Eager Feet: Adoption Update

Our I-800A application to adopt was recently approved by the United States government. This is a huge step in the process, and it was completed much faster than we anticipated! Now the most common question we receive is, "So, what's next?"

Well, some of the next steps are clear, and some are not. The easy answer is that we are preparing our dossier to be sent to China. Our dossier is a group of documents, including our home study, that we send to China so they can approve us to adopt and log us into their system. Preparing the dossier involves some authentication and translation, so we anticipate that it will be ready to send in a couple of weeks. About 3-4 weeks after that, we should receive confirmation of our log-in date.

The more complicated part is the process of matching with our child. After our log-in date, we could wait to receive a referral from China. The estimated wait for a referral is three months. However, there are also lists of waiting children, and we could decide to select a child from those lists and match any day now, even before our log-in date. So which way are we going to match? We have no idea!! The thought of just choosing a child from lists of children is daunting. Is there something magical that happens and you know a listing is your child? How do you choose just one when you have a list in front of you that represents so many needs? In that way, it seems like waiting for a referral would be easier. On the other hand, selecting a child would give us more control over the specific age and special needs of the child. It is just a matter of deciding if we actually want that much control!

Which leads to the next inevitable questions: How old will the child be? Boy or girl? What kind of special needs are you considering? We will almost certainly adopt a girl. Our home study says ages 0-3 years, but that could potentially extend slightly older, with the most likely estimate being 2-3 years old. As for special needs, we are most seriously considering adopting a child with down syndrome. Of course none of this is set in stone until we commit to a referral, but those are our best guesses right now.

And what is a blog post without pictures? Here are a few from last weekend. Pete had a choir concert and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!