WHEN ARE YOU BRINGING THAT LITTLE GIRL (OR BOY FOR SOME FAMILIES) HOME?

Yep, that's the million dollar question for all of us in the China adoption program. I forget that some of my readers aren't in the adoption program and have no idea about how or why things are taking so long. This post is for them.

We started in August, 2005 with what is known as the paperchase. We had physicals, fingerprints, meetings with our social worker to complete a home study, wrote essays, obtained police clearance letters, income verification, reference letters from friends, ordered birth certificates & marriage license, had passport photos taken and waited patiently (BWAHAHAHAHA) for our immigration approval. We then had all of our documents notarized and authenticated and our precious dossier was complete. Our paperchase took a total of 6 months to complete and our paperwork headed off to China on February 10, 2006. We waited patiently (BWAHAHAHAHA) until we were notified of our LID (log in date) . Our LID is March 8, 2006. When we started the process it was taking about 6 months after your LID to receive "the call" (or your referral) with your child's information and picture. I remember hoping that we would be home BEFORE the kids returned to school in September, 2006. Sigh. Things started to REALLY slow down with the China program (Ummm, the month we started our paperchase) and the wait has been growing each and every month. Why? Don't know. I can only speculate, so I won't.

As of last month, they gave referrals to families that were logged in between November 21, 2005 and November 25, 2005.....4 days. As someone that frequents a site called RQ (Rumor Queen), I know that based on RQ's polls there were quite a few families logged in during that 4 day period. I also know that things should start to speed up a little bit when we reach the smaller months (months that less families are logged in). As you can see from the poll, November was a much larger month and that's probably is the reason it's taking so long to get through. We have had quite a few large months behind us and are looking forward to finally getting into the smaller ones and hoping the pace picks up a little bit. When I say speed up, I'm thinking they might be able to process 15-18 days each month. I hope. Thank goodness, we're logged in at the beginning of March. If you will notice from the poll, they expect March to be a rather large month and therefore, take quite awhile to get through.

As of right now, 102 days separate us from the cut off from this month's batch of referrals (November 25, 2005). How long will it take for the CCAA to process 102 days? Don't know. We can look back at the history of the last 18 months to get an average. I'm not going to use the average number of days over the last 6 months because I know that those were larger months (more families logged in during that time). If we use an average of the last 12 months that we get 10.5. If you divide 102 by 10.5 you get: 9.7142857 or about July, 2008 before we will receive our referral. Like I said previously, I'm REALLY hoping that they can start doing about 15 days worth per month (when we get into the smaller months) and we can receive our referral in about May, 2008. Really hoping.



This adoption has truly been one of the hardest things I've ever been through in my life...... It's also been one the most amazing experiences I've ever been through. If it wasn't for this loooooooong wait, I might never have met all the wonderful people that are on this same journey. I honestly don't know what I would have done if our family was traveling on this path alone. For that, I'm grateful for the wait. I also know that someday when I look in Ava's eyes for the first time, I'll be thinking......THANK GOODNESS the wait took as long as it did because it gave me her. For that, I'm also grateful.