Letter of Confirmation

We received our official Letter of Confirmation from the Chinese government. Basically, it "matches" us with Fan, Bing Hui, and the letter requests that we accept the match. Sign here, if the Peters family wishes to proceed with the adoption. Of course, we selected BingHui in December of last year, but if we were adopting an infant, this would be the point when we would first get the information about the baby. I can't imagine how that must feel, getting a letter identifying your new child. We did things differently because we are adopting a waiting child who is 6 years old. However, the letter of confirmation is a big big step in the right direction. From here, we just need to fill out a few more forms, gather together our documents, come up with $7,000 CASH, and then Viola, time to travel. It could be as early as 3 months from now! Wow! I'm sure most adoptive parents don't think so, but we think the time passed quickly. Less than a year ago, we decided to adopt, and now it's almost complete! Time to get the room ready and send care packages to China to our new son!

Pre-approval granted

We received news today that our pre-approval was granted in China! That is excellent news because we were afraid they would reject our application because we haven't been married for five years yet. Our fifth anniversary is next week. Now, the Chinese government (the CCAA) will begin to actually look at our paperwork. It might be another 6 months until we travel to meet our son!

The Lazy Days of summer---NOT

So, we're now settled into our summer routine. Swimming lessons, reading clinic, guitar, Chinese, horse-back riding, Tae Kwon Do etc. Connor's friend's mom called to see when the kids can get together, and I had to honestly tell her we are not free any day before 2:30p. Yikes! Of course, our schedule will settle down in Aug., but right now it's go, go, go. I'm very happy I postponed the start of Connor's Web Design class until the fall. On another note, Austin has been sending us emails from China (in Chinese). He is in China right now visiting Xiao, our former exchange student. By the time Austin arrives home, he should be conversant in Chinese!

July 6th

Our dossier was logged in at CCAA on June 5th. We are officially on the waiting list. Sigh. In the meantime, the four foster children have been filling up our days (and nights too!) so the time goes fast. The once a week "babysitting" turned into the four children living with us full-time, for at least the next three months or so. Recently, I've been asked (a number of times) if we are going to adopt these four. They are not legally free and available for adoption, so it's not even a possibility. In fact, they won't be legally free probably for many many years. There are a number of relatives and parents involved, and IF (or by the time) the family is found unsuitable the children will be teenagers. This is why we are not adopting from the US. We subscribed to the CAP book (Children Awaiting Parents) and all the children available are quite a bit older. I called on 15-20 children listed, and they were not really available for adoption for one reason or another. So we turned to China. In China, parents rights are terminated in six months and the children are legally free for adoption. Yes, it does take time to go through the adoption process, and lots of money, but at least at the end we know for certain that we will have our new son. And, of course, we were not looking to adopt a group of four siblings.

May 30 Dossier sent

Well, our dossier was finally sent to China. What does that mean exactly? It means we have to pay another invoice and we keep waiting. Although now we are "officially" waiting for the notice to travel. No reason to get excited, though. It will still be 6-9 months.

March 30, 2009

Well, our dossier is complete finally, and it's been sent to US Immigration. US Immigration usually takes 3 months to approve the dossier. In the meantime, we have to travel to our embassy in Buffalo to have yet another set of fingerprints taken. Yes, it's crazy. A criminal gets his fingerprints taken once, and they can forever check the database, but to adopt from China we have to have our fingerprints taken multiple times. It must be a money generator for someone, somewhere. Our prints are definitely on file (foster care, teacher, lawyer, and this whole adoption process), yet we have to be in Buffalo at 9am next Tuesday. Then we can wait another 3 months until the next step. Patience is a virtue, as is not trying to make sense of the process.

Feb. 10--cleared finally

Well, today we received notice that FINALLY my fingerprints were cleared through the FBI. That means that our homestudy is complete, and we are officially accepted into the China program. What it really means is that we start waiting for the US immigration paperwork to be ok'd. Then US immigration sends our paperwork to the Chinese government for their clearance. Yes, it means more waiting. In the meantime, our Chinese language classes are going well. Connor and I have mastered a dozen phrases and 40-50 words. Austin, Grandma Sue and cousin Eric have less time to study during the day, but they are greatly enjoying the classes. Connor and I have the advantage because we home-school and practice every day together. At least a few of us will be able to converse when we go to China next year!