As I've mentioned in passing a couple of times, we are in the process of adopting another baby. This one from Korea, rather than China, and for several reasons, not the least of which is the length of time it takes to even get a referral -- meaning you have been matched with a child, and can choose to accept or reject the referral.
When we adopted The Shmunkin, we had about a seven month wait from the time our paperwork reached the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and when we got Shmunkie's first pictures. It was about two and a half months later than we actually went to China to get her. Now, the wait is much longer. According to friends of ours whose paperwork was sent in January, the current estimate wait is 28 months, and could end up even longer.
Back to the point, we are adopting from Korea this time, where the wait times are much shorter. There hasn't been as much information from me this time as when we adopted The Shmunkin -- remember, the whole reason I started the original version of this blog was to track our Shmunkin adoption -- and for several reasons. First, we don't get as much information. In the China program, everything ran according to a pre-sent schedule: Information gets sent to CCAA and, after a waiting period, you reach the Matching Room, then you get matched, then you receive the referral, then permission to travel, then you go. And since we were placed in a Travel Group, it was easy to follow where we and several other groups ahead of us were in the process. They even had a hot-line we could call every week to see which groups were at what stage.
With Korea, there is no travel group, and there is no process to follow. Babies are referred as they become available, so there is no way to guess. When we were first accepted into the program last fall, we were told to expect a wait of nine months or so for a referral, and that they averaged three or four a month. Some more, some less. But now we have learned we are actually at the top of the list, meaning the next girl from Korea available to adopt through our agency will be referred to us.
What does that mean? Well, I don't know, exactly. It certainly doesn't speak to a timing thing. After all, we first found out more than two weeks ago we were first on the list, and haven't heard anything yet. But we could hear at any moment. Just thought you might be interested. I'll keep you updated.
Yes, we're interested!!! Keep us posted!!!
Posted by: Joe, Jane, Jia and Willa | May 29, 2008 at 09:33 PM