VISAS and SWINE FLU

Yesterday we drove up to Bern in order to get our travel visas at the Chinese Embassy there.  (I will spare you from looking at photos of the process!) 

The lady at the desk behind the teller window was a typical functionary who doesn't look you in the eye and waves off any questions you might have.   She was an older Chinese lady, but spoke good French and looked like she might have been processing visas for a very, very long time.

When she saw "purpose of trip - adoption" she suddenly became very cheerful and animated, asked us all kinds of questions.  To the alarm of those behind us in line, Dino handed her Hong Mei's photos through the slot, and she proceeded to show them to everyone in the waiting room!   

So, the visa is done!  One less bureaucratic hurdle to surmount!

THAT'S BAD:  On the downside, when we got home we noticed that the WHO bumped H1 N1 Flu up to a level 6 pandemic.   Hong Mei's province has been blocking adoption-related travel for several weeks due to pandemic fears, so this may slow down our travel plans temporarily.    

THAT'S GOOD:  On the other hand, we heard that other parents have just been authorised to buy their airplane tickets to that region.   So we will still plan to travel sometime in July until we hear otherwise.  

My new mantra:  One step at a time!

NEXT STEPS

The first thing we had to do after receiving Hong Mei's referral was to sign and return the Letter Seeking Confirmation.  This is where we officially agree to accept Hong Mei and continue with the process.

There is no way in a million years we would not accept Hong Mei's referral!  In fact, we did not even have her medical file checked by a pediatrician first.   When you are adopting from China, you get ONE referral.  Unless the baby has a medical condition that the adoptive parents do not feel equipped to deal with, there is no way to "exchange" one referral for another.  That said, problems of this nature are rare and they tend to match the babies and parents quite well.

WHEN?

We have just sent back our confirmation that we accept the baby (YES!)  and now we will wait for a travel authorisation from the Chinese government.  That typically comes in 4 - 6 weeks.  Then we can travel to China a couple weeks after that.  So if things go in a "typical" way, we will travel sometime in mid- or late July.

In the meantime, we will drive up to the Chinese embassy in Bern to get a visa, and we are debating whether we want any additional vaccines...  Other than that all systems are go! 

OUR DAUGHTER!!!

We got our referral early this morning!!

Chen Hong Mei   

Guizhou Province, China

Birthdate: 13 April, 2008

She has one tooth, and shouts Yi-Ya (just like Dino!)

THIS MAY BE IT!

Very exciting!!!  It seems that the referrals are arriving from China, and with our Log In Date of 3/14/06 we should be in this group!  Now we just wait to hear from our adoption agency!!

It's Dino's name day so we will take our mobile phones out to dinner and hope to hear something about our new family member!  

RUMOURS

China does not give us much information about their adoption process.  Basically you submit your file, you are approved a short time after that, then you wait in a queue until it is your turn to be matched with a child.    In the meantime, you get little or no information.  For us, this blind waiting has been going on for 3+ years.

Therefore, we've joined groups of other adoptive families on the internet who share information that they may have received from their adoption agencies, or anything they may have heard from friends in China.  For 3 years, I have been following the blog of an anonymous woman known as the "Rumour Queen,"  who posts the latest news in Chinese adoption.  Literally thousands of families around the world consult her site every day. 

Every month, China sends out the referrals (the dossier for a family's assigned baby with a photo, name, and details) and families post this information on the site for others to see.  This helps us keep track of how fast people are moving through the queue. 

However, we are on a bit of a rollercoaster because no families received referrals this last month AND WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THAT GROUP!  The rumours collected and reported by the Rumour Queen have been all over the map.  Was Swine Flu prohibiting parents from picking up their new babies in China?  Why did China stop sending out the dossiers to the waiting families?  Are there new visa requirements for people travelling to China due to pandemic fears?   The explanations provided by the different adoption agencies conflict with each other.

THE LATEST RUMOUR:  As of today,  we finally have a consensus.  Agencies around the globe uniformly report that the Chinese authorities have mailed the referrals, and that we should be included in this group.... Let's see if we get that important phone call in the next couple of days!  Fingers crossed!

WHO ARE THE BABIES UP FOR ADOPTION?

   China's "One Child Policy" is a misnomer, as many families in China qualify to have 2 children.  It is safe to say, however, that their national family planning policy is extremely strict and there are large penalties imposed on those who have children outside the regulations.   For cultural reasons, boys are preferred over girls, particularly in rural areas, so girls make up a huge percentage of the children in orphanages.

    It is illegal to abandon a child in China.  Those parents who have carefully left a baby in a public area so that it may be found and taken to an orphanage are almost always anonymous and untraceable.

  

    We have not been matched with our baby yet, but typically it will be a girl, around 12 months old, and with only minor medical issues.  There is a slim chance that we will be matched with a boy, and a slim chance that we could be matched with twins.