Stats what I figured

We've had a few people ask about the number of children that are adopted from China to the United States each year. With a little research here's what we found...

The U.S. Department of State website gives a list of immigrant visas issued to orphans coming to the U.S. From this we learned that the top four countries that U.S. families have adopted from since 2002 are: China, Russia, Gautemala, and Korea (in that order). The number of visas issued for each of those countries in 2005 was: China-7,609; Russia-4,639; Guatemala-3,783; Korea-1,630.

There has been a significant increase in Chinese adoptions in the U.S. over the last several years. Using INS immigrant visas as a tally, the numbers are shown in the graph below. Since 1985 there have been a total of 55,446 adoptions from China to the U.S.

For our next couple of posts, we'll get into some specifics on orphanages in China. We'll talk about conditions, statistics, and other information that will perhaps answer more of your questions and hopefully add a little perspective. Until then, take care.

2 Down... too many to go.

Today marks our 2 month LID anniversary. Just kidding when we said 2 months ago that it would be 12 months... it's 12 months from now. Yes, the wait has continued to grow to 14 months, so... 2 down, 12 to go. There are still rumors out there that there might be a speed up, but for now it looks like we're on the slow boat to China.

Perfect Match

We thought we'd talk a bit more about the "matching" process and the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs). Here is a picture we found that shows dossiers that are ready to be matched in the matching room. Although our dossier hasn't made it this far, we'll be there someday... let's just hope they can find us (Where's Waldo?)!

Here is a simple breakdown of what will happen to our dossier: First, the paperwork is sent to China by our agency, it is then logged in (hence the log in date), at some point our information and pictures are entered into the database (this might or might not be part of the log in step), next... many months later... the dossier goes to the "review room", and finally enters the matching room. We've been logged in, and from what we've gathered our dossier is currently waiting to be reviewed.

About the Review Room: The CCAA updates their website periodically to let families know what LIDs have made it through the review room. Last we've heard, they had just finished reviewing dossiers with LIDs of 1/31/06... which means there are 7 more months worth or dossiers to be reviewed before we're in. Once we finally make it here, our dossier will go through an extremely thorough check to make sure it's accurate and complete. If necessary, they can ask us for more information... but we pray everything is smooth sailing. Once we've passed the review room, it's on to the matching room.

About the Matching Room: The CCAA does actually try to match you with your child. Each worker will have a stack of baby files and a stack of dossiers from each agency. For example, they'll take the 6 families in our group and look through our information and pictures and then try to make the best match with the files they are given. It can be based on appearance (yes, we've heard several families say they can see a resemblance), or maybe a hobby (both baby and parents like music, etc.), or sometimes just a feeling they get. They also try very hard to match you with the age you've requested. The CCAA also updates their website stating what LIDs they have matched through... currently they have placed children with families that have a LID through August 25, 2005... our log in date is September 12, 2006.

So, while we're still quite a ways from either of these steps, we thought we would go ahead and explain them so when they happen, you'll know. :-)

We've added a link to the CCAA (on the right side w/ the other links) in case you want to check out their website. The area where they show the review/matching room update is on the far right-hand side of the homepage, toward the bottom (called Documents Processing).

Whew... and that was the cliff notes version! :-\ Take care, folks!

Need a laugh?

We found these videos on a couple of other blogs and had to share them with you... (you might have to click the play button twice to get it started)






Don't you know these are two lively households!

Have a great weekend everybody!