TECO got all of the authenticated paperwork back to Heartsent. All of our papers should be at St. Lucy's by Christmas Eve. I'm thinking they probably are closed on Christmas Day since it is a Catholic orphanage, though Christmas is not a holiday in Taiwan. So while we have a week off, hopefully the papers will go to the judge in Tainan. We are told there are 3 judges in Tainan, the slow, the medium and the fast (sounds like the 3 little pigs).

So what happens next goes something like this - time frame is 4-6 months. Heartsent thinks it will probably be April when we we get first decree:

1- Judge gets papers and asks birthmother to come in and relinquish her rights.

2 - Judge looks over all of the paperwork, and a rep from St. Lucy's petitions on our behalf.

3 - Judge approves and issues a First Decree. There is a 14 day waiting period, just in case some family member wants to contest. The First Decree is the MOST IMPORTANT one.

4 - Judge issues a second/final decree..She is legally our daughter!

5 - St Lucy's gets Yu-Lin's passport and translates paperwork for the American Institute (our version of an embassy).

6 - Travel to Tainan

Xmas presents to Taiwan

Now that we are officially Mommy and Daddy, we were allowed to send Christmas presents straight to Taiwan for Yu-Lin. I found a great doll call Ling who speaks English and Mandarin. Bob thinks we might need the doll more than Yu-Lin!

I also put together a Christmas stocking full of goodies and a scrapbook that I made with photos of us and where we live. Each page is in Mandarin, so that hopefully her foster mom can explain to her. I hope they are preparing her for the adoption. Everytime I look at a little kid, I think about what would be going thru their head if they were taken away from everything they have ever known and handed over to people they can't understand.

A belated reason to give Thanks- pre approval!

St Lucy's Center has pre-approved us! Everything goes to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, which acts like an embassy since the US can't acknowledge Taiwan for fear of pissing off China. There they authenticate all of the notarized paperwork. Small glich, they suddenly decided they want everything 'cross stamped' by a notary in the Los Angeles office. Unfortunately, technically, you are not allowed to cross stamp with a notary seal. Thank goodness our travelling notary just did it and looked the other way. "They love their stamps in Asia," she said.

Happy Birthday Yu-Lin

Happy Birthday!!!!

Paperwork to St Lucys and Birthday Girl

Done! The paperwork is done and will be at St Lucy's Center in Tainan for pre-approval by November 1. Also, Heartsent is letting us send a birthday gift to Yu-Lin for her 5th birthday on November 6. I had asked if we could send something anonymously, since I knew it would be presumptuous to send something from her new family when we didn’t even have pre-approval. Alex and I decided on a playmobil set that opens to a dollhouse. We made sure the princess had dark hair.

Paperwork - Round 2

Bal Jagat was not thrilled. They are still our homestudy agency, so it’s not like they are going to lose money, but the attitude was begrudging. Linda who did our homestudy in January has taken a break, and so we have been assigned to a new social worker for the update (I knew this was not going to be simple). In addition to much of the paperwork needing to be redone for Taiwan (all references to China need to go), much of the paperwork needs to be notarized. We also need to attend classes. Alex wanted to come to some of the classes even though they were boring for him. He wants to be a part of everything...even sitting around for 2 days waiting for criminal clearance from the sherriffs office.

Pasadena Picnic

It poured on the picnic today. Everyone got drenched. Since we have not seen rain here 10 months, the only umbrella we had in the car was the beach umbrella. Everyone laughed, but it was large enough to fit 5 people under. We let Val know that we indeed want to adopt Yu-Lin, and we brought a stack of paperwork that had originally been sent to Bal Jagat. Homestudy, medicals, financials all need to be redone. It seems daunting. On one of the questionnaires they ask “what stresses you out the most about adoption” and I had to say, the paperwork and having to rely on other people to do their part, the social workers, Immigration, everyone…it’s the control freak part of me.

Through the warm rain, little girls who had been adopted, mostly from China were running around the playground. Alex was looking at them with sad faces, and suddenly we thought “uh oh.” I pulled Alex aside to ask if seeing the little girls made him think maybe he didn’t want a sister. He looked at me and said, “no Mommy, seeing the little girls makes me feel like I want my sister to be home now. I’m sad that she is not here.”

Introducing Yu-Lin

Some people find out they are having a child by peeing on a stick. We went to Heartsent Adoptions in Pasadena. At 2:30 PM we met with Val from the main office and Kerry from the local Pasadena office to find out about the little girl from Taiwan. After talking for an hour about our thoughts on family, children and the realities of adopting and older child, Val handed us photos. There looking back was little girl with a mischievous smile eating Pringles potato chips. I started crying. Her name was Yu-Lin and I just wanted to hug her.



Val asks us to sleep on our decision, to make sure we are absolutely certain before moving forward. There is no room for error in Yu-Lin’s life. She is turning 5 in November and has been at St Lucy’s since she was two.

Did she find us?

After a brutal weekend at the VMA's, I'm back to reading ChinaAdoptTalk and I come across a message which goes something like this:

****
Anyone in Calif wishing for/requesting an older child?
My agency is trying to find a family for a healthy (and darling) 4 year old little girl. PM me if you would like more info...Ziggy
****

WHAT!!! So I calmly (okay maybe not so calmly) get the agency info from 'Ziggy' and call Val Free at Heartsent Adoptions up in Northern California. The little girl is in Taiwan. Val and I chat for about about about what our family is looking for...and everything clicks. Val is coming to Pasadena in a week for the annual Heartsent adoption picnic and a meeting is set for the 21st. (reminder to self - breathe)

When...

When seems to be the big question. Friends are family keep asking, and is we wish we knew. The pace of adoptions from China has come to a crawl. In 3 months they have only made their way thru only about 2 weeks worth of logged in families. They are currently up to November 7, 2005...YES 2005! At that rate with a LID of April 9, 2007...we are looking at over 3 years waiting (possibly more, or worst case the program could close down). The CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) is stating that there are more domestic adoption in China and less available children. I don't know of anyone in the adoption community that truly believe that is the cause.

Since we have sent our dossier to China, I've been a number of chat board and realized there were SN kids (special needs). I didn't realize there were different paths that could be taken to adoption and I didn't know what China considered a "special need." Well turns out it can be something as simple as a birthmark. Seems that in China children with minor correctable conditions are not 'desirable,' and a lot of families can't afford even minor surgery, so they wind up as SN kids in the orphanage. 90% of the kids apparently have a cleft lip or cleft palate, which is easily corrected.

Well with this knowledge, we contacted our adoption agency and our China facilitator, and we are now on the wait list for a SN child. There are about 25 families in front of us, but this path should have us at a 15 month wait for our mei mei. When our turn comes to look at the list we will be able to review the medical records with our pediatrician and make a determination from there as to whether or not we think we can handle the need. I personally think this process may go faster since most folks want a baby AYAP (as you as possible) and we are looking for a toddler or pre-schooler.

Stay tuned....

Group 132

Yesterday we received our letter from U.S. Asian Affairs letting us know we are officially DTC and in Group 132. Group 114 who were DTC in September 2005...and they just got word...so that was a wait of 16 months...16 months would put us at July 2008 which would mean travel around the Olympic's (Yike$$$). I'm thinking the wait will start getting longer and we will have our little girl home around Christmas 2008.

DTC

Five weeks to the day and I got an email from USCIS that our approved form 171H was ready to be picked up! The LAST OF THE PAPERWORK. This mean we should be DTC (Dossier to China) March 5! That will give us a LID (log in date) in March...well ahead of the May 1 changes.

171-H...week 2

Everything is at US Asian Affairs, except the 171-H from from Immigration. They used to be able to send everything to China without that form,but I guess it has changed. It was 2 weeks ago that I walked the form into Immigration in downtown LA. Helen and Juanita work in the special Orphan Petition Unit. Helen told me 4-6 weeks, but I've been down their twice and each time it was not crowded at all. In fact I only waited 15 minutes the first time, 5 the second. How amazing is that! I keep hoping that they may process the form faster. We did our FBI fingerprints before Christmas, so all they really need to do is read thru the homestudy.

I'll start bugging them in a week. I'm told that if you call them, and get them at the right time, they will let you know when your papers are ready and you can go and pick them up...saving a few days in the outgoing mail bin.

Aiming for the March 5 cut off!

I've been taking Mandarin Chinese classes every Sunday. Since our daughter will be a toddler, I figure if I start now, by the time we get the call I will know enough words to communicate the basics and comfort her. In addition to my language classes at the Language Door in LA, I came across ChinesePod.com. They are based in Shanghai and teach everyday "real" phases, not just the ones from a textbook. They also have special lessons on "baby talk" to teach phrases like "baby don't cry" and " mommy and daddy are here." You can upload the audio lesson to your ipod. How cool is that!

	菜鸟71 Adoption – Comforting Words
	Visit ChinesePod.com

Ni Hao, Kai-lan

The NY Times ran a piece about Nickelodeon's new cartoon "Ni Hao, Kai-lan" a pre-school show about a little Chinese Girl. I need to start call my friends over at Nick and have them collect swag for me. I'm sure they will make up some cute things for the launch. Might also ask why Kai-lan (which means Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale), has an Australian Koala as a pal and not a Chinese PandaNi Hao" by the way means "Hello." It is pronounced 'knee how.'

Patience

I shouldn't have stressed. Linda came by tonight with the homestudy. She rocks!

Off the immigration first thing in the morning.

Waiting for Homestudy Paperwork

All of the homestudy interviews are done. All of the paperwork is in. We reviewed our homestudy, and with a few minor corrections, approved it last Tuesday. Our SW (Social Worker) needs to get it notorized and then deliver it to us, and I'm beginning to stress.

Once I have the homestudy I can run down to Immigration, and everything will be in for the 171-H. Then I dash to the USAA in Monterey Park. USAA translates everything into Chinese and send's it to CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) in Beijing. Then we are officially "logged in" (aka LID). But I just found out the USAA ships all of their paperwork once a month to China on the 5th!. Feb 5 is right around the corner! If we don't make the cut off, then we get in March 5, which still gets us logged before the new rules, but throws us a bit behind since a slowdown usually occurs around Chinese New Year (Feb 18 for 2007). During Chinese New Year, government offices close for a week. Some folks take even more time off. Everyone leaves the cities and goes home to visit family. Also, the closer we get to April, the more frantic USAA and CCAA will become with people trying to log in before May 1. I expect they will be sitting in a tidalwave of paperwork.

If I get the homestudy by Thurdsay...and I run everywhere Friday morning...we might just make the cut off for Feb 5.

Big Brother

First HomeStudy Meeting

We meet Linda, the social worker assigned to us through Bal Jagat. The Homestudy consists for 4 meetings. One with Bob and Gina together, one each individually, and one to go thru our home and make sure it is suitable. Linda thinks she can get the homestudy completed by the end of January, which is great because the home study needs to be given to Immigration to go along with the I-600A which we filed in December. Once the I-600A, the FBI Livescan fingerprints and the Homestudy are all there, the paperwork is process and we are given a I-171 form which basically grants us permission to bring a child into the U.S. With the I-171 in hand, we then send everything to U.S. Asian Affairs in Monterey Park to be validated and translated into Chinese.

Linda tells us she is busy as there are a number of people trying to make the May 1 deadline.