Coulda birthed me a baby in this amount of time....

Thursday was the 9 month mark from LID (log-in-date). And that's only from having completed the paperwork. All told, it has been a 15.5 month process so far. The "cycle" of referrals from China has always been up and down. Someone explained it on a message board in a way that I completely understand now. It seems like the referral process rolls around from a longer wait (13 - 14 months) to a shorter wait (6-8 months) in a bit of a cycle. And it makes sense. To put it into economic terms, it's a case of supply and demand (as crass as that sounds). When the wait is short - China becomes an attractive option for people wanting to adopt internationally. This creates a bigger demand than supply(more on that in a minute). Then - as the demand gets higher and the supply gets lower - it takes longer for referrals to come out because there are not enough "paper-ready" babies to meet the demand of "paper-ready" parents.

So - about this supply. Yes - there are millions of babies in orphanages in China. But, there are hundreds of agencies in the US and abroad that are feeding paperwork into ONE agency in China. This agency (CCAA) then has to wait for the Social Welfare Institutes (SWI) to send paperwork in on the babies in the orphanages. I would guess that most of the SWIs, besides being understaffed, do not have internet access and some of the modern conveniences that allow us to get information to one another almost instantaneously. So - it takes some time for the information to be exchanged. I believe that CCAA is doing everything they can to quicken the process.

This is the explanation that helps me sleep at night. It's not that China doesn't want these babies to be placed with their forever families - and it's not that they like seeing us tormented over the long wait times - I think it's simply a matter of process - understaffing - and a country that does not have as many communication luxuries as we do.

No news...

Still no news on the adoption front. The latest info from my agency states that the current wait time for referrals is 10-14 months. This is from the LID (log in date). Since mine was in July - that means 10 months would be end of May (not likely) and 14 months would be end of September. I'm ok with September (kinda) - but really...really...really hope for it to not be any later than that. I'm not sure what my mental state will be if Maya is not home for Christmas this year! Not even going to go there in my head!

Secret Pal - Round 2

One of the fun things about being involved in the Yahoo! Groups is the friendships that are being made among people all over the world who will be sharing the most joyous day of our lives together. Something that my group is doing to pass the time is exchanging gifts with a secret pal. Every month, a new package arrives at my doorstep filled with goodies for me and for Maya. This month, we started round 2. We thought that round 1 would take us up through referrals, but with the delay - it just didn't.

So...for this month, I received these two precious picture frames with ladybugs. Oh - and a bag of Reese's peanut butter eggs, but I can't show you those because - well - they're gone!