Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

And how are we coping with all of this?

Wait till Next Year

That, in essence, is what our agency told us.

Our expected referral did not arrive in the package our agency received last week. In fact 2 of the 4 they “expected” did not arrive last week. We’ve been in touch with them to figure out why, and chart out our next steps.

What happened can only be described as a colossal foul-up with our paper work.

Adopting families, with their agencies, assemble a dossier of information for the adopting family--personal and financial data, an evaluation of your ability to raise a child (the home study), a photo album, government background checks, and agency approvals--which is all notarized, translated, “sealed” by the Chinese embassy, and sent to the Chinese government. For reasons I will not go into here--but do not appear to be the fault of the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs--our dossier, while “approved,” was not processed with the others that it was received with. The story as we understand it, and it does seem to change from time to time, is that this happened two years ago.

As it turns out, our agency does not know what batch of dossiers ours is “traveling” with, and when we’ll receive a referral. They expect that we’ll see a referral in no sooner than three and probably no longer than seven months from now.

We are very, very disappointed.

We had expected to see (and share) a photo of our daughter this week. We were making plans to travel, take time off of work, and begin our new life.

Because of the specific and repeated assurances we have had, we never expected what happened.

We are trying to be optimistic, but remain concerned that this kind of highly unusual delay is caused by factors that will lead to more even delays, and limit the ability of our agency to help us.

So, we’re doing our best to hang in there. We’re slowly convincing ourselves that Jenny will be here, but is running a little late. As the soon-to-be outnumbered male, I guess I’ll need to get used to that.

“Wait till next year” is a bit too familiar to Chicago sports fans. It’s kind of a seasonal ritual: it happens every summer and every fall. I never expected to hear that about our adoption.

Is this what labor is like?

As you can see from the ticker, we are VERY due for our referral, and in another day we will be overdue. No inducing labor, I'm afraid. We just have to wait, for the slow machine of government (China) to creak to life and make another batch of new families. (Pardon the mixed metaphors)

Rumors are that packages have left the CCAA in Beijing, as of Monday. But there are lots of things that Beijing might be mailing to adoption agencies across the world. There can be LOA's (Letters of Approval), which are the documents that families adopting special needs children wait for, and that signal the CCAA's approval of a family's choice of a special chosen child.

There are TA's (Travel Approvals), which are the documents that allow families who have already received referrals to obtain the Visas needed to visit China to adopt their children. Once you receive a TA, you can book your flights.

And there are the referral packets, which are those magic missives that can finally bring the waiting (and laboring) to a close. Pictures, a profile, and a medical report. And a new future, for the waiting families and for their children.

Ah, the benefits of being in a post-vacation, philosophical mood. Actually, I am sick of waiting and want to get on with it!