More children have been matched!

The Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs posted this update today. Translation: Families who have log in dates (LIDs) of September 9th through September 27th, 2005 have been matched with their children, so these families will be receiving pictures and details about their daughters (or sons) today and over the next few days, depending on their agency processes. Congratulations!!! I have lots of family blog following to do!

I'm just going to share the facts, and try not to get caught up in what this could mean to us because at any given time, things could change. It is the unknown that we live with every day that can be all-consuming, so I just try to stay busy and know that God's gift will come when He is ready.

Basically, there were 19 days worth of matches this month. Last month there were 14 days. In November, there were 16 days. So, its safe to assume that all families who were logged in (officially on the waiting list) on or before September 27, 2005 have received their matches, or of course, have brought them home.

We have 396 referral days to go for our LID of 10-27-06. Since our LID, we have been waiting 69 days. It has been 224 days since we made application to our agency for the initial approval.

Now, for those that ask, when do you expect to have your daughter? If you do the math with the current trend of lets say 15 referral days per month, that is approximately another 26 months, which would be March 2009. Ouch. Our agency predicted (the best they could based on past trends) that we would have a wait of 14-16 months for our referral from LID. So, then that would be December of this year through February of 2008. We are all praying that there will be a miracle speed up at the CCAA, and that we will at least know of our daughter by Christmas of 2007. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Want the good news? This is also based on assumptions of past trends/actions, but as of right now, its rumored that the CCAA is reviewing dossiers for April of 2006. The "review" room does just that..they review the adoptive family "applications", for lack of a better word, with ALL that info we provided, in order to ask any additional questions or request further information. It is in the review room that we feel our last "approval' mark takes place. As it stands, I think our dossier will be in this review room by May/June of this year.

I feel like if we can make it out of the review room, we will at least know that we are definitely going to be matched with our child (that's called the "match" room, which is totally separate and on a different time schedule). Typically, there wouldn't be much concern about making it through the review room ,but since the CCAA recently made a lot of changes to their guidelines, there is still some uncertainty... will we truly be "grandfathered" in with the most recent guidelines, or will they begin judging the applicants based on the new ones??? Our agency seems to think we will be "grandfathered", but China has the right to do whatever they want, so you just never know. Of course we know there are never any guarantees, and I chose our agency because of their reputation ("if you are approved with CCAI, you can feel confident you will be granted a child"), but at least I could sleep a little more soundly at this point.

So, the way I am trying to look at this is-we are on pins and needles until June of this year. That's 6 months, which is a whole lot more bearable than 26 months. And during this time, I will find strength through my faith, my family, and my friends.