The Paper Chase

We began our adoption effort in October of 2003 by selecting and adoption agency in McLean, VA that specializes in China adoption, and mailing our application. America World is a faith-based agency, which requires a salvation statement from each of its families. This was important to us since the families with whom we’ll travel with will probably be linked with ours the rest of our lives. Our home study agency was also chosen because of their statement of faith.



Documents



This phase is popularly known as the “paper chase” to all those in the process of adoption. Our first paperwork was submitted to the CIS on November 10, 2003. This included birth certificates, marriage license, and fingerprint cards for FBI background checks. In addition to these documents, we had to obtain local police reports, driving records, home inspections, physical exams, employment letters, financial statements, four letters of reference-which some of you were so kind to provide, a letter to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) stating our wishes and promising never to abandon our child, passports, additional fingerprints, child abuse clearances, guardianship arrangement and photo pages of our home and family.



Documents had to be obtained from various places in MI, IA, AZ and CA. In each case, whether obtained from an agency or created by others, or us, the document was certified by the agency or notarized. Each certified or notarized document was submitted to the Secretary of State, so they could authenticate the authority of the person who signed it. As you can imagine, the packages mailed and received constituted a whirlwind, and naturally, there was a fee to be paid for each document at each step.




Home Study


Our home study agency is Family Connections in Ventura, CA. We contacted them early in the process and on October 8,2003 we attended our first informational seminar. This was the first of many trips. Our school district was gracious enough to allow us to use personal days in order to complete the 6 hour round trip. The fact that they were located in Ventura, right by the beach, made our visits extra special! Mark and I attended several classes and interviews. The kids were able to come with us over Christmas break and visit the agency. It was an enjoyable and exciting time for Mark and I as we anticipated the arrival of our new daughter. Our social worker made the trip to Tehachapi on January 29,2004. Mark, myself, Nick, Amy, mom, and dad, sat in the living room and had a great conversation with our social worker. She also did a home inspection.



Mark and I were required to complete a profile of unbelievable detail about our lives and one another. During the study there was considerable focus on the stability of our marriage and our children’s views on gaining a sister. Nick and Amy are both excited about the idea and had no problem sharing their views with the social worker. It took nearly 4 months to receive the written report of our meetings as our social worker was laid off in the middle of writing her report! Looking back, this was definitely the most difficult time of the process. We were unable to do anything to help speed up the process (except pray). On April 2, 2004 our complete home study was sent to Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) and our fingerprint appointment was made for April 9,2004. The next anticipated document was the approval to adopt. Many families across the country were waiting weeks, some even months for this piece of paper. Ours came eight days later and we were thrilled!!! This was the last piece of paper necessary for our dossier (what the file that goes to China is called) and we were nearly done! If you had told me in October that I’d still be working on this in May I’d have said NO WAY!!! What is the saying….

"Man makes plans, and God laughs”.


Now the scary part, this precious group of documents had to be sent to the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles for authentication. Of course it couldn’t be a totally smooth venture, we watched as our entire dossier went to the wrong city on the Fed Ex truck!! To say we were stressed is an understatement. After much prayer, some phone calls (and sleep loss) our dossier arrived in L.A. safely and our courier was able to get all the documents authenticated and mailed back to us.



Done:

At 3:30pm after making 3 copies of our entire dossier I met the Fed Ex man (whom I’m getting to know quite well by now) at the drop box. I held onto that box and made him look me in the eye and PROMISE to guard those documents all the way to VA. He promised (and I believed him). He told be not to worry and didn’t even act like I was totally nuts. I stopped off at my parents and started hugging and crying as this huge milestone had been reached and we were officially done with the paper chase 7 ½ months later. Now it was off to AWAA where it would be reviewed and sent to China! That night was a night of celebration in the Gividen household! We had Chinese take out and did the happy dance! I cannot explain the elation we were feeling as a family.


Our dossier was mailed to China on May 14, 2004 and we were officially logged in to their database on May 21,2004.