Match Day: Referral

WE KNEW the call was coming this time, and from carefully reviewing the timelines CCAI and other adoptive families had provided, we had even accurately guess the day the call would come. And still the feelings of surprise, shock, joy, and overwhelming - well, everything - caught us off guard when Theresa from CCAI called October 4, 2005, at 1:05 PM.

Once we cleared up some glitches with conference calling, Deborah (in her office) and I (in my home office) learned that Emily's Chinese name is Lin Hui. She was born December 9, 2004. She is under the supervision of the Xiaonan District Social Welfare Institute in the town of Xiaogan, Hubei Province. She is currently in foster care and is healthy, active, and restless. Her given name, Hui, means sunshine or sunlight.

After Theresa assured us that Emily is healthy and well cared for, she sent us an email message that summarized the key points of the phone call and, more importantly, included a photo attachment of Emily. Our first glance at who this "Emily" will be! Deborah and I agreed that we would not open the attachment until we were both together, so she sped home and we opened the email message and attachment as a couple. (Sydney was in day care for the day, or we'd have opened the email as a family.) The photo you see on the left is our first referral photo.

Theresa also sent the full referral packet by overnight delivery, so the next day we received Emily's medical report from a checkup in July along with two additional photos. They appear to the left and to the right. The medical records indicate that Emily is healthy and that all of her major "systems" are functioning normally. She eats a great deal of porridge, fresh fruit, and lots of noodles! We may need to stock up on noodles. We also learned that she likes playing with other kids and enjoys toys that make noise.

We were overjoyed to receive our match - Emily seems just perfect! - and our DOR (Date of Referral) so we could begin calculating our travel dates. Theresa told us our travel date would likely be 6-8 weeks following referral.

To assure speedy travel arrangements, we had to send our confirmation letter, making our acceptance of the match official, back to CCAI that same day, so our adoption agency could in turn send it on to CCAA in China. From this confirmation document, CCAA contacts the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to set up our consulate appointment.

Now it's all about getting the thousands of things done that need to be done before we travel to China and before we physically add our daughter Emily to the family.

Our China Adoption blog recounts the referral call and packet in additional detail.