No,...Lucky Mama

Mary Whidden and James Phillips share about their daughter Langley- they also gave an overview of their China adoption experience.

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Location: Indiana, United States

Thursday, June 02, 2005

What is Happening Now

The best explanation I've ever heard of what happens once the dossier is in China. It was posted by someone who attended a FCC presentation where the former director of the CCAA spoke. I can only assume it's accurate since it was presented by a former CCAA official.Here's what she shared:

The Log In Date - Agencies send the dossiers to the Administrative department of the CCAA, which does a preliminary review to make sure all the right documents are included and the right fee was paid. The dossier is then sent to another department to be translated (if it wasn't when it arrived) or to have the translation checked (if it arrived translated). Once that department translates/checks the translation, the dossier goes back to the Administrative department to be loggedinto their computer system and given a case number. The date this happens is your log in date.

Process the child goes through - Chinese law mandates that when a child is found abandoned that an ad be run in the local newspaper and an effort be made to find any biological family. If no family can be found after 60 days, the child is eligible to be adopted. The welfare institute then has to get a complete medical exam and report on the child and fill out appropriate paperwork (and we thought we were the only ones doing paperwork for this adoption), which is then sent to the civil affairs office in the provincial capitol, which then forwards it to CCAA. This process usually takes a couple of months she said from the time the orphanage starts it. From the time the child's paperwork arrives at CCAA until they are matched to a family typically takes about 3 months. The children's profiles are divided by gender, age, and geographic location.

Matching Room - She said there about 40 workers total in the CCAAwho process about 10,000 adoptions a year now. About 7-8 workers work in the matching room, where dossiers are assigned to workers by country. The workers first read the paragraph in your application letter where you describe what type of child you are looking for. They then get the child profiles from that gender, age, and if specified region. They then look at the family photos you send and try to find similarities. They also look at dates like you're birthdays, anniversary, etc that might match the child's.

Another interesting tidbit someone else shared is that CCAA has installed a new computer- based program that makes the match much easier. In the past, the match was done by workers placing the photos of parents and babies on a table and matching them. Not an easy process I am sure! The computer program makes the matches based on predetermined criteria from our dossiers.

Interesting huh?

More Later,
Mary

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Referral Times Going Up

OK- some not so great news today- referral times are going from 6 to 7 months from Log In Date. (We still don't have a LID). So that means we may not get Langley's picture until sometime in December. But on the bright side- I get to show it off at all the Holiday functions. And because there is so much to do during the holidays- waiting to travel won't be so bad. (Travel is usually about 6 weeks after you get their picture- and is supposed to be the hardest waiting of all).
Besides our baby won't be ready for us till then. I do believe that God has a plan and we will have the child that is meant for us.
Love,
Mary
PS- Today is my Mommy's birthday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! (She is 29.)