Adoption from China

The adoption process can be hard to understand and follow from the outside. Every country is different. Different paperwork. Different time lines. Different referral process. Agencies are different. The list could go on and on. Here is a little summary about how the process has and will work for us in our China adoption.

We first decided that the China program was a good fit for our family. We were not old enough to adopt from China when we began our first, second or third adoptions but we are now! After we decided that the China program was a good fit for us we then needed to decide which program we wanted to enroll in. The two first choices were special needs vs non special needs. We decided that the special needs program (SN) was the one for us for many reasons. Jake and I both work with children who have a variety of needs and feel that we can successfully parent a child(ren) with SNs. I understand that it is not for everyone but it is for us.

After we were accepted to our agency I began the paperwork - new homestudy, gathered birth certificates, marriage license, proof of income, reference letters, pet vaccination record, medical examinations, etc. Although we have had multiple homestudies and two previous dossiers, we had to start from scratch. That is because documents expire, countries have different requirements and some of our information has changed since the Rwanda/Ukraine/domestic documents were completed. That process generally takes 6 months. Since I am a professional when it comes to adoption paperwork I was able to whip this all out in just 3 months. There was the little FedEx incident so I had to add a little time onto our time line while I generated another dossier.

Included in the paperwork is the medical checklist. This is a lengthy checklist of medical conditions that your child(ren) may have. Through this list you can familiarize yourself with the possibilities, research different medical conditions and provide your agency with information about what medical needs you feel you are able to appropriate care for. This part is always strange for me. But then again this whole process can feel odd.

Our children will have some form of special needs. The needs may be mild or may be more involved. We simply won't know until we get our referrals but honestly won't know until the children get home. The needs could be visible to others, they may not be visible. We may disclose our children's medical needs or we may not. Depending on the nature of the medical need it may be more appropriate to have further testing, speak with more doctors or allow our child to determine if or when they want to share their medical condition with family and friends. We just won't know until it is time to cross that bridge. Please remember this if we don't immediately reveal their medical conditions.

Our dossier was logged in (LID) on Oct 22 which is the time our agency can begin to match us. There are a few ways our agency can locate the files of children who are available for adoption.

1) China releases a large list of children's adoption files approximately one time a month. Every agency in the world has access this this list and may "lock" files for their families to review. This list is call the Shared List.
2) China also releases adoption files to specific agencies meaning that agency is the only one that can "see" that file. That agency is able to make a referral to families working with their agency. This is call agency designated files.
3) Some agencies in the US have partnerships/charitable relationships with specific orphanages in China. Through this relationship the agency provides support directly to the orphanage - supplies, provide medical care, support foster homes, etc. These orphanages will provide their adoption files to the agency they work with on a charitable level. These are partnership files.

Our referral will come from one of the above three listed ways. Our agency matches most of their children from the partnership program. The files trickle in all month so there is no way of knowing when we will get "the call". It could be tomorrow or it could be months from now.

Following our receiving our referral(s) we must be officially approved by the Chinese government, be granted US travel approval, receive a consulate appointment, etc. These steps can be completed in a wide range of time. After we accept our referrals we hope to travel in 4-7 months. Many things must fall into place so the range of time is great.

Please ask questions!! I know that this is a very abbreviated version and can be very confusing. I love questions and love to talk about adoption.