Hello dear ones! We've had a busy last few weeks as we've been checking things off our to-do list and squeezing in family travels before Justin headed back to class. We have diligently been plugging away at adoption related paperwork and becoming more familiar with both our local and international agencies.
I thought it might be helpful to give a brief breakdown of the "lingo" I might use when describing our process to help those interested better understand what the heck I'm talking about. I'm still definitely a novice and learning myself so I hope this proves helpful.

Children of All Nations(CAN)- is our international agency based out of Austin TX. This is who has communication with the Philippines. They prepare and submit the final, massive packet of paperwork that essentially tells the Philippines that we are a suitable family and gives them a very detailed description on who we are so we can best be matched with a child.

Adoption Connection- this is our local agency here in Cincinnati that will perform and prepare our Home Study for submission to Children of All Nations to be included in our final packet. We will meet with their Licensed Social Worker at least 4 times to answer in-depth questions and supply all the info required by the Philippines. Before even starting the home study we have to get background checks from each state lived in since 18 yrs old, fingerprints, physicals and doctor approval for each member of the family, home fire inspection, financial statements and so on.

Intercountry Adoption Board (ICAB)- is the entity in the Philippines that oversees every adoption of a child from their country. They do the matching and referrals of the children in their orphanages, approval of family applications, and establish all policies and regulations regarding Filipino adoptions.
ICAB only works with a small number of US agencies in placing children and allots each agency a set amount of application slots per year. We received the fifth and final slot for our agency this year.

Waiting Child- is one who is considered to have special needs, be it physical, emotional, mental or age related, complex background, sibling groups, or a combination. These children are considered a high priority in being adopted out of a country due to their special needs and lack of available families interested in adoption within their native land. Each agency has a list of waiting children where you can access their information and express interest in a child. Meaning, you might be able to potentially "match" your family with a child vs. waiting for the agency to match you with a "healthy" child.

Healthy Referral Program-  is adoption of a child not considered to be a "waiting child". These children are generally younger and have less severe special needs. Our agency (CAN) was given 5 slots for the Philippines Healthy Referral Program this year. We filled that 5th slot, but are extremely open and interested adopting off of the Waiting Child list if there is a child(ren) for who we might be a good fit.

Dossier this is the big, mac daddy packet that is sent to the Philippines, presenting our family to them for scrutiny and consideration. I don't yet know what all will be in this apart from our home study, financial and medical information, 2 psychological evaluations/tests for both of us, and much, much more. Our agency's goal is to have this submitted by December 2013, and it will be an intense, challenging task to get it done that "quickly" given that we are the last family in their program and will simultaneously be doing our home study for the local agency. But we shall try!

I think that about covers the nuts and bolts of the key players. Next up, how you can be a key player too!

Joyfully,
The Hoffers