Our I-797 expires on May 29th. We received notice from our adoption agency, CCAI, that it is time to decide whether we want to do the "free" renewal of our paperwork with Homeland Security or let it expire and start over closer to when we are likely to be matched with our child/ren in China. The "free" renewal means that we only have to pay to be fingerprinted (again) by the FBI, update local criminal background checks, homestudy update, updated physicals, and income and employment verifications.
The renewal is good for another 18 months. Then we will need to renew again, as our match time is looking like another 24 months.
Upon reflecting on this seemingly never-ending wait and anticipation for our family to grow, I've learned something about myself: I'm not as patient as I thought.
We've been actively pursuing adoption for 26 months... had we known then that it would be a 4-5 year process, I don't believe we would have commenced the process.
Lots of factors go into this... long-running dreams, expectations, love of parenting...
But we must also facts as they present themselves and adapt as circumstances change.
With a heavy heart, we've decided to rescind our dossier from the China adoption program. We're not getting any younger and the uncertainty in timing has just pushed us beyond our limits.
Katrina and Alexander are disappointed with this decision; they would really like to have siblings. And they would be great "big sister" and "big brother"!
While the reality of this decision sinks in, we are engrossed in all the end of school year activities and baseball and ballet performances...
So ends our adoption journey... not as we had planned, but perhaps as it was meant to be.
peace,
Marina
Showing posts with label China Adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China Adoption. Show all posts
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The Wait Continues in 2008...
The journey to build our family through international adoption is turning out to be much longer than we anticipated. It is January, 2008 and the CCAA has not made any matches and referrals for families whose dossiers were submitted in 2006 yet!
We started the paperchase in March, 2006 and finally got our dossier sent to China in late December, 2006. They aren't kidding when the paperwork process was dubbed "paperchase!" We could have had our dossier submitted much sooner, but the Atlanta office of the Department of "Homeland Security" sat on our documents for 4 months (but who's counting?). That alone was an interesting experience -- we were encouraged to not make waves because "who knows?" what will happen to our documents if a staffer gets annoyed. Fortunately, the office has made some changes and I hear they are processing documents in the promised timely fashion now.
The CCAA assigned our dossier a "Log In Date" (LID) of 2/1/2007.
It is from that date that the clock starts ticking, so to speak.
When we submitted our dossier, the average wait time was about 14-16 months -- which seemed like an eternity then! Unfortunately, there are fewer matches made with international adoptive families than ever before, so the wait has become much longer.
We are now expecting to wait for 24 months (that would put us at March, 2009) for our referral. I could have given birth to an elephant before this is all over!
I added a tracker at the bottom of this blog so you can follow along with our wait.
We are all eager for our family to expand, yet we trust that when the time is right, we will be matched with the children who are meant to be Peeds!
Sending wishes for peace and love,
Marina
We started the paperchase in March, 2006 and finally got our dossier sent to China in late December, 2006. They aren't kidding when the paperwork process was dubbed "paperchase!" We could have had our dossier submitted much sooner, but the Atlanta office of the Department of "Homeland Security" sat on our documents for 4 months (but who's counting?). That alone was an interesting experience -- we were encouraged to not make waves because "who knows?" what will happen to our documents if a staffer gets annoyed. Fortunately, the office has made some changes and I hear they are processing documents in the promised timely fashion now.
The CCAA assigned our dossier a "Log In Date" (LID) of 2/1/2007.
It is from that date that the clock starts ticking, so to speak.
When we submitted our dossier, the average wait time was about 14-16 months -- which seemed like an eternity then! Unfortunately, there are fewer matches made with international adoptive families than ever before, so the wait has become much longer.
We are now expecting to wait for 24 months (that would put us at March, 2009) for our referral. I could have given birth to an elephant before this is all over!
I added a tracker at the bottom of this blog so you can follow along with our wait.
We are all eager for our family to expand, yet we trust that when the time is right, we will be matched with the children who are meant to be Peeds!
Sending wishes for peace and love,
Marina
Monday, February 12, 2007
February is a Time to Celebrate!
What a year the past two weeks have been! Several major accomplishments in such a short time:
2/1/07: China LID
2/7/07: Robert turned 46
2/9/07: Alexander turned 11 (OMG!!! My BABY is now 11 years old!)
2/9/07: Cousin Eleni came into the world weighing over 10 lbs. Congrats to my sister Chrisa and her hubby Jaime! They live in Madrid and we have to share in the joy across the ocean.
Celebrating the 11th anniversary of the birth of my son and the fresh birth of my niece, I couldn't help but be wistful about our child or twins in China. Are they already in this world? How old are they today? Who is caring for them? If they are not yet born, how is their mother feeling during the pregnancy? When will she deliver? Where will she deliver? Who will be there to help? I pray for quick, safe, and healthy deliveries.
I'm appreciating a whole new sense of awe and mystery in this adoption journey that is similar, yet very different, from the pregnancy and childbirth journey.
For me, the best part of pregnancy was conception. Then it was 38 weeks of odd things happening to and in my body. The nausea, dizziness, polyhydramneous (yes, I puffed up like a blowfish), and fainting episodes were all quite lovely. A veritable picture of the glowing madonna!
Katrina bruised my ribs from kicking on the inside (foreshadowing, no doubt!). I thought for sure she was a boy and told people, "if this one is a girl, she is going to be a handful."
When she was 6 months old and sitting up unassisted, she seemed to lose some of her "babyness" and we decided that we should take our chances and try for another one. Little did I know that not much practice would be needed.
Her little brother was born when Katrina was 15 months old (what were we thinking?!?). That pregnancy was a blur because I was trying to keep up with our girl. I do remember feeling huge AND thinking that this fella was playing soccer and running bases around my uterus at all hours of the night.
Note to unmarrieds everywhere: I've had unprotected sex TWICE in my life ... and their names are Katrina and Alexander! It CAN happen to you!
This "adoption pregnancy" is quite different. For starters, we needed to get permission to be parents from lots of people and government agencies -- a process far more cumbersome, time consuming, frustrating, and expensive than an evening with a romantic dinner, candles, and R&B music.
The plus side is that life continues on as normal and my body is not inhibited by the biological changes. I can enjoy a glass of wine now and then. There is ample time to prepare (yes, I say that now, with 18 months to go). My "to do" list would be fodder for another day...
The challenge is the sense of a lack of control -- over the timing, the age of the child we'll be matched with, not knowing if she is raised in a wonderful foster family or an orphanage, does she feel love already? I talked to both my kids when I was pregnant and shared my dreams and plans for us as a family. They already knew my voice, my scent, my love. What will our newest additions think of me, their dad, and their instant siblings?
And the stress may show when the belly doesn't. I'm convinced there is an emotional response to preparing to parent via adoption that rivals traditional pregnancy. The social challenge is that it is misunderstood by the rest of the world. Some people think you just fill out some papers, write a few checks, and then you mail order a child.
And of course, there are the questions: When are you going to get your baby? "I don't know for sure but we're looking at an 18 month wait" is hard for people to comprehend. The next time you see them, they ask the same question.
We requested twins or a child under 24 months old, so it is quite conceivable that our little ones are already alive in China. I find comfort knowing we live beneath the same bright stars (hey, is that a song?).
with peace and love,
Marina
2/1/07: China LID
2/7/07: Robert turned 46
2/9/07: Alexander turned 11 (OMG!!! My BABY is now 11 years old!)
2/9/07: Cousin Eleni came into the world weighing over 10 lbs. Congrats to my sister Chrisa and her hubby Jaime! They live in Madrid and we have to share in the joy across the ocean.
Celebrating the 11th anniversary of the birth of my son and the fresh birth of my niece, I couldn't help but be wistful about our child or twins in China. Are they already in this world? How old are they today? Who is caring for them? If they are not yet born, how is their mother feeling during the pregnancy? When will she deliver? Where will she deliver? Who will be there to help? I pray for quick, safe, and healthy deliveries.
I'm appreciating a whole new sense of awe and mystery in this adoption journey that is similar, yet very different, from the pregnancy and childbirth journey.
For me, the best part of pregnancy was conception. Then it was 38 weeks of odd things happening to and in my body. The nausea, dizziness, polyhydramneous (yes, I puffed up like a blowfish), and fainting episodes were all quite lovely. A veritable picture of the glowing madonna!
Katrina bruised my ribs from kicking on the inside (foreshadowing, no doubt!). I thought for sure she was a boy and told people, "if this one is a girl, she is going to be a handful."
When she was 6 months old and sitting up unassisted, she seemed to lose some of her "babyness" and we decided that we should take our chances and try for another one. Little did I know that not much practice would be needed.
Her little brother was born when Katrina was 15 months old (what were we thinking?!?). That pregnancy was a blur because I was trying to keep up with our girl. I do remember feeling huge AND thinking that this fella was playing soccer and running bases around my uterus at all hours of the night.
Note to unmarrieds everywhere: I've had unprotected sex TWICE in my life ... and their names are Katrina and Alexander! It CAN happen to you!
This "adoption pregnancy" is quite different. For starters, we needed to get permission to be parents from lots of people and government agencies -- a process far more cumbersome, time consuming, frustrating, and expensive than an evening with a romantic dinner, candles, and R&B music.
The plus side is that life continues on as normal and my body is not inhibited by the biological changes. I can enjoy a glass of wine now and then. There is ample time to prepare (yes, I say that now, with 18 months to go). My "to do" list would be fodder for another day...
The challenge is the sense of a lack of control -- over the timing, the age of the child we'll be matched with, not knowing if she is raised in a wonderful foster family or an orphanage, does she feel love already? I talked to both my kids when I was pregnant and shared my dreams and plans for us as a family. They already knew my voice, my scent, my love. What will our newest additions think of me, their dad, and their instant siblings?
And the stress may show when the belly doesn't. I'm convinced there is an emotional response to preparing to parent via adoption that rivals traditional pregnancy. The social challenge is that it is misunderstood by the rest of the world. Some people think you just fill out some papers, write a few checks, and then you mail order a child.
And of course, there are the questions: When are you going to get your baby? "I don't know for sure but we're looking at an 18 month wait" is hard for people to comprehend. The next time you see them, they ask the same question.
We requested twins or a child under 24 months old, so it is quite conceivable that our little ones are already alive in China. I find comfort knowing we live beneath the same bright stars (hey, is that a song?).
with peace and love,
Marina
Monday, February 05, 2007
Woo Hoo -- We're LID!!!
Have we flipped our LID? Yes, we have! LID, in China adoption speak translates to "Log In Date" that is the date that the CCAA logs in our dossier. This is not the same as when they RECEIVE the dossier (that happened on January 2nd, 2007).
We rung in the New Year knowing that we were DTC on 12/28/2006.
What is DTC? That is when our Dossier was sent To China by our adoption agency.
Confusing? Try living through this amazing gestation process! We're already 11 months into it -- we began the paperchase in March, 2006. But none of the time (and emotional energy) expended counts on the "official" clock.
Can I consider this Robert's birthday present? His birthday is Wednesday...
We rung in the New Year knowing that we were DTC on 12/28/2006.
What is DTC? That is when our Dossier was sent To China by our adoption agency.
Confusing? Try living through this amazing gestation process! We're already 11 months into it -- we began the paperchase in March, 2006. But none of the time (and emotional energy) expended counts on the "official" clock.
Can I consider this Robert's birthday present? His birthday is Wednesday...
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
We're Making Progress in the Adoption Journey
We are absolutely THRILLED to report that our dossier was delivered to the China Center of Adoption Affairs yesterday (January 2, 2007)!
This adoption from China feels like a never-ending gestation. In March, 2006 we filled our our first application documents to build our family through adoption from China. This was followed by several months of paperchasing -- collecting and completing lots of documents to have them notarized, get the notarizations certified by the County, and the County certified by the State, then off to the Chinese Consulate for final authentication. With the homestudy complete, the second part of our request to the USCIS (formerly known as the INS) sat on someone's desk for an agonizing 4 months. We finally got our form from the federal government and our wonderful adoption agency, CCAI, completed their critical review and translated our dossier and delivered it to China in record time.
What's next? We hope to learn that the dossier is officially "logged in" later this month, which is when their countdown begins. The rumors are flying about the length of time for matches. China has far more dossiers of waiting families than they have dossiers of orphans for adoption.
We don't know for certain, but we are anticipating a match in 18 months or so (leading us to being united with our child in July or August, 2008).
Here's the crazy part -- we've petitioned for twins up to two years of age. While that is extremely unlikely, given that we already have children, you don't get if you don't ask. We also haven't specified our child/ren's gender, so there is a chance we will be matched with a son.
Katrina and Alexander are 15 months apart in age and they are such good friends; we want the same special bond for the next two siblings in our family.
China recently announced some major changes in the eligibility requirements for people seeking to adopt, effective May 1, 2007. Among the changes, only married couples can adopt (presently 8% of adoptive parents are single) and neither partner can be 50 years of age or older. That will pretty much rule us out for a second child from China if this process takes as long as expected.
The ups and downs of the "paper pregnancy" as the adoption process is often called has been more intense than I anticipated. More on that later.
Right now, we're going to celebrate the small victories!
Cheers!
This adoption from China feels like a never-ending gestation. In March, 2006 we filled our our first application documents to build our family through adoption from China. This was followed by several months of paperchasing -- collecting and completing lots of documents to have them notarized, get the notarizations certified by the County, and the County certified by the State, then off to the Chinese Consulate for final authentication. With the homestudy complete, the second part of our request to the USCIS (formerly known as the INS) sat on someone's desk for an agonizing 4 months. We finally got our form from the federal government and our wonderful adoption agency, CCAI, completed their critical review and translated our dossier and delivered it to China in record time.
What's next? We hope to learn that the dossier is officially "logged in" later this month, which is when their countdown begins. The rumors are flying about the length of time for matches. China has far more dossiers of waiting families than they have dossiers of orphans for adoption.
We don't know for certain, but we are anticipating a match in 18 months or so (leading us to being united with our child in July or August, 2008).
Here's the crazy part -- we've petitioned for twins up to two years of age. While that is extremely unlikely, given that we already have children, you don't get if you don't ask. We also haven't specified our child/ren's gender, so there is a chance we will be matched with a son.
Katrina and Alexander are 15 months apart in age and they are such good friends; we want the same special bond for the next two siblings in our family.
China recently announced some major changes in the eligibility requirements for people seeking to adopt, effective May 1, 2007. Among the changes, only married couples can adopt (presently 8% of adoptive parents are single) and neither partner can be 50 years of age or older. That will pretty much rule us out for a second child from China if this process takes as long as expected.
The ups and downs of the "paper pregnancy" as the adoption process is often called has been more intense than I anticipated. More on that later.
Right now, we're going to celebrate the small victories!
Cheers!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The Paperchase Winds Down
Great news today! Our homestudy is complete and has been approved for China, Georgia, and the US. We should get the approved report this week and then need to have it certified and authenticated. That means take it to Fulton County and then down to the Secretary of State's office. Still waiting for a dozen documents to come back from the Chinese Consultate in Houston.
With all these done, then we'll take pictures of all the paperwork (for posterity) and deliver the stack to CCAI's Georgia office for dossier review and preparation.
On a sad note, there was a major typhoon that hit the southeastern coast of China today. It is reported to be the worst to hit in 50 years. We will try to find out if orphanages (called SWIs -- social welfare institutions) were damaged or destroyed.
The airwaves have been full of news that the British government foiled a significant plot to blow up several airplanes heading from London to the US. So far, 25 people have been arrested. As of today, no one can go through security with any liquids, gels, or lotions. All toiletries must be checked luggage. The lines at Hartsfield were hours long today. I travel to Washington, DC next Monday.
With all these done, then we'll take pictures of all the paperwork (for posterity) and deliver the stack to CCAI's Georgia office for dossier review and preparation.
On a sad note, there was a major typhoon that hit the southeastern coast of China today. It is reported to be the worst to hit in 50 years. We will try to find out if orphanages (called SWIs -- social welfare institutions) were damaged or destroyed.
The airwaves have been full of news that the British government foiled a significant plot to blow up several airplanes heading from London to the US. So far, 25 people have been arrested. As of today, no one can go through security with any liquids, gels, or lotions. All toiletries must be checked luggage. The lines at Hartsfield were hours long today. I travel to Washington, DC next Monday.
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