Mei Mei means "little sister"

As we wait for "Mei Mei" we are learning a lot about this imperfect system that everyone works with for Chinese adoptions.  Specifically, in the last few months, we have learned a lot about the Special Needs program, also known as the Waiting Child program.  As the wait for the non special needs program continues to climb towards 5 years, more and more people are opening up to the idea of special needs. 



The first thing we learned as we looked into this program is that the term "special needs" has a very different connotation here in the US than it does for China adoptions.  Special needs is anything and everything that opts the children out of being on the healthy list.  Many correctable needs are included in this.  There are many children who have very correctable or treatable needs or health issues, many older children with no health issues at all, and some even who have already had operations to fix their correctable problem and now just need a family! 



So...This is the third month we've been on this list and eligible to be matched with a waiting child.  In August, as I said in a post below, we did get a match but decided after much consideration that we could not accept that referral because her needs were greater and more uncertain than we could take on.  Last month when the list came out in September, we did not receive a match at all.  The list comes out once a month and tonight is IT!!  Will our little girl be on the list?  Will she be matched with us tonight?



I thought I'd post some information about how this process works in general.  I can't actually take credit for all of the following write up - I saw it on a blog and thought it was so well written so I borrowed parts of it.  Can I get in trouble for that?  I don't know - but here is a summary of the process of waiting child adoptions through the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs):

• An update to the list of waiting children is published every month or so. These are kids who are newly available for international adoption and, for whatever reason, will have a little more trouble finding their family - maybe they're a little older, maybe there's a special need, etc. They've likely been in the state's care for years, but their paperwork hadn't been processed to make them available for international adoption until now. It's commonly called "the shared list" because it's shared between all of the agencies accredited to work in China.

• In order to lock a file in the updated shared list, a family must have a Logged In Date (LID) from China. This is the date that the CCAA received the family's paperwork.  No problem for us - our LID is February 12, 2007!!!  (Yes they've had our paperwork THAT long!) 
• Our agency knows what kinds of needs and what ages we are willing to consider.  As soon as the shared list is published, our agency (and all others) will work like mad to find a file that hasn't already been locked and meets our general requirements. This is like a crazy Oklahoma land rush for babies. Madness.
• Once (if) our agency locks a file on our behalf, we'll have 72 hours to review the child's records, consult an International Adoption doctor, pray, etc.  Because of this 72 hour lock period, the agencies frequently make more matches 72 hours after that month's list comes out.  That's when we got our match in August - 72 hours after the list came out.  Why?  See the next point...
• If for some reason we do not believe we are the right parents for the child, we will let the lock expire and another family will be able to review the file. Our agency will then look for another child who seems to be a good fit and lock the file on our behalf and the cycle continues.  So in August we got matched with a file that became unlocked again after the 72 hours, and then we had 72 hours to review it and make a decision.
• If we believe that the child is our Mei Mei, we then officially petition to become her parents, jump through another 400 paperwork hoops, and travel to meet her in 4-6 months! (I think - although I've heard a LOT of varying travel times - more and less!)

So this month the list comes out tonight.  Why tonight in the middle of the night?  Because China is 12 hours ahead of us.  So the list is being released on October 20, which is tonight for us.  Match opportunity #1 is tonight, match opportunity #2 is Friday night.  So a good question is...how does one go to sleep at night when wondering if they will see the face of their next child in their email inbox the next morning?

Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray......