We are near the end of a looooooooooooong lull in adoptions to families from our agency, Children's Bridge. No referrals (babies matched with families) for our agency since the last week of November!
Here's how it works for the Chinese adoption program. Approximately once a month (sometimes a little less often!) the China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) announces matches for families and babies. These are called "referrals". Families travel to China for 2-3 weeks 8-10 weeks after receiving their referral.
Approximately 132 adoption agencies from around the world collaborate with CCAA, and about 100 babies per month are referred. With Children's Bridge, we are divided into groups of 8-12 families, give or take. We're in Group #255 (a good omen? 55 was always one of my favourite numbers in childhood, and I'm still rather partial to it!). There were 25 groups ahead of us when our file was first registered by CCAA. Now, there are 10!
Everything revolves around the date of registration of our files with China. Our file was registered with CCAA on February 9th, 2006, about a month after we sent it (although we only found out about it in March). Now, CCAA has just "processed" our file - we were so excited and positively elated to find that out on February 2nd 2007, as we'd been expecting it since October! Right now, families with files registered before October 13, 2005 have their referrals. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time checking the CCAA and Children's Bridge websites to find out about any progress!
We figure that in March, there should be 1-3 Children's Bridge groups receiving referrals. That'll make up for the lull! We anticipate 2 more lulls of about 1 month each, right before Groups 254 and 255, but at least we're ready for that. And that's assuming all stays exactly like last year (if we'd gone exactly one year before, we'd have had our little one by October of the same year - I know a family whose story is just that!). Just goes to show that you can't count your chickens before they hatch (or your little one before she's referred), but one must still count one's blessings for all that we have that is good (which is lots!), and for this opportunity, no matter what the outcome.
Here's how it works for the Chinese adoption program. Approximately once a month (sometimes a little less often!) the China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) announces matches for families and babies. These are called "referrals". Families travel to China for 2-3 weeks 8-10 weeks after receiving their referral.
Approximately 132 adoption agencies from around the world collaborate with CCAA, and about 100 babies per month are referred. With Children's Bridge, we are divided into groups of 8-12 families, give or take. We're in Group #255 (a good omen? 55 was always one of my favourite numbers in childhood, and I'm still rather partial to it!). There were 25 groups ahead of us when our file was first registered by CCAA. Now, there are 10!
Everything revolves around the date of registration of our files with China. Our file was registered with CCAA on February 9th, 2006, about a month after we sent it (although we only found out about it in March). Now, CCAA has just "processed" our file - we were so excited and positively elated to find that out on February 2nd 2007, as we'd been expecting it since October! Right now, families with files registered before October 13, 2005 have their referrals. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time checking the CCAA and Children's Bridge websites to find out about any progress!
We figure that in March, there should be 1-3 Children's Bridge groups receiving referrals. That'll make up for the lull! We anticipate 2 more lulls of about 1 month each, right before Groups 254 and 255, but at least we're ready for that. And that's assuming all stays exactly like last year (if we'd gone exactly one year before, we'd have had our little one by October of the same year - I know a family whose story is just that!). Just goes to show that you can't count your chickens before they hatch (or your little one before she's referred), but one must still count one's blessings for all that we have that is good (which is lots!), and for this opportunity, no matter what the outcome.
