We Are Taking A Leap Of Faith

Matt and I have decided to remain very open to young special needs kiddos. But, we don't want to simply accept just any child; we want to ensure we find the "right" child, the child who we were meant for. For example, when we saw C's file for the first time, it didn't matter what else may have been "wrong" with her, because we knew instantly that we were going to bring her home. So, anytime we review a child's file, we're going to bear that in mind.

Now all we needed to do was find an agency who we felt comfortable with. We have decided to take a "leap of faith" and dive right into working with a new agency. They are CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International) and have a good reputation within the Chinese adoption community. They seem to provide much of the same services as CHI (Children's Hope International, our previous agency, who we absolutely adore) for almost $2,000 cheaper. CCAI only works with Chinese adoptions so they can cut some of their costs. We'll soon see if we made the right choice!

In addition, because CCAI doesn't have an office in our state, we had to locate a home study agency that is also Hague approved. I think we may have found that agency at a much cheaper cost (we'll save about $500). He is actually ready to start the home study on Monday evening, so we're really excited. He will visit us at least 4 times, for at least an hour for each visit.

CCAI believes that, depending on the state you reside in and how fast you can gather your documents, the paperchase (the part of International Adoption where you gather all of your vital and supporting documents) should take between 3 and 5 months. We're hoping to cut it down to the bare minimum. With C's adoption we did it in just less than 3 months. We can only hope that, having had the experience and knowing what documents we need, we can complete the process in that time or less, giving us an earlier DTC (Dossier To China) date. This, in turn, will allow us to receive an earlier LID (Log In Date). Obviously, DTC is the date your Dossier is sent to China. The LID is the date that the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) officially receives your Dossier and is where your Dossier is waiting, qued in line, for the referral of your child.

Our CCAI adoption application is, as of yesterday, on its way to the head office in Colorado. We should know within 5 days of them receiving it if we are approved or not. Wish us luck!!!