House picture

Here's a picture of the house circa last Friday.

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Update Time

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I just haven't found time to write, most of which can be attributed to lots of time being devoted to making decisions on the house, although I must admit that recently purchasing Guitar Hero: World Tour isn't helping much either :P So, in lieu of a full, focused post (two of which are in draft status at the moment), here is a pair of short updates on house, adoption, and Chinese class.

• Two more things off the adoption checklist! Last Wednesday we went to Portland to get our fingerprinting done at the Immigration Services office. All went well for us, although I must admit to being kind of appalled at how the non-native English speakers were treated by at least one staff member there. It seems that if you worked in Immigration you might understand that a majority of the people you will be working with aren't going to speak perfect, if any, English. After all, it's not like it is a requirement to do so to be in the country. Just a somewhat sad sidenote there. We also had our fingerprinting done by the Oregon State Police. With those tasks done, we just await clearance from Federal and State authorities proving we are not criminals.
• Tomorrow marks the end of our term-long Chinese class. If anyone wants to learn a new language, I'd highly recommend this class -- our teacher, Jing Liu, has been great and easy to learn from. It's been a great experience for both of us and we feel like we've learned a ton, yet know that we are just scratching the surface of what we could learn. For instance, Tricia and I didn't take the time to learn the Chinese characters for the words as we went through these ten-weeks. Our teacher has informed us that these Chinese characters can actually be a great way to teach our child reading skills at a young age (similar to the sign-language learning tactic that many parents use), which seems like a perfect way to mix learning and Chinese appreciation into one. With that in mind we hope to continue our language learning with our current teacher, (although probably not weekly), incorporating the learning of some of these characters in the process. Can I also point out that Tricia and I are both competing with each other to be the better student amongst the two of us (the class isn't even graded). I just want everyone to guess who won that competition. Hint: it wasn't me...grrrrrrrr.
• Meanwhile, the house is moving along very, very fast. Framing is complete and we now have a roof. Electrical, plumbing, and heating work all started within the last week. I'm going to be putting the low-voltage wiring in over the next 2 weeks. We've narrowed down our choices for flooring, cabinets, countertops, appliances and paint colors. We still are awaiting quotes on many of those things, but the majority of the decision making has been done. The only major thing we have yet to meet with anyone about is lighting, which we hope to be able to discuss this weekend. I'll take this moment to give our builder (for those who don't know, our builder is Tricia's dad, Gregg Palmer) as much credit as I can muster. He's tirelessly pushed construction forward to try to meet our perceived building deadline and all the meanwhile has to deal with two clients who are often very particular in how they like things :) Of course, he's done an incredible job with the house and it's everything we could have hoped for and even more -- it's one thing to see it laid out in blueprints and entirely another to see it become a reality. You'll have to take my word on how things look for now, because I don't have any recent pictures, although we've been up at the house 2 or 3 times in the last 3 days. All that's changed since last time is the roof -- the interior hasn't really taken much more shape -- so I'll try to get a picture by the end of the week and post it.

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Dossier Process

Throughout my writing or when talking to Tricia or I about the adoption process, you may have heard us make mention of putting together our "dossier." I wanted to take a quick second to explain what that entails.

The dossier is a series of forms, certifications, and test results that are compiled by the prospective parents, validated or notarized, and then sent to China (or whichever country you are adopting from - I think most, but not all, countries require you to go through this process). The purpose of doing this is to enable the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) to determine if the parents meet the specific requirements to adopt (which are regulating by the CCAA and are the same regardless of what agency you adopt through). It also helps to accordingly match a specific child with the parents. Here is the exact requirements of our dossier:

1. Letter/Petition to Adopt. We must address a letter to the CCAA explaining our reason for adopting.
2. Home Study. The interview process with our social worker that I explained in previous posts.
3. Birth Certificates
4. Marriage Certificate.
5. Financial Statement. Demonstrating our financial ability to adopt.
6. Photocopy of the Signature/Photo Page of Your Passport(s).
7. Employment Letters. A letter from our employers verifying our employment, salary, length of employment, etc.
8. Health examination certificate. There is a specific set of medical exams and tests we must have done. The results of this health examination are only "valid" for twelve months from the date of examination. So, time permitting, we COULD use the same exam results as the one's from the home study process. Otherwise, we have to go get that done all over again.
9. Approval Notice from CIS/INS. This all goes towards receiving the child's visa. It involves us receiving our I-797C (US Federal Approval to Adopt a Foreign-Born Child), which in turn required us to have Federal fingerprint clearances and approval of our form I-800A.
10. Photographs. We must include a number of photographs of ourselves and our home.
11. Local Police Criminal History Background Check. Both of us need to obtain a criminal background check from the state police.

Most of these things must be notarized. After everything is completed, the dossier is state certified. Then, after that, we must send it all to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco.

Currently, we haven't had any problems getting the contents of the dossier. Part of that simplicity is due to the fact we've pretty much lived our entire lives in Oregon (excepting those wild Idaho years). For people who have been born/married/employed in multiple states, it becomes a tedious process to gather the entirety of necessary documentation.

We hope to have the dossier finished in the next few weeks (we are going to attempt to go in for our fingerprinting with the state police this week and are due to have the same done with the federal authorities on Wednesday). After that, we just need to wait on the results of those appointments (I'm going to assume Tricia doesn't have any deep, dark criminal past) and then we can collate all of the documents and send it in for approval.

One reason we don't need to rush is that we are technically entered into the system as prospective parents, due to our participation in the Child of Promise program. Still, we can't officially get a referral until the dossier is completed. Estimates vary quite a bit on how long after the dossier is finished that you get a referral (and is very dependent on the medical conditions of the child), but currently it looks like it might end up being somewhere around 6 months. As I've mentioned previously, it would then be 3-5 months after the referral that we would go to China to pick up our daughter.

Next on the blog: An attempt at an adoption timeline, more medical condition info, and some updated pictures of home building progress.

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