Group 244 - Dinner at The Mandarin

Today group 244 met for dinner at The Mandarin in Toronto. There were nine families represented. This picture was taken by one of the servers.

After talking through email it was nice to finally meet some of the other families face to face and share our experiences so far. We plan to get together again sometime soon and hopefully some more families will be able to make it.

BBQ Fundraiser

A few of our friends and family members helped us organize a BBQ fundraiser to help us with some of the adoption costs. There were lots of games and activities for everyone of all ages. It was a huge success and everyone seemed to have a great time. There were over 100 people there including the kids. We really appreciate the fact that so many people came out to show us their support. Above are a few pictures from the BBQ.

Group 244 is born

Our file has been sent to China and we have been given our group number - #244. Our group is a big one - 18 families altogether!

What is a group you ask? Children's Bridge puts together a group of files that go to China for approval and matching up with children. These are the families we will travel to China with to bring home our children.

Today in the mail we received a list of the other members in our group and have already been in contact with some of them by email. It will be nice to be able to keep in touch and get to know each other a bit before we spend time in China together. Most of the families are from Ontario but there are a few from New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Unfortunately we won't be able to meet some of these families until we travel.

Those of us who are in the area are planning on getting together for dinner in the near future.

August 9th, 2005 -- Ministry Approval!!!

Today we received a phone call from Jenna at Children's Bridge, letting us know that the Ontario Government has approved us for adoption.

Our file was sent to Children's Bridge on June 27th, and from there was sent to the Ontario Government. We received approval in just under six weeks....which is quick.

Over these past few weeks our birth certificate and marriage certificate were notarized and our file was translated into Mandarin.

All that needs to happen now is for our approval to be translated and then the entire file to be sent to China. Children's Bridge will take care of all this for us.

March 2 - June 16, 2005 -- Homestudy

Our homestudy was completed in just over three months. During this time we met with Donna, our adoption practitioner (social worker) four times. Basically her role was to ensure we were acceptable applicants for adoption, as well as ensure our home would be a safe place for our adopted child. Donna was able to answer all our questions as well as give us great insight and advice. She is awesome!

We also had medicals completed, police checks, RCMP clearances, passports updated and tons of other miscellaneous paperwork.