The mysterious rooms at the CCAA

Okay, so I've done a bit of research, and this is how it works:

Stage One: Translation The CCAA needs to make sure that all documents in a dossier sent are translated into Mandarin. The workers in the Translation Room make sure that all the parts of the parental dossier are translated in Mandarin. Our dossier (from America) was written in English and so all the paperwork needed to be re-written in Mandarin so that the CCAA workers could read it. Dossiers from other countries are sent in other languages - Dutch, Swedish, Spanish...they all need to be re-worded into Mandarin so that all the CCAA workers can read them. Parental dossiers have a lot of pieces to them and translating them can take a long time.

Stage Two: Review . After a dossier is translated, it goes to the Review Room. The CCAA has a set of rules that adoptive parents must follow to be able to adopt a child from China. These rules are there to protect China's children and try to make sure that only the most qualified parents are allowed to adopt. In the Review Room, CCAA workers read through the documents in hopeful parent dossiers and check to make sure that all the paperwork is in order. If there is a problem with a dossier - this is where it would be found. The CCAA would then ask for more information regarding that set of parents and sometimes decides that some prospective parents will not be allowed to adopt from China.

Most parental dossiers that are sent follow all the rules and regulations of the CCAA and are approved.

Stage Three: Matching In this final stage - families who have passed review are sent to the Matching Room. In this room are all the dossiers of children whose information has been sent by their SWIs to find them a family. The workers in this room have the very important task of matching the right family to each child.

In the case of a special needs child, the match has already been made, so the matching room process is very fast.

Here is a blog with some pictures of the various rooms at the CCAA.

So much for the Magic 8 Ball

I can't believe it was wrong!! It has been right about everything else so far! Someone with the same LOI as we have told me that her file was "in translation." I don't know what that means...but it sounds suspicious to me. She said next it goes to the review room, then to the matching room (which is a no-brainer, since we are already technically matched), then the LOA gets signed and sent out. Sometimes I think these rooms are just imaginary places that the agencies invent to get us off their backs, "You want to know about your dossier? Let me see what the CCAA says...let's see...oh yes! Here it is! It's in the um...um...the metamorphosis room. Yeah. That's right. It's turning into a butterfly as we speak. We should hear something in about...three weeks."

Which is about how long I think it will be...

Waiting sucks.

Tomorrow is the day.

I asked the Magic 8 Ball if we would get our LOA tomorrow.

"Signs point to yes."

I wonder, though, what time zone the magic 8 ball is in...

I don't think this is our week

One of the assistants at our agency emailed me about some paperwork to which I replied "does this mean our LOA is on its way?!"

Her reponse: "No. We haven't heard anything about your LOA. Sorry."

Not looking good for this week.

The march towards organization

As we get closer (we could travel in two short months--TWO MONTHS. This is just starting to sink in), I am starting to get Nora's room together. I haven't gone so far as to move furniture or paint, but I'm starting to throw things away and organize. There are boxes that haven't been unpacked since we moved into this house 18 months ago. I cleaned my office. I bought stackable trays. I filed things. I threw away two file boxes full of receipts. I cleaned off a bookshelf for Nora--you know, the bookshelf where, heretofore, things have been put that have no other home. On that bookshelf there was a cup, a bobby pin, old pictures from college, two candles, a pair of biking gloves, an ipod shuffle that no longer works, jewelry, an empty box, a diagram of yoga postures, and someone's sock. These are just a few things, besides a stray book or two.

In response to my rampant cleaning, my husband commented "there must be something else you really don't want to do." Well...yes. There's that pesky tenure thing. But there are a lot of things on my list of things to do, and cleaning the house in preparation for the baby is on that list. I don't consider the list to be hierarchical. I consider it to be more of a "montage" of things that need to be done, all of which have equal value. If I check off "clean bookshelf," it has as much value as "apply for promotion." And, it's a lot easier.

I've also been madly ordering books from Amazon on attachment and adoption. And I ordered two kids books: I Love you Like Crazy Cakes and Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale. Hence, the cleaning of the bookshelf!

And here's a great, great article on adoption that my friend sent me: Do Parents Feel Differently About Their Adoptive Children Than Their Offspring? -- New York Magazine

What to do on a Sunday

Check out the virtual bubble wrap.

Oh how I hate the weekends!

I never thought I'd write that, but it's become a truth. I just pass the time as best I can until Monday comes, with more news! This was a great week for a lot of families, so I shouldn't whine. We'll be able to celebrate soon, and I have plenty to keep me busy.

For instance, I've been convinced by a far more creative mom than I to get going on a scrapbook for Nora. This has actually been great fun (now that I'm over my initial fear of glue sticks). Putting all of Nora's things in one place almost feels like "cleaning," so it seems like a perfectly reasonable, and even productive, thing to do when I don't feel like working on my tenure portfolio.

Also, I've been weeding the "therapy wall" as my husband calls it. I had the therapy wall built at the end of last fall, to replace the grassy double black diamond hillside that was my side yard and lawnmowing nightmare. It's a south-facing, two-terrace stone wall, so now I have a couple hundred square feet more garden to manage--which I love. It's beautiful. It's cathartic. It's the therapy wall. My husband says there is a flower for every day we've been waiting for our LOA--he doesn't know the half of it.

We're next

We're the next family (with our agency) expecting LOA.

It'll be any day now.

Hoping for next week?

This has been a big week for the May families! We haven't gotten our LOA, but others near our dates have. And many, many families got their travel approvals from China this week. This means they will travel to pick up their children in mid- to late-September. Even if we got our LOA today, we would not get approval to travel until late October.

Today, I somehow found myself at the Greenhouse Summer Sale and I accidentally bought an umbrella for our deck (50% off! Honestly, it would have been wrong not to buy it). I also found some really pretty paper flowers to decorate Nora's room. Little by little I'm sneaking things into the house for the nursery. And I bought her first stuffed animal! Of course...a dog.

Instructions for Nora's 100 GWQ

Here are just a few of the good wishes we've received so far.

Thanks, friends!

If you would like to contribute to this major undertaking...uh...small project for our daughter, here's how:

1. Choose any 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be from a piece of clothing or from a fabric store. It just needs to have a design and color that you like.
2. Cut one 8" square from the fabric.
3. On a 4x6 index card, put a small piece of the fabric (so Nora will be able to match your wish to your square) and include your "good wish note." Please include your name and address and anything else you'd like on the note (on mine, I put my name, my address, our LID, and a quote in addition to my wish for the child). The fabric will be used to make a quilt, and the notes will be placed in a scrapbook which we will give to Nora when she is older.

IDEAS FOR SELECTING FABRIC SQUARES:
* Select a fabric that is meaningful to you, or that you just like a lot.
* 100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears better.
* If there are several members in your family, please feel free to send more than one good wish note and pieces of fabric. In China, these quilts were originally made from the garments of family and friends surrounding the child with luck and good wishes.

100 Good Wishes Quilt

How do I keep myself busy you wonder, while I wait for the beautiful Nora? I speak for myself here because my dear husband is completely oblivious ("Just tell me when I have to start packing my bags"). I'm honestly not sure he even knows exactly how old our daughter is--although technically nobody does, so I can't fault him for that. And if he had a clue how much time and money I've spent buying cute outfits for this kid...oy vey. It's important for me to clarify that we keep separate accounts (one for his hobbies, one for my hobbies, and one for the house--which neither of us pays much attention to; we just pray there is enough in it). He doesn't care what I do with my money and I don't care what he does with his, but he does care that I don't jinx things. He's afraid that the amount of money I spend on the baby now is directly proportional to how long we will wait for our LOA. If his theory (i.e. totally irrational superstition) is right, Nora will be home just in time for her 18th birthday.

So, how do I cope? How do I pass the time when I'm not lurking around the baby consignment shops in town?

I'm making a quilt.

(I'm giving you all plenty of time to process this information).

Do I know anything about quilting? No. Do I even know anything about sewing? No. Have I ever made a quilt? Yes! Yes I have! I made a quilt for my boyfriend in college (okay who does that?). It took me 6 months and then his dog ate part of it. I dumped him, of course. Incidentally, he turned out to be a great dad and husband, despite his irresponsible treatment of my quilt.

So this will be my second sewing adventure, for which I've purchased many fancy and costly implements (I don't know if this counts against our LOA or not), the coolest of which is a rotary cutter (think pizza). For the first quilt, I used a pair of dull scissors and a ruler, the unfortunate consequence of which was the downsizing of the aforementioned "boyfriend quilt" from a queen size to a twin. For Nora, I'm making a "100 Good Wishes Quilt." To welcome and celebrate a new life, a tradition exists in the northern part of China, to make a Bai Jia Bei (a.k.a. 100 Good Wishes Quilt). Friends and family contribute squares of cloth along with their wish for the baby. The quilt is said to contain the luck and energy from everyone who contributed a piece of fabric.

This is the design for Nora's quilt (it's the "100 good wishes quilt for dummies" model):



I'll post some of the squares and wishes I've received so far, once I have a little bit of time to take some pictures.

Any day now

Someone with an LID after ours got their letter of acceptance today! That is great news for them, and for us. It means we can expect to hear at any time. The bad news is, it could be tomorrow, next week or next month (or, in the event that our paperwork is entirely lost--which would be my luck--possibly never).

I am building character. I am learning patience. I am living in the moment.

That's what people say to you when they are trying to make you feel better about ALL THE WAITING YOU MUST ENDURE. But I don't need more character, and I think patience is highly overrated as a personal trait.

Let the games begin

The CCAA is getting closer. Two families just ahead of us (5/28 and 5/29) got their LOAs today. Neither were with our agency, and our agency is not expecting any today. This stinks, but sometimes our agency is wrong. They sometimes get notified that documents have been sent after they have arrived...(I don't ask questions anymore. I just walk blindly towards the light).

Stay tuned for (hopefully) more fun to come this week.

Small disclaimer

The author wishes to acknowledge that the views expressed in Sunday's post are definitely projections of her frustrations over waiting...and waiting...and waiting without a shred of information as to when the waiting will subside.

(i.e. I'm not judging anyone for his or her choices. I'm just needing to yell).

drip, drip, drip

A couple of TAs trickled in yesterday and today, and there is a package on its way to our agency, but no one knows (or will say) what's inside. It has probably arrived in Utah, but everyone at the office has likely gone home for the weekend (how dare they go home before 7:00 p.m. on a Friday!!!!).

Mondays are always good days in adoptionland.

In the meantime, I'm sending our darling another care package. I've ordered six dozen "cleft bottles" for her orphanage. Lord knows how much it will cost me to ship them (I had to have them delivered to my house first). I know there is at least one other child at Wanzhou who has an unrepaired cleft palate. Cleft bottles have a special tip that makes getting the liquid out easier. Having a cleft in your palate makes sucking virtually impossible, which is why these kids are at risk for malnutrition.

That's why it's called a rumor

ru·mor (rū'mər) n.
1. A piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth (or email, or blog, or yahoo group)
2. Unverified information received from another; hearsay.

Things are starting to get interesting again! Someone else posted on RQ that LOAs and TAs are expected tomorrow. At least one person was told her TA is in the mail and due to arrive on Friday.

Rumors, rumors

Today I saw a post on the Rumor Queen site that "the person who hands out LOAs in on vacation this week."

This is entertaining to me on a several levels. First, the mere fact that there is only one person doing this job kind of gives me a giggle (while it simultaneously makes me a little depressed). Second, is there no one else at the CCAA who can sign documents and drop them in the mail? Surely this is a job that someone else can be trained to do. Then again, there is a lot to be said for job security (I'm in the middle of my tenure review...so this particular point is not lost on me). Finally, the vacationing is seemingly constant at this agency! I want to work at the CCAA. And I think they'd be happy to have me--as I write this from my office, where I am technically not being paid to be, but probably will be, for the next seven weeks (I know, I shouldn't really be complaining about probably underpaid employees at the CCAA taking a week off here and there when I get nearly 3 months off per calendar year).

Oh well, C'est la vie. We'll just hope for some good news next week!

Nada.

No one that I know of got anything today from any agency anywhere. That makes this Monday a particularly strange Monday in the world of special needs adoption.

Another Monday just around the corner

I haven't heard any rumors of LOAs coming tomorrow, but they came every Monday in July, so I'm keepin' my fingers and toes crossed. As I have posted in the past, LOAs seem to be sent out by agency. There are three or four families in our agency that have LIDs ahead of ours. This means it's not likely that we'll hear this time around. After getting the pictures of Nora, I emailed our agency about our dossier (Where is it? Has it been united with our Letter of Intent for Nora? Is there any way to find out if we're in review yet?). Someone at the agency is going to contact someone in China and maybe we will find out something this week. Hard to say really. At the very least, someone's awareness will be raised. This might result in action...somewhere.

Today I had lunch with a friend in Canada (to disambiguate that sentence, my friend lives in Canada and we also had lunch in Canada). Apparently, she is not a great friend because I just found out that she has been waiting to adopt a sibling group from the Ukraine for over TWO YEARS! I've known her for four years. She was so excited to hear about our adoption--I'm not such a good secret-keeper...I know this comes as a shock to no one. She and her husband applied a while back and then the country closed their adoption program for 8 months, and now they are "at the top of the list" for a match. It's hard to know what that means with any international adoption.

The rule in international adoption: YOU HAVE NO CONTROL.

You don't have a little bit of control. You have none.

And you look into those big brown eyes and worry that she's not eating enough, that she's not playing enough, that she's not being held enough, that she's not talking enough; and every day she's getting older without you.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Close up

Here's our girl!

She looks so sad in these pictures! But how beautiful is she? And she's got a tooth! It looks like her tooth might be coming in pretty straight in the area of the cleft. It's hard to tell from these photos, though. We just won't know much until we can see the craniofacial team. Obviously, she's had no repairs yet, and she's had her hair cut for the summer (common in orphanages).

That is a little girl who needs her mom!

Stay tuned for excitement to come

We just got an email from Adele at Blessed Kids.

She has FIVE recent pictures of Nora from the orphanage!

We have already paid her a silly amount of money to see these pictures, and are just awaiting their arrival anxiously (Okay only I am waiting anxiously).

LOAs are rolling in...and I've clearly gone off the deep end.

Monday is apparently a good day for LOAs. Yesterday, about 10 families received their "Letters of Acceptance/Seeking Confirmation of the adoptive parent." The CCAA has sent LOAs to families whose dossiers were logged-in on or before May 17th, 2007 (special needs applications). A few families got "skipped"--such a bummer, and nobody really understands why this happens. It just does. That's the way international adoption goes.

Of course, this will happen to us. It just will. I'm prepared to wait (says the woman who can't wait for anything). If we're lucky, we will hear something in two or three weeks, at which point, it will be too late for us to make arrangements to travel before the quarter starts, and probably even before November.

Here's the reason. In October, lots of things happen in China. Things related to commerce and celestial bodies (moons and such). Things that close government offices (i.e. the CCAA). Things that cause airline fees to rise astronomically (as if it were not expensive enough to fly to China).

First, we have the "Autumn Moon Festival" or the "Mid-Autumn Festival." It's a celebration of the harvest, and apparently the 14th century uprising against the Mongols, and there is a lot of cake eating...moon cake eating. Here is a funny quote from a travel page:

"Admire the moon and all its Taoist connections, whilst stuffing your face with the delicious mooncakes prepared for the occasion. The Moon Festival is always on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month and takes place in green spaces and parks all over China, so wherever you are, you should be able to find the Moon and the cakes!" I just like the "stuffing your face" part.

This celebration occurs on a different day each year, and this year falls on September 25th and is apparently followed by a national holiday that starts on October 1st and continues through the first week of October. Bad week to travel. Bad week to adopt...as the CCAA will be closed that week.

[you might be asking yourself right now, as I myself have, "why can't we just fly to China and get her?" Also, you might be thinking, as I myself have, "how many holidays do the Chinese take?" These questions are simply not worth answering. They are not even worth asking anymore. I'm exhausted just from thinking about them.]

Following the Moon Festival is the Trade Show in Guangzhou. This takes place from October 15th-30th (or thereabouts). It's crazy expensive to travel during that time, by some accounts, three- to four-times as expensive as any other time of year. I don't even know what happens during the trade show. But it's a big deal, and no one goes to China during that time...unless they're "trading" stuff. Certainly no one goes for the silly reason of...picking up their child!

Anyway October is out for us.

Of course, there doesn't seem to be any good time to travel to China. If you travel in August, you run into "The Festival of the Hungry Ghosts." Not as popular, perhaps, as the Moon Festival, but I'm sure brings in the tourist dollars.

In other exciting news, there are several families in China right now, picking up their little ones! Check out "Shen's blog" (bottom right) for some fun stuff!

And check out this wonderful blog (if you are strong enough to turn down any of these cute little faces):

http://lwbchinablog.blogspot.com/

That's all for now. My thanks to "Ling" for talking me through my computer problems this afternoon (for two hours) and enabling me to get back on line to craft this lengthy post.

More Chongqing Attractions

I'm grading final exams (I've been sitting here on the couch, in my PJs since 8:00 a.m.--it's 4:30). My students are super-sweet, so it's fine. It's just hard on a beautiful, sunny Saturday to stay motivated to read student writing of variable quality. And there is only so much anthropomorphism I can take in one day (ex: "this paper basically says that blah blah blah..." Remember kids, an inanimate object "basically" can't speak!!!!). I do love them, though. Yesterday, one of the undergraduate students asked how my tenure application is coming along (um...it's not) and then asked if there was anything else he could do for me. I told him not to worry; they won't fire me until after he graduates. He seemed relieved by that and then no longer felt compelled to do anything on my behalf.

Anyway, back to my point.

I'm looking for diversions from grading. I found a site for Chongqing tourism. Here is a brief description of the Chongqing zoo, with a picture of some pandas!

"The zoo is located at the western suburb of the main urban area. It occupies more than 60 hectares of land and there are 230 kinds of more than 4500 rare and precious wild animals shown in this zoo throughout the year, among them 80 percent of the animals belong to world rare species and national protected important animals. Pandas are most popular among those. In the Panda Ground at the foot of a hill and by a little stream, visitors can see charmingly native giant and lesser pandas and their offspring. Visitors can actually play with them and take pictures with them."



We'll get to play and take pictures with Pandas?! What's a hectare, though? We will definitely take Nora to the zoo--I'm quite certain she's never seen a zoo! This will be cool. It will prepare her for her new life...in our very own "dog zoo."

Wanzhou

Nora is in the Wanzhou Social Welfare Institute, located about 350 kilometers northeast of the capital city of Chongqing. Wanzhou is a small, mountainous city, known as "the gateway to East Sichuan." Apparently, Wanzhou is a big agricultural area, known for its peaches, tangerines, and oranges, as well as silk spinning and weaving.

The big tourist attraction is the acrobatic show! There is also a farmers market where local crafts are sold. We SO wish we could visit! We might not get to visit the SWI, but I think we'll try to visit Wanzhou in any case. It will probably be our only opportunity to see where Nora was born. I've read that we can take a cruise to Wanzhou from Chongqing; if we have time, we'll certainly do that! It looks beautiful.

More pictures...

Here is the "official" Chongqing website.

When you look at this map, you can see that Nora's SWI is pretty far away from the capital area. She is in Wanzhou, which is about 4 hours NW by bus from where we will meet her. If you click on the map, it will open up into a larger window and you can see Wanzhou more clearly--follow the Yangtze river from Chongqing northeast. We will probably not get to visit her SWI, unfortunately.


Here are a few more pictures of Chongqing:

A bit more about Nora's home

Since I'm waiting around for news this morning (and clealy avoiding work), I thought it would be a good time to talk a little bit about where Nora is from. Technically, I guess, we don't know that she is from Chongqing. We know that she was found at the door of the Wanzhou SWI in Chongqing, but we don't know that she was born in that area. It seems like a reasonable assumption, though.

Chongqing not a province (like Hunan, or Sichuan). It is considered a municipality and it is the largest and most densely populated municipality directly under the Central Government. Chongqing is called "Yu" for short. It is situated in the southeast of the Sichuan Basin at the confluence between the Yangtze River and the Jialing River.

I stole this from the Chongqing English Language Website:
Chongqing abounds in biological resources, ore and waterpower as well as the Three Gorges tourist resources. Being the largest industrial and commercial center in southwest China, Chongqing boasts comprehensive industries of advanced iron and steel, chemicals, electric power, automobile manufacturing, machine-building, shipbuilding, construction materials, textiles, and foodstuff. Chongqing is also the land and water communication hub in southwest China. The port of Chongqing is the biggest in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Known as a "Mountain City", Chongqing was constructed on the mountain slopes and along the riversides. It has a long history and numerous scenic spots and historic sites. Because the city is very hilly it is the only major metropolitan area in China without significant numbers of bicycles. It is renowned in particular for gardens with unique beauty. Famous tourist sites include the stone carvings in Dazu County, the Three Gorges scenery, the South Hot Spring Park, the North Hot Spring Park, and Red Crag Memorial Museum.

Chongqing is one one of the largest cities in the world and is the economic center; hub of waterways, land, and air transportation in Southwest China with busy rivers and highways radiating in all directions; and an inland river port with foreign trade in the west of China; an integrated industrial city with balance developed agriculture

Chongqing is also referred to as "Yu", the "Mountain City", the "River City"; the "Foggy City"; the "Furnace City"; and the "Gateway to the West".

LOAs arrived at our agency yesterday...

...but we didn't get one. We aren't surprised really, since the CCAA has to get through all of May before they can start on June, but it would have been a nice treat! Another family from our group who was logged-in for NSN last May got their LOA yesterday after only 35 days! That seems to be a pretty typical time-frame for families who have been waiting a long time in the traditional program. Once a family's dossier is submitted for NSN, it has to be reviewed by the CCAA. Once it has been reviewed, a match can be made. However, the wait between review and match can be quite long for NSN families (to give an idea, the June 2006 dossiers have just been reviewed, but the CCAA has only matched the families whose dossiers were logged in before November 14th, 2005). Obviously for SN, you are matched immediately, and then your file gets reviewed. During the review process, the CCAA can ask for more medical, financial, family, or background information. This can take time, so it's a good idea not to leave any stone unturned when preparing your dossier. This other family, who waited only 35 days for their LOA, had already gone through review, so they were processed very quickly.