Referrals update

From the China Center of Adoption Affairs website ....

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before September 30, 2005. ( that means that ours has been reviewed we had a logged in date of August 31st - so our papers have been looked at and are now in waiting ....)

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before June 6, 2005. ( so there are still quite a few people ahead of us....in teh queue , the seem to be moving very slowly which is not good and only seem to be referring about a weeks worth of documents ....perhaps it will speed up ! wishful thinking ! )

Until the next update

Louise

some info from a message board we use

THis came from a US Site about the current situation with the CCAA in China - the people who look after matching and referral -

"This past Thursday CCAA met informally in New York with 13 adoption agencies,includingAAI. The main topic of discussion was the current wait time and what to expectfor thefuture. It was explained that time frames may continue to lengthen due to thefollowing:--CCAA has now become responsible for domestic adoption in China and this newresponsibility is taking much attention. We agree that domestic adoption inChina shouldbe a priority and support CCAA in their attention to developing this program.--The economy in China is getting stronger and there are fewer children beingabandoned.The focus of CCAA with regard to international adoption seems to be shiftingtowardspecial needs adoptions. There is a plan in place to shorten this process andto updatethe administration of it.CCAA recognizes that families in process may reach the end of their immigrationapprovalperiod, and they have encouraged agencies and families to appeal to USCIS tolengthen theapproval period, much like other countries that give approval for two or threeyears. CCAA has taken note of the fact that families want updated medical information,especiallyfor children with special needs.CCAA addressed the recent rumors of child trafficking and have assured us thatperpetrators have been brought to justice. Punishments were harsh, and much attentionwas given to the crime in Chinese media."

February in Madrid!

At the end February this year we went for a weekend with our good friends Kate and Frank for a weekend in Madrid...did lots of shopping, eating out late....getting wet in the rain and complaing about lack of taxis! Stayed in a great hotel...did lots of tapas with our friend Raquel, little bit of culture and Kate had to have Churros.!!...

The Matching Room !!!!!!

The Matching Room

Hopefully our papers are in there now with loads of others....

Meeting other people who are waiting

At the weekend we met with a group of other people whose papers were sent to China with ours last August - it was good to meet other people who are in the same waiting boat!

The Yahoo groups offer some great support and information - but can slowly drive you potty so the reason for this blog is to share with friends and family the waiting game...what we are doing to pass the time and update you on progress.

Last week we heard of a couple we know in Fulham who received their referral picture, they have been matched with a cute little one. We met them at a neighbour's party Xmas 2004 and their papers went to China in May 2005 ( ours August 2005 ) so it means that we still have to wait for those people from June and July ahead of us in the queue....The next step for us is to get this picture with the health report and then say yes...

Our papers I think are in the matching room now - There are some amazing photos of the matching room that I will try and link so that you can see hopefully where our papers are in Beijing....

Weekend by the Sea ....

Rob and Louise

What we are doing while we wait....!
We spent a fab weekend in October in Bournemouth with our lovely friends Gaby and Jonny and my godson James - this was on the beach at Southbourne near where they live...

waiting for nelly part one

this is the first blog that I have set up, learnt how to do it from the TV this morning - we are waiting to adopt our first child from China and really wanted to set up a little blog to share information with all those people who keep asking questions and to post pictures in the futrue before we go....when we are there and when we come home...