Adoption Process

Here is a high level view of the process to adopt.  We are working with 2 different adoption agencies.  One agency (our homestudy agency) is located here in our state and does our homestudy and our post-placement reports.  The 2nd agency is located out of state, and they are licensed to work with the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) in China.

  1. Application to the China agency.
  2. Application to the Homestudy agency.
  3. Homestudy.  The homestudy is comprised of 4 different meetings with a social worker.  S/he will talk to the prospective adoptive parents about themselves, their background, marriage, and parenting (or future parenting) style.  It also involves getting references, police background checks, marriage and birth certificates, physicals from the doctor indicating that physically you are capable of parenting and probably a few other things that I’m not remembering right now!  At the end of the homestudy the social worker will indicate whether the applicants are fit to be parents.
  4. Compiling the dossier.  The dossier is made up of a lot of the same documents that are required for our homestudy, plus some additions.  Here is a list of all the documents we needed for our homestudy:
    1. Adoption Petition.  This is a letter written by us that states why we want to adopt, what age and gender we’d like to adopt, and a few other bits of personal information.  The CCAA uses this to match a child with their future parents.
    2. Birth Certificates
    3. Marriage Certificate
    4. Employment Verifications
    5. Financial Statement.  Our assets and liabilities.
    6. Physical Exams
    7. Police Reports
    8. I-171H.  This is permission from USCIS (also known as Immigration) to bring an orphaned child into the United States.
    9. Home Study
    10. 3 Couple Photos
    11. 8 Family Life Photos
    12. 3 Passport photos (for each of us)
    13. Copies of our passports

Each of the documents listed above (besides the photos and our passports) have to be notarized and authenticated prior to being included in the dossier.  We also have to make a photocopy of all the documents and pictures listed above.

  1. Dossier Review.  Our China agency will review our dossier, translate it, and bind it together for the CCAA.
  2. The Wait.  During this time we are waiting our turn to be matched with a child.  The current wait time is 12 to 14 months, although this can and will change during the process.
  3. Child Match.  The CCAA will match us to the child they feel will fit into our family, based on the documents in our dossier.
  4. Travel.  We will travel to China 5 to 8 weeks after our match.  We will stay in China for 2 weeks to pick up our child and complete all the paperwork needed to make the adoption final.
  5. Home with our expanded family!!!  The time we’ve been dreaming about and wishing for will have finally arrived! :)