Sunday, March 09, 2008

Where We Stand


It's been a while since I've given a run down about where exactly we are in this crazy line and I thought it about time, especially to update the folks who are not living and breathing China adoption and particularly for those who are now too afraid to ask about it anymore.

Our dossier (adoption paperwork) was registered or logged in at the China Center of Adoption Affairs in Beijing on March 10, 2006-two years tomorrow! Our place in line is determined by this date. While we don't know exactly when we may see a referral, we know that we won't be surprised out of the blue by a phone call say, tomorrow. It just ain't gonna happen. Waiting families receive their referrals in a neat and orderly fashion. Once they get through most of the dates ahead of us, then we'll have a better idea but it will be impossible to predict until the event is just about upon us because what was the most stable and predictable international adoption program is now anything but predictable.

Last week, families logged in between December 28th, 2005 and January 4, 2006 recieved thier referrals. That means that there are now 65 log in dates ahead of us at this point. For the last two months, we have seen 8 days worth of LIDs referred. This is nothing like back in the good old days (before we began paperchasing) when 26-33 days were referred each month. It's also not quite as bad as the 2-5 days that made up the recents norms. So if very recent trends hold, we could see a referral in 8 or 9 months. Reality check tells me that there are some pretty meaty LIDs coming up and the 8 day batch trend may not hold.

What's really exciting is that I've been tracking where our travel group (those who were logged in on the same day as us and are with our agency-12 or so to begin with but only 2 families left that I am aware of) is on our agency's list. When I first printed out the list, there were several pages ahead of us; now there are only 6 groups (8 lines but two of them are duplicates.) Looking at the list doesn't give me any idea about when we will get our referral but when I cross off a line or two almost every month, it does remind me about how far we have come.

About a year and a half ago I started to put together a chain of paperclips, each one representing a LID that was ahead of us, to be removed when the dates were matched with referrals. I soon gave up though, when I realized at that point that the chain would have been about 45 feet long! After next month's referral batch, I think I'll try again! We really are getting closer, not close but closer.

1 comment:

Lisa and Tate said...

It is exciting to start to see the end of the tunnel!!! I only have 62 days in front of me!!! Getting closer, my friend!!! YeeHAW!!!

Lisa