Referrals!

Finally, referrals! Following is a note we received today from CHI:

"Children’s Hope International is proud to announce the arrival of 8 referrals for our 02/17/06 LID families. All of the referrals were beautiful little girls from the Jiangxi Province that ranged in age from 8 to 13 months, with one referral being 3 years, 5 months old. The referrals also included one set of twins. The family that received the 3 year old requested 0-18 months though the referral fell with the CCAA age guidelines. These families waited 33 long months from log in date to referral. We expect these families to travel in about 8 weeks. Congratulations to these families and all our China families who have moved up in line! Children’s Hope International’s next log in date is 03/02/06."

Here are the CCAA age guidelines. I have no earthly idea how old our child will be when she is referred to us.... could be as old as 3 I assume. I will likely not be 40 yet. Brent will be between 42 and 45.

30-40: 0-18 months

40-45: 12-36 months

45-50: 36 months +

585 Dossiers Ahead of Us!

Just got an update from CHI.... there are now 585 dossiers ahead of us. Still stuck on that 2/17/06 lid -- that's the next one up for referrals and has been for months........."patience, patience, child," as my dad used to say. :)

Yesterday Brent and I met with a social worker from CHI named Ashley. She came to update our home study. This is necessary in order to get a one-time free extension on our I171-H form...the form from China that says we are eligible to adopt a child. It expires after 18 months, in our case, December 6, 2008. Our fingerprints also expired, after 15 months, in August of this year. We head to Kansas City on November 12 to get the FBI/USCIS check on the fingerprints again.

Once these things are done, we are good for another 18 months. Keep fingers crossed that we get a referral before then, so we don't have to do this again.

Happy Halloween :)
Krista

We've been logged in at CCAA for 14 months today!

We've been logged in for 14 months now with CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) so I thought I would take a minute to update you on where things stand.

Our fingerprint clearance expired in August. Our I171-H form (the form from China that says we are eligible to adopt one child) expires December 6, 2008. So, we are currently in the process of renewing that.

We get one free extension of that form but in order to get it, we have to submit an updated home study. That sounds easy, and it is relative to doing all of this the first time, but still so much work has to be done to get the documents necessary.

I'm currently working on updating our financial statement. This involves everything from looking up the value of our cars to gathering all our financial statements (401ks, salary letters, mortgage statement, latest tax return, etc.)

We have to get new statements from the local police, stating we are felony-free, be cleared by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and get clearance from the Division of Family Services saying we are not guilty of any child abuse or neglect.

We also have to meet with a new social worker (the one who did our original home study is no longer working with CHI). This person has to come to our house (from St. Louis) and meet with us in person. We have to pay for her rental car. We can't go to her because she has to see our house.

We are heading to Kansas City for re-fingerprinting on November 12, at which time we will also turn in our papers for the extension of the I-171H.

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with CHI before February 15, 2006. The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with CHI before February 28, 2007. Current Wait Time: 33 months from Log In Date (LID).

All this paper chasing, yes, but don't overlook the fact that we have been logged in for 14 months! That is progress....we're almost half-way there. Our LID is August 23, 2007.

Best,
Krista

593 Dossiers Ahead of Us!

Just got an update from CHI. There are now 593 dossiers ahead of us. That's a change of 30 families since the last update on August 14.

What’s Happening in International Adoption and with Children’s Hope?

What follows is a lengthy email we received from Dwyatt Gantt, executive director of Children's Hope, our adoption agency in St. Louis. It is well done and answers a lot of questions. If you take the time to read it, I hope you find it interesting, at least. :)

Dear families,
I sincerely want you and all families working with Children’s Hope International to have assurance and understand the restructuring that Children’s Hope is going through because of certain changes in international adoption.

Basically, all adoption agencies are scrambling to re-invent themselves according to the new realities. So is Children’s Hope. Here are some examples of what is happening.

China referrals have slowed to perhaps 1/4th of what they were. The current wait time for referrals is 32 months and still climbing. Vietnam adoptions continue for families who already have referrals but no new applications until if/when the U.S. and Vietnam authorities sign a new memorandum of agreement. Guatemala was the second largest destination for adoptive families and it has been closed to new adoptions. Most countries have been very slow in giving referrals causing the wait time in most countries to increase. Korea is making announcements regarding closure of international adoptions by 2012.

International adoption agencies are reporting that new restrictions and fewer referrals are creating a crisis for them and that is certainly true with Children’s Hope. This year the Hague accreditation process was inaugurated for certain countries which have signed to be in that process.

Of the countries where we work, that includes only China and Colombia.

These are the only two countries we work with that require Hague Accreditation in order to accept new applications. Because we have not get received Hague accreditation, that means CHI cannot take new applications, but all CHI families with dossiers already in the country are ‘grandfathered’ in and can complete their adoption using Children’s Hope. Not to worry.

We have a few families in process of completing their paperwork for China and when we receive those they will be transferred to a sister agency who will submit it in country. Otherwise the CHI families with dossiers already in country should complete without any problem.

We are still able to submit dossiers to Colombia as long as the family has an I-600a. Any others we will work to submit through a sister agency.

It does NOT apply to Russia, Kazakhstan or Ethiopia. These are not “Hague Countries” and we are pleased to say everything is proceeding reasonably well. At this time there is no need for you to be concerned at all about “Hague” accreditation in these countries; Russia is slow but moves forward steadily. Kazakhstan is slow and has its own requirements. Ethiopia is all sunshine.

Vietnam is in its own category: It does not require an agency to have Hague Accreditation but it is now closed to all agencies in regard to new applications until a new Memorandum of Agreement is signed between the U.S. and Vietnam. When/If that agreement is signed, it is likely that Vietnam will require Hague accreditation. Meanwhile, the CHI Vietnam dossier waiting list remains the same. Everyone keeps their place in line and nothing changes. If/when Vietnam decides to return all the dossiers logged in with DIA, those dossiers will be held in our HCMC Vietnam office until a new agreement is reached. When the new agreement is reached and if CHI does not have our Hague accreditation, we would work with one or more agencies to smoothly transition families to those agencies to complete their adoptions. CHI will not abandon you and you will be taken care of through the end of your adoption.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Is Children’s Hope International continuing to seek Hague accreditation through the COA (Council on Accreditation)? Yes, we are. Vigorously.

What is the COA? They are the accrediting agency contracted by the U.S. State Department to give approval for Hague.

Is Children’s Hope International accredited by COA? Yes we are, and in good standing since 2002, and are now reapplying through them for “Hague” approval.

Is Children’s Hope licensed / accredited / or approved by the authorities in China, Colombia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, and Ethiopia? Yes we enjoy the honor of being approved and commended by in-country authorities in all these countries.

Can you trust Children’s Hope to complete your adoption directly or with the assistance of a sister agency? Absolutely.. We are in relationship with sister agencies that have agreed to work with us if needed, to complete your adoption or to complete any portion. Also you should know that if your file is transferred to a sister agency, it will not negatively affect your scheduled referral at all. Your LID remains constant.

Why didn’t you get “Hague” approval this time around? We have now determined that it was because of two former Russia department staff who forged names and misused their notaries. In so doing they violated the law and the principles of this agency. That was more than 15 months ago, but we understand that Hague feels there needs to be more time elapsed before approval. We have put in place an approved Corrective Action Plan to ensure absolutely clear use of cross-checking and notaries on all documents.

Why did you close your branch offices? As you can see from the above or get from the nightly news and the Internet, International adoption has taken a drastic downward turn in the last 18 months. In an effort to adjust to these changes about six months ago we closed 8 branch offices to save money. As a part of our restructuring and necessary cost saving, we made the decision for all adoption processing to be centralized in the main office in St. Louis. We closed 8 offices at that time and 7 remained open only for Social Services such as post-placement reports. All families had been transferred to the St. Louis office but the branches continued to help families with social services such as home studies and post-placement reports. When the largest number of cased were resolved, the remaining were transferred to other agencies in that state.

Why have all families been transferred to the St. Louis central office? For two reasons: One, because we have a strong staff in the home office in St. Louis who are in touch with everything that is going on with the latest changes in the countries. The second is, that with the limited number of new applications coming, it was not financially feasible to keep the offices open. I understand how nice it is for you to have a more local person to work with and I regret that we cannot continue that – but we just cannot. We do promise to serve you well from our central office.

Are you going out of business? No! There is absolutely no such intention or danger by closing our branch offices and downsizing our staff. We are still strong and want to stay that way to serve you in the completion of your adoption.

Is Children’s Hope for sale? Unreal. We have talked with sister agencies about cooperating with them for services until we can get our Hague accreditation, but nothing more. Beware: Chat lists are not the sources of good information. We are a ministry to help orphan children find homes, health and hope. We are not a business. Our Foundation continues to find ways for thousands of orphans to be helped who will never be adopted. We have raised over one million dollars in goods and services in China alone the first part of this year and are praying to God for the means to help many more in many countries.

How many adoptions will Children’s Hope complete this year? Based on the first 8 months, it should be about 450.

Are we shutting down our Yahoo Groups? Yes, we can no longer maintain these sites. Please call your adoption consultants if you have a question or problem. They will be able to give you the correct information.

How can we help Children’s Hope?
a. Believe in us. We are your agency and are totally committed to completing your adoption for you. We will not let you down.
b. Support us in our efforts to make it happen for you. We are supporting you and will do whatever it takes humanly speaking. We pray daily as a group for God’s favor and wisdom in all things.
c. Pray for us. The staff is working hard and getting fired at, sometimes viciously, by some people who believe the rumors of chat groups – but refuse to believe the simple truth. How can that help? An email of support will go a long way toward lifting them up. I believe that probably 95% of adoptive families are sensible, understanding and rational. We would like to hear from you too.
d. Be patient. We didn’t cause the long wait in China or create the political snafus in Vietnam. Please don’t blame us. A wonderful child is waiting for you but not on the schedule you started with. How can it help to complain or blame?
e. Be understanding, please. In your own personal budgeting or in your personal business, did you ever have to make changes to make it work out? We did but we are still here and plan to be here for a long time to come.
f. Don’t worry. We are going to be here for you and have made every provision financially and otherwise to complete your adoption and see you through to the last post-placement report. Really! We cannot regulate what governments may do, including our own, but we can promise you that as long as there is a door open we will be going through it with you.
I plan to communicate with you at least every month about general adoption matters. Program directors will also be sending out regular emails regarding specifics within your program.

I pray that God will guide and bless you with success in your work and family,
Dwyatt Gantt

Referrals!

Children's Hope International received 22 referrals today. There were 21 girls and one boy in this group of referrals. The families that received referrals had LID's of February 9, 2006 and there was one Chinese expedited family with a LID of January 22, 2007. The children are from Beijing and the Jiangxi, Shaanxi, and the Guangdong Provinces. They ranged in ages of 5 months to 9 months old. In addition there was a 29 month old, a 3 year one month old, 3 year 2 month old, 3 year 11 month old, and a 4 year 1 month old. The parents that received the children over 24 months fell within the range of what the families requested or the parents were with in the age guidelines for a toddler.

623 Dossiers Ahead of Us!

I got our China Program update today. There are 623 dossiers ahead of us now. Last was 647 and I know there haven't been 24 referrals, so I assume most of these families dropped out of the CHI China program. I suppose that's good news for us; however, the current wait time from LID to referral is now 32 months.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

The Olympics are just around the corner in Beijing!! Here's the official website. http://en.beijing2008.cn/

We love the Olympics, no matter where they are held and no matter if it is summer or winter, but we are particularly excited to get to see coverage of them in China.


Over 1,000 Chinese homes are being opened up to foreign visitors. Here is a link to the NPR story about this, called "Chinese Open Homes To Olympic Tourists," as well as some other interesting pieces (inlcuding one called "Ahead Of Games, Beijing Switches To English.")
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92768048



Like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace -- and good wishes from China -- to children all over the world.

Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, Fuwa also embody the natural characteristics of four of China's most popular animals -- the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow -- and the Olympic Flame.

Each of Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name -- a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow.

When you put their names together -- Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni -- they say "Welcome to Beijing," offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of Fuwa as young ambassadors for the Olympic Games.

Fuwa also embody both the landscape and the dreams and aspirations of people from every part of the vast country of China. In their origins and their headpieces, you can see the five elements of nature -- the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky -- all stylistically rendered in ways that represent the deep traditional influences of Chinese folk art and ornamentation.

CHI Hague Accreditation

Children's Hope International was under review for accreditation from the Hague Convention (international adoption rules/standards -- click on the title above for more information on the Hague Adoption Convention). Their accreditation was denied based on the discovery made last year of improper procedures done by two staff in the Russia program in the St. Louis office. There was a misuse of Notary privileges and mishandled paperwork to Russia.

Their investigation last summer found that 10 documents in 6 states were affected and they began the process of notifying those states and undertaking any review of their license that those states deemed necessary. Except for two states, Kansas and Illinois, this license review process was complete within 3 months. They continued to work with Kansas and Illinois to follow any requirement they thought necessary. Children's Hope believed that all requirements had been met in Kansas were still waiting for Illinois to finalize what turned out to be a 9 month process. Therefore, they could not meet all the Hague requirements in the first round of approvals for the Hague on February 29, 2008, so Children's Hope was issued a "Pending Status" from the Hague Commission.

When Illinois finalized their corrective actions and issued CHI's new permanent 4 year license in June, they immediately applied for Hague approval. They reviewed CHI's case on July 9th. On the same day, they found out through their new KS Office Director that they were not in compliance in all points as they had thought. This meant - as they found out on July 17, 2008, that their Hague approval was denied!

The problem, as crazy as it seems, is that they were deemed non-compliant to the regulations required for domestic adoption agency licensing in the state of Kansas, even though they are not a domestic – but international - adoption agency. In an international agency, for example, it is impossible for the social worker to visit the child before it is placed, which is one of the regulations. They had already instituted what they thought were all the requirements of the state. Talk about miscommunication!

They've immediately begun talks with the Kansas officials to resolve any licensing issues so they can re-apply to the Council on Accreditation (COA) for Hague Accreditation within the next few weeks. But it is the discretion of COA to schedule their application for review, or make them wait up to one year before re-applying.

They are also talking with Holt International http://www.holtinternational.org/ about how they can work under and through them to assist any families in application and those whose dossiers have not been submitted – and that possibility looks very positive.

Our dossier has been submitted and we have a current I171-H form with one free extension still. I will submit the paperwork to be granted the extension soon (Ours expires in December). My hope now is that we are able to receive a referral before the extension expires. If not, we may have to work with Holt as well.

They said this road would be bumpy.

Hal Stiff "Dadeo" 1941-2008

Who knew that we would lose my dad before this adoption journey would be over. I know he would have doted over our little China girl. She'll know of him someday, if only through pictures and stories. And I'll take it as a sign that he's with us somehow every time the Cardinals score a homer! :)

Here is the text of the obituary that ran July 13.

Harold "Hal" Stiff
MATTOON - Harold "Hal" Stiff, age 67, of Mattoon, IL passed away at 5:30 P.M., on Friday, July 11, 2008 at the Odd-Fellow Rebekah Home in Mattoon, IL. A private family graveside good-bye will be held at 1:30 P.M. Sunday, July 13, 2008 at Rest Haven Memorial Gardens in Mattoon, IL. There will be no visitation. Mitchell-Jerdan Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Hal was born February 6, 1941 in Trilla, IL, the son of Merle and Rosa (Stewart) Stiff. He married Deana Jackson on June 11, 1982 in Charleston, IL. She survives. Surviving children include two daughters; Kacey Lynn Stiff of Mattoon, IL and Krista Myer and her husband Brent of Columbia, MO; one brother, Lew Stiff and his wife Patty of Mattoon, IL; two sisters, Barb Bridges of Mattoon, IL and Shirley Goudie of Mahomet, IL; one sister-in-law Diana Beck and her husband Jim of Mattoon, IL. Several cousins, nieces and nephews also survive. He was preceded in death by an infant daughter, his parents and mother-in-law. Hal worked for thirty two years at Ameren CIPS in Mattoon, IL. He served in the United States Army from 1961 to 1967. He also served in the Army Corps of Engineers in 1968. Hal truly loved his family and enjoyed traveling with them. He had a passion for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team and never missed a game, either by watching and listening at home or by actually being there at Busch Stadium, surrounded by all of the excitement. He also loved the game of golf, NASCAR, old westerns and reading books about military history. Hal was a very down to earth, simplistic man. His goal in life was to make sure that his family felt loved and comfortable. He had the ability to make everyone feel special with his warm smile and wonderful sense of humor. Memorials may be made to Lincoln Land Hospice of Mattoon, IL. To share a memory or light a candle, please visit www.mitchell-jerdan.com. Obituary written by family members.