Finding Ad

Today we received a copy of Miah's Finding ad. Before a child can be placed up for adoption the government runs an ad in the local paper. If no one responds to the ad the child is deemed abandoned and is eligible for adoption. This ad ran in the "Jiangsu Legal System Paper" in January 2008. We are guessing Miah to be about 5 months old in this photo. This will probably be the youngest photo we ever get of her.

Where is Miah?

Miah Fu Ni (just trying out her new name) is currently residing in Taizhou city. Taizhou City is situated in the Jiangsu Province, near the mouth of the Yangtze River and a four-hour drive from Shanghai. Taizhou belongs to the sub-tropical monsoon climate region. It covers a continental area of 9411 square kilometers, a sea area of 80,000 square kilometers, with 745 kilometers of coastline and a population of 5.36 million.

Today we have been waiting 18 days for our travel approval to arrive. Last week we heard from our agency that all referrals and TA's were being held due to the swine flu concern, but yesterday new referrals came out and many families did receive their travel approvals....so maybe things are looking up.

From what we understand, we will fly from Vancouver to Beijing to Nanjing. Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu and Miah will be brought to us at the Civil Affairs building in Nanjing. It is there that Miah Fu Ni will become officially ours! We will probably spend about 4 days in Nanjing and fly back to Beijing for 10 days to complete more paperwork for the Canadian government....and then back to Vancouver!!!


Fingers crossed that our TA will arrive soon!!! (If you click on the photos you can enlarge them)

Split Pants

We received some more treasured photos today of Miah. Here she is sporting her famous Split Pants.

God has a sense of humor

Today we received photos of Miah (wearing the red sweater) and her friends enjoying the cake we sent as part of her care package. With all the worry about how this Swine Flu might affect our travel I found it ironic that the cake we had purchased was decorated with the photo of a pig! It is such a treat to open up the morning e-mail and find new photos of our daughter! I treasure each one of them!

Signed and Sealed!!!

Today our Letter Seeking Confirmation arrived at our agency. We quickly went down and signed it, so now it is off to the CCAA. At this point, travel usually happens within 6-8 weeks. Depending on what happens with the Swine Flu we could travel as early as mid-June. The latest rumor is that travel may be delayed for 20-30 days depending if there is a increase in the number of new cases. Hopefully our travel facilitator will have a better idea of how this might affect us in the coming few days. But for now we are one step closer to our daughter!

Today we also had our first meeting with the Cleft team here in town. They gave us some cleft bottles to try with Miah (if indeed her palate has not yet been repaired). We are feeling confident that we will be able to care for her needs and there is a great team here in town to support us. God is good!

Another bump in the Road

This notice was released by the CCAA this morning.

Currently there are cases of human infection of the swine flu found in some countries and regions. With the high infectivity of this disease, children are susceptible to it for their low resistance. In order to avoid cross infection during the process of adoption registration and protect the health of children in orphanages as well as the adoptive parents, we hereby announce that:

Adoption agencies are required to counsel the adoptive parents who have received Notice of Coming to China for Adoption to postpone their trip to China for the registration procedure.

The validity period of Notice of Coming to China for Adoption issued between March 1 to April 30 this year is prolonged from three months to five months (There is no need to update the paper).

Adoptive families are advised to follow the arrangement of local registration authorities and cooperate during the entrustment of child for the harmony period and the adoption registration process.

If adoptive parents feel unwell during their stay in China for the registration procedure, they shall go to the hospital for medical checkup in time and report to CCAA about relevant situation.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

So....yet another slow down. We are still expecting that our LSC will arrive this week or next as it has already been mailed out from China...it is probably on someone's desk in Victoria waiting to be stamped. From what we understand the CCAA is still working, so they will be able to process our LSC when we send it back, BUT (lately there is always a but)...they will not issue us Travel Approval to come to China until this whole outbreak is resolved. I am so sad for my friends who have plane tickets and are ready to go get their daughters in three weeks. So close and yet so far! I think I need some chocolate!!!!

27 Days!

We received an email this morning from our Travel Facilitator that the CCAA (China Center for Adoption affairs) has reviewed and approved our dossier and that they have sent out our Letter Seeking Confirmation. We are very excited and a bit surprised because we were told to expect it in two or three months.

The next step in our paperwork is for the "Hague Requirements" for inter-country approval. We now need to get updated criminal record checks for both of us and a prior contact sheet from the Ministry of Children and Family signed.

After we receive our Letter Seeking Confirmation, we sign it and send it off to the CCAA. (WHICH OF COURSE WE ARE SIGNING WITH A BIG YES!!)When CCAA receives this information we will then be given travel approval to go to China and bring Miah home! We have heard from others that travel approval usually comes about 6-8 weeks after we sign the Letter Seeking Confirmation. That would put us traveling at the end of June or early July....that's our guess anyway.