On Sept. 10, out of the blue, the WC coordinator at our agency called. She had come across a file and thought of us and wanted to know if we would like to review it.
Back up a week. We decided to revisit our medical checklist. I had been coming across kiddos with needs that we did not know much about so we scheduled a call with our IA doctor. We learned so much during that call and we were able to expand our list a bit. So, I sent the new list to our WC coordinator along with our new age range and let her know which needs we are 100% okay with so she is comfortable locking a child when the new shared lists come out. I also mentioned that I would be celebrating my 40th birthday next month and what a great gift it would be to find our son or daughter!
I had been waiting for a new shared list all week. It was about that time and there was buzz about it coming out on the 9th, which is considered a lucky date in China. I had asked my coordinator if she thought there would be a new list and she said she was expecting one. I was very restless that night and had trouble sleeping. When I got up in the morning to see that no list had come out, I was a little disappointed. I decided to run errands to keep myself busy and take my mind off of it. Just as I was jumping in the shower the phone rang and I saw that it was our agency. I had been e-mailing with her that morning about a precious ten year old she was advocating for. I wanted to help. The first thing I thought was -- she's calling to have a chat about that. Instead, she told me that a series of events had led her to call me about a child she came across on the shared list the night before. She shared some details and asked if we would like to review her file. Would we!
I already knew what this child's medical needs were based on what the WC coordinator had told me and it was all fine. When I opened the file and the pictures of this beautiful little girl popped up, I just knew this was the right one for us. We had looked at other files and I never felt that instant connection like I did with this little one. I was beyond excited but knew Brandon & I would need to take a look at the medical info and send it to our IA doc for review. Even though it was only an hour, the wait to hear back from the doctor was excruciating! She gave us the confirmation that we needed -- aside from a few minor things, this child was perfectly healthy! And perfect for us!
We have completed and submitted all the required paperwork including a letter outling our understanding of the child's need, our care plan and desire to adopt the child. And now we wait!
Although we would love to share more details, we will wait until we get a formal approval from the CCAA. The next step will be a pre-approval (PA) from the CCAA, which takes two to four weeks. They will then pull our dossier for review and if everything looks good, they will issue the formal approval, the Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) or otherwise known as Letter of Approval (LOA). It seems to be taking 90-120 for those to be issued. So we wait...again!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
A New Vision of Our Family
I can't believe it's been a year since we started this process -- how time flies! When we first started on this journey to China, we thought we wanted a baby, boy or girl, as young as possible. We wanted to experience as much of parenthood we possibly could and had heard it's best to get the youngest child in the hopes of minimizing the effects of life in an orphanage. And who doesn't love a baby! As we've made our way through the paper chase, the home study, getting logged in with China and now in the Waiting Child program, the "idea" of what our family will look like has evolved a bit.
As we followed along with families adopting children and started to review files, it became more about the actual child who was right for us and less about a child that fit a specific "profile". We found ourselves drawn to toddlers and school-aged children. We are both in our late thirties and most of our friends have children who are toddlers and school-aged. And if we had a child when we first started trying to have a baby we would have a five year old now. We have spent plenty of time with our nephews and niece and babies of friends, so we don't feel like we will be missing out on all the "baby stuff". We thought a child we could take with us everywhere and we could cook with and garden with be a great fit for our family.
I participate in several forums for families who have adopted and/or waiting to adopt from China. Many families share their stories and experiences, as well as provide support and advice. I started following families who had brought home children who are a bit older than the norm -- older in the adoption world is considered older than three. From what I have seen and heard from these families is these children do amazingly well in adapting to their new life. Because they are a bit older, they are better able to understand that a family will be coming to get them and take them home and the orphanages and foster families do a pretty good job of preparing these kiddos for this transition. You can also send care packages to them while you are waiting with photos of the family, pets, house, their room and include clothes, blankets, toys and treats. We know it won't be an easy transition, but we don't think we have to adopt an infant so it will be easier.
Looking at files of different children of all different ages led to a conversation with our WC coordinator about the child we wish to find and what needs we would be comfortable with and amazingly, we have found it has changed quite a bit. We are now hoping to find a little girl who is three to five years old who tugs at our heart and gives us that feeling of "knowing" she is meant to be our girl.
As we followed along with families adopting children and started to review files, it became more about the actual child who was right for us and less about a child that fit a specific "profile". We found ourselves drawn to toddlers and school-aged children. We are both in our late thirties and most of our friends have children who are toddlers and school-aged. And if we had a child when we first started trying to have a baby we would have a five year old now. We have spent plenty of time with our nephews and niece and babies of friends, so we don't feel like we will be missing out on all the "baby stuff". We thought a child we could take with us everywhere and we could cook with and garden with be a great fit for our family.
I participate in several forums for families who have adopted and/or waiting to adopt from China. Many families share their stories and experiences, as well as provide support and advice. I started following families who had brought home children who are a bit older than the norm -- older in the adoption world is considered older than three. From what I have seen and heard from these families is these children do amazingly well in adapting to their new life. Because they are a bit older, they are better able to understand that a family will be coming to get them and take them home and the orphanages and foster families do a pretty good job of preparing these kiddos for this transition. You can also send care packages to them while you are waiting with photos of the family, pets, house, their room and include clothes, blankets, toys and treats. We know it won't be an easy transition, but we don't think we have to adopt an infant so it will be easier.
Looking at files of different children of all different ages led to a conversation with our WC coordinator about the child we wish to find and what needs we would be comfortable with and amazingly, we have found it has changed quite a bit. We are now hoping to find a little girl who is three to five years old who tugs at our heart and gives us that feeling of "knowing" she is meant to be our girl.
The Waiting Child Program
We knew when we decided to pursue an adoption from China we would apply for the Waiting Child (WC) program at our agency. This program allows agencies to match their families with children who have medical needs. These medical needs vary from minor and/or correctable to severe. The minor needs can be a birthmark, extra toes, missing toes or fingers, scars, mild developmental delays etc. The matching process for the WC program is much different that the regular program in that rather than the CCAA choosing a child for the family, children are matched by the agency based on a gender, age range and list of needs a family has indicated they are comfortable with. This can happen one of two ways -- from a shared list that all agencies have access to or a list of children (individual list) that are assigned to a specific agency which only their clients can access.
The shared list currently contains more than 500 children with wide range of ages and medical needs. The CCAA adds new children to the list about once per month. The new list is usually released over a couple of nights here in the U.S. (there is a 14 hour time difference for us) and WC coordinators are notified prior to it's release so they can stay up and review the new additions in the hope they will have matches for their clients. If an agency finds a child they think will be a fit for one of their families, they can "lock the file", which prevents another agency from viewing it. In order to lock a file they have to assign it to a specific family and if that family does not accept the referral of the child within 48 hours, it is released back to the list and the agency cannot lock it again for two weeks.
Our agency won't lock the file until you can take a look at it and agree to pursue adopting the child, which seems reasonable. What has started to happen over the past several months is certain agencies will go in and lock all the files of the youngest children and those with the most minor needs before reviewing them with families. This has led to a bit of competition and frustration among those who are waiting and a feeling of helplessness among those whose agencies are following the rules.
While all of this can be frustrating, we have decided that we will find our child when we are meant to and are not going to get wrapped up in the "drama' of the shared list. Our WC coordinator has been great about sending out a list of children who weren't matched initially for those of us still waiting and we are free to review files of any children we think may be a good fit for us. We have reviewed a few files and continue to keep an eye on our agency's individual list as well. They have added new children to their list about once every two or three months. We've already seen a little girl that we thought would fit perfectly in our family and know there are others out there who will be just a good of a fit, so we are optimistic it will happen soon.
As the wait for the regular program (NSN) continued to increase, many families chose to switch to the Waiting Child (WC) program as other families were finding their children and bringing them home fairly quickly. Interest in the WC program has increased quite dramatically in the past year or so and there are many families now going this route. So, while we weren't initially concerned about the wait time for the NSN program, it has led to the bit of "competition" and an increased wait for those looking for a child with minor and/or correctible medical needs. It seems the wait to be matched with a WC child varies by agency. Some AP's are matched very quickly while others have been waiting several months and even over a year. It depends how aggressive the agency is in locking files and how many families are waiting on the WC list for that agency. We have been told to expect a wait of under a year for a boy under two with minor needs and much longer than that for a little girl.
The shared list currently contains more than 500 children with wide range of ages and medical needs. The CCAA adds new children to the list about once per month. The new list is usually released over a couple of nights here in the U.S. (there is a 14 hour time difference for us) and WC coordinators are notified prior to it's release so they can stay up and review the new additions in the hope they will have matches for their clients. If an agency finds a child they think will be a fit for one of their families, they can "lock the file", which prevents another agency from viewing it. In order to lock a file they have to assign it to a specific family and if that family does not accept the referral of the child within 48 hours, it is released back to the list and the agency cannot lock it again for two weeks.
Our agency won't lock the file until you can take a look at it and agree to pursue adopting the child, which seems reasonable. What has started to happen over the past several months is certain agencies will go in and lock all the files of the youngest children and those with the most minor needs before reviewing them with families. This has led to a bit of competition and frustration among those who are waiting and a feeling of helplessness among those whose agencies are following the rules.
While all of this can be frustrating, we have decided that we will find our child when we are meant to and are not going to get wrapped up in the "drama' of the shared list. Our WC coordinator has been great about sending out a list of children who weren't matched initially for those of us still waiting and we are free to review files of any children we think may be a good fit for us. We have reviewed a few files and continue to keep an eye on our agency's individual list as well. They have added new children to their list about once every two or three months. We've already seen a little girl that we thought would fit perfectly in our family and know there are others out there who will be just a good of a fit, so we are optimistic it will happen soon.
As the wait for the regular program (NSN) continued to increase, many families chose to switch to the Waiting Child (WC) program as other families were finding their children and bringing them home fairly quickly. Interest in the WC program has increased quite dramatically in the past year or so and there are many families now going this route. So, while we weren't initially concerned about the wait time for the NSN program, it has led to the bit of "competition" and an increased wait for those looking for a child with minor and/or correctible medical needs. It seems the wait to be matched with a WC child varies by agency. Some AP's are matched very quickly while others have been waiting several months and even over a year. It depends how aggressive the agency is in locking files and how many families are waiting on the WC list for that agency. We have been told to expect a wait of under a year for a boy under two with minor needs and much longer than that for a little girl.
Friday, July 31, 2009
The Wait
The Wait is what China AP's refer to as the length of time from when your dossier is registered by the CCAA to when you are referred your child. The wait is one of the most important factors for many families when choosing a country to adopt from for obvious reasons. No one wants to wait several years to start or add to their family and the wait times from country-to-country vary quite a bit. The most frustrating thing has been that agencies can really only tell you how long their adoptive parents are currently waiting, as things can change quickly and often in any country with IA programs.
The families now receiving the referrals of their children were logged in late March of 2006 and have been waiting 40 months. That is nearly 3 1/2 years, which may not seem too terribly long but when these families were logged in the wait was 8-12 months so for them it has been an eternity. The program has slowed down considerably and the wait steadily grown longer and longer. For example, the wait was 31 months when we first met with our agency and grew to 40 months just in the 11 months since then. We were told about the current wait, but also that they hoped for the process to speed up soon.
We know other families currently waiting to adopt girls from China, so we knew about the "slowdown" and the increasing wait. We had already decided China was the program for us and were confident adopting a child with minor medical needs was the right path for us, so weren't too worried about it. What we didn't know was the huge backlog of families waiting to adopt a healthy child from China.
Back in 2005 the program was moving very quickly and was reliable so China was flooded with applications. Then, in late 2006, China announced new parent requirements to be implemented as of May 1, 2007, in attempt to allow only the "best families" to adopt their children. Some of the changes were income and asset requirement, minimum and maximum ages, length of marriage, BMI maximum and number of children currently in the home. They also decided to exclude single women from adopting. This led to another flood of applicants getting their dossier in before the new rules took effect. Many of these families who have been waiting in the Non-special Needs program are switching to the Special Needs program in the hopes of finding their child sooner.
There are many theories as to why the wait to be matched with a "healthy" child has steadily increased over the past three years. The CCAA has said in no uncertain terms that due to the thriving economy and the slowly evolving view of the value of daughters, the number of abandonments are down and there are not as many children available for adoption. China also became a party of the Hague Convention on International Adoption, which requires countries to make every effort to find adoptive families domestically before children can become available for international adoption. According to the Chinese authorities, the domestic adoption program is thriving which mean less children available for those of us in other countries around the world. Fewer children available than familes waiting = longer wait. Plain and simple.
The families now receiving the referrals of their children were logged in late March of 2006 and have been waiting 40 months. That is nearly 3 1/2 years, which may not seem too terribly long but when these families were logged in the wait was 8-12 months so for them it has been an eternity. The program has slowed down considerably and the wait steadily grown longer and longer. For example, the wait was 31 months when we first met with our agency and grew to 40 months just in the 11 months since then. We were told about the current wait, but also that they hoped for the process to speed up soon.
We know other families currently waiting to adopt girls from China, so we knew about the "slowdown" and the increasing wait. We had already decided China was the program for us and were confident adopting a child with minor medical needs was the right path for us, so weren't too worried about it. What we didn't know was the huge backlog of families waiting to adopt a healthy child from China.
Back in 2005 the program was moving very quickly and was reliable so China was flooded with applications. Then, in late 2006, China announced new parent requirements to be implemented as of May 1, 2007, in attempt to allow only the "best families" to adopt their children. Some of the changes were income and asset requirement, minimum and maximum ages, length of marriage, BMI maximum and number of children currently in the home. They also decided to exclude single women from adopting. This led to another flood of applicants getting their dossier in before the new rules took effect. Many of these families who have been waiting in the Non-special Needs program are switching to the Special Needs program in the hopes of finding their child sooner.
There are many theories as to why the wait to be matched with a "healthy" child has steadily increased over the past three years. The CCAA has said in no uncertain terms that due to the thriving economy and the slowly evolving view of the value of daughters, the number of abandonments are down and there are not as many children available for adoption. China also became a party of the Hague Convention on International Adoption, which requires countries to make every effort to find adoptive families domestically before children can become available for international adoption. According to the Chinese authorities, the domestic adoption program is thriving which mean less children available for those of us in other countries around the world. Fewer children available than familes waiting = longer wait. Plain and simple.
The Adoption Home Study
The home study can vary by country you adopt from and state you live in but the basics are the same. Our agency assigned us a Social Worker and she was responsible not only for verifying a ton of information including our identities, but also determining if we were suitable prospective parents. She was also responsible for helping us determine the age and health of our soon-to-be child, as well as making sure our home was safe and kid-friendly. Being this was our first home study and we didn't really know what to expect (and we had heard stories!), we were a little nervous about it. In the end, we were fortunate to have been assigned a wonderful social worker who not only did the paperwork she was responsible for, but really helped to educate us on international adoption and the issues we may face while raising an institutionalized child and becoming an trans-racial /trans-cultural family.
Our homestudy consisted of four meetings -- one with the both of us, one with each of us individually, a visit to our home and a second meeting with the both of us. Prior to meeting with our social worker we were given a long list of documents she would need to finalize our homestudy. This list was probably the most work for us and included:
Needless to say, it took time to get all of this info together and the entire adoption process started to feel a bit like being put through the wringer. But we did our meetings with the social worker in the meantime and they were not stressful at all. We did clean like crazy the day before she came to our home but it wasn't really necessary. While we are not total clean freaks, we certainly aren't slobs and she wasn't expecting our house to be so clean you could eat off the floors! We know we will be great parents and provide a loving home to our child and knew if we remembered to just be ourselves, it would all work out fine. In the end, our social worker gave us glowing reviews and gave us the official rubber stamp of adoption approval.
Next stop: sending the homestudy and I800A application (along with other docs) to USCIS for approval to bring an orphan in to the country.
Our homestudy consisted of four meetings -- one with the both of us, one with each of us individually, a visit to our home and a second meeting with the both of us. Prior to meeting with our social worker we were given a long list of documents she would need to finalize our homestudy. This list was probably the most work for us and included:
- 14 page autobiography
- Child abuse clearances from each state we have lived in since the age of 18
- Letter from local police department stating we have no criminal record
- Tax returns
- Pay stubs or income letter
- Birth certificates
- Marriage documents - license and divorce records for previous marriage
- Financial statement
- Documents to back up financial statement - copies of mortgage, credit card, auto, bank accounts, retirement accounts and life insurance statements
- Monthly budget and copies of statements to back up budget amounts
- Copy of medical insurance policy - proof child can be added with no exclusions
- Proof of current vaccinations for all pets
- All addresses lived at for the past ten years
- Personal references
Needless to say, it took time to get all of this info together and the entire adoption process started to feel a bit like being put through the wringer. But we did our meetings with the social worker in the meantime and they were not stressful at all. We did clean like crazy the day before she came to our home but it wasn't really necessary. While we are not total clean freaks, we certainly aren't slobs and she wasn't expecting our house to be so clean you could eat off the floors! We know we will be great parents and provide a loving home to our child and knew if we remembered to just be ourselves, it would all work out fine. In the end, our social worker gave us glowing reviews and gave us the official rubber stamp of adoption approval.
Next stop: sending the homestudy and I800A application (along with other docs) to USCIS for approval to bring an orphan in to the country.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Why China?
This is a question we've been asked quite often lately. "Why are you adopting from China?" I think most people are under the impression that there are plenty of babies available for adoption in the U.S. We have already determined that domestic adoption and foster-to-adopt programs are not the right choices for us. So rather than try to explain all of the issues we have with those programs, we find it best to explain why we decided to pursue an international adoption through the China Waiting Child program.
Of all the programs we were considering, the China program was the most established and stable of them all. The program is run by the Chinese government (Chinese Center of Adoptions Affairs or CCAA) with structured and consistent procedures. We felt more comfortable knowing exactly what the process would be from start to finish, regardless of which agency we use or where our child is located in the country. All adoptive families must submit the same information which is called the Dossier and are then registered when the package is received by the CCAA. The date the dossier is registered is called the "Log in Date" (LID). This is the official date the wait begins for the regular program. The referral of children are made each month according to the next Log in Date, so families with the same LID will receive the referral of their children on the same day and usually travel to China about the same time. Those families choosing the Waiting Child route will be logged in and wait for the agency to match them with a child, unless they "find" their child first, in which case they will be paperchasing and LID for a specific child.
The children are cared for in orphanages (Social Welfare Institutions or SWI's) or live with foster families. The level of care in most SWI's is considered much better than in other countries with international adoption programs. There are babies as young as six months old available and families are able to request an age range and gender of the child they wish to adopt. The CCAA attempts to honor these requests if at all possible, and even tries to match children and families based on facial features and characteristics of the family.
China implemented a one-child policy per couple in the 1970's in an attempt to curtail the skyrocketing population and prevent a shortage of food. Because of a cultural preference for male children (males traditionally care for their parents as they age), the one-child policy and the stigma that comes with raising a child with special needs or an unmarried woman having a child, many of the baby girls and a small percentage of boys of are abandoned. Most of the children in the SWI's are abandoned at or shortly after birth. Because abandonment is a serious crime in China, the parents of the abandoned children almost never come forward to claim the child so they are considered orphans and are available to be adopted within a matter of months.
China also made more sense to us financially because we'd like to adopt more than one child. The program is fairly affordable and we felt we could pay all of the paperchasing and agency fees without a loan or using credit cards. The agency fees are spread out over time and the orphanage donation is paid at the time of adoption in China. The travel fees are due shortly before you leave for China. This gives us time to raise the money necessary for the remaining fees.
There is only one trip required to China and the adoption is completed while in country if both parents travel to receive their child. The trip is 12 -17 days with sightseeing in Beijing for the first few days, then travel to the province where the child is located. Then it's off to Guangzhou for an interview with the American Consulate and a medical exam for the child. Once the child's visa is ready, families fly to Hong Kong and then back to the U.S. and home sweet home.
Most importantly, China has an amazing Waiting Child Program. The initial paperwork and travel process is pretty much the same, but different in the agency will match you with a child or you can find your child from an agency's list. You can review medical information and photos and often video of children waiting. There are many children with minor, moderate and severe medical needs waiting for their forever family. So, families who feel they are able to parent one of these children can bring them home fairly quickly.
So, that is why we decided to adopt from China. Stability of the program, many children waiting for families, works for us financially and the travel portion is "doable". When we went over the various programs we just felt this was the one for us. We were comfortable with every aspect of it.
Of all the programs we were considering, the China program was the most established and stable of them all. The program is run by the Chinese government (Chinese Center of Adoptions Affairs or CCAA) with structured and consistent procedures. We felt more comfortable knowing exactly what the process would be from start to finish, regardless of which agency we use or where our child is located in the country. All adoptive families must submit the same information which is called the Dossier and are then registered when the package is received by the CCAA. The date the dossier is registered is called the "Log in Date" (LID). This is the official date the wait begins for the regular program. The referral of children are made each month according to the next Log in Date, so families with the same LID will receive the referral of their children on the same day and usually travel to China about the same time. Those families choosing the Waiting Child route will be logged in and wait for the agency to match them with a child, unless they "find" their child first, in which case they will be paperchasing and LID for a specific child.
The children are cared for in orphanages (Social Welfare Institutions or SWI's) or live with foster families. The level of care in most SWI's is considered much better than in other countries with international adoption programs. There are babies as young as six months old available and families are able to request an age range and gender of the child they wish to adopt. The CCAA attempts to honor these requests if at all possible, and even tries to match children and families based on facial features and characteristics of the family.
China implemented a one-child policy per couple in the 1970's in an attempt to curtail the skyrocketing population and prevent a shortage of food. Because of a cultural preference for male children (males traditionally care for their parents as they age), the one-child policy and the stigma that comes with raising a child with special needs or an unmarried woman having a child, many of the baby girls and a small percentage of boys of are abandoned. Most of the children in the SWI's are abandoned at or shortly after birth. Because abandonment is a serious crime in China, the parents of the abandoned children almost never come forward to claim the child so they are considered orphans and are available to be adopted within a matter of months.
China also made more sense to us financially because we'd like to adopt more than one child. The program is fairly affordable and we felt we could pay all of the paperchasing and agency fees without a loan or using credit cards. The agency fees are spread out over time and the orphanage donation is paid at the time of adoption in China. The travel fees are due shortly before you leave for China. This gives us time to raise the money necessary for the remaining fees.
There is only one trip required to China and the adoption is completed while in country if both parents travel to receive their child. The trip is 12 -17 days with sightseeing in Beijing for the first few days, then travel to the province where the child is located. Then it's off to Guangzhou for an interview with the American Consulate and a medical exam for the child. Once the child's visa is ready, families fly to Hong Kong and then back to the U.S. and home sweet home.
Most importantly, China has an amazing Waiting Child Program. The initial paperwork and travel process is pretty much the same, but different in the agency will match you with a child or you can find your child from an agency's list. You can review medical information and photos and often video of children waiting. There are many children with minor, moderate and severe medical needs waiting for their forever family. So, families who feel they are able to parent one of these children can bring them home fairly quickly.
So, that is why we decided to adopt from China. Stability of the program, many children waiting for families, works for us financially and the travel portion is "doable". When we went over the various programs we just felt this was the one for us. We were comfortable with every aspect of it.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Adoption Paper Chase Begins
The first step for us to start gathering our paperwork for the Home Study and Dossier. I had heard and read things about this intensive process which is referred to as "the paper chase" by the adoption community. Once you begin this process, you quickly realize why it is called the paper chase -- for the next few months you will be ordering copies and sending them here and there and keeping track of who has what and what needs what. Makes perfect sense, right? Many adoption agencies, including ours, will handle the paper chase as an included service or will charge an additional fee to handle part of this process for you. We decided since I work from home and am pretty organized it would be interesting to learn about the process and do it ourselves.
The first step for us was to order "Certified" copies of our birth certificates directly from the vital records department of the states we were born in.
The next step was to send our certified birth certificates to the Secretary of State from where they originated from to certify them -- or verify the signature of the notary or public official who signed the certified copy of the birth certificate. Did you get that? The Secretary of State then sent them back to us with a sheet attached which included their seal and certification.
Then we had to send those certified birth certificates to the proper Chinese Consulate for "Authentication". This is authentication is necessary for any legal document being sent overseas to China, whether it be documents for adoption or for business purposes. The Chinese Consulate authenticates the Secretary of State's certification and places a sticker on the back. The tricky part of this is all documents sent for Authentication must be less than six months old and none of our documents for the dossier can be more than 9 months old when submitted to our agency or one year old when received in China. So, if we had ordered the birth certificates too early in the process, we would have had to re-order them and pay the fees again. Additionally, since Brandon was born in Virginia we had to send the certified copy of his birth certificate to the Secretary of State in Washington D.C. for their certification first and then on to the Chinese Consulate in D.C.
All of the documents in our dossier that are notarized (15 total) will go through this same process. Twelve of them were notarized here in Texas so will go to the Texas SOS and then to Chinese Consulate in Houston. That's $10 per page for Texas, plus $20 per page for the Consulate. Phew!
All in all this process took a good couple of months and cost close to $1200. In the end, I did not find it too complicated once I understood the necessary steps and what each step was for. Our agency provided us with plenty of checklists that clearly laid out which documents needed which process and at what age the documents would expire. It was also very helpful to set up an account with FedEx and keep a supply of envelopes handy. This way I was able to set up and track my shipments online and easily drop off packages at the nearest FedEx center. It's a good thing we knew to budget for this since it is an added expense not usually included in the fees for the adoption program!
The first step for us was to order "Certified" copies of our birth certificates directly from the vital records department of the states we were born in.
The next step was to send our certified birth certificates to the Secretary of State from where they originated from to certify them -- or verify the signature of the notary or public official who signed the certified copy of the birth certificate. Did you get that? The Secretary of State then sent them back to us with a sheet attached which included their seal and certification.
Then we had to send those certified birth certificates to the proper Chinese Consulate for "Authentication". This is authentication is necessary for any legal document being sent overseas to China, whether it be documents for adoption or for business purposes. The Chinese Consulate authenticates the Secretary of State's certification and places a sticker on the back. The tricky part of this is all documents sent for Authentication must be less than six months old and none of our documents for the dossier can be more than 9 months old when submitted to our agency or one year old when received in China. So, if we had ordered the birth certificates too early in the process, we would have had to re-order them and pay the fees again. Additionally, since Brandon was born in Virginia we had to send the certified copy of his birth certificate to the Secretary of State in Washington D.C. for their certification first and then on to the Chinese Consulate in D.C.
All of the documents in our dossier that are notarized (15 total) will go through this same process. Twelve of them were notarized here in Texas so will go to the Texas SOS and then to Chinese Consulate in Houston. That's $10 per page for Texas, plus $20 per page for the Consulate. Phew!
All in all this process took a good couple of months and cost close to $1200. In the end, I did not find it too complicated once I understood the necessary steps and what each step was for. Our agency provided us with plenty of checklists that clearly laid out which documents needed which process and at what age the documents would expire. It was also very helpful to set up an account with FedEx and keep a supply of envelopes handy. This way I was able to set up and track my shipments online and easily drop off packages at the nearest FedEx center. It's a good thing we knew to budget for this since it is an added expense not usually included in the fees for the adoption program!
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