The wait of a Lifetime...

Look at this Picture. It was taken on March 15th, 2006. Laina had been home for 6 months and we still lived in Portland, Oregon. Laina was 15 months old. Since then we've moved. We've traveled back to Portland several times. Friends have gotten married and had babies. We've added Min into our family. I'm starting to think about the girls starting Kindergarten in the year 2010. I'm starting to think about starting back to work when the girls are in school. Our lives are quickly moving forward and things are looking bright.

There are a group of people that we have something in common with that have had their dreams and plans put on hold since the date that this picture was taken. On March 15th, there are at LEAST 25 families that had their dossier logged into the Center for Adoption Affairs in China. We know that 25 people reported to the Rumor Queen that they have their Log In Date on March 15th, and more people haven't reported. Right now, China has given referrals of babies and children to the people who have logged in their paperwork up to March 6th, 2006. They turned in their paperwork just one year and 2 months after we turned in our paperwork for Laina and they're having to wait for 3 YEARS or more before they can see their child's face. We waited for 6 months. The slowdown is just so long. Many families are going to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel before too long, though. At least 83 families are going to be getting their referral at the beginning of April. I hope that more than that will be processed.

How did we get Min home so quick? She was a special case called "waiting child". We had identified her off of our our agency's "waiting child" list. We filed our paperwork specifically for her, and because of that the process moves much faster. Even so, it was a year in process, including gathering all of our dossier documents.

One of my secret joys is seeing the faces of the babies that are matched with new parents and watching the families go and get their new babies. It's a fantastic journey that I love to watch from afar. Check out this page and watch the babies come home. There should be a new group of babies matched to their parents coming in the beginning of April.

So...all 2 or 3 of my blog readers that are waiting for your babies, my thoughts are with you, and I'm also counting the days/months/years along with you.