| Our Family's Journey to China (cont'd) |
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| Pippa's Song by Robert Browning The year's at the spring, / And day's at the morn; / Morning's at seven; / The hill-side's dew-pearl'd; / The lark's on the wing; / The snail's on the thorn; / God's in His heaven-- / All's right with the world! |
| Ontario Time Lines (cont'd) |
| August, 2001: Well, this is it; the month we should get our referral. I've never doubted that it would happen and I've only ever had fleeting irrational fears that the CCAA would reject us because of my diabetes, or whatever other "imperfection" we may have as a family, but one deep breath later, I'm back on earth-- so to speak-- and feeling rational. When I think about being in China, I'm anxious about dealing with the emotional upheaval my daughter is bound to undergo when she is handed over to her loving parents, who, ironically, will be utter strangers. We will look, sound, smell and feel different than anything she has known in her life. She will be taken from familiarand hopefully, comforting surroundings and hurled into a completely alien environment. No wonder so many babies act dazed for the first few days. It's like they go into sensory shock and have to shut down in order to cope. I've read a lot about what we're likely to encounter and I honestly believe that knowledge, love, patience and gentleness can and will work wonders. I am so grateful I'm an experienced parent. I'd be absolutely terrified if I was going into this green, as I did with Matthew. Talk about feeling useless and inadequate! (The emergency C-section and having absolutely no one to help me when I came home didn't help either!) My parents were both sick; my sister Corinne had shingles and couldn't be around Matthew, plus my wonderful brother-in-law Dave was very ill in the last stages of kidney disease and she had to cope with that; my sister Lynne did come for two nights, but had to go home to take care of her own family and my sister Joanne had an inner ear infection that made her dizzy each time she stood up. I hadn't changed a baby in about twenty years before Matt, and Rob had never even held one before. We were as inexperienced as two adults in their mid-late thirties could be. I'm more comfortable about parenting our daughter, because in spite of her unique difficulties, I still feel like if we made it through Matthew joining our family, we can make it through hers. |
| August 10/01: Today we received an envelope from Yulin, which contained visa applications, travel arrangement forms and some information about what we have to do when we receive our proposal at the end of this month. The first thing we do is call our social worker and let her know the referral is imminent. When Yulin gets the proposal, she couriers it to our social worker, who then presents it to us. The social worker notifies the provincial government that we have accepted the child and the province then issues the letter of "no objection," which is sent to the embassy in Beijing and becomes part of our immigration paperwork. After pur baby passes the Canadian physical, she will be granted a visa to enter Canada as a landed immigrant and we will start the process to make her a Canadian citizen immediately. (The one-year waiting period is waived for international adoption.) To get her Canadian citizenship, we need to have two pieces of I.D for her. OHIP and Social Insurance cards are typically used. We will get her OHIP card immediately and send off for the S.I. #. She will be covered by OHIP as soon as she lands in Canada. This is becoming more and more real to me now. |
| August 16, 2001: Yulin phoned today, while I was getting ready to go see the Chinese Jade Exhibit at the Hamilton Art Gallery with Esther. At first, I couldn't figure out what she was talking about; finally, though, I understood that Yulin was telling me her sister had called her with the details of our referral!!! We will get the official proposal within two weeks, but right now, we know the following: |
| ***REFERRAL*** |
| Chinese Name: Fu Jia Fang DOB: November 16th, 2000 Residing At: Linchuan S.W.I., Jiangxi Province, in foster care Canadian Name: I'm no longer sure! |
| We offer our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to God, the People's Republic of China and Fu Jia Fang's birth and foster parents for making the miraculous gift of our daughter possible. |
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