One of the new requirments for being eligible to adopt from China after May 1, 2007 is "Applicants must be in good physical and mental condition necessary to provide responsible care for an adopted child. Each applicant’s Body Mass Index (BMI) must be under 40."
When this was first released in January I was a basket case.
My BMI is ~31, but Tammy was ~43.
The good news was we met every other qualification, but this one thing threw doubt into the equasion.
When the rule was first announced there was no information if they would be retroactively applied to applicants who were already DTC/LID, or would they only apply to new applicants. Over time it became universally accepted that those who were LID would be reviewed under the old rules, and only new applicants would be required to meet these requirements. Of course this could change in a heartbeat, but for now there is no sense worrying about it.
I did not say anything to Tammy about this other than to mention that it is a requirement and if China started reviewing applications using the rules we could be rejected based on this.
No pressure to try and force her to lose weight.
Then about 2 weeks ago she asked for me to sign her up for Weight Watchers Online. A good friend of hers is on Weight Watchers and she wanted to try it to lose a little weight. So I signed her up and we started with her watching her points. In the last week she has lost 5 pounds and in total she has lost about 1/6 of what she would have to lose to get her BMI below 40.
No pressure on my part, and I am eating the same things as her to help keep her on the plan and try to keep her motivated to continue. Overall it has also been positive to increase the amount of vegetables and decrease the amount of Pasta and starches in our diet. We have also reduced the amount of boxed/prepared foods which we had started to eat because of time issues when we get home from work.
If I had of tried to force her to do this it would have backfired big time, but it has been her idea and she wants to do it.
Would it make me very happy to see her get below 40 BMI?
You would not believe the amount of pressure this would relieve because if we were questioned in review about it she could get a new medical form done and the issue would go away..
But it has to be her decision and drive that will make it happen and I am very happy with the effort she is taking to try and make this happen.
