CCAA Visits
I will be gathering information from the various CCAA visits and putting them out all at once. My intention is to have it all in one place 1) for ease of reference and 2) to attempt to protect the specific country/agency visit that the information comes from.
I’m not sure if all of the U.S. agencies will do so, but at least one has forbidden their clients from asking CCAA officials anything about the wait or about policies. If all of the agencies do that then we may not learn very much from the U.S. visits.
But, if you have some information that comes from a visit then feel free to email or PM it to me and I’ll put it in a message where I consolidate information from all visits.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:16 am
RQ,
I know we all want to know what they have to say, however, based on the numerous times they have made statements that didn’t come to pass can we really give much credit to whatever they say?
June 18th, 2007 at 8:33 am
“but at least one has forbidden their clients from asking CCAA officials anything about the wait or about policies”
So what does that leave people to ask? The weather? Or do the agencies just expect their clients to be polite and respectful and say over and over again how grateful they are to be able to adopt from China. Sigh…unfortunately I know the answer to that question.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:37 am
It’s like that episode from Seinfeld with the Soup Nazi…you better order the soup the right way or, “No Soup For You!!!”
June 18th, 2007 at 9:04 am
It is goofy. Again it creates this message that the CCAA is the great and powerful Oz who cannot be questioned.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Thanks RQ…I hope at least the familie can ask about the sustainablity of the program and about domestic adoption and SN. If they are here to highlight the SN program, then I think questions aimed in these areas would be appreciated. I think if we had answer to these questions, we might be able to infer some things about the wait for NSN.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:14 am
I would like to ask why there are so many babies/children in those pictures from the link about the clean water filters. Way to many kids are being deprived of a home.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Ok…so what is the big freak’in secret about the wait??? I don’t understand why that subject can not be addressed. sorry if this sounds harsh but dang I don’t get the reasoning behind it….so secretive and for what…so we will be better more patient people…..are they teaching us a life lesson…is this just how things are done??? I understand the whole they are not our children yet and yadda yadda but we have not been standing in line for a two week vacation getaway to China…our lives are on hold we are sitting in the dark….and possibly for another 2 or threee years….but we can’t ask about it???????????????
Give me a break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Guess I need to go to the cussing thread….
~Linda
June 18th, 2007 at 10:33 am
As I happen to be with an agency that asked clients to not pester the CCAA reps with “wait” related questions or new requirement questions, I think I understand their reasoning. The agency itself has time alone with the reps to ask the hard questions, but if the families had badgered the reps during the fluff part of the visit, they might be less willing to talk. I’d like to believe that the agency has a fairly good idea of what the reps would considered rude.
While everyone would like to think we could be polite and nonconfrontational, the reality is that this is an emotionally charged situation which decreases some people’s ability to control what comes out of their mouths or their ability to judge how the person hearing it may perceive it. I believe our agency will share the information they gather, FWIW.
June 18th, 2007 at 10:34 am
More evidence that the adoptive parents are the least important part of the “adoption triad”. What would it hurt to give us predictions about or reasons for the increasing wait?
June 18th, 2007 at 10:48 am
RQ,
During the CCAA visit to Canada there was the rumor that they indicated the wait time could reach 3 years – was there ever any further information to support those rumors? Did they say it?
June 18th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I would imagine the concern from agencies is that these people have travelled a long way and they don’t want them being put in an awkward or embarrassing position by exasperated prospective parents. That could jeopardize the entire program (even more than perhaps it already is in jeopardy).
I am tired of waiting too so I understand the frustration. But it isn’t going to do any good to try to pressure the CCAA into doing things differently. I try to keepin mind that we have no idea what sort of pressure the CCAA might be dealing with within China. Perhaps they are really doing the very best they can, at least in a lot of ways.
If I were to meet with the CCAA during their visit I would just want to help them find out whatever THEY want to know about the situation here. I would also probably break down in tears trying to express my gratitude for allowing us to adopt our dd, 3 years ago this week.
June 18th, 2007 at 11:22 am
The waiting is frustrating (beyond that, words don’t quite describe it), but the fact of the matter is that raising the topic in an unwelcome manner will not do anything to help that cause. There ARE cultural differences and our children are born into a culture that is not positive about venting or forcing anyone into a corner. I respectfully suggest that voicing a sense of entitlement or righteous indignation will only create negative feeling and yes, potentially lose some sympathy from the people who will be making decisions controlling adoption from China.
If it feels like its just too much please know that so many people are totally sympathetic. For me, keeping my head straight took of lot of actively remembering that the point is that I AM grateful to be able to adopt from China, and the annoyance with having no control (waiting, SARS, SN judgement calls, redoing docs, again, again, endless fingerprints, $ flying out the door) was all infinitely secondary to that. If it weren’t I’d be out of the program.
June 18th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Well of course we wouldnt want people being rude..or pressuring the CCAA… but would it really be so bad to ask if they have any idea what is going to happen to the wait? It seems like there are some indications coming from people at the CCAA or close to the CCAA (“we expect the wait may get to three years” or “we would like to keep the wait under 2 years”),wouldnt it be nice to get some “official” statement?
Even if the answer is “we have no idea” i think that would be better than not asking the question at all.
June 18th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I would love it if the agencies could get some clear guidance from the CCAA on how they feel about concurrent adoptions. That’s almost as big an issue with me as the long wait itself, particularly since I’m with an agency that does not allow concurrent adoptions because they claim the CCAA has a rule against them.
June 18th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
The CCAA visits, as far as their involvement with regular people like us, seem alot like the “dog and pony shows” that would occur while I was in the military. An Admiral would want to come visit one of the bases, the entire trip was scripted down to the last minute, and for the times where the Admiral would be interacting with the regular sailors, the sailors had to submit in writing beforehand any questions they wanted to ask. These questions were then vetted, and the sailor would then be told if he/she was allowed to ask it. Lord forbid you got off script! Always made me wonder what use the Admiral ever got out of those trips when all he was getting was a facade.
So, why bother having the CCAA people talk to parents anyways? Just for photo-ops? I can just hope that the closed-door sessions are in some way useful.
June 18th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
“Forbidden”?! …I guess the Agencies are now under the Misconception that we too live under a Totalitarian Government.
I hope people “disobey” their agencies and ask anyway…with true emotion! The CCAA if filled with Yes-Men who Parade around and tell you Whatever you want to hear… pretty Pointless.
I hope this “show” gets what it deserves: a room of unhappy parents….or just an Empty Room.
June 18th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I believe good agencies will do what they can to find out what they can in more private conversations. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that prospective parents be asking a lot of difficult and possibly embarrassing questions to people from another country. Good agency people (some of whom are Chinese or people with a lot of experience with China) can ask questions in private in a way that doesn’t cause embarrassment or awkwardness–especially about policies re: concurrent adoptions. That doesn’t mean that they will necessarily get helpful answers to all they ask.
I feel a little dismayed by what seems to me a typically American assumption that everyone should do things the way we do–and if they don’t, then we’re going to… well, I guess this isn’t the place for a lot of politics. But arrogance and ethnocentrism could screw things up for everyone.
June 18th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
frannysmom
I think people are more angry with the agency making this statement then they are with the CCAA. Maybe they are telling their clients that they will be asking these questions and they want the meetings with the parents to be casual and not confrontational. That would be quite ok, but it is not the way it came across.
June 18th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
frannysmom – IMHO labeling a true & open discourse as “typically American”, “arrogant” and “ethnocentric” is very off-base…and more than a little Prejudice toward Americans.
I feel a little dismayed that such negative stereotypes still exist.
Handleing CCAA with Kid Gloves & Hoping for Agencies to get more information Behind-Closed-Doors has helped us get where we are now – No Reliable Information on Anything At All.
June 18th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Unfortunately, the CCAA does not want to be questioned about the wait. Period.
we can either honor that, or kick up a fuss about it, however, babies are not a product, manufactured on an production line. Even if there is not quota, it would be hard to tell from one year to another how many babies are available for adoption, compared to how many prospective parents are waiting to adopt.
June 18th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
On a positive note…I met a mother yesterday who had adopted her daughter about 3 1/2 years ago…when she entered the process the wait for referral time was 22 months! She received her referral in less than 12 months, NSN! I don’t know the history of wait times, but is it possible that this is cyclical and it too shall pass?
June 18th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
According to my agency,the longest wait before now was 18 months, so I’m wondering about the woman that says her wait was 22 months. Could she be counting her paperchase time?
June 18th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
CarolinaBlue,
With looking at a LID in September we are hoping, & crossing every finger and toe that the wait time will change. Our friends too entered in 2002 being told 18 months and received their referral in 10 months!
June 18th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Forgive me. I am unfamiliar with the procedure for CCAA visits. (Also, we don’t live anywhere near the Adoption Agency that we are working through). What is the procedure for prospective parents who want to ask the CCAA questions? Are they handpicked by the adoption agency to meet with CCAA?
Can anyone fill me in?
Thanks.
June 18th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
The CCAA has addressed “the wait”. They have made statement on their website, via the meetings at the CCAA, and via the new regulations. They have continued to maintain that the wait is directly related to the number of dossiers and the number of children available. Currently there are more dossiers than paper-ready children. The CCAA has no way to know how many dossiers it will get from various orphanages and SWI’s each month.
They implemented the new rules to try and decrease the number of dossiers and thus decrease the backlog, with the hope that this will eventually speed up referrals. I don’t think there is a big secret or big mystery. It is supply and demand.
June 18th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Does anyone remember the story that circulated the last time the CCAA was in the US? I don’t know if I’m remembering it all correctly, but I vaguely remember there was a father who had a Nov. or Dec. ’05 LID who was told they would receive a referral by December (that’s December ’06). Anyone else remember this? I hope that this family is given the chance to speak with the CCAA again.
June 18th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
L_D Says – I actually is not that clear cut. Check-out the posts of Direct & Indirect Quotas. CCAA probably is manipulating the number of children that are “paper-ready” thus directly affecting wait times. Assuming this is correct, CCAA has a Very Good Idea about wait times.
June 18th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Well, I’m not saying we should be allowed to ask what ever we want. I understand cultural differences, buracracy (sp?), etc. More that it seems futile to have them interact with waiting families at all. We KNOW we’re not going to get the straight facts, and quite possibly the CCAA folks that are traveling are not the ones making decisions anyways or being completely kept in the loop.
Like I said, it seems more about PA than about communicating with families, so why even bother.
June 18th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
CCAA visits aren’t just about waiting families. They are a chance for the CCAA to meet families in person, and to see just how well the children they refer are doing.
June 18th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Maranara..I thought that father was just told December (without a year attached to it) and we all assumed (logically so) that meant 2006..not 2007. I could be wrong, but this is what I thought happenned.
Personally, I think if I met the director of the CCAA I would want him/her to know how grateful I am to have adopted my daugher in 2003 and how grateful SHE would be if she could have her mei mei ASAP. And I would love to my DD to be the one to tell the director because believe me she would ‘know the right way to tell him to ‘hurry up please’ in Mandarin!!
June 18th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
To add to what p12 just said. Even if you take the quota issue out of the discussion there is still factual information the CCAA has that would help parents deal with the wait better.
They know for a fact what the backlog number is…we only speculate.
They know for a fact how many referrals they issue each month…we only speculate.
They know the facts regarding the number of SWI/CWI’s participating in IA and whether this will have an impact on number of referrals…we just speculate.
I am not saying the CCAA is under any obligation to provide this information…only that they do have information that relates to “the wait” that they aren’t sharing.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
It is true that the CCAA knows how many SWI’s participate in IA, but some SWI’s send files in more regularly than others. I don’t see how they can predict how many referrals they will make each month. Maybe RQ has some numbers on this – I was under the impression that the number of referrals is different each month, and far fewer per month the past 12 months or so than previously.
Windthrow, you are right – they know what the backlog number is. About the quota, I can’t speak to that.
Does anyone know “for sure” if a quota exists these days?
Just wondering.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Our Belgian agency just sent us a letter today. The director of the CCAA in Bejing made a visit in Belgium end of March and met our agency. He told our agency that for 2007, the waiting time will reach 24 months. According to them, 2000 requests should be processed per month but only 1000 children are paper-ready per month.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
NathfromBelgium,
Is that 24 months for people being *matched* in 2007, or 24 months for people with 2007 LIDs?
June 18th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I also agree that it seems like a ‘dog and pony show’ when the CCAA comes here. I can understand them wanting to see how their children are doing in their new homes, but expecting to hear any information about this process and what it will or will not do…I don’t bank any money on it. It’s only going to be the same rhetoric we hear time and time again.
Wendy
LID 12/27/05
http://adoptionandfire.typepad.com
June 18th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
AmyNicole: it means *matched* in 2007. Many unmatched November 05-ers are now at 19 months and rising, some of us still several months away from referral. The wait could will reach and could surpass 24 months by the end of 2007.
p12: don’t know what’s worse: ethnocentricism, “Totalitariansim,” or 19th-century-style capitalization.
The CCAA was clear about wait times over a year ago, in country-to-country visits (said the wait would reach 18 months by summer 07; would reach 24 months by end of 07). We knew all this last summer. But many agencies chose not to pass that on to their current and prospective clients–including one American agency whose client used State Department connections to get info that this agency was deliberately witholding.
If CCAA is saying on these visits that the wait will reach 3 years (and so far they have said that in several countries: Australia, New Zealand, and Belgium), then the wait will reach 3 years. Meaning it will continue to rise for the forseeable future.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
okay, i had to giggle at the “19th century style capitalization” comment. on the other hand, i have a neo-non-caps 21st century style..sorry so OT.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
If the CCAA tells us that we April 06 LID will not get a referral in 2008 then I honestly don’t know how we will continue. It’s been 14 months of going crazy. We can’t take much more.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
I did not really comment for or against the agency telling their clients what not to ask.
I can honestly see both sides of this one – on the one hand the agency needs to keep up a good relationship with the CCAA and it’s in their best interest to keep things to a “social” level.
On the other hand, I do believe that it would be possible for parents to politely ask questions that should not back anyone into a corner. I would not want anyone to be rude to anyone, but I see nothing wrong with polite inquiries.
I have to say that I have a big problem with the “ugly Americans” discussion. Have we not learned that all stereotypes are bad?
As for whether to believe them or not… good point. They’ve grossly misled parents in the past, I see no reason why they wouldn’t do so again.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
AmyNicole: we are LID 2007. our agency recently sent out letters projecting our wait to be btwn 30-33 months.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I really do not know what the big mystery is either. As others have mentioned the CCAA has stated on their website the reasons for the slow down. I knew that there was going to be a slow day in 2005, our agency told us this, it didn’t affect as because we were adopting SN’s.
They were told by the CCAA, also rumours about new restrictions were also in the works and our agency also knew about this, as did others. I know one large China only agency told me that there will be slow downs back in 2004. They said it could go from 18-24 months in the future. It could also speed up. Babies are only paper ready if the CWI wish them to be so. Not all CWI like to adopt out their babies or children. Our Guide told us this is up to the discretion of the CWI, and she works with 2 IA
Agencies, and has gone to different provinces with adoptive families and said that a CWI may only have a couple of babies ready, by choice or other reasons.
Regardless, we are not entitled to these children. They are firstly Chinese, their birth parents are Chinese, and yes they are abandoned and there are many anxious families waiting to parent them, but still, they are not an entitlement or something that we have a right to.
I have been told several times, depending on where you live in China that there are not thousands and thousands of babies available for adoption as people perceive. I have been told this by missionairies, my stepmother (Chinese),
Guides etc. Maybe certain regions have less abandonment than others. I don’t know. I am only repeating what I have been told. I was also told this by another agency who went to China last year, and they told me that there are far more dossiers than babies available. Whether this means literally or paper ready I don’t know. They posted this information on their website for everyone to read.
When we adopted our ds, I thought it would take much longer than I expected, and was pleasantly surprised. He was SN’s. I know how frustrating this is, and it is easy for me to talk as I already have my children, and believe me my first adoption was a complete nightmare. I am just not sure why everyone is so surprised.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
My question would be… If the rate at which children are placed is directly proportional to the number of “paper ready” babies what are the top say…10 reasons that the babies in the orpanages are NOT paper ready? Which of those factors are controllable factors and which are not. In what ways might we help ease the process for them to get a child paper ready. We have to understand the level of scrutiny that any country subjects themselves to, especially when it is one of the top sending countries, when they agree to comply with the Hague Convention. I’m not looking to spend more $ either but if somehow us sending an additional say $500 earlier in the process when we submit our dossier will somehow pay for more staff to review doccuments and or prepare doccuments for children needing placement- I think we’d all agree this a small price to pay to help this process along.
Kay LID 2-16-07
(I’m sick of the waiting too but I’m refusing to look at the glass as half empty. I choose to believe that the CCAA wants what is best for these girls as much as we do. They are people too. They are parents and grandparents and their hearts break too. Our cultures might be very different but people are people. It’s real easy to dehumanize something called the “CCAA” it’s a government office- it’s like hating the management of a big corporation b/c you’ve never met the people personally and you resent their $ or power over you. When you finally meet your CEO you learn he is a real person just like you. He faces infertility or unplanned pregnancies. He fears his lack or job security and the cancer his parents may be fighting. But he has limits within which he must perform his job as we all do and the Hague Convention has definitely put some rigid constraints on them to validate the legitimacy of these girls abandonment and the degree of effort required to locate their birthfamilies… I’m anticipating all sorts of flack for this post but it’s the way I truly feel and see things. As much as we all ache for our daughters we would all do well to focus our frustration energies into something constructive and all do a little less complaining and blaming)
June 18th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
2qts4me – Oh. there’s lots o’ mystery…the devil is in the details! ;)
June 18th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
The “big mystery” is that most agencies are still quoting the current wait. Only recently have most of them started admitting it will probably continue to grow.
If indeed the CCAA has been saying this for a year, then why did they only tell some agencies and not all? Or, maybe they did tell all of them and only a few chose to share that information? Why did the CCAA not post it on their website so that the agencies who this time last year were saying it would go to one year max before coming down again would not have been able to tell this to people inquiring about an adoption from China?
There are many clients out there who no longer trust their agencies, and who would very much like to hear information straight from the CCAA.
June 18th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I’m kind of stuck on one of RQ’s good points from above (quoted here):
“On the other hand, I do believe that it would be possible for parents to politely ask questions that should not back anyone into a corner. I would not want anyone to be rude to anyone, but I see nothing wrong with polite inquiries”
I completely agree. Why are people assuming that inquires are rude? There must be respectful ways of asking the questions we really want to ask. So why can’t the agencies help with “respectful” phrasing of the questions?
June 18th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
“NathfromBelgium Says:
June 18th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Our Belgian agency just sent us a letter today. The director of the CCAA in Bejing made a visit in Belgium end of March and met our agency. He told our agency that for 2007, the waiting time will reach 24 months. According to them, 2000 requests should be processed per month but only 1000 children are paper-ready per month.”
1000 children paper ready per month? Then why are there not a 1000 children matched per month? We haven’t seen referrals that high in well over a year. In fact, the average number of referrals has been steadily declining every few months or so.
June 18th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
CCAA has an email address and a phone number on their web site. I assume that one could potentially ask any questions that way at any time? Anyone tried? Just curious.
June 18th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
“There are many clients out there who no longer trust their agencies, and who would very much like to hear information straight from the CCAA.”
I wouldn’t trust what the CCAA says now either. In the past 18 months of waiting, I haven’t heard much of anything that was completely truthful come from their meetings here in the US. I believe it when I see it. And right now I don’t believe anyone.
June 18th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Yeah…I am not saying that we attack the CCAA with rude questions…but to not address this is assanine! And here is my other issue…no these children are not “ours” yet…but they did open their country to adoption and they did accept our dossiers…and therefore we should be entitled to at least the truth of what is going on. Call me whatever you want to call me but I am not asking for favors…I am not asking for them to speed it up…I am not asking them to change…I am asking for the truth on what is going on…and as a future parent of one of their children…I think that is not rude and that is not unrealistic.
I, personally may not be the person to ask…because it is so personal to me…but someone out there shouldn be able to ask in the way it needs to be asked and get a concrete honest answer to what is going on.
I don’t even understand the need for the rumor queen…no offense to her…not her fault…but where ever has there been such a mystery to a process?????? Why does it have to be so secretive??? Gosh this has hit such a never with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~Linda
June 19th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Ok, let’s just imagine that everyone who attended the CCAA visit asked the same or very similar question of the visitors. Let’s continue to use our imaginations (and this one does stretch mine to its limits) and say that absolutely everyone was perfectly polite. Wouldn’t YOU get tired of answering the same questions over and over again? Tell the truth: you’d get tired of it. We all do. So, our agency asked us to not ask those questions. They were very specific in saying before hand that they (the agency reps) WOULD be asking the questions themselves and would share information later.
Yes, that does leave us at their mercy, but if we didn’t trust them, why on Earth did we trust them with one of the most important duties (helping us bring a daughter home)?
June 19th, 2007 at 12:44 am
But – when they TELL us what’s going on – they’re increasing domestic adoption, they’re pushing special needs, and there are more dossiers than paper-ready children… we say we don’t believe them!!!!
They say we need to be patient and wait as long as it takes – and we say “for how long?”
Are we just going to keep pestering them and slamming them until they give us some other answer we like better?
They’ve answered: they’re gonna do it the way they are doing it. If we don’t like that, that’s not THEIR problem – it’s ours. They have what we want. We do it their way and with good grace, or we won’t get a baby from them.
It’s NOT secretive! In fact, we know “more” about what’s going on “over there” than we did 5 or 8 or 10 years ago. But because they choose not to share the inner workings of their office doesn’t make them secretive – any more than it does any other office/place of business anywhere else in the world.
Seems unfair to blame them for not telling “the truth” when we don’t like what we hear. Whether it’s true or not is really beside the point.
June 19th, 2007 at 12:50 am
LinPatton3 – Thank You! Well Said! …Watch out, you will be accused of being pushy and culturally insensitive…or the big-one of “entitlement”! LOL!
…I would appreciate some “cultural sensitivity” in our direction once-in-a-while!
June 19th, 2007 at 2:03 am
What makes people think that if a waiting parent asks the question, they’re going to get a different answer than the one the agencies are getting? Are they really going to say, “Well we don’t like to talk about this, but since you’re a waiting family, I guess we’ll just tell you something we haven’t told anyone else before.” I don’t find it so much asinine as I do fruitless.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:29 am
2qts4me the mystery is that many of our agencies are not telling us much. My LID is 9-06 and when we started the process we were told 6-8 months but “likely to increase”. There policy is to only say where the CCAA is currently at. They are not telling newcomers what is likely ahead. Frankly, I don’t think the small agencies would survive if they were upfront. There are a whole lot of people in the dark right now. This is why I am thankful for the RQ!
June 19th, 2007 at 7:33 am
If everyone nicely asked then perhaps the CCAA would realize that they need to post something on their website to let families know these things. Perhaps they really don’t understand that families don’t have a clue what may happen in the future.
And I’m sorry, but I don’t see where we have had any official statement that says how long the wait will get, or whether the wait is going to start coming down. If I’ve missed that on the CCAA’s site, please point it out to me.
They’ve told this to a few agencies, but other agencies are at the same time saying things could speed up.
And Bob over on APC is telling everyone the wait will peak this summer and then begin coming back down. He sets himself up as an expert and there are many people who believe him over anyone else.
Yes, it would be nice to get something official that says “The wait will continue to grow and we think it may reach at least three years, we really hope that it won’t go any longer, but we don’t really know at this point”.
Again, I do NOT see that there has been any official announcement from the CCAA about what the wait is likely to do or not do. I see something that says there are more parents than paper ready babies, but that’s been there a year and a half and does not tell us anything about what the maximum wait is likely to be.
I’m not bashing, I’m just stating facts.
One agency has asked their parents not to ask the CCAA about the wait, one has asked them not to talk about the wait or policies. From what I’m told, there are several agencies who have only asked their families to ask any questions politely. And one has suggested their families talk to them about any questions they might want to ask ahead of time so the agency can help them with their questions.
June 19th, 2007 at 8:16 am
I agree with Sherry in Vermont– Well said.
Our agency recently had a conference call to discuss the wait. Nothing terribly new. More dossiers, more domestic adoptions, more people financially able more than one child.
The director did say that the CCAA was trying to bring more SWI’s into the program but some of the SWI’s were SO remote they didn’t have the resources to get their children paperready.
Someone else asked this too– what does it take to get a child paperready? Maybe the CCAA could help with that and start getting more children into the program??
Ok –maybe I’m grasping at straws here
June 19th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t the primary reason for the CCAA visits so they can witness, first hand, how their children that they entrusted to us are doing post adoption?
To witness what the families are like, what the adoptive parents are like, what kind of relationship the parents and children share?
All of this points to how well the agencies do at forwarding good families for adoption.
I have never thought that the primary reason for the CCAA visit was to provide us with answers or information. Yes, it would be nice if they did provide us with information that we want to hear– the wait will shorten after “X” time. But the odds of that happening and the wait actually shortening are pretty slim.
Keep in mind, this is a communist country and it is perfectly acceptable for their government to withhold information (like the US government tells us everything that is going on???)
– the primary focus is for the good of all of China– not individuals.
For thos who want better insight to China, the Chinese government, I highly reccommend reading Wild Swans. It is a great story and really provided me with much more insight to what it would be like grow-up and live in China.
Regarding the stereotype of the Arrogant Impatient American– I don’t appreciate it either. My graduate program was largely international students– I was a minority being an American.
A common topic of discussion brought up by my classmates during the second year of studies was that Americans are thought to be know-it-alls, loud, and spoiled (meaning impatient). They indicated that they didn’t find me or *most* of our other American classmates to be this way — but they could see it in the greater *less educated* population.
Most of my class mates were Asian (Chinese, Korean, Taiwainese, Japanese). However, even my classmates from Eurpean countries agreed that this is the general perception of Americans in their country. Once we got use to these discussion we would often joke about our stereotypes– the ones applying to our country.
This could be a reason for the agency banning families against asking the CCAA about the wait. Like it or not, agree with it or not, we do have a negative stereotype.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Wow…I am just so shocked that people on here are so casual about information…yet they are regulars on here…doing what….? Trying to get the truth…doing what? getting frustrated when the rumors come out and upset when the rumors that are “good” are wrong….and complain about the “rollercoaster” ride we are all on….yet when an opportunity appears to maybe get a solid answer…they are like…”oh its ok…we really don’t need to know…we’re fine…just guessing because we don’t ever want to question the process to the people who are in charge of it…..”
I guess RQ doesn’t even really need to post rumors…because its all good…we can just aimlessly assume ourselves what will happen…and just live out our days just wondering when….and leave it at that. Besides…we don’t have rights…we don’t matter….we are just the “not the parents yet…” people who just need to sit down…be quiet and behave.
June 19th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Hey guys — you’re arguing over the wrong question. Ugly Americans – Ugly Chinese – the agencies must love to see this because it takes the heat off them coming clean about what really transpired in China IA. I can hear our agency’s director now: “Hey, better that they turn on each other instead of us.†It would be embarrassing for some of these agencies to have visibly anxious clients asking questions directly of CCAA reps about the slowdown —- embarrassing because the CCAA told some its most favored agencies a few months after the slowdown began about fewer children being available for IA. Can you imagine the CCAA reps’ faces as they turn to agency staffers with a look of “What have you been telling — or not telling these people for the last year and a half ? Why are they looking at us like we’re dinner?†Unfortunately, my agency (and I’m sure they are not alone in this) used the information not to inform waiting parents or potential clients – but instead used it to create a financial cushion – or insurance if you will — knowing that the China IA gravy train was about to come to a screeching halt. My agency crammed a record number of dossiers into the China queue in 2006 – creating a cushion of over 1.8 million in nonrefundable dossier fees. The only thing our agency divulged to its clients about the wait during 2006 was the number of months the most recent set of referrals waited and that the wait can “fluctuate.â€
June 19th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Personally I’m anxious to hear what the CCAA will do during the Olympics: Will they temporality shut-down the program? If yes, will they continue matching during that time? If they do shut-down, will they continue to communicate with agencies as to the progress they are making with matching? I just can imagine what it will be like if they shut-down the program for 2-3 months next spring/summer and cut-off all communication…..
June 19th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Opps – sorry I meant to say I just CAN’T imagine…
June 19th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I just hope to get our daughter before the Olympics start. I would have thought we would have been clear with a 1/4/06 LID, but now that’s not so clear. Again, CCAA is a bad word in our house. Bad….
June 19th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Like clothing, it goes in and out of style. I remember when big hair was in. I remember Michael Jackson wearing the single glove. Sayings like “wears the beef” and such were and can be the “in” thing. Right now, I think it is the “in” thing to slam Americans. I much as it stinks, I think it is. We just can’t seem to get a break!
June 19th, 2007 at 11:50 am
By the way, the Chinese culture is very direct and at times rude. Before we left for China, our agency as well as a friend from China warned me to be ready for the directness. But the governement keeps information very clsoe tot he vest, witness last weeks shut down of the Yahoo picture site because of posting of the uprising at Tianemen Sq.
For those of you still waiting, I wish you peace, and the knowledge that once home with your child, the wait time and frustration will fade quickly.
June 19th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Agencies are a business, they want to make money, and they will say what they need to get new applications.
Some have non refundable application fees, and that certainly adds up. They can then either approve you or not and keep the money. I remember when Cambodia opened up, and then closed. A few agencies were taking applications and claiming it hadn’t ‘closed down for them’.
The CCAA does have preferred agencies. One agency was told they were in the top 25. I searched for a list, but of course, I don’t have the skills to find this out LOL. I would love to see an actual list, if this is even true.
I belong to several agency forums, only because we adopted SN’s, and this agency claimed they were in the top 25. This agency gets rave reviews from people and it is not one of the big agencies, and I hadn’t heard of it before. Most of the families on this forum adopted SN’s children from their WC list. I would love to know where my agency rated.