An Online Journal of Our Adoption Journey

I look back on our months of preparation and sigh.  The steps required to justify one's worthiness to adopt is both daunting and exhaustive.  I know it will all fade with time, and that once we have our little baby girl in our arms we will quickly forget all the forms, all the frustration, and all the waiting we went through.  

Some general words of advice to those thinking of a Chinese Adoption, words that I think would have helped me in the beginning.

1. The Basic Proof of Three

There are three major 'Proofs' that must be overcome: Proof to INS, Proof to State, and Proof to China.  Each is mostly separate, but overlap with the Homestudy.  Prospective parents must prove themselves to each of these authorities.

Here is my visual map that helps me to organize the adoption process.  I failed to realize when first working through all of the documents that what we were putting together for the State was not the same exactly as what would be needed for China.  Each has its own requirements.  I thought the medical we did early on would be used in the dossier.  But a second medical is done specifically for that.  The homestudy, however, is the big bridge between all the authorities.  It is used by INS, by the State, and by China.

2. Things Change

Don't expect that what you read in preparation for this wondrous journey will stay the same.  Requirements change, governments change, fees change, and timelines change.  Try to remain patient and go with the flow.  

3. Support Groups

There are lots and lots of people out there who have done the foreign adoption thing, or are currently doing it.  If you get confused, hop on the web and hunt down the local adoption groups.  Of course, don't expect everything you read to be totally accurate, or even typical.  Often, the web is the best source of the atypical: the problems, the horrors, and the down right wacky.  But it does provide you with a wealth of information.

The INS Form I-171H

We received our official Homestudy on October 11.  We sent the INS copy the next day.  It was nice to make that step, to receive the affirmation that we have been deemed suitable for raising a child.  It's official, we have it in writing.  

Then, three weeks later, on Saturday, November 3rd we received our I-171H!  This is the last of the documents that must go into the dossier.  Actually, a notarized copy of the form goes, the real document stays with us to be taken to China when we go.  

So we got the copy notarized and this morning I overnighted it to Jill, along with the rest of our California documents.  She'll take care of the state certification and authentication over the next few weeks.

Chasing a Slow Boat to China

The I-171H is valid for 18 months, which sounds like plenty of time.  Unfortunately, since we began this journey the authority in China, the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) has been getting slower and slower.  The length of time from Dossier receiving to Referral has now stretched to 13 months, up from an 8-10 month estimate last year.

We have to hand a valid I-171H to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China as the last thing we do before returning home with our adopted daughter.  It will take at least a month or two for our documents to be certified, authenticated, checked, and translated into Chinese.  Then if the CCAA keeps at their current pace that's 13 months added to that.  Then the Referral arrives, we reply and get approval to travel, probably in about another two months.  We fly to China, pick up our baby, then travel down to Guangzhou.  A week later the paperwork arrives from the orphanage's province.  That is a total of about 17 months, giving us a thin, one-month window of breathing space for delays anywhere in that process.  Which means that if the CCAA slows down even more then it become ludicrous.  We would then have to submit a new I-600A, along with the $405, and redo the Homestudy since that can't be that old as well.  

Needless to say, I really, really hope that all goes well over this next year and a half.