A perfect storm

Okay, so here's the deal. We probably won't get our referral until July. June at the absolute earliest, but July is most likely. All of this is based on calculations and speculations, but they're pretty educated guesses.

China was apparently a very popular adoption choice last year. The short, six to seven month waiting time for a referral was so appealing, more people submitted dossiers and May and June were especially high months. It has taken the CCAA three months to match dossiers logged in in May and June is expected by most sources to take as long. For details, you can visit the Rumor Queen.

Because our Log In Date is June 28, we will likely be in the third group, third month...three months from now, aka July. Which means travel likely in September - oh, and by the way, the wait for travel approval is now six to 11 weeks, as opposed to the six to eight weeks it was when the wait for referral was six to seven months. The good news just keeps piling up, doesn't it?

Why the extened wait? Basically, it's a perfect storm. More dossiers, as explained above, coupled with fewer paper-ready babies following the crackdown after the baby trafficking scandal broke. The CCAA is scrutinizing every baby's paperwork to be sure they are truly abandoned, so there's another slowdown. The babies' paperwork is taking longer to process.

Plus, last month, DHL lost more than 60 referrals. All but around 25 were located, but that meant the CCAA allegedly put all their staff on the task of reissuing the lost referrals. Yet another slowdown. As you can see - it all adds up to a perfect slowdown storm.

If you are a regular reader, I have a request. Please, please, please do not ask me if we've heard anything. We haven't. We won't. Not for a while. We so appreciate your interest and know you want this to happen almost as badly as we do, but to discuss this over and over again is painful. We ask that you please ask Rumor Queen, instead. Her information is pretty inclusive and up to date.

For now, I am trying to divert my attention to other projects so I don't have to think about the adoption...as much. I cannot begin to explain how difficult this is for us. A beautiful, empty nursery filled with toys she should be playing with and clothes she should be wearing. Clothes she probably won't wear as most are spring and summer - purchased last summer when it was smart to hit the sales, when I was told by my agency and other adoptive parents to start shopping and buy 6-12 months.

On Tuesday, we will have been what we in international adoption call "paper pregnant" for exactly nine months. We've been in this process since August 2004. Needless to say, this is a very difficult pregnancy. And the labor pains are excrutiating.