FCC Event in Reston

WATER-MINE SWIMMIN' HOLE
Today we went to a real fun outing with the FCC (Families with Children from China).

The FCC reserved a tent at the Water-Mine family swimmin' hole in Reston. The park is really easy to get to, just 6.5 miles down route 7 (beltway exit 47A) past Tyson's corner. We had a nice lunch with Linda and her husband and daughters Jeena and Jasmine. We went swimming with Lyssa and her family (newly home from China). And we met Jennifer Frey and her daughter and talked about her adoption-themed t-shirts and her web-site, Adoption-Mama. Last weekend when we went to check it out ahead of time, Catherine did not wear sun protection and her shoulders were burned badly. Then Steve went out to CVS pharmacy and did discover some neat new products to keep the sun burn at bay. One product is by Neutrogena and it goes on cool! Summertime Bliss! Here is a photo of the park:

A Super-Encouraging Blog

My friend Neal, who is also a professor and an adoptive dad, just sent an email that his colleague has just returned from China with a beautiful new daughter. Her blog about her preparations and journey are well worth checking out (click here).

As part of their trip, they visited the orphanage where their new daughter lived for the first 8 months of her life. It is located down south of Guangzhou, through the Pearl River delta, in YangXi.

A Second Helpful Description of the Post-Referral Timeline

There was just posted another very helpful description of what happens once the Referral finally comes by one who knows, having very recently returned with her new daughter!

...[Barker] will call you and tell you that she thinks you should come in to meet with her within the next day or two. That is the euphamism for "we have your referral, come on in and find out about your daughter." At the referral meeting [Barker] will go over the referral with you. The referral has information about your daughter including birthday, what province she is from, where she was found, who found her, where she was taken after she was found. they will give you measurements (weight, height) from when she was taken to the orphanage and a narrative about your child's personality, what she likes, etc. You will also go over the medical exam with [Barker], including blood tests and measurements. Sometimes Anli [Barker's point-person in China] will have gotten updated measurements from the orphanage, which will help the pediatrician reviewing your referral. They will be able to discuss with you how she is growing. [Barker] basically reads all the info to you and you ask whatever questions you may have. [Barker] does not know any more than you do...all anyone knows is what is sent from the [Chinese] government. At that meeting you can sign a paper saying you accept or deny the referral or you can have the information evaluated by a pediatrician and then accept or deny. Once you and all the other waiting parents who will be traveling with you accept your referrals, the clock starts ticking in terms of getting travel info. You have to arrange your flights to and from China. Once you are in China, you just sit back and enjoy the ride. Everything is taken care of for you in terms of travel. you are on your own for some meals, but Anli can guide you there too, if you desire. All of the hotels and in-country travel are handled by Anli. You will need to be in Beijing on a given date. The following day, you will sightsee in Beijing with Anli. That is all arranged. If you want to go early, Anli can help arrange sightseeing to additional places. Everyone leaves Beijing after 1-2 days and goes to the province where the children are from. You generally meet your daughter the day or day after you arrive in the province. You are in the province for 6-7 days so the adoption can be finalized. From there you travel to Guangzhou and have the baby's medical exam, some paperwork and the appointment at the american consulate. This takes 3-5 days. The flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong is arranged by Anli, but your flight from Hong Kong to home is arranged by you. There is a travel-meeting a couple of weeks before you go, which goes over things in more detail and allows you to ask [Barker] questions.

Adoption Outline: Post-Referral Timeline

A soon-to-be dad in our Barker program just posted a detailed timeline for what happens with a Barker China group once the Referral finally arrives. This is highly relevant and informative for us, and most helpful:

My wife and I received our referral in June and our group expects to travel in Late August/early September. Our referrels arrived at Barker several business days after the CCAA update the placement line in the documents processing box on it's website mentioned a date after our login date. Barker faxed our referrals back to China for overnite translation. We had our referral meetings w Colleen the next day. Once all the referrals in our group were accepted Barker returned the acceptance letters to CCAA and the wait is on for travel invitations. At that point Barker scheduled a travel meeting at a date after their best estimate for travel invitations to arrive. Once the travel invitations arrive Barker will submit our VISA applications to the Chinese embassy in DC and they will also apply for exit VIAS appointments at the US consulate in Guangzhou. Once Barker receives the date of the exit VISA appointment (this can be 7-10 days before travel) the minimum required stay is defined we can then finalize our travel arrangements. We recently attended our travel meeting at Barker and got a lot of details (in our case, because of a delay, the travel meeting happened before the travel invitations). My recollection of the itinerary is as follows. Note that the itinerary may vary with province but basically we each make our own arrangement to fly to Beijing. We will be met by Anli at the airport. Barker makes all the hotel and domestic flight arrangements in China (including Guangzhou to Hong Kong if you opt to return that way) The group meets and spends a couple of days acclimatizing and sightseeing (Barker arranges this -Great Wall etc.). The group then flys to the capital of the province where the child's orphanage is located. This is where you will first meet your child (In some cases the children are at the hotel when the parents arrive from Beijing) and finalize the adoption. In most cases parents do not visit their child's orphanage. The adoption process takes about 5 Business days to complete. Your part will essentially be done the day after you arrive in province. There is then an opportunity to sightsee and aquaint oneself with the local culture while the Chinese Government processes the adoption paperwork. Once the adoption is final the group flys to Guangzhou. Once in Guangzhou Anli will help you fill out the forms you received from USCIS. You will need to be in Guangzhou for two business days. The first day Anli can drop off your forms, provided you have brought a signed form stating your intent to vaccinate your child within 30 days of getting back to the States. The second day you go to the consulate to pick up your child's VISA. The following day you are free to return home. Because of its proximity to Guangzhou many find it convenient to return home vis Hong Kong. Haven't had the experience yet but I hope my recollection of the travel meeting details helps.