Data driven decision making....

Here is a great chart put together by Rumor Queen (THE authority on Chinese adoptions) that shows how the wait increased. Referral date is when the notification went out to the families - with a picture and health information which leads to acceptance of the child, then travel to China 2 months later.

LID cutoff means that for the referrals- this is the log in date cut off for the paperwork. So those families that got the referral were logged in by this date.

Min/Max wait- is the maximum wait the families waited after the paperwork was logged in there is a min and max wait because sometimes parents didn't get their referral right away

Days between referrals- this is how long the CCAA went between sending out referrals. They don't have a regular cycle, and events like Chinese New Years, Moon festival, ahem, Beijing Olympics can influence how long it is between referrals being sent out.

The days of LIDs is what the Chinese adoption community looks at... We all know how far away our LIDs are in, (for team Anderson, it is 161 days)... so each time we hear referrals are sent out, we anxiously await to see how many LIDs they got through.... this last time it was only 6 days, so that means that we moved 6 days closer to the finish line (and this time took us 33 days of waiting)....look back at the LIDs and the referrals.... can you even imagine how frustrating it is to wait an entire month to see that they only did 2 days of referrals? So this is why a simple calculation of how long it will take is impossible. The rate keeps changing, so that always changes the projection. If we go at a rate of 6 days referred every month or so... then it would be 27 more months for us to wait. But if it went to 3 days, then up to 52 months- but it could also speed up... like it used to be a month at a time- so then that would be only 5 months.

The more you know (cue the NBC chimes...)

It is time for the "Bonehead of the Month" award....

A comment from the ether...

"Pathetic. There are sooo soo many American children waiting for adoption and you go to China. Pathetic." - Anonymous

Sigh. Really? Seriously? Isn't opposing international adoption so early 2003? Isn't the Angelina backlash finished yet?

Okay... deep breath- this will probably not be the last time that I answer this, but it is just so frustrating.

So if you want the in depth response- read into the earlier posts in the blog - for the sarcastic one -read the next few lines.

So I am guessing that Anonymous (weak man- totally weak - have the marbles to actually sign your name) has 2-3 adopted American children of his/her own? Probably not. Good to know that "do as I say, not as I do" is alive and well on the Intertron.

If someone told us that we could have a healthy, infant child (and we are totally open to boy or girl of any race) that we would not have to worry about being reclaimed by a birthmom with a change of mind- we'd sign up for that in a second. In fact, we are trying to find that right now. But it is difficult to sign up for a process where we can actually have a child in our arms a few days after the birth, and then have to return them. Or, my personal fear, a birthmom writes a fake name on the birth certificate for the dad, and 2 years later tells the actual father about this and he comes after us for the now 2 year old child that we have to share custody with or give up all together.

The American adoption process has a lot of rights for the birth mom- and I totally support this, because these women are choosing life for their unborn children and giving the most unselfish gift of all. But, personally, I need to do what is right for my family and me. And I don't want to start a process that has no guaranteed outcome. And what is right for me also doesn't involve nasty anonymous drive by insults on a blog- but hey, that is just me. I guess the KKK chat room was down for the night. Nothing like some anger over adopting outside of "good old America". Yuk.