Good and bad news

SW is coming to visit us tomorrow for our last interview yeah!! that's the good news. The bad news is there is some changes to the adoption process. I took this from an adoption forum

"As expected, China announced changes to their Intercountry program at the meeting of agency representatives on December 8, 2006. The changes take effect on May 1, 2007 so will not affect those of you who have dossiers logged in already and are unlikely to affect you if your dossier will be logged in before May 1, 2007. While not exhaustive of what might come out in the formal statement of changes (other changes will be procedural and related to Hague and changes to the Special Needs Program), the main points are as follows:

New Eligibility Criteria to adopt from China, effective May 1, 2007:
· Applicants must be a married couple between 30 and 50 years of age to adopt through the regular program and between 30 and 55 years of age to adopt through the special needs program.
· Applicants must be married for a minimum of two years before applying. If either has been previous married, the current marriage must be of 5 years duration. Individuals with two previous marriages will be ineligible to adopt.
· Applicants must be free of communicable disease. There will be additional detail about health criteria but applicants will need to be able-bodied individuals free of mental health issues. (Determining what constitutes "free of mental health issues" will probable be the most challenging aspect of this.)
· Applicants must have a Body Mass Index (BMI - a ratio of weight and height) under 40.
· Applicants must have a minimum family income of $10,000 (USD) per family member including the child to be adopted.
· Applicants must have net assets of at least $80,000 USD
· Applicants must have a minimum of a high school education.
· Applicants can have no more that five children in the home including the child to be adopted. The youngest child in the home must be over one year of age at time dossier is submitted.
· Applicants must be free of Criminal Records. This is not a new requirement but its inclusion here suggests more stringent rules regarding past convictions.
· The Application fee is changing from $410 to $620 USD (probably effective January 1, 2007)."

Looking at those changes, the only thing that worry us the most is the BMI. I guess we still have some times to work on it before we submit our dossier to China.

Update

We have moved into our new house. I love it!. I cannot wait to have the last interview. And hopefully we'll have the homestudy done before the holiday.

All the reference letters are done except 1 from Matt's friend, Kevin. We got our fingerprint and interpol back. And also got the medical out of the way except I may have to go back and get another blood test. It's partly my fault because I didn't say anything when my doctor used the last year's test. Stupid me:( .

We found this night light at Pottery Barn Kids, isn't it cute?

Busy busy busy

OHMIGOD, today is one of the busiest day! got a call from our social workier last night. He wanted to change the venue since he won't be at work today. Then he called us back a few minutes later and asked if we don't mind meeting him at his home in the morning instead of in the afternoon. We agreed on that and left Goderich at 7 this morning. Got to his place on time at 10am. Had our 3rd interview, which he asked about our marriage. There were some tough questions. If on the 2nd interview he asked Matt most of the questions this time he asked me more than Matt. Oh well, it's over now. I cannot wait until we move in so that we can have the last interview which will take place in our house. We left around 12, drove back to Cambridge, had lunch and went straight to the bank for our mortgage approval @ 2pm. We left Cambridge around 3pm and went to another bank in Brampton. That wasn't the end......we then went to the Brick to buy washer and dryer. Got that out of the way, thank God.

I'm so glad we are home now.

Where we are...

We had the 2nd interview with the social worker last Tuesday. It was pretty tough, question after question about ourselves and our families, i'm so glad it is over. The next interview will be on November 6. Our social worker said that he will try to finish the homestudy as soon as he can. That means, we have to get all the paperworks ready. I have booked our medical exam the other day. Matt's appointment is on monday and mine is not until Nov 14, which is 2 weeks away!. We also have to go get fingerprint and interpol clearence done. We are hoping that the homestudy will be done before the end of the year.

Name

It might sounds crazy but we already have a name for our girl. We decided to name her "FAYE", we haven't picked the middle name yet, we're thinking "LI" but we'll decide later when we find out her chinese name. I think it's easier for us to talk about "Faye" instead of "our baby" right?.

The name origin and meaning of Faye
Name: Faye
Gender: (Female)
Origin: French
Meaning: Fairy

Where we are...

We had the 2nd interview with the social worker last Tuesday. It was pretty tough, question after question about ourselves and our families, I'm so glad it was over. The next interview will be on November 6. Our social worker said that he will try to finish the homestudy as soon as he can. That means, we have to get all the paperworks ready. I have booked our medical exam the other day. Matt's appointment is on monday and mine is not until Nov 14, which is 2 weeks away!. We also have to go get fingerprint and interpol done. I hope i can get police report from indonesia soon. We both hope that the homestudy will be done before the end of the year.

First entry

Welcome, we have created this blog to share our journey to adopt a baby girl from People's Republic of China. Currently the process takes between 18 - 24 months from start to finish. Please join us as we go through every little steps towards becoming our baby girl's forever family.