| Paperchase Journal |
| 6/27/01 - Well, I've been officially on the adoption path since June 6th when I sent in my agency application to CCAI. I just looked at my checklist for the paperchase and I'm actually almost there!!! Well - with the part that I can control that is. As of today I have fed exed the last of my paperwork to the homestudy folks and am only awaiting the referrals. Once they are in then I can begin my homestudy visits. For the dossier - I only have my financial statement and adoption petition to write (hopefully this weekend). |
| 6/28/01 - CCAA just put out new guidelines regarding adoption in China. One of the new guidelines states that they do not encourage singles to adopt. However, at this time they are not closing adoption to singles. This has got me nervous (along with a bunch of others) that if the number of applications to China does not slow down, they will cut off adoption to singles. That means that I could be DTC and 10 months into my waiting process and then find out the China's closed its doors. Not a happy thought. My agency is saying not to worry at this time. But until my daughter is in my arms - I will definitely worry. |
| 7/10/01 - Uggh! I'm frustrated. I can't start my homestudy until my referrals are in and there are two still missing in action. I am hoping one of them arrived today but I don't know if the other one has even been written. I can't do anything until they are in and I have no control when they will arrive. Another family who began this process the same time as me is almost finished with their homestudy which makes me further frustrated. Oh well - I guess I need to get used to this. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!!! Well - I'm going home to watch subtitled Chinese movies - I'll put them on the website if they are good. |
| 7/12/01 - I got word that the second referral has arrived at the agency and the third will hopefully be sent tomorrow and arrive sometime next week. I'm planning on calling my social worker next Wed/ Thurs to see if we can finally schedule the first homestudy visit. Oh, and the films from the last two days are good. You can check them out on my books/films page. |
| 7/18/01 - The first of my four homestudy visits has been scheduled for 7/23. I am so happy to finally have this starting. I've spoken to my social worker on the phone and she seems very nice. She said that most people feel that the hardest part was filling in all the paperwork before the meetings. I hope she's right!!! |
| 7/24/01 - I had my first homestudy visit last night and it went well. I have my second tonight and my third on Friday. Hopefully I can finish my fourth visit sometime next week and then all I need to do is wait for my report. If I'm lucky, I should get my report by August 21st and be able to submit it to the INS on 8/23. It will probably be a few more weeks after that before I get my I-171 from the INS. Then I need to send all my documents off to be approved by the PA Secretary of State and the Chinese Consulate. That is another couple of weeks (10 days turn around for the Chinese Consulate I think). Once everything is approved, I will send it to CCAI and it will take another 3-4 weeks to translate. Then it is off to CHINA!!!! - I might be DTC by October. |
| 7/25/01 - Homestudy visit #2 is complete! Only 2 more to go. The word from various agencies is that there will be delays in referrals for single parents. The question is how long those delays will be. Referrals for couples currently are running 12-13 months after DTC. Therefore, I'm trying to change my timeframe to 15-24 months after DTC. It's going to be tough waiting that long but at least it will give me more time to save money. |
| 8/6/01 - My homestudy visits are complete. My social worker told me that I should receive my report by 8/20 (14 more days!). If I get it then, I hope to have it in the hands of the INS the next day (if there are no mistakes in it - which I hear is common). I probably won't post another journal entry until I get it - waiting can be nervewracking. |
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| 8/12/01 - No - I haven't gotten my homestudy. The good news is that my e-mail buddy Tracee and her husband David got their homestudy this past Tuesday and received the I-171 from the Pittsburgh INS office on Friday!!! That means that if I get my homestudy on 8/20 (fingers crossed!) and turn it in on 8/21 I might get the I-171 by 8/24. I'm debating on driving to Harrisburg to get my certifications done. If I did that, I might be able to have everything sent to the consulate by the end of August. That means that I could be DTC by the end of September - but I'm still betting on October. Also, I finally finished my letter to the CCAA requesting to adopt a girl from China. It was the most difficult piece of the entire dossier for me because I didn't feel like I could express in words everything I feel. Oh well - I hope it's good enough. I think I might send copies of all my docs to CCAI on Monday to make sure everything looks good before I send everything for certification. |
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| 8/17/01 - Well, I'm not getting the homestudy on Monday. The social worker didn't turn it in this week and the director is on vacation all of next week. So.... this probably means I won't be September DTC - but each person on this adoption journey has hit snags and I knew I wouldn't be any different. In the end, I'll still hold my daughter in my arms! :-) |
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