Finally, the Referrals and Rumor Queen Projections...

The CCAA released referrals on May 21, 2009 and they went through March 14, 2006. This was actually better than expected since March 14 was such a large day (for LID's) based on the poll numbers. However, since the referrals were delayed the question remains as to whether or not June referrals will be on track to be released in the next two weeks or if we will have to wait another month for them to come out. Based on the history from the SARS pandemic, referrals should get back on track and another batch should be released in another two weeks or so.

And here are Rumor Queen's projections.....Remember, our LID is 4/4/06, so based on these projections we could see our referral in July/Aug if the future batches follow the same size as the batches which had been referred in the summer 2007. However, that is most likely not going to happen. We are still hopefull for an early fall referral (September/October).

And to end this with her standard disclaimer: As always, projections are based on the CCAA continuing to do what they have been doing. There is nothing to say they will follow their recent behavior. They could choose to do a lot less, or a lot more.

Our Baby Turned 7 Today...

Today, our youngest son Colin turned 7 years old. It is hard to believe that he is growing up so quickly. We had a birthday party with his friends from school and a family friend this past Saturday; the theme was Baseball. It was a fun day - there were about 10 girls and boys and we played games, ate hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch, did a craft, had cake and ice cream, and had a pinata. The kids had the most fun with the pinata! He received some very nice gifts and it turned out to be a great day!



Today, he brought monkey face cupcakes to school for his birthday treat. Last night he helped me make them which was fun for both of us. Unfortunately, I could not find the black gel that I bought last week so I had to improvise with some brown frosting for the nose and yellow and blue dots for the eyes. This made them take a little longer to decorate, but his classmates really liked them which is all that matters:)

Just In Case You Ever Feel The Tug...

Bad News and Possible Delays...

Below are postings from the Rumor Queen website - we hope to know more after the long holiday weekend (Chinese Holiday).

Bad News
April 29th, 2009

A few European agencies are reporting they have news that the CCAA is not sending referrals at this time due to the swine flu outbreak. They may revisit things in 20-30 days to see if the swine flu cases have leveled off.

CCAA Notice
April 30th, 2009

The CCAA has posted a notice on their site. It can be found here.

As usual, it’s a contradiction.

In one place it says, “Adoption agencies are required to counsel the adoptive parents who have received Notice of Coming to China for Adoption to postpone their trip to China for the registration procedure. “.

But then later it says that when you come you should follow “the arrangement of local registration authorities and cooperate during the entrustment of child for the harmony period and the adoption registration process“.

And then it says, “If adoptive parents feel unwell during their stay in China for the registration procedure, they shall go to the hospital for medical checkup in time and report to CCAA about relevant situation“.

So, I think they are saying, “We’d rather you didn’t come, and if you want to wait that’s fine, we’re extending the TA’s expiration by two months so feel free to wait. But, if you do decide to come anyway, follow safety instructions and by all means get to a doctor if you feel sick.”