Still More Waiting

We were disappointed to hear today that the projected wait time has again increased. Estimates are now that the time from login to referral will be 11 to 12 months. When we began the process the time from login to referral was about 7 months. Lots of rumors are flying, but the CCAA is reporting that they haven't yet completed their move. For anyone feeling the need to be disabused of any illusion of being in control of life I heartily recommend adoption.

On the otherhand, we were encouraged to hear yesterday that our dossier has been sent to the referral room. That's great news for us because it implies that our paperwork has been approved by the CCAA for referral. We are extremely thankful for that, and somehow it does help us to wait.

Crisp & Clean

Our adoption agency has a Yahoo Group that's a great source of information for us. I got a kick out of a recent post. Part of every adoption from China is making a donation to the orphanage from which you are adopting. It's all above board and official--nothing "under the table."

Well, it seems that its crucial to make sure that you are well supplied with brand new, crisp, clean $100 bills for this donation (quite of few of them I might add!). I can't imagine, after all that's required to complete the adoption, jeopardizing it by presenting "dirty money." The person making this post went on to suggest beginning to collect the money a couple of months in advance because these pristine $100 bills apparently aren't so easy to come by.

OK...Maybe June

First, a couple of terms to define:
1. log in date: the date that paperwork is officially logged into the CCAA (see #2)
2. CCAA: China Center for Adoption Affairs; the Chinese government office that processes adoptions
3. referral: the matching of a child in China with the family seeking to adopt

So, our family coordinator at our adoption agency says that it looks like the CCAA is processing adoptions in about nine months. Our log in date was August, so that means we might receive our referral in June. If you've followed our story, you know by now that none of this is an exact science. June is now our best guess, but as always, it could easily be later.