Hey y'all,

Well, if that last post didn't stop you from coming back, welcome!

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but here's some information that might help everyone understand why we don't know anything and why we don't receive updates.

Again, I'm only able to speak for what *my* agency does...when they send our completed dossier to China it does not go alone. Each month they send at least one group of 6-8 completed dossiers with each dossier belonging to a set of prospective adoptive parents. In most cases these 6-8 families remain in the same group and will receive their babies together. That is one agency...in one city...in one state...in one country. Multiply that by all of the other agencies ALL OVER THE WORLD sending completed dossiers to the same place in China. When the dossiers are received all of the information from each is put into the computer and dated. This is how you receive your Log In Date, or LID. Then, basically, your dossier gets filed while they work on matching all of those other prospective parents with their beautiful Chinese child whose LID's are LONG before your own. So, you see, it's kind of like asking somebody if they've heard anything about their tax refund. The IRS isn't going to call you every couple of weeks and say, "I've gone through all of the returns that I received in January. Yours didn't get here until March. It's sitting under a pile of February returns on my desk."

Other factors that you simply can't put a time limit on fall within the group you were placed in. Each person asked for a certain age/sex child. If there are 7 people in the group then CCAA has to wait until they get to your LID batch, and find an orphanage that has 7 children who match or come close to all 7 of those requests.

The time until referral has indeed slowed. We were told to expect a six month wait. It does not look like that will be met. Those who just received their LID's were told to expect an eight month wait. We were told to expect a twelve month wait for Hope and it was eight. If we have to wait eight months for Claire, or even longer, we will. Again, God knows what He is doing! He knows when Claire will be ready and it could be tomorrow! I don't really think He's on the clock!

The following is an announcement that was posted at the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) website. You can visit anytime to look for updates and see what LID they are currently working on or have finished. I've posted a link under Adoption Information.

Regards to the length of time period during matching process
Date of Post：November 29th, 2005 　　Source：CCAA

Recently, there are many speculations on the waiting time period for adoption process for inter-country adoption coming to China to adopt children. The following will help clarify such concerns:

CCAA highly emphasizes on efficiency, effectiveness and quality, we have put unremitting effort to achieve this. But the length of processing time after adoptive family apply for their application is correlated with the number of inter-country adopting families and the number with the adopting children waiting to be adopted. If the number of adoptive families is higher than the number of children to be adopted, the waiting period will be extended, on the other hand, if the number of children waiting for adoption out numbers the number of adoptive families, then the waiting period will be shortened. Therefore, the waiting period for adoptive families will vary according to this and not due to inefficiency or other controlling factors.

Take care and enjoy your week! ")