babies.

Here is a clip from a news story:

"The Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission predicted that 131,000 babies will be born in the city this year, up from 123,901 last year. This number will rise to about 137,000 next year and peak in 2015 at 160,000.

City officials are concerned that this baby boom will trigger a spate of generational social problems, such as over-crowding in schools and in the job markets, problems that could stay active for several decades.

(Shanghai Daily November 8, 2006)"

I tend to believe that if many of this babies are girls, they will be abandoned. That means there will still be many babies that need a loving home.

More information on the China adoption changes

Single Mother Looks Past China to Adopt Child

Michele Norris talks with Heather Wareing about Wareing's adoption plans. Wareing adopted a daughter from China more than two years ago; she is now looking to adopt another, but as a single mom, she will look to a different country.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6712266


China Set to Institute Tighter Adoption Rules

Michele Norris talks with Tim Sutfin, executive director of New Beginnings Family and Children's Services, an adoption agency in Mineola, N.Y., about the new adoption rules that China is expected to implement on May 1, 2007.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6712263

Many are upset that it appears that only young, heterosexual, married, thin, wealthy, educated, people will be able to adopt. I understand both sides of this controversy. China is only looking at the best interest of the child. But I also think they are being too strict. These new regulations (temporary or not) leaves out many people that could give a child a loving home.