Adoption Timeline

• December 5, 2004: We attended a Children's Home Society (CHSFS) information meeting on China adoption hosted by an adoptive family.
• December 24, 2004: Decided to tell our families while home for Christmas about our plans to adopt.
• February 2, 2005: CHSFS received our adoption application.
• March 9, 2005: Adoption application was completed.
• March 17 & 18, 2005: Attended Pre-adoption Classes at CHSFS. These classes included topics like attachment, identity formation, racism, openness; parenting expectations, early adjustment, adoption terminology; health/risk factors; and post adoption issues.
• March - June, 2005: Gathered and worked on necessary paperwork including local and state police background checks, fingerprints, financial statement, marriage and birth certificates, physical exams, letters from employers and friends, and preparing for our home study.
• July 18, 2005: Home study visit with our Social Worker, Julie Hart, in our home. (She did NOT look under our beds but we were prepared for her to do so.)
• July 28, 2005: Second home study visit with Julie in her office. Our home study is finalized and we are recommended by CHSFS to China as approved adoptive parents.
• August 1, 2005: Sent I600A application to CIS (Citizen and Immigration Services, formerly INS) for advance processing of an orphan petition and to bring a foreign orphan to the United States.
• August 13, 2005: Fingerprinted at CIS for FBI background check related to I600A application, passport photos taken, and passports applied for/renewed.
• October 19, 2005: CIS approval received!
• November 7, 2005: All dossier documents certified/authenticated and CHSFS sent our completed dossier to China!
• November 21, 2005: Our dossier was logged in at the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA)! 11/21 is our official log-in date, called our LID. Now we WAIT!
• June 22, 2006: Our dossier is "In Review", meaning the CCAA is looking over our paperwork to make sure all is in order.
• July 7, 2006: Heather's first appointment at the International Travel Clinic to begin Hepatitis B series.

We chose China for a number of reasons. The main reasons being the adoption program there is centralized, formalized and pretty stable; the children are generally in very good health and are available for adoption at a young age; and China has a large number of girls available for adoption. The factors leading to the latter are varied and complex. For anyone interested in learning more on that topic, I recommend reading The Lost Daughters of China, by Kari Evans.

As you may know, when we started this process, it was taking about 6-7 months upon LID (see above) to receive a referral. Referral refers (ha!) to a child's information packet received by the adoption agency from China. This packet includes photo(s) of the child, location, name, and basic health information. The day we learned our dossier had been logged-in in China was also the same day we learned that the wait for referral had extended to 9-10 months. The wait has steadily grown since then and currently sits at just over one year from LID for all adoptive parents, worldwide, waiting in the China program. As of the date of this post, we've waited 7 1/2 months. If the wait holds at around one year, we hope to see something by the end of the year. Travel is usually 6-8 weeks after the referral is received. Stewart and I will both travel to China to pick up our daughter - the trip will take about 2-3 weeks, hopefully including some sight-seeing. A trip of a lifetime!

While it's so hard to wait, we understand that waiting is part of this process and if all we have to do is wait in order to see our daughter's beautiful face - then we will wait. Patience while waiting is another post all together...!