Adoption Timeline

Here is the basic timeline for the "main" events along my adoption journey...

March, 2004- Started contacting agencies looking for a single parent "slot" to adopt, and to put my name on various waiting lists, that I am told could take 2-4 years before reaching my name.

July 19, 2004- Attend workshop on domestic adoption. Decide to get started on domestic adoption and continue looking into foreign adoption possibilities.

August 10, 2004- Apply with Vista del Mar for a homestudy. Receive packet of documents to start gathering.

August 11, 2004- fingerprinting appointment for state of California

August , 2004 -Doctor's appointment to check to make sure I don't have TB or other health issues.

August 30, 2004 - first meeting with social worker, she suggests continuing investigation into Chinese adoption but will proceed in with the domestic homestudy plans at the time being. Turn in the first round of many documents. Sends requests for referrences to provide letters of recommendation.

September, 2004 - start contacting agencies again about China adoptions and other international adoption possibilities such as Haiti, Russia, Kazakhstan, et....Every agency I contacted about China told me that I would probably be waiting at least a couple of years before I could proceed.

September 9, 2004 - second meeting with social worker

September 30, 2004 - social worker visists my home

October 1, 2004 -domestic homestudy is completed

October, 2004 - contacted by other agencies about beautiful children available for adoption: 2 boys in Kazakhstan, triplets in Haiti, children in Russia, Ethiopia. Still no confirmation of the "right" place to go. Decide to continue considering China, including "watiting children."

October 15, 2004 - Send for certified birth certificates, which are required for international adoption paperwork

October 27, 2004 - Contact an agency (which I will not name) that tells me I can be on their list and start the process for China and that they will send me the information.

October 28, 2004 - Contaced ASIA of Oregon and put my name on the waiting list. Contacted by ASIA telling me that my name was already on the list (for almost 2 years now) and that I was #6 and would probably be able to start on my paperwork around January, 2005. So now I have two possible agencies.

November 2, 2004 - Contacted by the first agency and told, very nicely, that they would not be able to help me in the adoption process because of my religious beliefs. I am deeply saddened by the lack of understanding towards my beliefs in Jesus Christ. But you know how the saying goes: "when one door closes, another one opens..." because two days later:

November 4, 2004 - Contaced by ASIA - I'm now one spot closer

November 5, 2004 - Now #4!! Wow...moving right along.

November 8, 2004 - Received this message from ASIA - "Now you're number #3! If I get through 1 more person you will be able to apply and get started:-)"

November 15, 2004 - Given approval by ASIA that I could send in my application to get things started!

November 15, 2004 - Submitted application to ASIA

November 17, 2004 - Forwarded copy of domestic homestudy to ASIA

November 24, 2004 - Signed contracts and agreements and submitted to ASIA

November 29, 2004 - ASIA accepts agreement and sends the packet of forms and documents to be completed

December 7, 2004 - Send Letter of Intent, Guardianship Letter, Statement of Current Marital Status, Certificate of Profession and Income and Financial Statement to ASIA for review

December 16, 2004- Fourth appointment with social worker. Submit I-600A (without homestudy) to Los Angeles office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), receive fingerprinting instructions

December 18, 2004 - Fingerprinting appointment for Federal approval

December 20, 2004 - Medical appointment and notarization of medical report

December 21, 2004 - Send Birth Certificate to Idaho Secretary of State for authentication

December 29, 2004 - Send Birth Certificate to U.S. Dept. of State for authentication

January 6, 2005 - Send Guardianship letter to Arizona Sec. of State for authentication

January 13, 2005 - Submit updated homestudy to USCIS for approval; go to Police department to receive notarized police clearance letter; send Birth Certificate to Chinese Embassy for authentication.

January 18, 2005 - Send all documents (so far) to Secretary of State for authentication

February , 2005 - Submit documents (so far) to Chinese Consulate for final authentication

February 7, 2005 - Attempt to pick up documents from Chinese Consulate (L.A. traffic causes me to be 3 minutes late)

February 8, 2005 - Pick up documents from Consulate, fax to ASIA

February 11, 2005 - Pick up 171H approval from USCIS, authenticate at local County office, the Secretary of State office and drop off at Chinese Consulate for final authentication

February 15, 2004 - FedEx final packet of documents to ASIA

February 17, 2005 - Dossier to China

March , 2005 - Received "brown envelope" from US Consulate in Guangzhou China

March 8, 2005 - Logged in to the CCAA system in China

August 10 , 2005 - One year since first submission of application for homestudy!

October 3, 2005 - DATE OF REFERRAL!!

Nursery Fun

I finally took the darling Chinese folk paintings that I purchased from China off of E-Bay in to get framed. Well, I ended up framing only one of them...but it turned out sooo cute. There are so many beautiful and bright colors in it - and the kids flying kites. I love it. I think I will frame at least one more I think.

Anyway, while I was waiting for the framing to occur, I went next door to the fabric store. Well, while I was there I decided that I would just make my own baby crib bumper/skirt/curtains, etc. The ones out there to buy are super expensive and not even that cute, most of the time. So I found some really adorable fabrics and I just made my own...and this is how they turned out! So cute, eh?

Whats in a name?

(That's "mama" in simplified Chinese characters) Gosh, I never thought it would be so hard to figure out what to name my precious little baby. As the time gets closer to getting the referral I am realizing that it is a big responsibility to give a name. I mean this is going to stick with her or him forever! I don't want it to be too boring or too wierd, too old fashioned or too trendy, too cutesy or too mature. You have to consider how it sounds with your last name, what the monogram would be, what nicknames might be given - by choice or not. Then of course there is the decision of whether to give a middle name or not. I don't have one, nor do either of my sisters. Sometimes I think it is cool to be middle-name-less, but then I think it would be fun for nicknames or for using a middle initial to sound cool. And with my baby coming from China, I also have to decide whether to give her or him a Chinese name. If I do that, I need some good advice because I want it to be a "good" Chinese name.

Here are some of the girl names I am considering:

Rachel. My dad (Grandpa Broberg) loves this name. This is one of the first names that I seriously considered. For months at the end of last year and the beginning of this year I was certain that it would be Rachel. But now I'm not sure. Here's a funny story about the name Rachel, there are not that many Asians that attend my church, only a few, but we have one young couple in the ward who are of Chinese decent, well about 5 months ago - when Rachel was top of my name list - this young woman (whose name is also Susan) had a baby. A darling little girl. And guess what they named her? Rachel! Their Rachel was born very close to the same time that my baby will have been, give or take a few months. Imagine of the only two little Asian babies at church there would be two little girls, the same age, same name and mom's with the same name! Crazy, huh? I know it isn't a reason to not name my baby Rachel if that is the right name for her....but it would be funny.

Madison. I love this name and have for a long time. I have some good friends whose granddaughter is named Madison and her nickname is Maizie. Isn't that cute? Other of my good friends just named their little girl Madison...so perhaps it is not meant to be for me.

Sarah. This is a beautiful name that I think is so elegant and yet cute too for a little girl.

Emma. I have recently come to really like this name too, but it seems to be really widely popular right now.

Eliza. I think this is a great name. I haven't convinced my dad of it yet though. My great-great grandmother (I think, or maybe just one "great") on my mother's side was named Eliza. It would be kind of neat to have some kind of "family" tie to a name. And I think it is a neat name. You could use Ellie for short or Ella or Liza or Liz.

Others that are still under consideration: Carly, Lily, Eva, Lydia, Eleanor.

Help!

The wait....

That's a picture of a caretaker watching two little Chinese babies in an orphanage (Social Welfare Institute is the official name for it). Now that the play is over and I have time to think....I find that I am making myself crazy in waiting for my adoption referral. Having that play consume so much of my time and energy was really useful to keeping me sane. I still have plenty to do around my house, but everything is taking a back seat to my adoption! All week I have been glued to the yahoo groups that I belong to, hoping to hear the news of referrals for the groups that are waiting ahead of me. Today referrals started pouring in...The referrals that are coming in today cover those adoptive families whose dossiers (thats the term for all the paper work that is sent to China) were logged into China's Central Adoption Agency up through January 27. My dossier was sent to China on February 17 and logged in on March 8. I could very easily be in the next group of referrals, which typically come from China about every 4-5 weeks or so...more likely I will be in the group after that... but even the possibility of thinking I could know as soon as next month the name and face of my little child and where she or he is living is almost more than I can comprehend! I hope I can develop some paitence.

Whew!

The production that I directed of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for the stake (church) is finally over. It was a great success and I am proud of the accomplishments made. Everyone worked very hard and it was very entertaining. Some commented that they liked it better than professional productions they had seen and even some liked it better than the DVD version.... Anyway, not bad for a group of amatuer church folks. Now that the production is over, I am focusing (mainly) on only one thing! MY ADOPTION! It is so exciting to start preparing for the big day. I bought a crib last week and I started a baby registry, so I am starting to feel "official"...but I still have so much to do. I need to get the nursery all situated and all the extra junk around my house cleared out. I expect my referral to come in September. There is a very slight chance it could come next month, but I really doubt it. Anyway, I am trying to settle on a name...I had decided on Rachel...but lately I am really loving the sound of Sarah...or maybe something else? I think I won't know for sure until I see a picture of her. And then of course there is the remote possibility that it will be a boy!

The Process

OK.. I've had so many people want to know how this whole process works. So, here is how it has been for me - some of it is pretty typical of all people adopting from China.... Deciding to Adopt...Well, I could write a novel on this subject...but for me whether to adopt or not was never an issue, the only issue was timing. For as long as I can remember - at least junior high maybe, I have always dreamed of having a rainbow family. Lots of kids from lots of different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities and so on. I always assumed I would have some biological kids and some adopted kids. Well, the biological kids never happened. I never got married. But I KNEW that I was supposed to still have my kids...so I decided to Adopt. So I started looking into it in about 2002. I just was mostly gathering information and trying to make the next big decision.... Where to Adopt From? Ever since I first visited China in 1986 with the Young Ambassadors, I have been fascinated and loved the Chinese culture, language and so on. So it was a natural choice for me to want to adopt from China. Of course when I was finally ready, I ran into one major hurdle....the Chinese government has restrictions on the number of single women that can adopt. Specifically, at least for the U.S. , it is 8% of all adoptions could be to singles. Each agency had a quota of how many they could do. So every agency I called told me that I would have to wait. Some had lists, some had lotteries once a year, some weren't taking singles at all because of the size of their agency and the numbers they already had. So I was told that it would be at leat 2 to 4 years!! Boy was I discouraged. So I started looking at other possibly places to adopt from...and there were so many great options - Haiti, Russia, Kazakstan, Ethiopia, etc. etc. I didn't know where to go, because I saw that there was a great need, but I knew that I needed to find MY child. So I prayed a lot and did a lot of research. I also considered a domestic adoption and decided to start the process to do that, then if I changed to a specific country later, that would be alright. Well, finally last November, after a lot of searching for answers and looking at a lot of options, one of the agencies that I had talked to two years earlier called and told me that I was finally at the top of the list to adopt from CHINA!! I knew it was time and it was right. I was ready to go. So, just after Thanksgiving I started my adoption paperwork with Associated Services for International Adoption of Oregon (ASIA for short).

Thats me...at bit worn out at the rehearsal for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.