My Daughter Is in CHINA

I recently saw on a friends blog her keeping track of her adoption experience.  How cool and why didn't I do that with Kian???  I kept track of a lot but not the entire process. So this time I will try to log in the entire journey.  So how did we get to this point??  Well just before we left to get Kian, China announced that you could use your current Dossier (copy) for up to 1 year to adopt a Special Focus child.  A Special Focus child has more than one special need (most the time).  So, after being home a couple of months I spoke with my agency and said I would like to be on the list to do this.  We were never matched with a child in the 1 year time frame.  Mainly because the special needs we were willing to take were just that special needs and not special focus.  Towards the end of our 1 year time frame I began hinting to Jeff that I would like to go back to China and bring home our daughter.  I have always felt like she is there.  Jeff being the amazing husband that he is was supportive but he tends to get hung up on the money issue.  This is where I have a great deal of FAITH.  I tell him not to worry that the money will just work itself out.  So, with his blessing I submitted our application to Chinese Children Adoption International  www.chinesechildren.org .  Our application was approved on January 20, 2012 just nine days after our first Dossier expired.  I then contacted our social worker to get our home study updated.  This is when I learned that a great deal would be different with this adoption.  First off, you know have to be Hague to adopt from China.  My social worker is not Hague accredited so she could no longer do our home study.  So, I contacted a friend (I only know her online have never met her) and asked her who she used.  I then contacted the new social worker with Childrens House and the good news there is she lives in Centerville, much closer than SLC.  She agreed to do our home study.  She sent over the list of what we needed to get her and then the realization hit me.  I AM STARTING OVER!!!!  I have to redo everything I did to get Kian and more.  It took me one year to get all my paperwork done for Kian.  I made a PROMISE that this time I would get it done faster since I knew what to expect and had most everything gathered.  So I started the mountain of paperwork gathered our taxes, pets vaccine records (this was new), birth certificate and marriage certificates, passports, drivers licenses, social security cards, bank statements, retirement statements, employment verification, health and life insurance, medical clearances, copy of our last home study, criminal records, this time we had also be fingerprinted, we had to get 4 reference letters from family and friends and my brother had to sign a form agreeing to be my children's guardians if something should happen to us (this was also new this time).  We also had to complete 12 hours of training including Attachment, Multi-cultural family, Chinese Culture, etc.  Jeff and I also had to complete a home study application and autobiography along with some worksheets.  We also need to have 4 visits with our social worker.  This is all just for our HOME STUDY!!!!  Ok so the good news is we completed our Home Study.  Thursday we meet with our social worker for our last meeting.  We pay her the $1550.00 it will cost for her to do the home study and then we are DONE!!! So far we paid $100.00 for our application fee (discounted from $200.00 since we adopted with CCAI prior to this) and our first fee of $2500.00. This is a big step to complete so this is very exciting news.  From here we need to start our immigration paperwork to bring a foreign child into the United States.  While that is in process we will finish our Dossier documents.  We have this mostly done but it requires a lot of mailing the forms to different places.  But, I will keep you posted..  VERY EXCITING!!

Through this process I keep thinking how lucky people are and don't even have a clue.  Most people decide to have a baby and have sex and PRESTO baby in womb.  We want a baby and EVERY aspect of our life is put under a microscope for people to decide if we would make good parents.  We also have to have criminal background checks, prove we can afford a child and get training to be parents.  The world would be a much different place if everyone had to do this to be parents.  So when I hear people whining about being pregnant, bills, getting pregnant after the first time, my blood boils A LOT!!  Shut your mouth and just be thankful.  But I also know after that rude comment enters my mind a happier one takes its place, Kian was worth it, all of it and I would do it all again to have him.  I will do it all again to have HER...