On Waiting

I want to thank all of you who have been keeping up with us on the progress of our adoption. I don't have much new to report. We are still waiting! Many of you are aware that the Chinese New Year began on January 29th, 2006. Just as many Americans take off work during the Christmas/New Year holiday, so things shut down significantly in China for the New Year. The work of processing adoptions shuts down as well.

As of today, no referrals came in February. Because of Chinese New Year that's not unexpected. Every indication is that there will be referrals on the way shortly. To give you an idea of how this process works you can think of standing in line. It's kind of like we are in line watching those in front of us. As they receive referrals, that means we are moving forward in the line. We continue to hope that we might find out who we've been matched with in May. We would then most likely travel in July.

Waiting isn't easy. The fact of the matter is that I want what I want right now. As we wait to be notified about the little girl we hope to adopt, I've had to constantly remind myself that the delay we're experiencing looks to be pretty short in the big picture. In the big picture, waiting a few months is nothing! What's a few months compared to this little girl's lifetime (Lord willing many years)?