It's already December!

Program Updates

We currently have 12 families in China that have just met their newest children.  We hope they are making many pleasant memories.

Since our last post we received 5 PA’s and 2 LOA’s for China Waiting Children families.  Three of those PA’s were for children on our Special Focus list. 

No word yet on when the next group of non-special needs referrals will come out.

Important Program Changes

The CCAA recently came out with new information on their ruling for families interested in adopting 2 children in the same year.  For families that have already completed an adoption in the past year, they may now identify a Special Focus child and if they submit their Letter of Intent for that child within a year of their last adoption, they will be able to use a copy of their old dossier for this adoption!  The family will need to update their home study, update their CIS approval and submit a new Petition Letter, but will not have to update any of their other dossier documents. 

The Adoption Simplification Act became law on November 30.  This allows families that are Hague and are adopting a child 10 years old or younger to now sign a waiver for the child’s immunizations in China.  This comes as great news for children that could have been facing receiving numerous vaccinations at their medical exam in China.  The waiver form (DS-1981) must be signed and notarized and submitted at the time of their consulate appointment.  The current form will be revised in the future to indicate that it does apply to Hague cases, but will be accepted until that time.  It can be found at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/80002.pdf

Continuing on with our 10 part series of sharing the Ten Things Adoptive Parents Need to Know:

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ve combined two weeks of this series below:

I really like the concept for week 7.  Celebrate for who the child is and what he/she does. Try to create 20 celebrations for each criticism.  Celebrate the child for what he/she does right.  Some days that may mean you will need to really look for those things and even celebrate the small stuff.  The celebrations might include high fives, knuckle bumps, hugs, or affirming touches that matures affection, adult to child.  You may even make a celebration day that includes going to get ice cream because “You are such an amazing kid.”

The concept for week #8 is the understanding that for children from difficult places, we need to see resistance, aggression, attention needing behaviors, and compulsive actions and attitudes as stress or fear states – NOT MISBEHAVIORS. The understanding is larger than the expectations.  Children need lots of empathy and compassion about fears.  We need to acknowledge and accept fears, don’t dismiss them.  Help your child take small steps at facing their fears over time.  Children from difficult places need parent acceptance of feelings in the face of what makes them fearful…often masked as hurt (withdrawal), anger (aggression) or anxiety (compulsive) behaviors.

If you have any questions about the concepts presented or would like to talk in more detail please contact cscheller@ftia.org.   As a reminder, we will be hosting a webinar entitled Ten Things Adoptive Parents Need to Know at the end of this series (January 2010).