welcome

Welcome to my homepage!  

update newspaper: 21 June 2008
update photos: may 2008

My name is Lisette and I was in the process of adopting a baby (child) from China.

In Holland (The Netherlands) the adoption procedure takes a long time. Initially you are required to register your intention to adopt with the Justice Department in The Hague. I did this in July 2000. In Holland you have to take part in a compulsory adoption course, which lasts for six sessions. After a lengthy wait, I was finally invited to attend this course in August 2001. These sessions took place during the day. At each of the sessions a different subject relating to adoption was presented.

After these adoption meetings, the next step is the Home Study part of the procedure. This usually involves 3 - 5 appointments, at least one of which takes place at home. By July 2002 this part of the procedure was safely out of the way for me.

Alas, due to the quotas put in place by the CCAA, it wasn’t until May 2003 that I was able to begin the paper chase stage. On July 17^th 2003, however, my dossier was finally sent to China and May 3 2004 I get my referral.

In order to help me endure the long wait I began to create this homepage in September 2001. Besides this page,  the who am I  page  and the newspaper  the rest of my homepage is written in Dutch.  

My homepage is divided into various sections. Below you will find a few instructions for you to view these pages even if you don’t speak Dutch.

On the who am I page you can view a number of photos of me taken over the years.

On the photos page you can see pictures of the various Chinese events I have visited over the last few years.

On the bookshelf page you can see the titles of all the books I have collected relating to Adoption, China, Children’s books or Bringing up a  Child.

On the page chinese lessons you can view information about learning Chinese. On this page there is also a useful English link.

The children's corner page includes information for children. On this page too, you will find a number of English links.

The page entitled links is probably fairly self-explanatory. Here again, there are some links to English homepages.

On the music page you can listen to Chinese music. First you need to click on a heading, for example CHINESE CHILDREN’S SONGS. You will reach a new page. If you now click on an individual song title you will hear that song being played. 

Nearly every week I place new stories and information on my homepage and I hope to add more English language text as well, so please return for a visit to see if there’s any new information of interest to you.

As a first step I’d really appreciate it if you’d visit my guestbook.

If you have any questions about my home page, please feel free to send me an e-mail or leave a message in the guestbook.

And after all, thanks to Helen for the translation of this page for me!

Note: Some information, drawings and photos on this homepage have been borrowed from other people’s sites. If you feel that any information has been unjustly utilised, please feel free to send me a message and the material in question will be removed.