Wednesday, April 4, 2007

How does the Chinese agency match babies with families?

So, with the rumors saying one of two things - that referrals are still being matched up, or that matching is complete and referrals are on their way, I realized that some of you might wonder how children are matched with families. The following text is paraphrased from another site, and it's the most detailed explanation I've read. Not sure how we know that it's true, but it is what most believe to be true.
  1. The CCAA reviews the baby's paperwork to make sure it is all in order. Then, they count up all of the babies that are eligible for matching that month and look to see how far this stack will go in the parent files without sending out a partial day's worth of matches (remember, all the applications are recorded in date order), and they pull all of those parent files. This helps to determine the likely cut-off date for the matches each month.
  2. Next they match SWIs, or Social Welfare Institutes (orphanages) up with agencies. This SWI has six babies, this agency has six families. These two SWIs are in the same province and have a total of 12 babies, this agency has 12 families.
  3. Finally, they start matching individual babies to individual families. Just as in the review room (where the parent applications are checked), each matcher is assigned certain agencies. Apparently, matchers first look for something that stands out when selecting a family to be matched with a baby: a matching birthday, a baby who looks a lot like a parent, or a baby who likes music and a parent who teaches music. The example our agency gave was that if you are a sporty, outgoing family, you might be matched with an "active" child from the SWI. Upon hearing that, we thought it best not to mention our hiking and camping, and instead reported that we read and listen to classical music each night! (Just kidding!) Apparently Chinese astrology may play a part in the decision as well.

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