Slow, slower, slowest ... but still moving along

Well, the CCAA is still moving along at a snail's pace ... or maybe not quite that fast. They issued referrals yesterday for a smaller number of days than the international adoption community had anticipated.

To put our wait in context, five China travel Groups from our agency (Groups 44-48) have gone (48 will go in next few weeks) to China to get their daughters over the last 11 months. So it does keep moving, though sometimes it does not feel that way. That means we have only Groups 49, 50 and 51 ahead of us. If we can dispense with Group 49 by December/January, we can then start the new year with Group 50, which sounds (and is!) much closer to our Group 52. With the slowdown, parents are now waiting approximately 13 months for their referrals (up from 6-7 mo. a year ago).

However, as I keep reminding myself, over the 14 or so years that the China program has existed, 12-13 months has been about the average wait time. So that 6-7 month wait in 2004-05 was odd (though great for people who hit it!)

There is some hopeful speculation that, for various reasons, China will pick up the pace on or around October. Keep your fingers crossed!

Tyler met his preschool teacher Mrs. Bente today, and I fear he has inherited some of my (Sarah's) suck-up tendencies. He was practically raising his hand and shouting out answers to imaginary questions trying to get/keep her attention during her visit! He proudly showed off all his birthday toys as well as those Schmidt/Chodera language skills! We were very proud.