Bye Bye March!

It only took a year , but China has finally finished referring March 2006 LIDs. Referrals through March 31, 2006 landed today, and I could not be happier. Polls showed that March 2006 was one of the biggest on record, and there were rumors last year that it could take a full year to get through. I didn't believe it when I heard it, but, here we are. March 2006 is done, don't let the door hit you on the way out. :)

So, there are 17 LIDs to go. Some of those are weekends (April 1 &2, 8&9, and 15&16 were weekends in 2006), so there are 11 business days between us and a referral. If they could just do 4 business days a month (which, since April seems to be a smaller month, might actually be doable), we'll see our baby's face by my birthday. Keep your fingers crossed.

We had a wonderful wonderful Thanksgiving. The women won the annual charades tournament, and the pie-to-people ratio was fabulous. We ate and laughed and ate and laughed some more. The perfect holiday, really. I just wish we didn't have to wait a whole year to do it again. Chris had a few days off of work, so we also did a lot of sleeping in. And I finished my novel - yes, I am a NaNoWriMo winner! I have another few chapters to add to the end, then I'll start to revise. I wrote some sections out of order, so fixing that is priority #1! I have never written so much in such a short period of time before (50,060 words in 29 days - I finished a day early!), and it's a pretty cool feeling of accomplishment. :)

A Long Overdue Update

I know, it's been awhile. And to be honest, none of us can really be surprised. :) But I have the tiniest bit of news to report, so a new blog post it is. Referrals landed today in Europe (I think they probably landed here as well, it's just that everything is closed for Columbus Day), and they cover through March 28, 2006. It's a bummer for a few reasons. First, there were rumors that these referrals would go through at least March 29 - in fact, several agencies told their March 29th families that they were in. I haven't heard from anyone who had this happen, but I hope that their agencies give them a good explanation. It's hard enough to be waiting this long, but it's a million times worse to think you're in when you're not. Going through March 29 would have not just meant an extra day, but meant a much larger batch numbers-wise - the polls show that a large number of families were logged in on the 29th. It's also been a long time between batches - the last batch was posted on August 21 - that's nearly 2 months ago. The CCAA was closed for the first week of October, but most people thought that the referrals would be sent before they left. No such luck.

So, what does this mean for us? Well, I wish I knew. No one knows what the CCAA will do next. They could send another batch in 2 weeks or 2 months. They could refer two days or twenty two days. I have long since given up trying to guess, since I am almost always wrong. I do know that we are 20 LIDs away from our LID. That includes some weekends in there, and the polling data shows that there are a lot fewer April LIDs then March. There is also the whole attrition thing - people who have dropped out or switched programs. That polling data is running at about 44%. Yes, you read that right - nearly 44% attrition rate, and we're still moving this slowly. And if you just want to look at number of days referred, in the past year the CCAA has matched 41 days of LIDs. (I know, it's shocking to see it written out like that to me too) So if they kept their pace about the same, regardless of the lower number of families remaining, we would have 6 months left. Hopefully it will be less - much less - but at least we are in the home stretch, right?

Is That a Light?

It's faint, but I think that we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Referrals for August arrived at the beginning of the week, and while they covered a measly two days of LIDs, they were big days (a lot of families logged in). Even with the two day batch, however, it is looking like we could see a referral in December or January. The projections are just that - projections. They are NOT in any way based on information from the CCAA. They're based on how many days of LIDs have been processed over the past few years and poll data on Rumor Queen (the best China adoption site ever). Keep your fingers crossed that the CCAA can keep up their current pace (number of referrals, not number of days), or, even better, that they can pick up the pace. When we started this process we thought we would be home with our little girl at the beginning of 2007...now, getting home at the beginning of 2010 sounds heavenly.

In other non-adoption news, we were so lucky to celebrate the naming of my Goddaughter Emily over the weekend. She is so beautiful, and her Hebrew name fits her perfectly. Now, I know that I'm a little biased, but isn't she the cutest ever? :) Also this week, our niece Caroline started kindergarten! It's so hard to believe that she's already in school - it seems like just yesterday that she was born! And last week Chris wrapped up our insane home improvement project - our floor is finally complete! It looks AMAZING! I am working on putting the first floor back together, and will take some pictures when I finally get it done.

Hope

It's been a crazy crazy month. REALLY crazy. First, no real adoption news. But we do have quite a bit of hope for the future. While the last month had the CCAA only refer 4 days worth of LIDs (so we're now up to 3/6/06...our LID is 4/17/06...), many agencies are saying that things will start to pick up in the next few months. The biggest reason that they are giving is the increase in the required orphanage donation. A few months ago, the donation was raised from $3000 to about $5000 (the new donation amount is in RMB, so it fluctuates a bit with the economy). That's a huge incentive for orphanage directors to get paperwork submitted. More paperwork means more babies available for international adoption and more referrals. So many agencies are reporting this that I am allowing myself some hope that we will finally see a speed-up and a 2009 referral.

In other craziness, we are redoing our kitchen. So it has been construction (and dust) central. A few weeks ago the KraftMaid cabinet truck pulled up to our house (the same truck that delivers to the houses on Extreme Makeover:Home Edition!) and we now have brand new cabinets and countertops! Our kitchen isn't quite put back together yet, but it is amazing to have beautiful new cabinets that aren't falling apart! :)

In even BIGGER news though, two of our closest friends, Shana & Stephen, had a baby at the end of February, and I became a godmother!!! Emily Talia is simply perfect (even those people who aren't her godmother think so!), and I was lucky enough to hold her when she was only 10 hours old! I am in awe of her, and so thankful that we live close enough that I can get my Emmy fix whenever I want!! :)

Other than that (which is quite a bit!), I have been super busy with work - I am working for a CPA during tax season (the same CPA I worked for last year). I really like the people I work with (and the office dog, Harley), but between that and teaching Sunday & Hebrew school...well...you get the idea! And Chris has been working long late hours a lot lately as well. We're also getting ready for softball season to start, as well as Opening Day.

No News...Just More Paperwork

Well, no news. Not even any rumors about the next cut off date. What a bummer, right? :) The upside is that there have been a few rumors about the wait and process as a whole. More than a few agencies are reporting that the mood is good at the CCAA, and several are reporting that things will pick up in the next few months. So while we're cautious about any rumors, we're cautiously optimistic about this one.

The other interesting thing is the website chinadoptionforecast.com. I've played with it some for awhile now, but there are a lot of reports that it's been extremely accurate lately. If we truly are close enough now for the site to make an accurate prediction, then 2009 truly will be our year. It's predicting a September referral, which would mean we would travel before the holidays. I'm hoping that it's wrong - that we'll travel before then, but anytime in 2009 is good enough for me at this point!

On the home front, we're been working hard at renewing all of our paperwork. We meet with the social worker tomorrow for our home study update - once that is done and sent to USCIS, we will have to be fingerprinted again as well. But at least we're in the home stretch of this set of paperwork (it took a LONG time to put it together again). We're enjoying the nice weather while it lasts (it was freezing here at this time last week, and today was in the 70s...supposed to be back down to the 30s by Friday...it's a wonder we're not more sick!). I'm excited to be heading to NFTY Convention on Monday as part of the Youth Workers Conference. And, of course, I couldn't be happier that spring training officially gets under way tomorrow! AND the Red Sox play the Nats for three games here in DC in June - I am ECSTATIC to see my team in my home town!!

Hope and Change

Tuesday was an amazing day. Sitting on my couch, a mere 16 miles from the Capital (yes, that's right, I live 16 miles away, but stayed in my toasty warm pjs!) we witnessed history. There are no words to describe the feeling of watching our 44th president be sworn in. I keep thinking of how our daughter will live in a country where the color of her skin will not be a barrier to her dreams. And I am full of optimism for our country. It truly is cool to be an American again.

In the midst of the unbelievable joy of the Inauguration, it's been a tough week in the world of our adoption wait. Our USCIS (immigration) paperwork has to be renewed AGAIN, and we have to re-do our homestudy (and all its parts...medical reviews, abuse clearances, fingerprints, financial reviews, etc.) a third time as well. It's tough - it's a huge time suck, as well as another rather large and unplanned expense. If all this money was going towards helping kids I would feel better about it. But it's going to our government and our agency. In short, it stinks. And the wait is not getting any shorter. Referrals for this month came out today, and after rumors of a speed-up, this batch covered two measly days. March 1 & 2, 2006. That's it. The rumor that spirits are high at CCAA is still out there, and it's possible that when they come back from the Chinese New Year holiday they could do another batch, but who knows. I continue to hope, but it's getting harder and harder.

I'm still sticking with Project 365...these are the next 9 days of our lives. And we are completely re-doing our kitchen. I thought that would make the universe laugh enough to speed things up (because it would be pretty funny to come home to a completely torn apart kitchen, right?). So our new stove arrived Saturday - our 1970s double oven is no more. And we picked out new cabinets and a new counter on Sunday. It'll be a month or two before they are installed, but we'll do the floor after that. Home improvement has never been so much fun. :)

It's All About the Numbers

Like many of my friends who are waiting to adopt, playing around with the numbers has become quite the hobby. It's all about how many days are referred and how many days are left in front of us in line. Right now, we have 60 days ahead of us. So, if they were to refer 5 days a month from here on out (not totally likely, since last month was only 2 days worth, and March 2006 is rumored to be a monster of a month in terms of numbers), we have exactly a year to go. There's also the math of weekdays referred...there are 40 weekdays ahead of us (because, of course, no dossiers are logged in on the weekends). So if they could just manage to refer FOUR weekdays a month, we will be home with our little one in 2009. Sigh...what crazy math this is. Referrals haven't yet arrived for December, but it looks like they will go through February 23, 2006. 6 days/4 weekdays. By my math, that keeps us on pace for 2009.

Speaking of numbers, many agencies announced today that the orphanage donation (a mandatory part of the adoption) will increase starting in 2009. The donation has been $3000, and apparently has been so for over a decade. It is now going to be 35,000 yuan, which is just below $5,100 at today’s exchange rates. This, of course, means that not only do we now need to find an additional $2100 to complete our adoption, but because the donation/fee will now be in yuan, it could fluctuate quite a bit depending on the exchange rate. Great. The one upside to this, though, is that because the orphanages will be receiving more money per adoption, they may be more motivated to get babies "paper-ready." In order for a baby to be adopted, the orphanage has a pile of paper-work to do that gets sent to the CCAA. There are many stories of orphanage directors who say that the compensation for getting the paperwork together is not worth it - so babies sit in orphanages. If that's the case, maybe this will help.

In non-adoption news, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. In our annual charades tournament, the men won. I would post a photo from the medal ceremony (yes, I said medal ceremony...we take our charades REALLY seriously!) but it might go to their heads. :) And in two weeks we'll be flying out to California to spend Christmas with entire Surridge clan. 3 kids + 2 aunts + 2 uncles + 2 parents + 2 grandparents = lots of family fun. Be prepared for many pictures of our excessively adorable niece and nephews when we get home. :) And, as you probably noticed, I'm attempting to make our blog look a little nicer. If you know how to fix the strange spacing and the title, please let me know! :)

Shana Tovah!

Happy 5769! We had a wonderful Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We had nice dinners with my parents, and enjoyed break fast after Yom Kippur with friends. Holidays always make me a little sad that we don't have our little girl, but thankful that we have such wonderful family and friends. Hopefully 5769 is the last year we spend without kids!

In the middle of the holidays, China did send a batch of referrals - they got through February 15, 2006. So, a little movement forward. And there were some random referrals sent last week for February 16 (but not every agency got them). Hopefully next month will bring a huge batch, but if this pace keeps up we have less than a year of wait ahead of us. Some basic math...if each of the next referral batches (all the way up to ours) is only 6 days, we would get our referral at the end of August 2009. If they slowed down to 5 days a month, we would be at the end of October. But if they did 7 days a month it would be the end of June! Hopefully they can do at least a week of LIDs a month, and we can travel before Sherri & Ira leave Shanghai! :)

Not much else going on with us. I have been very busy working on Fall Kallah, a big regional youth group event that our temple is hosting at the end of the month. I am the chair of the youth committee, and it turns out that planning an event for 225 teenagers is more work than I thought! I'm really excited about it though, since I went to these events when I was in high school! We are also having a great season in softball. Our team is 7-3, and Chris has made a couple of spectacular plays in center field this season (and we are both hitting much better!). And, of course, I am losing sleep with the Red Sox in the playoffs! (TOTALLY worth it though!)

2006! Finally!

Referrals for March arrived last week, and they cover through January 4, 2006. That's right, we're finally into our LID year! It was a pretty small batch of referrals, but I'll take any progress at this point, especially progress where our year is the one that they are working on! The number of people who think we'll see a referral in 2008 is dwindling down to almost no one, but every way that I crunch the numbers has us in China in spring 2009. That means that we'll wait almost exactly three years, and that my gut feeling that we would spend Passover in China might be right. Sure, my gut thought Passover 2007, but still...:)

Not much else going on in our lives. I attended a "cyber-shower" with a bunch of my April 06 DTCers - an online baby shower for each other, and a chance to reveal our secret pals. Hard to believe that I have been sending and receiving secret pal gifts for nearly two years! The shower was tons of fun, I won a few prizes (yay!), and I'm really excited to be able to email with Lisa M (the wonderful woman who has been sending me gifts) and Megan (my pal who I have been gifting). Megan and I actually have a lot in common (husbands named Chris, teachers who resigned to be mommies, etc). It's been really nice getting to know others in the same boat as us, and the cyber-shower was a great chance to chat with them live!

Referrals...just not for us...

So, the CCAA has sent out another batch of referrals. No, we're nowhere close to getting ours, but at least we're getting closer to 2006 LIDs. I've made a lot of online friends through this wait, and the 2006 LID referrals will mean a lot of my friends will start to see their babies.

So, what does this all mean? (warning...math nerdiness is coming through here...) Well, they referred 6 days of LIDs this time. That means that we have 124 LIDs in front of us "in line." If they continue at 6 days of LIDs a month, we have 21 months to go (so just about halfway there)...that would mean a referral in early September 2009. Now, if they could pick up the pace by 2 days of referrals a month (totally a possibility), that would cut down our wait to 16 more months (referral in early March 2009). This seems to me to be the most likely scenario - that we would get our referral somewhere around the 3 year mark. Now, there are definitely wrinkles with the math theory - there is nothing to say that the CCAA won't speed up or slow down. And many (including me) believe that we will see an impact on referrals from the Olympics (my gut is that we'll see a month without referrals in August, then a speed-up afterwards). And the fact that a lot of families with LIDs after us are being told that they won't wait more than 3 years means that we will have to wait less. And, finally, there's a lot of talk about the April 2007 LIDs. Yes, this is WAY after us. But I'm hearing a 4 year wait for this group...for that to happen, we would have to see our referral in fall 2008. Here's hoping...

8 Slow Steps Forward

Yes, that's right. Referrals for the month came out this week, and they got to December 8, 2005. That's 8 teenie tiny steps closer to our date. Now, we are definitely at the point where any movement forward is good. But the fact that they barely made it past the first week of December '05 isn't great news. Most people believe that December 2005 has significantly fewer LIDs than November did, so the fact that we're still moving this slowly makes me think that 8 or 9 days a month is here to stay. If the CCAA only refers 8 day batches from here on out, we would get our referral late March/early April 2009. I can't say that that would be that surprising, considering that that would put us almost exactly at a 3 year total wait. I know - it's shocking. If they sped up, even by a couple of days (10 days per batch), that could mean a few months earlier - November/December 2008. It's really frustrating, especially considering the fact that we receive no updates or information whatsoever from our agency.

In other news, did you hear my screams of joy last week when the Red Sox won the World Series? It's a very different feel from their win in 2004, but I'm no less of a nerd about it. I have watched more video and read more articles about the Red Sox than I ever thought possible. I watched most of the rolling rally (aka victory parade), hours of tape of Papelbon dancing, and have ordered t-shirts, pennants, books, and back issues of the Boston Globe. I'm also going through some serious baseball withdrawal...with the baseball package this past year, I watched nearly every Red Sox game, and found other baseball games to watch on off days. So I watched at least 7 games a week since mid-March (yes, I watched spring training games...), and I miss it! We also made our way down to Williamsburg for homecoming (which was a ton of fun) and had poker night at our house last weekend. Now we're getting ready for Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday - aside from the fact that Thanksgiving has the best food of any holiday, I love our family traditions. We always have Thanksgiving at my cousins' house, with lots and lots of "Thanksgiving family" - the same family friends that we've celebrated with since we were little! It's only the first week of November, and I am already excited! :)

Referrals and Red Sox

Well, the good news is that some families got to see their child's face this week. The bad news? How few of them it was. Referrals only went through the end of November 2005. 5 measly days. It's tough news. I've always felt like however many days were referred, at least progress was being made. But the past few months, the progress has been so slow that we're barely making progress at all. The word is that November 2005 was a record month for applications, and that once we finally got through it, things should pick up. I've also heard a lot of speculation that there will be a speed-up right after the Olympics. Both of those things make the possibility of a 2008 referral a bit brighter. But it's bordering on absurdity to me that when we started the process our agency laughed at us when I said I felt like we would be in China for Passover 2007 - they said that we would be home long before then. And now here we are talking about how happy we would be with a referral by the end of 2008. Sigh...

On a much happier note, the Red Sox are headed to the ALCS after a dramatic sweep of the Angels. I celebrated the win of the AL East with my Uncle Stan - we watched together over the phone, and it was a phenomenal night. Then to watch the Sox come out so strong against a really good Angels team? Well, let's just say it feels a lot like 2004. I'm cheering for the Indians right now, partially because Shana is such a big Indians fan, but mostly because I can't wait to see the Yankees go out in the first round. I guess $195 million just doesn't go as far as it used to. And for those of you who are bound to tell me just how inflated the Red Sox payroll is...yes, it's absurd. But the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox payrolls is greater than the entire payroll of the Diamondbacks (who are also in the playoffs), Pirates, Nats, Marlins, and Devil Rays. Crazy, no? Regardless of who we play, I can't wait for Friday night!

The Hard Truth

Well, the good news is that referrals have landed for September, so there are lots of families who are getting the first glimpse of their babies. The bad news is that they only covered through November 25, 2005 (remember, our log in date is April 17, 2006). While I know that things will speed up ever so slightly once they are done with the 2005 LIDs, it's still hard to take. When we started this journey (and yes, I know how that makes me sound like a contestant on "The Bachelor") the wait was 7-9 months. We will be lucky to be home with our daughter in 2008. Looking at things objectively, in the last year, China has referred 4 months of LIDs. So if they keep up this very slow pace, (which I think is a worst case scenario) it will be well over a year before we see our daughter...probably closer to the three year wait that some have predicted (an April 2009 referral). There is word that there are significantly fewer dossiers logged in in January/February 2006, so they will refer more days, but there is no way of telling what will happen. (heck, I though that we would be in China for Passover 2007...now it could easily be Passover 2009).

There has been much discussion on adoption boards and groups about how much is too much - at what point should you cut your losses and pull out of the program. We will not be doing that (I swear, I just heard two sets of expectant grandparents breathing a sigh of relief!!). We are committed to China both emotionally and financially, and I can't imagine pulling out now. But I can see where people who already have a child might seriously consider it. I know several families who have decided that their family is complete. It's just hard. We're so lucky that we have family and friends that are supportive, but I get the impression that our acquaintances (especially those we work with) are skeptical that we even adopting (we are!!).

Thank goodness for distractions like baseball (go Red Sox!!!!), fall softball starting Sunday, and the fact that I have been convinced to play fantasy football with Stephen and Gregg. (exact words as I met some of their friends at the draft..."OH! So you're the girl!"...oh dear...)!

One more thing. My cousins Sherri, Ira, Goldie, and Jacob are spending two years in China for Ira's job. Goldie is keeping a blog of her adventures, and it is a fantastic read. By the time we get there, she'll have figured out everything for us! :) You can read about Goldie's adventures here: http://goldieinshanghai.blogspot.com/

7 More Steps Forward

One more post before we leave for the beach. We're going to Ocracoke Island, and I couldn't be more excited. :)

Referrals have landed, and they cover through November
14, 2005. That's 7 days of LIDs. Since our LID is April 17, 2006, that's 154 days in front of us. While I'm not excited that this batch only covers 7 days, it's still progress, and I'll take progress in any form!

We've had a frustrating week with our paperwork. We have to renew a lot of our paperwork in the next month or two, and we found out that there are new regulations in place in Virginia. It was a VERY stressful day Tuesday when we found out, but after a trip out to our agency Tuesday and a trip to the police headquarters for fingerprinting today, I think we're back on track. I just can't believe we have to re-do so much of the paperwork that we've already done, simply because of time. Grrrr....

The CCAA was in the US a couple of weeks ago, and the overall feeling of the visits was positive. They admit that the wait will likely extend out to three years, though I think we'll wait closer to 2 1/2. The really interesting thing is that they believe that once they get through the 2005 LIDs, they think that referrals will start to come in larger batches (15 days a month instead of 7). Most people believe it will take until the end of 2007 to get all the 2005 families their referrals. Then, if things speed up to 15 days a month, we would receive our referral sometime in late summer 2008. (so we would travel in the late fall...November '08ish) Crazy, especially considering that when we started the process the wait was 7-9 months (and that our agency coordinator thought that we would be home by Passover 2007 for sure. HA!). There's also a school of thought that things will speed up significantly after the Olympics, which would lend further credence to the idea of us traveling late in 2008. If nothing else, since we've been waiting, 173 days of LIDs have been referred. So, even with slowdowns, we're about halfway there. (is it strange to say "14 1/2 months down, 14 1/2 to go"?)

The wait has been really hard, and the notion that we're not quite halfway done is scary too. But at least we know that in the end we will have our little girl. There's a great article on msnbc.com about another family whose experiences are much like ours. You can read it here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17937816/
We're off to a Brewers game Saturday then the beach...hope to have some good news when we get back...

Referrals and Some Math

Ok, first a little bit (VERY little bit) of news. Referrals for this month have landed, and it appears that they cover through November 7, 2005. That's 6 days of LIDs. Sigh...

Now for some math. I like to look at things logically, and this makes sense to me. We sent our dossier to China on March 28, 2006. Since that date, there have been 166 days of LIDs referred (5/25-5/30/05 were referred on 3/27/06). There are 160 days of LIDs ahead of us. So...if the CCAA maintained their average pace, we're about halfway there. Of course, there's nothing at all to say that they will maintain this pace. Most people think that things will slow down even further as they work through the November '05 LIDs, but will speed up a bit once they hit the '06 LIDs. (hopefully, that will average out) And if they keep referring 6 days of LIDs a month (like they did this month and last), we're looking at two more years of waiting. I'm really hopeful that things will speed up, and that China won't let the wait go much over two years. Of course, I said that about the wait not going over 18 months, yet here we are. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll see our daughter's face before 2009!

Other than being frustrated with the wait, we have been keeping busy. We got away for a one day mini-vacation to Williamsburg over Memorial Day weekend. We've been playing a lot of softball (though not always well...let's just say that we're in a division with teams that are a bit more competitive than us!) and planted lots of flowers in the backyard. And we're doing some traveling - Mara is going to Williamsburg this weekend for a girls' spa weekend (to celebrate our friend Shana's wedding...a grown-up bachelorette party!) and we're both going to Delaware next weekend for our cousin Emma's Bat Mitzvah. We'll also head down to the beach sometime this summer and out to Cleveland for Shana & Stephen's wedding.

Hope to have some more news soon (especially about that darn review room)...

No News But Lots of Rumors

So, we hit the 13 month point in our wait last week, and still we have no news. There are, however, lots and lots of rumors out there. They're all just rumors, so who knows if they're right or not. But it's all the information we have, so I'm pretty happy to have anything! What the rumors are saying right now...

• April is close to being through review. I will breathe such a sigh of relief that you will all be able to hear it when it happens. Yes, even in California.
• The next batch of referrals might be bigger than expected. It could cover two weeks, maybe more of LIDs. If this happens, I will be ecstatic.
• November 2005 (what they are working on matching right now) is huge. And even with a big batch this time, it could take 3+ months to get through all the Nov. '05 LIDs. Really.
• The CCAA is apparently in Australia, and has supposedly told officials there that the wait is expected to go out to 3 years. While this is disheartening, it doesn't surprise me. I don't think we'll wait 3 years, but for those who were logged in recently, a 3 year wait would actually mean a speed-up.
• At the same time as the 3 year prediction, the word on the European boards is that the wait won't go much past 18 months, and they are talking about more SWIs (social welfare institutes...Chinese orphanages) being able to submit paperwork for international adoption. I would love to believe that this is true, but there would have to be a major speed-up for this to happen.

Phew. That's a lot of rumors. And I'm sure that there will only be more and more in the coming weeks. Get ready for the rollercoaster ride that is adoption from China!

A Year Ago

One year ago, we thought that we would be home by now. We were wondering how we would do Passover in China. We picked out names. We asked our friend (and rabbi) Shana if she would do the baby naming. One year ago it was inconceivable that we would still be waiting. But here we are.

I wish we had good news to share. But we don't. It has been a rough couple of weeks. We officially hit the one year mark in our wait last week (yes, I bought a new DVD - Peter Pan...a bit of trivia about it - Mara played Wendy (along with a bunch of other girls) in her kindergarten production of Peter Pan...really). Judging from the size of the last referral batch (only 2 days of LIDs were referred) and the supposed numbers of LIDs in the rest of October and November (HUGE numbers in those months), many are predicting that it could take until the end of this year to get through the backlog of 2005 LIDs. Remember, our LID is 4-17-06. Where does this put us? Well...realistically, we are hopeful that we will be able to travel before the Olympics. Of course, if we have to travel next summer, part of me really hopes that we will be able to see some of the Olympics while we're there. Most agencies say that the wait will soon extend to 24-30 months; I am hopeful that we will wait less than 3 years, but a 3 year wait is certainly a possibility.

We also have a better idea today of where we are in the process. We are now positive that we are NOT out of review. Without going into too much detail, our agency was asked for an updated copy of our I171-H (INS approval) yesterday. They say that their China contact called CCAA to ask about another client's file, and was given a heads-up about the typo on our form. We got the form fixed back in February, so there was a short turn-around time, and we're hopeful that this won't delay our referral even further. They say that this wasn't an official question, but I am feeling very cynical that they're just covering their own behinds (since they didn't catch the mistake in the first place, then didn't send the updated form last month). Chris is far more optimistic (yes, I know it's strange for him to be the cheerful one) that the woman in China actually did us a huge favor so that we could get the corrected form there before we're actually being reviewed. Who knows. But we do know that we are far from being through review.

On a MUCH happier note, Aunt Marf (Chris's sister Martha) has already begun to spoil her niece. For my birthday, Martha knitted me (ok, not me, our daughter) moose booties. If you don't know, I LOVE moose, and these are too cute! We have also had quite the week in sports. We went to the Red Sox-Orioles game last night in Baltimore. The game rocked as the Sox won 6-1. Saturday we went with our good friends Jim & Bridget to see roller derby. Not the movie (seriously, how many people will ask me that?), but real live roller derby. It was stranger than you could imagine, but really a lot of fun. If I didn't bruise like a peach, I would so want to try it! And Sunday night we had our first softball games of the season. We lost both, but it was so much fun to play again (and fun, too, to go out afterwards with the team and watch the Red Sox hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs!).

well....at least baseball season's started...

So, there is at least one piece of good news this weekend - baseball season is upon us. And in a couple of days, we'll get to see Dice-K pitch to Ichiro at Fenway. Set your tivos now.

Baseball was kind enough to give me opening day for my birthday, and Chris and I spent the afternoon watching the Nats get crushed. The upside was that it was in the 70s, we got to see Dontrelle Willis pitch, and we had a bet going with the guys in our section about whether or not the guy in the Teddy Roosevelt costume would get seriously hurt ziplining off the roof of RFK. Really.

The other exciting news is that I recently launched my own store, selling baseball & Red Sox themed shirts for kids. It's called Baseball Baby, and is at http://www.cafepress.com/baseballbaby. Tell your friends!

Ok, so enough good news...there's little to celebrate coming out of China. The run-down...April is not through review, nor do I think we'll be through any time soon. While it is entirely possible that our dossier has been reviewed, we won't know for sure until the CCAA updates their site. And at least one person from April was asked questions this week. So no sigh of relief there. There is word that referrals have either landed at some agencies or are about to land any day now. This is great news for the people included...the horrible news is how few people appear to be included. This isn't official yet, but it appears that this batch goes through October 26, 2005 - an underwhelming 2 days of referrals. Part of the small size can be attributed to Chinese New Year (remember, everything was closed for 2 weeks), but I can't even begin to explain the rest (nor am I in the mood to right now). The bottom line is that since we submitted our application over a year ago, the CCAA has gotten through just under 5 months of log-in dates. At this rate, there is the distinct possibility that we will be in China for the Olympics. Really.

The Next Batch of Referrals Has Landed!

Happy March! So, the good news is that the next batch of referrals has landed. The bad news? Oh dear...where to start? First, it appears that the "official" cut-off date is October 24, 2005. (remember our LID is April 17, 2006) This means that they only got through 11 days of LIDs this month. It seems on the surface that it is a slight slowdown, though word is that October and November had a huge number of dossiers, so it may just be holding steady. No one knows for sure.

Speaking of things that no one knows for sure - there's a reason that I said this is the "official" cut-off date. When the CCAA announced their new rules a few months ago, one of the other things they announced was that agencies would now have to pay to receive cut-off information. Yes, you read that right. So it appears that this month is the first that they are not updating the information on their website; only on a private website that agencies who pay for the access can see. It doesn't appear that our agency either is paying for this or is sharing the information. The speculation on a lot of adoption sites was that the smaller agencies wouldn't subscribe; this now appears to be the case.

**update on 3/7 - the CCAA did update their website last night - referrals through 10/24/05. They also updated the review room - they've reviewed through 3/31/06...we're getting closer on review at least!**

The other strange thing with this is that even though the cut-off date is October 24, there are agencies who received referrals for a few days past the 24th. Again, there is a lot of speculation about this. Some think that these "surprise" referrals were for families whose LID was wrong (i.e., they were told their LID was 10/31, but it was actually 10/24). Some think that the CCAA might be starting to process further than the cut-off date for some agencies (for whatever reasons...there are about a million floating around there).

So I know that the bottom line is, "what does this mean for us?". I wish I knew. I know that we are definitely going to need to re-do our paperwork with USCIS & our homestudy. It's a pain both with the time it will take and the cost of re-doing it all. And my best guess is that we could be looking at this time next year before we get to travel to China. Crazy, I know. It's beyond frustrating. But I had the most wonderful conversation last week with my friend Carmen, who adopted both of her children. She reminded me that even though the wait STINKS, I'm not just waiting for any child - I'm waiting for MY child. And I think I can wait another year for that. :)

A Little Bit of News (sort of...) and a LOT of Analysis

So, the good news is that the latest batch of referrals went out today. That means that we move up in line the tiniest bit, and that lots of families are finally getting their first glimpses of their children. Of course, the progress that was made was small...they have matched through September 8, 2005...keep in mind that our LID is April 17, 2006. Depressing, isn't it?

So, here's the really depressing part...the CCAA has matched 14 days of LIDs. If it continues at this pace until we receive our referral (approx. 2 weeks of referrals a month), we will receive our referral in January or February 2008. I can't even believe that I just typed that. Let me pause to cry a bit before I continue.

Do I really think that it could be spring of 2008 before we see our daughter? Not really. There are many "experts" in the Chinese adoption field who feel that China won't let the wait get that long. The current number that people are throwing around as an upper limit is 18 months. That would bring us a referral in October or November 2007. As sad as that is, I think I could handle that. There are also those experts who think that the wait will speed up soon. This is also possible. The only precedent for the wait getting this long is during the SARS scare. International adoptions stopped for several months, then when they started back they were very slow. All of a sudden, the CCAA started referring bigger groups, and sending 2 groups of referrals a month. The bottom line is that no one knows.

So I'm trying very very hard to look on the bright side of things. It has been a very depressing two days here for me. Let's see...

• If we do have to wait until 2008 for our referral, maybe we will be in China during some of the Olympics...I love the Olympics.
• It doesn't look like we will have any problem at all making it to Shana & Stephen's wedding in July. I am so excited that I am a part of their celebration, and that we will get to go with our friends to Cleveland to celebrate (and that we are all going to catch a Red Sox-Indians game to kick off the weekend).
• I will have plenty of time to make our 100 Good Wishes Quilt and scrapbook.
• Speaking of scrapbooks, I will have time to scrapbook all of our Paris pictures, and maybe even scrapbook our wedding pictures.
• We will get to go to Ocracoke Island one more time as just a couple.
• I will have time to paint all of the rooms in our house, not just the nursery!
• I have made such great friends online in our DTC group (families that all sent their paperwork to China in April)...I am having fun with all the gift & book & postcard exchanges, and it has become a wonderful source of support as we go through the wait.
  
• We get to go celebrate my Auntie Edie & Uncle Norman's 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. What an fantastic thing to celebrate, and I am so excited to see all of my family.
• We get to spend Christmas with Jonathan, Margaret, Caroline, & Colin. There's not much better than spending time with the cutest niece and nephew in the world.
• We are so blessed to have supportive family and friends...I don't know how we would do this without you all!

Hopefully the next time I post we will have some good news. And don't forget to keep sending quilt squares...give me something to work on during this wait! :)