17 Months!

Today marks the 17th month since our paperwork was logged in with China! Currently it looks promising that we will receive a referral for a girl under the age of 24 months with a minor or correctable special need in the next year???next few months???your guess is as good as ours at this point in time. We did hear from a family this morning that their agency told them that infant adoption from Taiwan may be stopping as of May 2009....so it looks like Taiwan may not be the country where our daughter is. The one thing that is certain about international adoption is that it is changing all the time!

Good News!

We spoke with our agency today and found out that we are the fifth in line for a female child under the age of 24 months with a mild or correctable special need. We are very encouraged, but at the same time guarded as they still cannot predict how long we will be waiting. The new online shared system to just too new for them to make any sort of guess. We did find out that the list seems to be coming out the 3rd Thursday of every month, and they also told us that children (especially girls under 24 months) are matched within seconds. Older girls remain available a little longer and boys the longest. Hopefully we will hear of some more matches on or around December 18th.

Update

We are back from Disneyland! We had a very enjoyable time playing with our girls, it is amazing how different of a trip it is each time as the girls get older. This trip there was less time visiting with the princess's and more time riding the faster rides. Mackenzie now says that Space Mountain is her favorite ride. I bought the above ladybug blankie for Miah's hope chest at the Anne Geddes store in Downtown Disney. They had so many lady bug outfits...if only I knew what size she might be when we travel to China....

The new SN shared list came out yesterday and we heard that our agency was able to pull off 8 boys and 1 girl. They stated that they are finding the other agencies very aggressive. Every time they would start to type in a name to grab a file, it would be snatched up by another agency within seconds. I am not sure if I agree with this new way of matching as I don't think it is a very fair or orderly way to go about it. I think the old way of each agency getting their own list sounded much more organized and controlled. With this new shared list there is really no way to predict how long we will be waiting. Basically, the agency who has the fastest computer gets to lock the child's file first. Keep praying...I am starting to feel very discouraged with this whole process.

We're off to see the Mouse!

Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland for a week of playtime with our girls! We will post photos when we get back! Talk with you next week!

16 months!

Yes...16 months since our paperwork went to China. That seems like a really long time. I feel for all those families who have been waiting over 32 months for their referral, they were told only about 6 months way back then. We are still one of 8 families waiting for a child with a SN through our agency. No matches were made in the SN program this month....maybe we will hear of a couple next month....

Our daughter has a number!

Today we received confirmation from Immigration Canada that our daughter's application for Canadian citizenship is being processed. Since we still do not know who our daughter is or where she currently resides, she has been given an ID number, which will remain valid for two years. We are currently one of 8 families waiting for a female child under 24 months through our Canadian agency. A new list of children available for adoption is expected out any day now. As for our Taiwan application, our agency received a referral for 2 female siblings, moving us up to number 8 on their list.

waiting patiently as always....

15 Months!

Today marks our 15th month since our paper work went to China. Referrals came out yesterday for the NSN (non special needs) program and they made it through January 15th, 2006. A 6 day batch this month. Gone are the days of 30 day batches. We did receive encouraging news from our agency in Ottawa in regards to our special needs application. We are one of 8 families waiting to be matched with a female under the age of 24 months with a minor or correctable need...most likely a heart or orthopedic condition. We were pleasantly surprised to hear that there were only 8 families. They couldn't guess at how long a referral might take as they are now using a new online shared list...but I am thinking that if they could match one family a month or even if some months got missed, that we just might see a referral within a year! That would be great news. As for our Taiwan application, we are still number 9, however it looks like one family may be receiving a referral this coming week. Keep praying for us...we need God's strength to get us through this wait....at least I do anyway!