Referrals just arrived.....

Referrals arrived today for another lucky batch of families. The CCAA matched people that were logged in on or before October 13, 2005. These families waited 16 months to find out about their children....a big difference from the six months that we waited to find out about Elise.

There have been lots of changes in the adoption process from two years ago. After May 1st, 2005, singles can no longer adopt. There are medical conditions that are no longer acceptable and even BMI (body mass index) restrictions. The maximum age has been lowered from 55 to 50 years old. There can only be two divorces between a married couple. A first time married couple must be married a minimum of two years. If there has been a divorce, then the marriage must be at least five years. Adoptive parents currently being treated for depression or anxiety are no longer eligible to adopt. Again, things are way different that two years ago.

Fortunately, none of the new rules have an impact on us. We are one of the lucky families. Based on some unscientific surveys, the changes affected about 35-40% of families that are currently waiting for their referrals. CCAA has promised that if you documents are already in China and make it there before the May 1st deadline, you will be grandfathered in under the old rules. Based on that, families are scurrying around trying to get their dossier of documents together and sent to China BEFORE mid March so they can get a log in date before May 1st.

All of these changes are because the backlog of dossiers for prospectives families has gotten so big that China can no longer meet the demand of International Adoption. There are fewer child being abandoned in China (a very good thing), but more families requesting children than ever before. So the only way for China to catch up with their backlog is to reduce the number of dossiers being submitted ~ hence the "New Rules".

We still believe our daughter will be a "waiting child". Hopefully our agency will receive a new waiting child list very soon. They have been expecting for a few weeks now, but still no word about it. The last list they received was at the end of August....that is five months ago. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the new list will arrive any day now.

In the meantime, I'm collecting fabric squares and wishes for Amelia's quilt. I have a bunch and need to log them into the quilt blog. I hope to get to that this week....but we will see. The scanning takes soooo long. I also need to get Elise a twin bed....the crib will become Amelia's.

Blessings,
Kim