Referrals Are In

YEAH!
The CCAA has officially matched families who had LID's between October 13th - October 24, 2005.

Though I've seen a few referrals for families with LID of Oct. 31, 2005, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why some have and others didn't. As is the case each month when referrals are announced.

So, that means only 95 more days of matching until our LID! Hard to even suggest a date for those when they ask. I generally like to say anytime between July - October 2007. A July referral would put us at 18 months from LID to referral with an October referral putting us at 22 months from LID to referral.

I am often asked "Why is the wait so long?" Is that the million dollar question or what! Today, I got a regular newsletter in the mail from our agency with an article that addressed this very subject. Keep in mind, there is no "REAL" guaranteed answer/reason ~ however, I found the information enlightening. Here are a few excerpts from it:

Dramatic Increase of Incoming Dossiers~The fast increase of dossiers in the past two years has surpaced available 'paper-ready' children by almost two-fold.

Hunan Baby Trafficking Incident ~ In September 2005, a local newspaper in Hunan Province carried a report exposing a 'baby trafficking ring' who offered abandoned children to a local orphanage for a fee, an illegal activity for both the orphanage who paid the fee and the traffickers who demanded 'reimbursement'. The provincial court issued a severe sentence in early 2006 to the wrong-doers...However, the legal consequences and the CCAA's orders left many orphanage directors with the pessimistic conclusion that it is not worth risking their lives to 'help a few children'. They became reluctant to report available children's files to the CCAA, fearing possible complications. As a result, the CCAA lost a great deal of support from the orphanages that they had counted on in the past for paper ready children.

Lack of Motivation among Local Officials ~ Guizhou is one of the least economically-developed provinces in China, with an orphan population in the thousands. However, each year fewer than several hundred children from Guizhou are adopted internationally. The problem lies with none other than the provincial officials in charge of international adoption. For them, international adoption is too troublesome and it adds unwanted extra work to their already-heavy workload.

I didn't say any of this information is "good news" or even "comforting", but if nothing else, I feel like I have a little better understanding of what's going on over in the homeland of my daughter. There still is so much we don't know or ever understand, but...if you want to view this article in its entirety, you may visit this link: http://www.chinesechildren.org/ and on the left side column click on CIRCLE NEWSLETTER ~ it's the January/February 2007 issue.

Thanks to those of you who are so patiently waiting with us on the news of our daughter!