We had to wait until we were logged in to the CCAA's system (now called the CCCWA--China Center for Children's and Women's Affairs) before we could get our pre-approval to adopt Sarah Irene. The policy for adopting two children now is that one of the children must be in a category called "special focus". These are children who have been on the waiting list for over 60 days, or who have more difficult medical conditions that make them harder to match with families. Neither of our children was listed as special focus, but our agency felt that Xiao Jie (Sarah Irene) was a very good match for us, so they went to bat to ask the CCCWA to change her status so we could adopt her. Well, their computer system was not set up to automatically change a child's status, so our agency was told we would be verbally approved to adopt, but they could not produce the paperwork until after we had sent in our dossier. So our dossier was logged in earlier in the month, and as promised, we received Sarah Irene's pre-approval last Friday, May 20th.
We are not waiting for our referral approvals (RAs), which are the approvals we receive after our dossier has been reviewed and the CCCWA confirms that we can officially adopt these two children. After we get the RAs we must send in our I800 forms to start the process of making these children American Citizens upon their adoption and arrival in the U.S. We also have to apply for Visas and start the travel approval paperwork. It will be a whirlwind, but I'm ready for it! I've already got the two I800s, the two DS230s, and copies of all our other paperwork ready to send in. I am hoping and expecting that the RAs will arrive the week of June 6th.
Anyway, that's where we are now. I'm so grateful for those friends who are still praying for our family as we wait and wait. Thanks so much!
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