LID, MCC, LOI, PA, LOA, TA, What does all this mean?!?!?

You would have thought that I would be used to acronyms...I have been a military wife for the past 12 years!!! It seems like the Chinese Adoption Process has just as many as the military.

CCAI (Chinese Children Adoption International) - our agency

CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) The branch of the Chinese government who oversees adoptions.

LID (Logged In Date) This is the official date that China receives your dossier and logs it in. Ours is 9/5/2006

MCC (Medical Condition Checklist) A Checklist submitted to our agency's Waiting Child Program, where you can check which special needs you would consider. We sent in ours 9/27/2006

LOI (Letter of Intent) A letter written by us telling the Chinese government that we would like to adopt Wu Chun Xing. Ours was sent 6/29/07

PA (Pre-Approval) Not everyone gets one, so it isn't really a "marker" in the wait. We got ours today 7/27/07

LOA (Letter of Approval) This letter is sent to us by the Chinese government saying that we have been approved to adopt Wu Chun Xing. We have to sign this and overnight it back to CCAI who will send it to China. This is a very big step in the process.

TA (Travel Approval) This comes from the Chinese government saying that we can travel to China to pick up our daughter. Families travel 7-14 days later.

Now we just hope that our wait to LOA won't be very long!!

Addison Rae Tarwater

After 9 months we received a call from CCAI. They had a folder on a little 15 month old girl who had a third degree cleft lip and palate. They wanted to know if Bob and I were interested in looking at her file. I of course told her "YES." As soon as we got off the phone they emailed me a copy of the file.

I sat on the couch for about 5 minutes bawling my eyes out. I was terrified and excited at the same time. "What happens if she isn't our child?" "Is this really happening?" "Can we do this?" "God, I hope we can do this!" To make matters worse, Bob was in Florida, so I would be looking at this little girl alone.

I opened up our email and there it was "Wu Chun Xing." I made myself read all her documents before I opened up her pictures. She was living in the Wuchuan Social Welfare Institute in Wuchuan City, Guangdong Province, PRC. She was developmentally on track, healthy, liked babies and to be hugged and touched. She was dropped off at the orphanage a day after she was born. So far everything sounded great...but could we handle the cl/cp?!?!? I wanted so much for her to be our daughter.

I opened the pictures and the first thing I noticed were her eyes...not her cl/cp, but her eyes. They just had a sparkle to them. I so much wanted her to be our daughter, but could we do this?!?! Bob called later that night and I forwarded him the email. I let him know that her cl/cp were pretty severe but otherwise everything looked great!

Being the pragmatic one in our family he wanted opinions from Drs, therapists, etc. So over the weekend and into Monday I did a bunch of research. I sent Wu Chun Xing's info to an international adoption specialists. She emailed back saying everything is correctable and "Overall, I'm very optimistic about her future." - Yeah!!

I called DC Children's hospital for their opinion. Their cleft team nurse had me email Wu Chun Xing's info. She emailed back "She should do quite well with a surgical correction with a very good result cosmetically as well as functionally. Speaking as the mom of a biologic daughter with a cleft lip and palate-----I would not hesitate to adopt her." - More great News!!!

Then I spoke with Nathan's speech therapist, Jessica. Jessica was very helpful in explaining the speech therapy aspect involved with a child who has a cl/cp. She too felt that everything was manageable and that as far as her cleft was concerned there was great potential for a good outcome. We would love to have Jessica work with Addison when she come home.

So after all this encouraging news, we were sold. We called back and said "YES, we would love for her to be our daughter." So in our hearts Wu Chun Xing has become Addison Rae Tarwater. We are still trying to work part of her Chinese name into her American name.

Our Journey to Chinese Adoption

Seven years ago, Bob and I were blessed with our son, Nathan. Nathan was born with a rare chromosome disorder that resulted in him having profound disabilities. He is medically fragile and has severe mental and physical disabilities. In spite of all the challenges he has faced or will face he is such an amazing little guy. He smile is infectious and his laugh is the best sound in the whole world. As challenging as life is at times, we wouldn't trade it for a moment.

We waited five years before we made any sort of decision on what to do as far as adding more children to our family. Since we weren't having any success on our own, we decided adoption was the right course for us. After much research and prayers we decided our little girl was waiting for us in China. Nathan was more stable, we were used to taking care of him and he had just started school. We felt it was just the right time.

In March 2006 we sent of our application to Chinese Children's Adoption International. We chose them because of their stellar reputation. We started the dossier process in April. After tons of paperwork, mailings, headaches and confusion we finally sent our dossier to CCAI at the end of July. They sent it off to China in August and we became officially logged in (LOI) September 5, 2006.

When we first started the process we were told that the wait to referral was around 10 months. The wait has slowly increased and families that have been logged in since 11/05 still haven't received referrals. The rumours are that the wait could go as high as three years. It was an emotional blow to both Bob and I. We had waited so long to add to our family and then we were facing a long drawn out wait.

After much soul searching we looked into the Waiting Child Program. At first we thought "We have had our turn at special needs, now we want a 'healthy' baby." The more we thought about it the more we were drawn to a waiting child. Most of the items on the checklist were things we had already experienced with Nathan. We also knew how easy it was to love a child with special needs. We already have an "in" with the system and though why not, let's see what will happen. Most of the conditions that China classifies as special need would not be classified as special needs in the US. Some can be easily corrected or managed in the US.

We sent in our MCC (medical checklist) 9/27/06 and was told the average wait time was between 8-10 months for referral.