That Little Box on the CCAA Web Site change the other day:

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before April 30, 2006. (WACAP, our agency told us that they are through May 18th, 2006 so I am not sure why their web site does not reflect that information? I guess I will have to call on Monday. We are getting closer to review or even we have been reviewed by now??)
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 7, 2005.

(Since so many people have been asking I thought that I would just post an email that we recieved from Elizabeth Rose, our adoption cordinator, since she does such a good job explaining what is going on with our Next Adoption. These are her words below.)

"Dear families,

This month the CCAA matched dossiers logged in from November 2–7, 2005. The families waited 19 months from their dossier log-in date to referral. In looking at the CCAA’s recent rate of matching, we believe that wait times will continue to lengthen for adoptions from China. Based on recent rates of matching, we believe new families and families who submitted dossiers in 2007 may wait three years for a referral. We estimate that families who submitted dossiers in 2006 will wait 24-36 months for a referral. Because international adoption will always be unpredictable, the actual wait time may be longer or shorter than this. As wait times are increasing each month, the wait will be longer the later your dossier was logged in. Please keep in mind that although adoption agencies publish different wait times, all families adopting children from China, regardless of agency, will experience the same wait.

We know this is very difficult news because many of you have waited so long already. We also understand that all of you, regardless of when you started your adoption journey, dream of having your child in your arms sooner than these projections. However, we also know from years of experience that it is very important for us to give you as accurate projections as possible to help you prepare for your future child.

Each month the CCAA matches the children whose referrals are available with families. They begin matching based on log-in dates, and work through log-in dates until they do not have any more child referrals. The number of available children varies month to month, and the number of families whose dossiers are logged in each day also varies, so unfortunately it is not possible for us to predict how far the CCAA will match each month, or how long it will take for them to reach your log-in date. In our discussions with the CCAA, they have cited fewer children available for international adoption, a very high volume of dossiers in China, and an increase in domestic adoption as reasons for the slowdown.

Lengthening wait times do not affect families adopting waiting children; that process remains expedited. WACAP will continue to receive information about waiting children in China two to three times a year, and we will continue to make these children’s profiles available to our families waiting to adopt from China first.

In most of the countries where WACAP works, the majority of children who need families are boys. Because of this, several WACAP programs require families to be open to adopting a child of either gender. If your family is open to adopting a boy, you may meet the requirements for a different country. If you are interested in considering other WACAP options, please visit our Web site at www.wacap.org for information, and speak with your adoption coordinator. WACAP staff is here to help you bring a child into your family whether the child is from China or another country where we work. If you are open to considering other countries or types of children, we are very happy to help you identify other options.

Again, we understand that news of a lengthening adoption process is disheartening. If the wait is insurmountable for your family, we hope you’ll keep in mind the needs of the countless numbers of orphaned children around the world and consider other options at WACAP. Please contact us with your questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Sincerely,

The China team

A note to Chinese-expedited families: The wait times for families who are expedited because of documented Chinese heritage will also continue to increase, although the wait will be slightly shorter. WACAP’s most recent Chinese-expedited family to receive a referral waited 13 months, as opposed to the 19 months that other families experienced. "

No Such thing as a free extension for us! I thought it would be too good to be true!!!!!!!! Only people filing a new form can have one free extension. So not for us.

Check with your adoption agency or call the government.

As of today we have been LID for one year. That has gone faster than I thought. We pray for our next blessing to arrive soon!

Some good news. It looks like we will get one free extension for our I-600A!! We were planning having to pay extra tbis summer to update our home study and I-600A paper work but it looks like we might not have too!! Is it true or too good to be true???

For those of you that do not know what I am talking about the I-600A is for Immigration to adopt and bring your child home through INS/FBI. Along with updating that you also need an updated home study from your social worker. We did not have to deal with this issue because with Simone we only went 6 months. Tomorrow it will be one year since LID but longer since we did our first I-600A form.

The following words below are from the China Adopt Talk Web Site that I follow. I am posting this so those of you that do not read that web site can find out about this information and check it out. You will have to go to her web site for the links.....(A link to her web site: http://chinaadopttalk.com/

Please read below:

"USCIS Announcement 29th, 2007 The USCIS website is stating they are going to allow “one free extension of your I-600A by filing a new I-600A without fee before the first expires.”
I guess that softens the fact that fees go up as of July 30th.
You can download a PDF showing everything here.
I’m guessing I won’t get a refund from them for my second I-171H, but this is great news for everyone about to have to renew."

As of today we have been logged in China for 11 months.......Today I dream of our little Sophie.....

There will be a new preschool series that will start on Nickelodeon in August.

This information is from an email I recieved from my Adoption Group.

"It is hoped that the half-hour episodes will be to Mandarin Chinese what ""Dora the Explorer" "has been to Spanish."

We are so excited and can't wait because we think Simone will love it since she loves to listen to her Chinese Music all of the time!! A little fun to help pass the time as we wait for our little Sophie.

I thought I would use these photos

for our new update on Sophie.......I love them!

We are coming to the realization that we have around 12-14 more months before our referral but some good news is that along with us, My Mom and possibly my Cousin Carole we will also have another very special friend going with us!!!!!!! Guess who?

Chinese New Year Celebration Performance at the Oregon Convention Center.
These are not even good photos but I wanted everyone to share in the fun we had on Sunday. I can't even wait to post these photos.....The first photo is of when we brought Simones Chinese Class out on Stage. (2 classes together)

The plan was for me and a couple of Mom's to stay on stage just in case......Well Simone did JUST FINE! We were so proud of her and we both could not stop grinning ear to ear. You can slightly see me in the photo above. I could of moved to the back of the stage and SImone would of been fine but I stayed close just in case.

Here we are pointing out where Daddy is!!!

When Love Takes you In By Steven Curtis Chapman

I posted this on Sophies Blog because it is one of my favorite songs and it reminds us to be thankful for what we have and what we have been through.

China Updates their website this afternoon.

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before March 22, 2006. (What this means for us is that they are ALMOST to our Dossier, we were LID on May 30th 2006. It is so good to see them finally update this sentence on their web site because it has been a couple of months since they changed this portion!! Only two months away before we are in the review room!!!! Progress!!)

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 13, 2005.

What this means for us is that they are getting moving and getting closer to handing out our referral!!! Just not close enough.

8 DOWN ??? More to go. As of today it has been 8 months since we were "LID" with China. We have been told maybe 14 more months to go before we see a referral......We were hoping for only 4 or 6 more months!!

The wait is getting harder and starting to be like the wait for Simone!! We are trying to keep the Faith and remember that all things happen for a reason.

Carter at Christmas.

The CCAA finally changed their web site today and referrals are arriving for many blessed families!! Congrats to them all.......

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before September 27, 2005

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

After my Mom came in from Chicago she stayed with us for four days and we really enjoyed our time with her.

7 Down, praying for only 5 more to go!

Keeping the Faith!

It has been 6 months since we have been logged in (LID). Our LID is May 30th 2006. It has also been one year since we started this adoption process for Sophie, we started in November of 2005, National Adoption Month.

I find myself thinking about her often. Wondering if she has been born yet?? What will she look like? What province will she be from?

We talk about Sophie all the time with Simone. We can't wait for her to have a little sister and for us to have another daughter!

We have been told that the wait can be any where from 18 months - 24 months or that it could go down to a 12 month wait. We are praying for the 12 month wait.

Every thing happens for a reason and we pray that in God's timing we will be blessed with another referral of our new daughter.

So for now we wait patiently, pray and only time will tell.

We are so excited to travel to China again to adopt our second little girl! Our LID Date is May 30th, 2006. We created this blog so while we are in China you can follow our journey and so you can be updated during our wait. Thank you everyone for your support and love.