So, what's taking so long?
That, my friends, is the $64,000 question. Paul and I are asked that question over and over and over occasionally. I will do my best to explain it clearly.
The international adoption program in China is a first-in, first-out process, and every adoptive family around the world and adoptable child in China is funneled through one Chinese government agency, the CCAA. Check out the link to the CCAA on the left of this page. Every non-Chinese family that wants to adopt in China "gets in line" at the CCAA, and when your number comes up, you are matched with a child.
Although we started the adoption process proper back in February 2005, we didn't "get in line" in China until June 30, 2005. Those first 5 months were spent gathering all the paperwork we had to send to China. In June, our adoption agency sent that paperwork to China, and on June 30, 2005, China logged our family into their system. So, we call 06.30.2005 our "log in date", or LID.
When a family's LID is finally at the front of the line, a department at the CCAA called the "matching department" looks at our request for a child, looks at the children available at that moment in time, and matches a child to us. They will send the information on that child to our agency here in the USA, CCAI. See the link to the left for our agency. They are fabulous and I have nothing but accolades for the incredible service they are performing. This packet of information about a child matched to a specific family is called a "referral". China sends referrals to the international agencies in batches, about once a month.
When we got in line on June 30, 2005, families that were currently receiving their referrals had been in line for about 6 to 7 months. That is, there was a 6 to 7 month span between their LID and their referral. That pattern, a 6 to 7 month wait, had been consistent for quite a while, so that's what our agency told us to expect, with the caveat that it could always change. This span of time, the "wait for referral", is completely in the hands of the CCAA - in the hands of China - and neither our agency, the American government, or we ourselves can do anything to influence the length of the waiting time.
Things moved along as expected until about November of 2005. The line started moving slower. The "wait for referral" started growing longer. We thought it might be a temporary slowdown, but it was not. It continued at this slower pace, then started moving even slower. Right now, the line is puttering along at a mere shuffle. BUT - the line is moving. The line has continued to move forward consistently. Just not as fast as we'd like.
I know what you're thinking: Why did the line slow down? Why did the CCAA not keep up its previous fast pace? That's the $64,001 question. We don't know. Our agency doesn't know. The only ones who know are the CCAA themselves, and they aren't talking. This is typical of the Chinese government, heck, typical of ANY government - information given on a need to know basis and I guess they don't think we need to know. The rumours ABOUND - from the trivial to the enormous. I won't go into all of the rumours because so many of them are without basis.
We are able to watch the progress of referrals because the CCAA posts on their website each time they send out a batch of referrals to the international agencies. They will post that they have matched children to families that were logged in by such-and-such date. The most recent post stated that they have matched families logged in by June 6, 2005. So, as you can see, we are close. Whether they get through June 30, 2005 in the next batch, or 4 batches from now, we can't say. But we believe it will be sometime this summer that we will get our referral.
When we get our referral, we will have a picture of our daughter, and a bit of information on her - basic medical info, as much info as they have on her personality and routine, and where she is living. Over the following 4 to 9 weeks a variety of red tape will be hacked through, and then we will travel to China for 2 weeks and bring our daughter home with us.
I hope this has helped you understand "what is taking so long"!
The international adoption program in China is a first-in, first-out process, and every adoptive family around the world and adoptable child in China is funneled through one Chinese government agency, the CCAA. Check out the link to the CCAA on the left of this page. Every non-Chinese family that wants to adopt in China "gets in line" at the CCAA, and when your number comes up, you are matched with a child.
Although we started the adoption process proper back in February 2005, we didn't "get in line" in China until June 30, 2005. Those first 5 months were spent gathering all the paperwork we had to send to China. In June, our adoption agency sent that paperwork to China, and on June 30, 2005, China logged our family into their system. So, we call 06.30.2005 our "log in date", or LID.
When a family's LID is finally at the front of the line, a department at the CCAA called the "matching department" looks at our request for a child, looks at the children available at that moment in time, and matches a child to us. They will send the information on that child to our agency here in the USA, CCAI. See the link to the left for our agency. They are fabulous and I have nothing but accolades for the incredible service they are performing. This packet of information about a child matched to a specific family is called a "referral". China sends referrals to the international agencies in batches, about once a month.
When we got in line on June 30, 2005, families that were currently receiving their referrals had been in line for about 6 to 7 months. That is, there was a 6 to 7 month span between their LID and their referral. That pattern, a 6 to 7 month wait, had been consistent for quite a while, so that's what our agency told us to expect, with the caveat that it could always change. This span of time, the "wait for referral", is completely in the hands of the CCAA - in the hands of China - and neither our agency, the American government, or we ourselves can do anything to influence the length of the waiting time.
Things moved along as expected until about November of 2005. The line started moving slower. The "wait for referral" started growing longer. We thought it might be a temporary slowdown, but it was not. It continued at this slower pace, then started moving even slower. Right now, the line is puttering along at a mere shuffle. BUT - the line is moving. The line has continued to move forward consistently. Just not as fast as we'd like.
I know what you're thinking: Why did the line slow down? Why did the CCAA not keep up its previous fast pace? That's the $64,001 question. We don't know. Our agency doesn't know. The only ones who know are the CCAA themselves, and they aren't talking. This is typical of the Chinese government, heck, typical of ANY government - information given on a need to know basis and I guess they don't think we need to know. The rumours ABOUND - from the trivial to the enormous. I won't go into all of the rumours because so many of them are without basis.
We are able to watch the progress of referrals because the CCAA posts on their website each time they send out a batch of referrals to the international agencies. They will post that they have matched children to families that were logged in by such-and-such date. The most recent post stated that they have matched families logged in by June 6, 2005. So, as you can see, we are close. Whether they get through June 30, 2005 in the next batch, or 4 batches from now, we can't say. But we believe it will be sometime this summer that we will get our referral.
When we get our referral, we will have a picture of our daughter, and a bit of information on her - basic medical info, as much info as they have on her personality and routine, and where she is living. Over the following 4 to 9 weeks a variety of red tape will be hacked through, and then we will travel to China for 2 weeks and bring our daughter home with us.
I hope this has helped you understand "what is taking so long"!
posted by More Paul, Less Andrea | 3:10 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the update! And thanks for starting the blog so we can follow your progress. Great pics, btw.
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