Approved on March 17th

Boy that was quick. We were approved by CCAI in one day! Bill told me not to worry but of course I worry.

An interesting fact came with the approval, CCAI confirmed that we wanted an infant under 12 month, boy or girl. I said yes. She said we have about a 30% chance for a boy. I didn't realize it was that high. We thought our child would definitely be a girl. I better not run out and buy pink!

This will be a long process. I have been reading that referrals can be as long as 12 months from the time you get your paperwork to China. We hope to have our paperwork (called a Dossier) to China by late August.

We have orientation scheduled for April 8th. Mom will come out and watch Emily for 4 hours. Emily likes it when grandma watches her. Mom always comes with stuff to do.

The paperwork is already starting prior to orientation. Bill and I have to write autobiographies about ourselves. They ask tons of questions. This will be used for our homestudy. We also need to gather rabies vaccinations certificates for the dogs, home safety checklist (which includes getting our septic tank inspected), copies of our health insurance cards etc. We are also working on Emily's passport. I hope to submit our application next Friday for that -- both Bill and I need to be present in order to submit the passport.

Jen

Sent in Application Today

Bill must think I'm nuts. I have been driving him crazy in trying to get things done.

I sent our application to CCAI today. Fed Ex. They should get it tomorrow. We might hear by the end of next week if we have been accepted. I'm sooooo nervous. It is very hard to think that someone will be scrutinizing your life to see if you are suitable. I understand it but it doesn't make it any easier. They look at every aspect of your life -- personal, health, financial, work etc.

Just call me nervous nelly!

This is our first step to our next child!

Jen

Decided on an Agency!

We have decided to go with CCAI. They are headquarted in Denver but have a branch office here in Atlanta.

I'm just so excited I can scream.

We hope to get the application into them by the end of this week. If approved, orientation will be next month!

Yeah!

Jen

News from Jen & Bill

Bill and I have been trying to have another child for sometime now. Emily will be 6 in June. The path that we were on was filled with what I feel was nothing but grief and misfortune. Honestly, I wasn't very happy -- everytime I thought about infertility treatments, I got very angry and depressed. We have had 2 miscarriages in the past year and half -- that is in addition to having to go through the infertility treatments. Finally, in order to go on, I needed to have a major surgery that would have hopefully decreased the chances of miscarriages. This surgery was purely optional -- the only reason to do was to try to have another child. I would have been out of work 6-8 weeks. I was very apprehensive about doing the surgery -- there was no guarentee that it would reduce the chances of miscarriage.


We have come to decision to leave that path and go on a different type of journey. Adoption. I have always wanted to adopt. There is a child out there that needs a mom, a dad and a big sister. After looking at our options (domestic vs international), Bill and I have decided to adopt a baby from China. Most people when I tell them that we are going to adopt have a great reaction -- Wow you are going to adopt that's great. When I say China -- everyone is a bit surprised that we will adopt from China.

Why not domestically or some other country?

We ruled out domestic adoption for several reasons. I feel like we need to market ourselves to a birthmother then hope that she is going to choose us, then hope that she doesn't change her mind. I really didn't want to be filled up with disappointments again.

When we looked at adopting internationally, there were several countries that we looked at -- Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine), Guatemala, or China. Each had some pro's and con's. Honestly, I was drawn to China first but since it was so far away, I looked at Guatemala first then the eastern European countries. I kept coming back to China.

China has a one and half child policy. Boys are typically wanted to due to cultural reasons. The majority of the Chinese population are farmers and boys are needed to work the farm. Girls get married and leave. If your first child is a girl, you are allowed to try for another child. If that child is a girl, these girls are the ones that typically abandoned. More than likey, Bill and I will receive a daughter. Although we will be asking for a healthy baby as young as possible. There is a slim chance our next child will be a boy.

So Why China?

The process while long is pretty straight forward. There are no unexpected fees that will come along. We will know upfront how much this will cost us. Out of all the adoption programs we looked at (even some domestic programs), China for us is most affordable. More importantly, the children are healthy. They may have some developmental delays such as not walking or crawling on time but they typically thrive after being home. There is also a large support network in Atlanta for families who have adopted from China. We plan on actively becoming involved so that our son/daughter will know their heritage of where they came from.

How long will it take?

It will take us approximately 13-15 months to complete the process when we start it. Alot of it depends on how fast the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) in Beijing, China processes the paperwork. It will take us approximately 4 months for us to gather our paperwork and send it to China. So we are looking probably going to China late summer of 2007 or more than likely early fall 2007.


Our Next Step

Bill and I are in the process of trying to pick an agency. We have narrowed it down to two: Great Wall of China Adoption Agency (GWCA) and Chinese Children Adoption International. (CCAI). We have already been to seminar held by GWCA. We are going to a seminar on March 11th for CCAI.


To Learn More about Chinese Adoptions, please see the links provided on the Home Page.


Jen