8/20/2013 This will be a work in progress. It occurred to me today that I've amassed a lot of knowledge that other folks might find useful in their adoption journeys and that it might be good to have a page for it. Pretty much if something can take a left, go corkscrew or have some other unusual, strange, never-before-seen turn, it will find me. Every time. Guaranteed. I could fill a blog just with that. Anyway, if there's something you'd like help with that I don't have listed, please let me know.
Adoption Websites:
Each agency will have its own website. If you are still looking for an agency or are working to identify your child, here are some places to gather information:Rainbow Kids (rainbowkids.com) offers information on agencies, country programs, special needs, news articles on adoption, a community of adoption families and a photo-listing to aid in your search for your child.
China Adopt Talk (chinaadopttalk.com) has a really good forum to gain lots of information on adoption, the paper chase, travel and Chinese culture. Information on wait times and processes is updated regularly.
Reece's Rainbow supports children with Down syndrome and other special needs and their families. Families can fundraise through the site, people can advocate for children, and the public can donate to assist children in getting their forever families.
Yahoo groups Ichild and NWIChild both have a lot of great information if you are looking into adopting from India.
Facebook:
Book Your Way to Adoption
Reeces Rainbow
Single Adopt China
Single Christian Adopters
Adopting the Older Child
Families with Children Adopted from China
Adoptions is God's Calling
Adoption Process:
If you live close enough, in most states, walk-in to purchase your vital records rather than waiting for Vital Check to deliver them. You may also be able to walk in to get your secretary of state's verification of the notary's officialdom or apostille--be sure to check which you will need for your child's country of origin. These two steps will cut weeks off the process. Sending the documents to be authenticated grouped by state jurisdiction will aid in reducing costs of FedExing them individually. Now, if your docs have to go to DC, know there is an extra layer of verifications and costs.
Current costs for authentication at the Chinese Consulate General are $25 per document and $5 for processing. (Rush service costs $45 per document and must be walked in, no exceptions. Courier service to do this costs a minimum of $90) San Francisco requires a money order or cashier's check. You will need cash to obtain a money order. The money order itself should cost less than a dollar. In my state, verification costs $10 per document. FedExing per batch costs about $20-30 and with paid return envelope, double that. My actual costs: Vital Records $80, $100 for notary verification, $305 for authentication, FedEx $150, medical exams thus far $1200, passport $115.
******10/21/13 Update on the PRC San Francisco consulate: may be ceasing rush service so documents may take the full 15 day plus time frame to process.****
A word on the financial statement:
Should you be self-employed and not receive paychecks, you will need a letter from an accountant or CPA that you make what you make and that you will continue to make what you make. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Why do I include this? I do my own taxes and bookkeeping, do you? I still had to have that letter from an accountant or CPA. Can you just pick up the phone and call someone to do this? NOOOOO!!! If an accountant hasn't done your taxes s/he will not feel comfortable writing this letter for you because there isn't a business relationship there and they haven't seen your books. Well, just show them the books and the taxes and all should be well, right? Right? Wrong. Be aware that you may have to make many, many phone calls before you find someone willing to do this. Expect to pay a minimum of $600.
Medical Exam:
A good number of the tests required by either China or Hague (not sure which, but doesn't really matter, does it? Have to do them either way.) never enter into most people's lives. Good news is that most of them aren't very expensive. EXCEPT the mammogram. That little bit of joy will set you back $500 per screening. I hit the jackpot. I got to have two scans. There was talk of ultrasound if the second scan wasn't satisfactory. I sweat bullets for a couple months!
Immunizations:
In my area, we have to go to a special travel clinic to get ours rather than from our physician's office. Most of these immunizations are not covered by health insurance. The time of year, area traveling to, and what you''ll be doing, will determine what you'll need. Here are some of the immunizations you can expect to need and their cost. Note that some of them require 2 to 4 doses over a period of months; For example, the rabies series is about $1000 when all is said and done:
Office Visit: $69.00
| Booster Visit - to complete a vaccine series only | $34.50 |
| Vaccine Administration, first vaccine | $19.00 |
| Vaccine Administration, each additional | $12.00 |
| Anthrax | $180.00 |
| Hepatitis A - Adult | $89.99 |
| Hepatitis A - Pediatric | $59.99 |
| Hepatitis B - Adult | $89.99 |
| Hepatitis B - Pediatric | $59.00 |
| Hepatitus A and B (Twinrix) | $149.99 |
| Influenza | $29.99 |
| Japanese Encephalitis | $279.99 |
| Meningococcal Meningitis | $138.99 |
| MMR | $79.99 |
| Pneumococcal | $69.99 |
| Polio | $64.99 |
| Rabies | $265.99 |
| Tetanus (Td) | $44.99 |
| Tetanus (Tdap) | $69.99 |
| Tuberculosis Skin Test | $59.99 |
| Typhoid Injection | $79.99 |
| Typhoid Oral | $79.99 |
Passports:
Adults can renew by mail. Lucky you! However, If you have to go to an actual passport office or a post office, take notice. Children must go in whether it is a renewal or a brand new passport. Stands to reason--they change so much. Times of operation on the USCIS website may not be current. Nor locations. Offices may close early and you may be turned away. Even if the website says there is Saturday service, call to see whether your location still has Saturday service. So far, I have made four trips to get my children's passports renewed. There will be at least a fifth trip. Trip one: they moved. Trip two: Friday's they weren't open until 3 p.m. Trip three: one app accepted, the other rejected. Trip four: closed early (even though I got there before the posted closure time). Your photo cannot have the person smiling with their mouth open. This will be rejected. Copy both front and back of supporting documents--on the same page. DO NOT copy back and front on separate pieces of paper and staple them together. You will either be told to go redo your copies or have to wait for the clerk to redo them for you. Your child's emergency contact must be a family member, not a family friend. I had put a family friend since I have no relatives nearby and all close relatives are dead. HIPPA, I was told. What do they do for people who don't have any relatives? And for that matter, how would they have known if I hadn't put family friend in the box--not all of my relatives have the same last name as I do! Remember to initial your corrections. Allot way more time than you think to accomplish this. There was only one person ahead of me the day I actually succeeded in getting into the office and it took nearly an hour. That was with all the forms printed and filled out beforehand. The clerks will not be knowledgeable about which offices do Saturday service (at least the ones in the local office weren't). Our large metropolitan area currently has no place where a Saturday appointment can be made. The post office has almost no one able to provide passport services and all of them in our area have been switched to weekdays. Nearly 20,000 postal employees retired or left the postal service in 2013 or so I was told. Take your kids out of school to get this done. There is no other option. Call ahead to find out the forms of payment accepted. Our office does not take cash. No credit. No debit. Only checks and money orders.
Fundraisers and Grants:
Resources 4 Adoption has an extensive and continuously updated list of grants available plus tools to assist in wading through all the paperwork--highly recommend using this service! Website is resources4adoption.comCrowd funding
Go Fund Me (gofundme.com)-- funds are paid directly to you via a We Pay account. Open to anyone raising funds for a cause. Is not tax deductible.
Adopt Together (adopttogether.org)--specific to adoptions. Sends funds to your agency and it is tax deductible for donors.
Reece's Rainbow (reecesrainbow.com)--awesome resource for families adopting special needs and aging out children. Funds raised through this site are tax deductible for people who donate to your adoption. Funds are paid directly to agencies, airlines, etc.
Bonfire Funds (bonfirefunds.com)--sells quality t-shirts for causes and has a design department to assist you. You have to sell 50 shirts before you get any funds. You set the amount of the donation from each shirt sold. Be sure to allow enough time to sell your shirts. No one will be charged until 50 shirts have been sold.
Amazon has an associates program which can be helpful if you have a blog you can get an access button to put on your blog. Anyone who buys something via accessing Amazon through your blog can have a portion of the proceeds go to funding your adoption process. A great way to get some funding where people don't have to do anything different than maybe what they would have done in the first place.
Direct sales companies with fundraising programs: Tupperware, Scentsy, Avon, Thirty-One, Jamberry all have programs. Percentages vary so be aware of that.
Fundraising Almanac and Coupaide.com may be useful too.
Travel:
Some adoption agencies have travel agencies/hotels/guides which they strongly recommend. For the most part, this won't be a requirement. Having a recommended travel agency can be a good thing. Do your due diligence though. Some sources have reported rates double what could be found by locating accommodations/travel privately. My first two adoptions, the recommended travel agent went to wizarding school. No kidding. No one but no one could beat the rates he found. People tried. Earle, bless you!
Travel-related websites:
www.booking.com reviews, booking without paying until you stay, said to have best prices. I booked my apartments for my third adoption through them and stayed in accommodations that were way better than if I had gotten a hotel and at a fraction of the price.
www.ctrip.com
www.tripadvisor.com reviews, price comparisons, includes attractions as well as transportation and accommodations
Facebook groups:
Book your way to Adoption
Maps:
Map of Guangzhou with directions to the Louidon, good to have even if you aren't staying there! It is near the Metro Mall which has an excavation site for the Water Wall. It is also near the Chen Family Ancestral Hall, the Guangzhou Zoo and several other attractions.
Shopping:
11/30/2014 I just found a website called mystore411.com
Here is a link with a listing of all of the Wal-Marts in China listed by Province with their addresses in English.
http://www.wal-martchina.com/english/walmart/wminchina.htm
Carrefour is also big in China. It is a French store kind of like Walmart in that it has a wide variety of things. Here's their location link:
http://www.mystore411.com/store/listing/1467/China/Carrefour-store-locations
Some adoption agencies have travel agencies/hotels/guides which they strongly recommend. For the most part, this won't be a requirement. Having a recommended travel agency can be a good thing. Do your due diligence though. Some sources have reported rates double what could be found by locating accommodations/travel privately. My first two adoptions, the recommended travel agent went to wizarding school. No kidding. No one but no one could beat the rates he found. People tried. Earle, bless you!
Travel-related websites:
www.booking.com reviews, booking without paying until you stay, said to have best prices. I booked my apartments for my third adoption through them and stayed in accommodations that were way better than if I had gotten a hotel and at a fraction of the price.
www.ctrip.com
www.tripadvisor.com reviews, price comparisons, includes attractions as well as transportation and accommodations
Book your way to Adoption
Maps:
Map of Guangzhou with directions to the Louidon, good to have even if you aren't staying there! It is near the Metro Mall which has an excavation site for the Water Wall. It is also near the Chen Family Ancestral Hall, the Guangzhou Zoo and several other attractions.
Shopping:
11/30/2014 I just found a website called mystore411.com
Carrefour is also big in China. It is a French store kind of like Walmart in that it has a wide variety of things. Here's their location link:
http://www.mystore411.com/store/listing/1467/China/Carrefour-store-locations
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