NOVEMBER? CHINA PROGRAM UPDATE

Good Morning! We have all kinds of positive news to report with the China program.

First, while we had no placements from China in the month of November, we currently have two families in China right now who are having an amazing experience. Both families are Hague cases who were matched with waiting children this summer. They have both successfully completed their adoptions at the provincial level and just arrived safely in Guangzhou for the final leg of their journey. Both families left for China on Thanksgiving Day and will be home in December. When these two babies arrive home it will bring our number of placements for China for the fiscal year, which began on July 1st to 10, and our number of placements for the 2010 calendar year to 15.


We sent 4 new dossiers to China in the last two weeks. Three dossiers were sent on November 19th, and 1 dossier was sent today on Dec. 3rd. We have sent 7 dossiers to China FYTD and 9 dossiers CYTD. Almost all new applicants to the program. Congratulations to all four families, who all wish to be matched with waiting children.

As I previously reported referrals for our next dossier group with a log in date of May 19th, 2006 arrived at our offices on November 1st, 2010. Both families waited 54 months for their referrals of a healthy child, but both little girls are BEAUTIFUL and were just 7 months old at the time of referral, and I am thrilled to announce that both family's travel approvals arrived at our offices yesterday. We anticipate that these families will leave for China in early January.

We have four other families who have been successfully matched with waiting children who are waiting for travel. One of these four families has their travel approval, and one family has received their letter of confirmation, and returned it to CCAA this week.

I am thrilled to announce that Becki Buck, (keep up the great work, Becki), matched two more families with waiting children from the shared list right before the Thankgiving Holiday and both families
have already received their pre-approvals from the CCAA web-site and their letters of confirmation should be on the way to the United States. Both families are grandfathered i-600 A cases who thought long and hard about the waiting child option before deciding to move forward. The children are both beautiful, a 14 month old boy and a 19 month old girl. If you are a grandfathered i-600 a case in process, please know that Becki and I are always happy to talk to you about this option, and she can match you very quickly if you elect to go this route, depending upon the special needs you are willing to consider, of course. However, neither Becki nor I will call you to encourage this option, because it is a very personal decision, and you and your spouse are the best judges about whether you are the right adoptive parents for a waiting child.

In general, letters of confirmation are generated very quickly when grandfathered i-600 a cases are matched with waiting children, because your dossier was literally translated YEARS ago. With i-800 a cases it takes significantly longer for the LOC to be generated, because they have to send your dossier out to be translated, and then review it before the LOC can be issued.

As of November 1st, 2010 CCAA has matched dossiers submitted through May 23rd, 2010 with referrals. This represented 5 calendar days, and 3 business days worth of dossiers. CCAA has reviewed dossiers submitted through November 30th, 2009. There has been no change in matching or review dates yet this month, but we will keep you posted. Our next dossier group that will be matched with healthy children had their dossiers logged in on July 24th, 2006, so it will be some time before our next families are matched with healthy children, but hopefully it will be sometime in the next 8 to 12 months.

One final word about your immigration renewal. Freida and I try hard to track this, and send out update packets to everyone, because we know it is easy to forget about your renewal with the long wait times. Officially your service agreement stipulates that the family's are responsible for monitoring their immigration approval and keeping it current. However, we try our best to send reminders whenever possible, but PLEASE, particularly if you are an out-of-area family with another home study agency, help us to monitor this. You should receive your update packet from your home study agency no later than 3 months prior to the expiration of your immigration approval. For Hague cases renewals happen every 15 months, and a visit to the home is required. For non-Hague cases, renewals happen every 18 months, and no visit to the home is required, unless your state licensing standards require this.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The China Waiting Child Program continues to be a wonderful option for families, if it is the right choice for your family.