China Monthly Update

Referrals:
The CCAA has not yet announced new referrals, but we wanted to go ahead and post our monthly update. As soon as CCAA announces referrals and updates their website with the new information, we will send out an email to all families.

Our next Gladney families to receive referrals have a LID of 4/26/2006. Since our last update in early April we have had 2 Gladney families from the special needs/waiting child program receive their Letters Seeking Confirmation. Congratulations to these families!

We currently have 2 families in China completing their adoptions. Several more families will be traveling later in May.

Immigration:
If you are a family who is "grandfathered" into the I-600 immigration system please be aware that you will continue to file your I-600 extension requests with your local state office. If you have visited the USCIS website lately you may have noticed that they have instituted a new centralized system for I-600A submissions (similar to the I-800A system). This new centralized system is only for families filing their I-600A's for the first time, therefore this does not apply to any of our families in the China program. Please feel free to contact your caseworker with questions.

The US Consulate in Guangzhou recently announced that they issued their 1000th visa under the Hague system! That means that 1000 Hague adoptions (I-800A) have been completed from China since the Hague went into effect on April 1, 2008.

GFA June Annual Picnics and Pool Parties!
The GFA annual family picnics are coming up! These are wonderful Gladney agency-wide events. It is great to see so many families through the years from all of Gladney's domestic and international adoption programs.

June 5th - Regional picnics/pool parties in: Houston, Delaware Valley, North Carolina, East Texas
June 6th - NY/NJ/CT regional picnic (Larchmont, NY)

Frank Garrott, Mark Melson, Wendy Lee and Pattye Hicks will all be traveling to join families for the Delaware Valley and Larchmont, NY picnics. The NY Asia program staff will also be joining the Larchmont picnic. We hope to see many of you during this weekend!

If you are interested in learning more about the GFA ("Gladney Family Association") and upcoming events in your area, go to http://adoptionsbygladney.com/html/gfa/index.php or contact Wendy Lee at wendy.lee@gladney.org.