China Update

On Thursday, we received a packet in the mail from our Family Coordinator at America World. The packet contained the names of two other families who are in our "group." While we are not guaranteed that we will get to travel to China together, it is very likely, and we are therefore encouraged to reach out to these other families via email and stay in touch during the upcoming months and years.

That being said, I thought I would post some answers to questions that they answered for us in this package. I understand if this bores some of you, but I am putting this up here for my own sake as much as for the sake of others. These really helped answer questions about the next step of our process which is much easier on us time-wise but definitely requires a lot of patience.

1. What happens to your dossier in China?
Once logged into the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA), our dossier spends the next 6-8 weeks in the Translation Department. After the translation has been completed, our dossier will begin to move through the other departments at the CCAA. Unfortunately, the CCAA will not update our agency on the status of the dossier. Therefore we can only assume that no news is good news.

2. When will we receive our referral (sent info on picture on Child you are matched with)?
The current wait time to receive a referral (upon which you will leave in the next 4-8 weeks to get our daughter) is about 29 months with the trend of increasing by roughly a half to full month each month. This time begins from our Log-in-Date (which will be sometime in April) and ends when we receive a referral call from America World.

3. Why is the wait time so long and growing?
China's new requirements were designed to reduce the application flow for China -- and did so successfully. Prior to the requirement change on May 1, 2007 (which included a host of new rules about age, financial status, mental health, physical health etc.) approximately 80 dossiers per month from America World alone were sent to China. After the requirement change that average has dropped to about 20 dossiers per month. Therefore, the goal was achieved, but will not be actualized until the CCAA reaches those dossiers logged in through May of 2007. (I believe as of this post they have currently reach dossiers logged in before January 2006. This means there are still 1.5 years worth of dossiers in front of us before the new requirements were enacted.)

The number of login days the CCAA is able to process each month significantly effects the current China wait time. Over the last several months, the CCAA has processed anywhere from 3 to 8 days worth of login dates each month, with an average of 5 days pers month. When the CCAA does not process at least 30 days of login dates a month, the wait time grows. The amount that the with time grows depends on how many login days the CCAA processes within the month.

No one is able to accurately predict how long the China wait time will become due to the large number of unknown factors, such as:

• the number of infants that will be available for adoption and paper ready within the upcoming year.
• the number of domestic adoptions within China.
• the number of families from around the world who have login dates between the last referral LID and today.
• the number of families who will withdraw from the China adoption process due to the increased wait time.
• the number of families who will adopt special needs children and will no longer be in the healthy line.

There was a large increase in dossiers submitted to the CCAA at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 which increased the wait time. As of May 1, 2007, the number of families submitting dossiers dramatically decreased. Therefore they do anticipate the wait time decreasing once they hit the login dates of May 1, 2007 and later.

4. What documents expire during the wait time?

The home study, passports, USCIS I-171H/797C (Immigration paperwork) approval, and USCIS fingerprints are the 4 documents a family is responsible keeping current throughout the wait time. In short, we will have to return to Jacksonville to be fingerprinted every 15 months. We will have to the Immigration paperwork updated every 18 months. Our homestudy will have to be updated every 12 months (which would have to be done anyways with XY's arrival as every new addition to the family must be noted.) And we have to make sure our passports are never within 6 months of expiring. I don't think mine will be as I had to get a replacement a few years ago. But JB's probably will and will have to be updated.

So that's a bit of an update for you. We plan to just enjoy XY's arrival and wait patiently. We still have 7 embryos waiting for us at the Mayo Clinic that we will also need to make a decision about when to return for. I think we have solidified our feelings that we will return for these ourselves and not use a surrogate due to a myriad of reasons that I can get into at a later point. When we go back for these will depend on XY's age and the wait time for China.

I hope you feel fully educated.