My Daughter from China

This is the story of my journey to adopt my daughter from China. I first learned about the possibility of adopting from China in January 1996. Shortly thereafter, I began to research adoption and specifically adoption by single parents from China, on the web.

I found the Families With Children from China web site to be very helpful. And, for the past three years, I've subscribed to the adoptive-parents-china listserve which has been a wonderful resource for information, networking, and support.

I began the adoption process in "baby steps" on February 14, 1998 when I was fingerprinted by the State Police in Harrisburg, PA, to send in the required forms to the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- the agency that approves American citizens to adopt an orphan from abroad.

After several months, a job and residence change to Massachusetts, I re-started the process on Christmas Eve, 1998, by meeting with my homestudy agency, Full Circle Adoptions, in Northampton, Massachusetts. I received my INS approval, the coveted "I171-H" form on April 15, 1999. And after completion of my dossier and translation by my agency's facilitator in Guangzhou, the dossier was forwarded to the China Center for Adoption Affairs on July 15, 1999....for a 7/15/99 "dtc" or Dossier to China.

The DTC is the date from which we count the months till our anticipated referral. Currently, referrals are taking 6- 8 months to recieve, with travel approval issued after acceptance of the referral. I'm hoping to receive my referral in approximately February, with the travel at the end of March or beginning of April.

My Christmas Letter contains more information about the adoption process.

I received the referral of the beautifulGao Qing Wei on February 23, 2000. She is the most wonderful child I could have imagined. Beautiful, smart, funny, and strong. I'm in love.

Our adoption story is told in photos on Jemma Rose's Photo Album.

There is a webpage just for parents whose dossiers went to China in July 1999, calledJuly referrals so that we can see each others' children. It has links to the May and June webpages as well!

Back to Laurie's Homepage

Here are some helpful sites for adoptive parents to be:

Families with Children From China, a network of adoptive families and children.

Adoption Advocates International, the agency I'm using for my adoption.

The Adoptive Parents China listserve, maintained by Bill and Theresa McLean.

Rainbowkids, a monthly international adoption online magazine.

Babycenter.com, a fun online baby store with a gift registry. Lots of fun to shop and compare!

Still in construction, this page was created on August 31, 1999 and last updated January 6, 2000.

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