Match Day: Referral

DURING the waiting period, the CCAA processes the dossier and begins to match the adoptive family with an orphan child in China. Once this process is completed, the match (which includes a photograph and medical statement) is sent to the adoption agency. Once at CCAI, the agency translates the documents and verifies the child's name with CCAI staff members in China. Upon verification of the match, the adoption agency calls with the good news!

The Call: Sydney
On the afternoon of November 18, 2003 (our Date of Referral -- DOR), we received "the call" regarding Sydney. Agency staff called to congratulate us on the pending adoption of Ning FuQi and to provide details on our new daughter. The agency told us her name, the agency in which she was held, her date of birth (some dates are not known), and her medical condition. The agency also sent us an email message with a photo attachment (shown to the left, in red) and sent the original referral documents to us for acceptance. Within 24 hours, we returned our formal acceptance of the match.

We received two additional referral photos in the original referral documents. They appear to the right and to the left; she's wearing a blue flowered shirt and Teletubby pants. When Sydney looks at the pictures now (we have them displayed on our coffee table), she points to the hand holding her up in the photo above and says, "Daddy" or "Daddy's hand." At some point, we'll try to explain the unseen someone who is holding her up for her pictures.

At this time we learned that travel to China was estimated to occur 6-8 weeks from DOR.