What's With All The Waiting?

Well, folks, things have slowed down again at the China Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in Beijing. They have most recently finished processing dossiers received through June 28, 2005, (ours was logged in September 7, 2005) which means we shouldn’t expect our referral until some time in September (maybe sooner, maybe later) with travel in November or December (maybe sooner, maybe later).

When we first signed up, we expected our referral sometime between March and May of this year. So why have things slowed down? According to our agency, there are several reasons:

1) A lot of people realized about the same time as we did that China has a great system for adoption: honest, well-organized, and with very well-cared for babies. And the wait time for a referral was only six to eight months. CCAA was flooded with applications, and they’re working their way through the backlog as quickly as they can.
2) Improvements in the Chinese economy means fewer people are forced to give up their babies. This is, of course, a good thing, even though it means a longer wait for adopting parents.
3) The Chinese government is encouraging more domestic adoptions, which get preference over international ones. Also a good thing.

So please continue to be patient, everybody. We're still in the queue and CCAA is working hard to get referrals out. We’ll be there before you know it.