.....The
Hardin Family
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~Our Adoption Journey~
The two questions we have been ask the most are, “How old is your baby?” and “when are you getting your baby?” We will not know anything until we get her referral information. We feel we will travel in the Fall to get her. I want to share some thoughts on adoption and the process of International Adoption. Why adopt from China? Our main reason is we feel in our heart that is where our child is. We feel very strong that this is Gods will. Every child deserves a loving home. With thousands of children in Chinese orphanages, many children await adoption. Birth mothers are generally healthy; there is little occurrence of fetal alcohol syndrome, drug exposure, or sexually transmitted disease. There is low incidence of attachment disorders due to personal care children receive in orphanages. China’s people and government approve of Americans adopting these bright and beautiful children. International Adoption Dual Paths---the U.S & China When adopting internationally, U.S citizens must meet requirements of both the U.S and China. You will, in a sense, be traveling two paths at the same time. United States Requirements Adopters must satisfy regulations of the U.S Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Service(BCIS) and any state requirements. BCIS requires that a single adopting parent, or at least one adopting parent of a married couple, be a United States citizen ( either by birth or naturalization). Adopters must have an acceptable home study evaluating qualifications to parent a child. Adopters must process sufficient income to provide adequately for their family. Adopters must file BCIS I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition), provide necessary supplemental documentation for this form, pay the BCIS fees, and be fingerprinted by BCIS. China Requirements Married couples ( and a limited number of singles) are permitted to adopt from China. Generally, adopters must be between 30 and 55 years of age (30-50 in the case of singles). Adopters need not be childless but income must be sufficient to support all the children. China usually expects no more than four minor children in the home before adoption. Adopters must be free of criminal convictions, sexual abuse, domestic violence, or substance abuse. At least one parent must travel to China to complete the adoption. What documents are needed? (This part is often referred to as the paper chase) Documents need to be collected for BCIS, the home study provider, and China. The following are the dossier documents for China: Application to adopt letter Birth certificate(s) Marriage certificate or single statement Divorce decree(s) Employment letter(s) Financial statement Health certificates(s) Local police “ no criminal record statement” Home study report BCIS form I-171H (sent to you after BCIS has approved your I-600A) Photocopies of adopters passport(s) Photos of adopting parents(s) and their home How are Children Chosen? China Center of Adoption Affairs(CCAA) in Beijing receives information about adoptable children from provincial orphanages through out China. The orphanages are truly social welfare institutes as they are often located on the same ground as hospitals and retirement homes. CCAA makes every attempt to match the needs of orphans to the desires of adopting parents. Referrals are communicated to adopters through the adoption agency that submitted the dossier. What children are available? Most of the children available for adoption have been abandoned (in truth, left somewhere to be found) Due to the long established Chinese desire for male offspring and with population control policies, nearly all the children abandoned and being cared for in China’s orphanages are female. However, some male children are available for referral. Healthy children from infants to adolescents (six months to thirteen years) are referred by CCAA. Adopting parents are usually offered children within their requested age range, depending on parents’ age and what children are available at the time of referral. Qualified families may request children with special needs. I hope this information is helpful. Feel free to email us if you have any questions. I did not keep up with dates like I should have. I did keep up with the most important ones. We were accepted by Harrah Family Services on October 1, 2004. We started our paper chase right away. Our goal was to be through by December and have our Dossier sent in January. Kevin and I worked hard and we were through with our paper chase by December. The holidays slowed things down and so things did not turn out the way we had planned. Our first home study was October 25, 2004. We went with Catholic Service in Huntsville, Alabama. We had a wonderful social worker. (Carolyn Nixon) October 13, 2004 We got copies of marriage and birth certificates .We also got employment information and had it notarized. October 19,2004 We had health certificates done and notarized. We had about 5 meetings with our social worker in November. November 17, 2004 Received our passports. ( took about 2 weeks) We sent the I600-A off in November, but they could not send an I-171 until home study was complete. BCIS sent me a receipt on November 18,2005 November 24, 2004 We were fingerprinted by BCIS On top of getting all this done we had to write page after page about our life. That took some time. We had everything we could do, done by December 2005. We worked very hard to complete the paper chase. We also went and had our documents state authenticated. The Home study was completed and sent to Montgomery, Alabama on December 10, 2004. Now all we had to do was wait for that to be reviewed and for Montgomery to send home study to the BCIS office. With the Christmas holidays things got backed up. We waited for our I-171A for what seemed like ages. Our BCIS office in Atlanta Georgia is great. Once they received everything it did not take long. We really wanted to be DTC (Dossier to China)in January. We knew we had done our part so we just had to try and rest in that. We received our 1-171 on February 03, 2005. That was a wonderful day for us. The most important dates were still ahead. February 18,2005 we were DTC - We went out and celebrated. February 28, 2005 is our LID (Log in Date) This is where you start counting down. Right now the wait has been about 6 to 7 months from your LID. (That is better than what it was a few years ago.) The wait used to be much longer. The paper chase was hard sometimes. I thought the wait would be easier. Boy was I wrong. The first few months was easier because we were so glad to be though with all the paper work. We were also doing the baby’s room and that passed the time. Right now the wait is very hard. We are hoping to receive referral soon. We will post her referral information as soon as we receive it. For now all we can do is wait. Waiting is really tough when you know your child is waiting on you! | |
