Since I finished my "Friday's Frequently Asked Questions" series, I thought it might be time to try something else. The questions are something we can always return to, but for now, I think I've exhausted the list of the most frequent questions we've gotten. For now, I plan to provide some definitions of some terms I've been throwing around here or maybe ones you've heard us say. So here goes . . .
Dossier (pronounced doss-ee-aye)- this is a compilation of all the documents we prepared to send to China, (two and a half months worth and weighing 3 pounds) it's a complete summarization of who we are. Our birth certificates, marriage license, home study, fingerprint approval from BCI and Dept of Homeland Security, financial disclosure, medical reports and doctor statements, photographs of us and our home, a letter requesting permission to adopt a baby from China and US approval to adopt(from USCIS) and copies of our passports.
LID (Log-in-Date) a registration date of when our dossier arrived and was registered at CCCWA in Beijing, China. Our LID is 11-27-06.
CCCWA(previously the CCAA) China Center of Children's Welfare and Adoption. This is the place that holds all the families' dossiers. It's also the location in which the orphanages send the children's paperwork/files when they are ready for adoption. This is a government run agency that oversees all the international adoptions in China. It is also the place where all the magic happens!!! This is where the Stork lives, if you will! When the orphanages send the children's files to Beijing to CCCWA, they are then matched with the file/dossier of a waiting family, like us. Each month they match files of families and children according to date and the number of children that are available. They have currently matched families with an LID through August 15, 2006 so next month they will begin with families with an LID of 8-16-06 and depending on the number of children available- that will determine how many LID days they will get through, ie, they may make it to 8-23-06 or 8-29-06 , just depends.
USCIS-(United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) this is of course the division of our government's department of homeland security that allows people to become citizens, legal aliens, naturalized citizens and legal immigrants among other things. They are the ones on the US side that grant us permission to adopt a child who is a citizen of another country. This is also the division of government that will approve our Visa's so we may travel to China to adopt our baby. We have submitted paperwork to USCIS four different times, each approval we receive is good for 18 months, therefore; due to the length of time we've been waiting - we keep having to renew our paperwork and fingerprint approval. And once again this fall, the fifth (and hopefully the final time)!.
Stork Alert- an e-mail sent by our agency, when it is time for referrals, to alert waiting families that they may be receiving "the call"
Referral/Match- this is all the information that prospective adoptive parents wait for, no matter how long it takes! This will be the very first time we know who our baby girl is, what she looks like, and all mystery of this precious Little Person is layed to rest. This would be the equivalent of when a mama sees her baby for the first time. When our LID is at the top of the pile and the baby that God has prepared for us are both aligned by Him,- then it will be our turn and we will get our referral. At that time, the CCCWA matches waiting parents and babies together and we will receive all our referral information. We will be alerted to be on the "look-out" for the Stork and then we will be notified by phone and receive "the call". At that time, we will be given her name, birth date, location of orphanage or foster care home, basic measurements and general health info as well as receive referral pictures via e-mail. Within a day, depending on how quickly the Stork flies, (or the Fed-Ex person drives) we will receive more information about her medical history and more pictures.
This just scratches the surface for adoption lingo but these are the ones we use most often. Once we receive our referral there will be new terms for you to learn, like LOA, PA, CA, TA, but that's enough for now. Have a joyful weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment