An active vacation

Our baby is always in our thoughts and prayers. On this particular weekend we frequently thought about how this was not a vacation we could have taken if we had her with us. Yes, we are anxiously awaiting her arrival, but in the mean time we are taking advantage of our last few months without diapers, strollers, and nap time.

Day One: We rented bikes in a town called Lucca in the region of Tuscany. Tara takes time out for a cheerleading pose in front of a church.

Day Two: We hiked an area of Italy called the Cinque Terra along the Mediterranean Sea. It was absolutely beautiful. And the hike was not for the weak of heart!!

Day Three: We climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I had somewhat of a panic attack once I reached the top and quickly decided that I am not climbing any more towers! At least I ended with a famous one.

Why the long wait?

There are many theories and much speculation about what is happening with Chinese adoptions and why adoptive families are having to wait so long to receive their child.

We all know about the China one child policy and the preference for boys. We have heard the stories about Chinese orphanages that are filled with little girls. So if this is the case, why the wait?

The only official statement that has been provided by the CCAA is that the wait is dependent on the number of children that are available. Period. So that leads one to believe that since the wait is well over 2 years, that there are not that many children available for adoption. Many Chinese adoption "experts" say this is simply not true. Who should we believe???

Here are a few THEORIES. Remember, this is pure speculation. Nothing has been confirmed or denied by the CCAA.

These are the positive THEORIES:
1) As the Chinese economy continues to prosper, more and more families are able to pay the penalties for having more than one child. Also, in certain regions and circumstances, the government is allowing families to have more than one child and abandonment is on the decline.
2) Domestic adoption is on the rise in China. Again, more families are beginning to have more money and domestic adoptions are occurring more and more frequently.

I truly hope those two theories are true.

These are the not so positive THEORIES:
1) The Olympics are being held in China in the summer of 2008. The world's spotlight will be on China in many different areas. Many believe that the Chinese don't want to appear as the world's leading exporter of babies. They think the slowdown has been directly related to the Olympics and the need to save face.
2) The CCAA has been given a direct quota by the government as to the amount of children that are allowed to be adopted internationally. They cannot go over this quota, regardless of the number of children that wait in orphanages.
3) Adoption seems to be sort of the "in" thing to do, and over the past 2-3 years China was flooded with applications for international adoption. The amount of applications far out number the number of available children.
4) China is wanting to increase the number of adoption of special needs children. They are making the wait much longer for children that do not have special needs in hopes that more families will adopt children with special needs.
5) China is wanting to keep healthy girls in their country to help balance out the gender imbalance (this one I personally think is ridiculous because the number of girls adopted internationally is a drop in the bucket compared to China's overall population...I personally think international adoption plays a VERY minuscule part in the gender imbalance. VERY minuscule.)

Again, NONE of these theories are confirmed. The bottom line is, no one knows for sure why the long wait.

We have grown to the point of acceptance of knowing we have zero control of our adoption process. The wait is what it is. So we wait. We hope and pray that things will speed up, but we have decided to plant ourselves firmly in the line until our day comes. We believe that eventually we will hold our little girl.

The rumors turned to facts....

It's that time of month when I can say YES, we have heard something from our agency!! This months referrals have arrived. This is good news since it at least proves that Chinese adoptions are in fact occurring, they are just moving at a snail's pace.

I know I keep repeating this, but to understand all of this you have to keep in mind that our log in date (LID) is January 12, 2006. We are waiting for the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) to work their way to that date in their matching process. This month they matched families that were logged in through November 30, 2005. This is dismal at best since many people (myself included) believed the CCAA would begin matching families that were logged in during December '05. If the CCAA would have matched a few dates into December I would have felt a glimmer of hope this month, but instead I feel even more discouraged and disappointed (because they only matched 5 days worth of LIDS this month). It's as though my brain knows the reality, but my heart hopes for a miracle. Our wait continues for several more months....

One thing I believe with absolute certainty - we have a daughter somewhere in China. She is unaware of the family that is waiting for her, but we love her already and we know that our family will not be complete until we bring her home. It is a day we wait for with great anticipation.

Adoption cyber world

Now that I am no longer employed, I find that I have lots more free time to do things that I use to never have time for...case in point, this blog! I could easily spend hours on the computer reading all the adoption rumors, reading other people's adoption blogs, adoption chat groups, etc. I sometimes find myself a little addicted to the adoption cyber world, and have to bring myself back to reality. But as I said before, my reality is I'm still waiting. So here I sit on the computer.

There are currently lots of rumors floating around about the next set of referrals that should be arriving any day now. Most of the rumors are NOT good news, but after almost 2 years of reading rumors I have accepted them for what they are...rumors. I try not to let my heart get too involved until it becomes fact. Unfortunately, the fact of Chinese adoptions right now is that the wait continues to lengthen and no one knows for certain exactly why. Everyone seems to have their own theories, but no one really knows for sure. Think of how little we know about the inner workings of our own government...how can a foreigner ever really understand the inner workings of the Chinese government and how it operates it's international adoptions?

Back to reality, and off to bed. Tomorrow is a new day and most likely a new set of rumors. I'll keep you posted should anything factual actually take place.