Our Adoption Process - The Actual Process

The process of being able to adopt covers 3 main areas:
1. Approval by the United States CIS (Citizen and Immigration Service, formerly the INS.)
2. Approval by the state you live in.
3. Approval by the Chinese Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA).
Another reason we're glad we chose Lifelink: since they coordinate it all, we did all of our paperwork and homestudy at once, and it encompassed everything we needed. Our homestudy met the requirements for the CIS and also our caseworker is certified by the State of Wisconsin to issue foster care licenses, which is one thing we needed to get approval for adoption (not sure why, but may have something to do with the fact that some international adoptions are not finalized until the child has been in your home for 6 months, but not China.) Some of the paperwork was done twice on 2 different forms (i.e. Chinese financial statement and Wisconsin financial statement.) But overall it was a very smooth process. Some of the paperwork went into allowing Lifelink to approve us on the U.S. level, and some went into compiling our dossier to send to China, and of course some was used in both.

I can't figure out how to logically explain all the paperwork process, but here goes:

We began meeting with our caseworker, Kris, in February 2005. She gave us all the paperwork we would need. We had to meet with her 5 times, once in our home, to talk in detail about everything in our lives - past, present and future. Some people find this intrusive, but we had already been through the process in Virginia for foster parent certification so we knew what to expect. Also, we are very accustomed to being very open about our lives so it didn't bother us. It was kind of refreshing to be able to talk about all that we've been through and see how we have grown over the years.

DOSSIER: This is a set of documents that we send to China. THIS is the part that was exhausting. I will attempt to list out here all of the documents we needed (don't even know if you're really interested!) and keep in mind that some of these documents were the result of several other things being done first, and EACH piece of paper had to be notarized, then sent to the Secretary of State that they were issued in to receive a certificate stating that the notary was legitimate, and THEN sent to the Chinese embassy in Chicago to receive an Authentication from them.
1. Homestudy
2. Lifelink's license
3. Police department criminal check (for every state we've lived in the past 3 years)
4. Letter of motivation & intent to adopt
5. Marriage certificate
6. Birth certificates
7. Letters from our employers
8. Financial statement
9. Physical exam form & letter from physician
10. Copy of I-171H from CIS (petition to bring an orphan into US)
11. 2 individual photos each, copies of passports, and 6 photos of us & family

Our completed dossier was sent to China on May 18, 2005. About 6-8 months from that date, we will receive a "referral" - This is stating that they've matched us with a child. What is happening while we're waiting is that the documents are being translated into Chinese, then being reviewed, and then matched with a child.

When we receive a referral, it will be in the form of a phone call from our caseworker. She will give us the name, age, and gender of our child. Within a couple of days we will receive a FedEx package with our baby's picture and her medical records. Lifelink will then send a disposable camera and a care package to her orphanage or foster home requesting them to take pictures and mail us the camera for developing. Sometimes they get the cameras back and sometimes they don't.

We will then apply for travel visas for us and our baby. We will travel to China within 6-8 weeks to pick her up!! While we are there, we will try to update this website so you can see pictures of her right away.