A blog about Activities.
Real Name: Kevin Morrison Gender: male Date of Birth: December 19, 1973 Member Since: April 10, 2008 Last Signed In: November 20, 2008 Profile Views: 561 Blog Views: 2716 Crickets Christmas Stories SAHD and BC the vote Anybody home? Mac or PC? Facebook? getting closer she said... April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 
RSS 2.0    |
|
|
It's a Girl!!!
We're expecting! Actually we have been since May 2006 and will be probably until Summer 2010 or beyond. We're adopting a baby girl from China, and the process is a long one. Some of you have heard this story, but for the rest, I'll step back to the beginning. Jill and I both wanted to adopt before we even met each other. So when we DID meet each other, the adoption was pretty much already in the plans. We met in April 2000, got married in June 2001, had Layton in June 2002, and Holly in December 2004. Then we started researching adoption possibilities, starting with the foundation of wanting to adopt from China. We went with Children's Hope International, based on the recommendation of a friend of the family. That was a great decision. CHI has been wonderful! We began filling out paperwork on Mothers' Day 2006. That was my mothers' day gift to Jill, that I would get over my financial reservations and take the leap of faith. We had to rush to complete our documents for our dossier, to get it submitted to China before May 2007, when they would be tightening their qualifications financially. We would be eliminated from eligibility if we did not get our papers in before that. So We got our LID "Log In Date" of April 17, 2007. When we started the paperwork process, the estimated time from LID to child referral was 14 months. So many people have started adopting from China that when we actually got our LID, the estimate was up to two years. But their estimating formula was flawed because it was based on people who were currently getting referrals and not taking into account the much larger numbers of applicants coming in after them. So we are looking at a worst case scenario of a 4 year wait from April 17, 2007. It's a struggle in patience. Much of our paperwork is expiring now and we have to update it all, including new fees for the updates. We may actually have to do that twice thanks to the slow moving Chinese Adoption Council. The wait is not for a lack of babies. The one child per family laws are still enforced over there and hundreds of thousands of baby girls are abandoned yearly. The wait is because the Chinese will not increase their work to accomodate the larger number of applicants. I guess they'd rather have orphanages bursting at the seems than find families for all these poor girls. Anyway, that's what we're doing. And we want to be of help to anyone else considering or going through the adoption process. We know most of the details for several other countries and can answer a lot on international adoption. Our Baby Girl's name is Ileah ("eye-lee-yah") and she is growing in our hearts even though she is not even conceived yet in China. We're basically in line for an abandoned baby that will probably not even be born until 2010. Pray for our patience! :-)
5 comments from 4 users
1
posted by
Mary
on Apr 25, 2008 at 09:19 PM
It's a really brave and wonderful thing you are doing! A friend of mine has also been going through the option processfor a baby from China and after piles of paperwork and waiting and waiting, she just got word this week of a 10 month old boy there ready for her to adopt this week. She is looking forward to going to China in the next few months and bringing him home here to Bakersfield. I told her about your blog, so I am hoping she will contact you so that you can trade "war stories" so to speak. I am sure all of the waiting will be worth it once you get her in your arms!
posted by
kevinmorrison
on Apr 25, 2008 at 10:33 PM
We would love to hear from her. It would be very encouraging! posted by
bushelandapeck
on Apr 26, 2008 at 12:21 AM
We are in process for adoption #2, also from China. And, we are LID April 2007 like you! The wait is excruciating. And yes, it is time to renew paperwork. May and June will be full of getting the paperwork done - AGAIN! One reason, and a biggie, for the increased wait is there are so many more adoptive parent applicants now, and the children in China are not paper ready. International law required that a child be legally "abandoned," but the child must also legally exist, and that means each child must have a birth certificate before being adopted. A birth certificate in China costs $300 (nothin' is free, just like here in the U.S.), and the social welfare institutes do not have the funds to get each child "paper ready." Our adoption agency is trying to raise funds to go toward getting children paper ready. Another thought I and others have had is - will the process speed up some after the Olympics? Just wondering and hoping! Guangzhou was in process of passing law stating familes could have as many children as they like when we were there. Poverty is a significant factor in the number of children in the SWIs. Having a male child is the "welfare system" in some parts of China, but certainly not all. And in urban areas, more and more women are leaving their children at SWIs, for they value their relatively new found freedom to pursue education and career, so they don't want a child interrupting their pursuit of independence. Interesting stuff. We feel your pain. We really feel your pain. Guess we'll be traveling around the same time! posted by
kevinmorrison
on Apr 26, 2008 at 07:14 AM
WoW! Even the same LID month! Some days we feel like we are stranded on an island by ourselves. We should get together sometime. I know my wife (and I too) would love to hear about your first experience and meet your daughter. And how cool would it be for the two gifts we are bringing back to Bakersfield to be friends?? What agency are you going through? We have 23 families in our LID group just from our agency and they work it so we basically all travel together. Does it work the same way for you? What day in April is your LID? This is way cool! I'm already totally encouraged! posted by
HeatherIjames
on May 1, 2008 at 05:35 PM
congrats kevin!! i'll be praying for you!
1
|