4 Months!!

Today is my 4 month LIDiversary!!! I cannot believe how fast these past 4 months have actually gone. We are now coming into the holidays and once New Years is over I will almost be at my 5 month LIDiversary!!!
I know a lot of you want to know how things are going or if I have heard anything lately....well I havent!!! All I can say is that my agency is still hoping to have a new batch of WC files in January, so I'm hoping/guessing that I will be matched with Channing then....ohhh how I cannot wait for that day to come!!!
Well this past few weeks has been NASTY with RUMOURS!!! If you dont want to hear any of the rumours dont read any further!!!
The CCAA in China had its big year end meeting 2 days ago. This is the meeting where they talk about the adoption process and make new rules. I havent heard anything from my agency regarding these new rules, so I wont get excited and until then I will still consider them as RUMOURS!!

This is from the "Rumour Queen" blog:
They state that the number of dossiers is 2 times the number of children the CCAA has to place. The wait time from LID to referral will not shorten at this time and it may get longer. They note that the CCAA does not define what they mean by longer. I note that they don’t say the number of dossiers is twice the number of children, but twice the number of children the CCAA has to place - I believe we are still talking about paper ready children and not total children.
They state that the following requirements will be in place for all dossiers accepted after May 1, 2007. Read that again - for all dossiers accepted after that date. If your dossier is in by that date then presumably you are okay under the current rules.

The new rules are stated to be:
Married couples only. No singles. Agencies may continue to submit singles dossiers within their 8% constraints until May 1, 2007 and then the CCAA will not accept any more single dossiers.
Married couples must be married over 2 years if there are no previous marriages. If there are previous marriages then the present marriage must be over 5 years. However, no more than two previous marriages will be allowed (it is unclear if this is two per person or two per couple)
Each parent must be 30 to 50 years old. No parent can be outside of this range. Upper limit can be 55 for a family in the waiting child program (and that “can be” kind of looks like it’s going to be on a case by case basis, not an absolute, but it’s hard to tell).

The CCAA wants healthy parents - no infectious disease, no mental disease (including depression or anxiety), no blindness, and no serious disease or disability. There is a note about waiting to see what the CCAA’s formal notice says, which sounds to me like they hope there will be more information in the formal notice about these things. There is another note that cancer was not specifically mentioned.

Both parents must have a BMI under 40.

At least one parent must have a stable job. Income requirement is $10,000 per family member including the child to be adopted.

Family’s net assets must be over $80,000

Each parent must have a high school education or higher.

No more than five children in the home including the child to be adopted. The youngest child in the home must be over 1 year old. Exceptions will be considered for the waiting child program.
No criminal record. There is a note about the CCAA not elaborating so we will again have to wait to see what the formal notice says.

The CCAA fees are also changing - going from $410 to $620.

There are also some notes about the Waiting Children’s Program. It sounds like there will be a category between the current NSN and SN categories for children with low birth wait and developmental delays. Fees will be the same as for the NSN program but the wait time will be closer to the SN program.

Now this is an "update" from one of the larger Canadian Adoption Agency (not FOI):
It is year-end at the CCAA, traditionally a time for change. There was a meeting held in China yesterday (their Friday) with agency representatives. It was an all day meeting covering many topics. Of primary concern to adoptive families is that the CCAA did advise it would be far more stringent on file selection. Agencies are being advised we need to be strict on family’s health and finances in particular. Unfortunately I have no specifics to outline for you at this time. As the changes are to take effect January 2007, some guidelines will be spelled out soon I expect.

As part of the greater stringency it appears that it will be increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for singles to be accepted after May 2007. Until that time we can send only 8% of our projected total files for those five months, a limited number. Singles whose home studies are not in process already, or organized for early 2007, might best look to other programs.

There will be about a $100US increase in the CCAA fees for those files going after January 2007.

These changes are being instituted as there are more family files in the CCAA than children’s files. This situation is a result of a decline in the number of abandoned babies, a steep increase in the number of domestic adoptions, financial incentives in some provinces such as Anhui for families to parent a single girl, and the continued fallout from the Hunan trafficking scandal this time last year.

I know this news will not be well received by some. After years of China providing a wonderful and secure means for families to build and grow, that avenue will be increasingly closed to more and more families. China’s program will, I feel, over time begin to resemble South Korea’s and Thailand’s which are very limited in range of acceptance of families, and in the number of children needing families.

While I appreciate this news is distressing for families here, for children who may now have the chance to grow up in a family in their birth country, this news is good.

SO some may wonder what this means for me. None of these new rules will affect my adoption. When CCAA implements new rules they will "GRANDFATHER" all dossiers that are already logged-in....(thank heavens). BUT if these new rules are true, it will stop any further chance of me adopting from China again as a single parent. I was so hoping to be able to adopt another child from China if I was still single (in a few years), but I do also know that there are other countries that I can look at if need be. We will worry about that when the time comes....but for now I'm just counting my LUCKY STARS that I followed my heart when I did!!!