Almost Two Weeks!

The CCAA recently gave referals for almost two weeks--for dossiers logged in through June 28th, 2005. Our log in date was in early August 2005, so we are definitely getting closer! As I mentioned in the last post, it's impossible to know for sure when we will receive our referral. But we are excited to know that we are a little bit closer!

Delays Continue

When we began the paperwork to adopt from China, the CCAA was processing a month's worth of dossiers each month (they usually sent referrals about seven months after receiving the dossier). That rate has apparently slowed so that they are currently processing about one week's worth of dossiers each month. In case that makes no sense to you whatsoever I'll try to translate. It means that at the current pace, we are probably looking at being matched with a little girl early 2007.

Of course our hope is that the CCAA might speed up the pace. If that happens our referral could come earlier. People are always asking why things have slowed down. The truth is that we're not entirely sure. From what we gather, the CCAA officially attributes the slow down to relocating and expanding their offices. There are always rumors floating around that say the slow down is caused by other things. We really have no way of knowing for sure.

When we began this process, we knew these types of things could happen. The Lord is certainly using this to train us in patience and in contentment with His timing . Please pray that we would learn these lessons well. Pray also that the Lord would prepare us to receive the little girl He has for us, and that He would also prepare her for us. I'm reminded of Proverbs 13.12:

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.