A Full day brought tears to their eyes..

Today was a very emotional day James indicated. He visited the CCAA and met all the wonderful people there who work hard at matching and reviewing the soooo many files. James said there were stacks and stacks of files everywhere. They were all color coded and actually when he was leaving, the stack that was nearest the door, was from our first agency "Enfants Du Monde" - they are the agency I used when I was adopting Kennedy. How is that for a co-incidence. James indicated the people were very warm and welcoming and that as they were being shown around and explained the whole process of what happens to a file that many of the parents including himself were very teary eyed and found it to be very emotional. After all that is where Kennedy's file was joined to mine back in 1996 and where the start of our family happened. February 13th to be exact. She was my best Valentine present ever. James said he took many pictures and he will be sending some for me to post. They are very tired and had a very busy day. He met with the person who works in the Special needs department and thanked them all for helping us to bring home our children. They told him that they were very happy to see the children and their wonderful families together.




Some of the pictures were not taken by James...but will give you an idea of what the CCAA offices look like and the files there waiting to be matched.

A little bit about the CCAA(China Center of Adoption Affairs):

CCAA is separated into 6 distinct departments:

Department 1, known as the Administration Department

Department 2, known as the Liaison Department

Department 3, the Document Review Department I, where all documents are thoroughly poured over and all data is placed in the CCAA database

Department 4, the Document Review Department II, known affectionately as the "Matching Room", where families are matched with the children

Department 5, the Archive Department, where all files from pre and post- adoption are archived

Department 6, the Finance Department.

Every staff person they met with within every department was extremely generous in their time and very proud of the work they do. The building is very lovely inside and has many large pictures of adoptive families throughout the halls. On most computers the staff have slideshow programs that cycle through the thousands of pictures families have sent to the CCAA over the years. There are constant reminders throughout the building of the great accomplishments of the CCAA and agencies whom have worked together to unite children with their forever families.

We were surprised to learn how technologically advanced the CCAA is. In fact, all the departments have the most advanced computers and software to perform their various tasks. While there, we marveled at how proficient all the staff are at input and processing of data.

We always envisioned a small room with limited staff in the "matching room". There are actually about 10-12 workers in this room. It is a very warm and inviting room and all the staff were quite gracious and extremely proud of their work. The task is, however, quite daunting when you see the volume of dossiers that they work with. Interestingly, they take their time being quite meticulous with every single file of the parents and the children to ensure a perfect match. And as is easily attested by virtually every parent who has adopted from China, they have done just that.

James had the opportunity to spend time with the Director of the Special Needs department. She is a very kind woman and was exceptionally proud of the success of the program and all of the children who have been placed with their forever families.

The Archival Department was equally fascinating. The staff compile all documents from pre and pos-adoption and place them within lovely folders for archival purposes. The staff in the department has shown us some of the amazing materials collected in the files. We see so many of the documents here in the office, but it was a special treat to see the originals, and materials we never actually see, in person.

Visiting the CCAA and meeting the people there was definitely one of the highlights of this trip that James had looked forward to. He said it was very touching and he was constantly trying hard to hold back his tears. He was very happy to have the opportunity to thank those working there personally for helping us to build our family.We are forever greatful.




Tomorrow will be busy again..they have to be up for 6am and ready to leave for 7am as there is a welcoming ceremony given by Civil Affairs and speakers who will be addressing them from 8am-9am. After that they will be heading to the airport and will be heading for Nanjing which is the capital of Jiangsu province (where Kennedy was born). From there they will take a bus (about 3 hour ride I beleive to get to Yangzhou) and than stop for dinner and than on to their hotel in Yangzhou where they will stay until Friday.

They will be staying at the XiYuan hotel in Yangzhou.

So another packed and busy day ahead. They were heading off to bed when I got off the phone with them this morning(about 8:30am our time).

They are having a great time and I am thrilled Kennedy is there and enjoying her special trip.

Hugs,
Karen