Mark and Melissa

Well, these last two months we have gotten word from our adoption agency that the wait time has increased (time from logged-in-date in China to Referral) one additional month. That means we are now at twenty months. If this time frame continued without lengthening further in the months between now and then, we would get a referral in April of 2008. However, we personally feel that if it gets much longer, we may not end up getting to travel until late 2008 because we feel in our hearts that China will not be granting adoption travel approval during or around the summer Olympic games to be held in Beijing in 2008.

Savannah will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall of 2008, which would make it a really dicey time to travel (as transition times are always hard for her). Another thing that is weighing on our minds is that we really would like to move to a certain area locally that has a high Asian percentage of children so Savannah would attend school with other children that she can feels at least look like her. (This is so important to us, as she already is saying things like “I don’t like my black hair.” at the age of four.) However, since our adoption funding is tied to the equity of our home we cannot move until we have completed our adoption.

We know that this is all in Gods hands and we trust him with it all. If you think of praying for us though, we’d certainly welcome your prayers. Thanks so much.

The wait time from log-in in China to Referral is now eighteen months. That would put us at a referral of February 2008 at this point. But we are not very confident that the wait time will remain the same the rest of this year.

One ray of hope is that some feel the new restrictions that start on May 1st of this year will greatly decrease the number of people applying for adoption to China. Also, I think a natural self-weeding out is taking place too, as not many people want to join a program that takes 18 months to get your child after the 3 to 6 months that you’ve already taken to get your paperwork ready.  On top of that, many who choose to adopt internationally have already dealt with infertility problems for years and it is hard to wait this much more time when there are other international programs that move much faster. So, all that to say, maybe the process will speed up?

The Chinese Adoption timeline right now from log-in to referral is now 17 months. If this timeline continues it would put us at a referral in January of 2008 (with travel possibly as late as March because of Chinese New Year Being on February 8th–which we cannot travel during because of the extreme busyness. It would be like traveling on Thanksgiving or Christmas in the U.S.).
Of course, things could change. The new regulations for adoptive parents have persuaded or forced many to consider other countries. Those new regulations go into effect May 1st of this year, so any not logged in by that date will have to meet the new regulations. This could cause a bit of a lull in the system and thus allow China Center for Adoption Affairs to be able to catch up a little on their back log–thus bring the timeframe back down a little. But of course, this is all speculation. We currently are just planning on not hearing anything until at least January 2008.

Well, we just got info from our adoption agency and time frames continue to lengthen out. When we started the process this year the waiting time from Log-in date to Referral was about a year. Now we are looking at fifteen or sixteen months. But times are expected to continue to lengthen. So, needless to say we are now thinking our referral may not come at least until next year in December and more likely not until 2008.

We were pretty bummed when we heard this latest lengthening report, but after talking it through and thinking about it we realize that it is probably for the best. We know at this time we have an enormous tax bill coming up this next April. We will be doing some heavy finagling and selling of things, so we can pay that. We also know that I will need to take on jobs to get some of the money we need to take care of this bill and others we need to take care of before the adoption. So, long story longer, we are just trusting in Gods timing and leaving it in his hands. We know it’s in good hands.

We got word today that that our file is “pending review.” What does this mean? Hmm, well I guess it means that it’s going to be reviewed and that it’s pending.

Okay, that was a joke, but we are moving through the process.  You might recall that our paperwork began with a LID or “log in date”, then moved to “translation” and now the “pending review” phase.

Still to come…the “review”, followed by “pending referral”, followed by “referral”.

That sort of sounds close, but really it isn’t.  One step closer anyway.