Nothing

At the rate the CCAA is matching, our wait could be up to another four years.

In four years, we will have a freshman in college and a freshman in highschool.

That's a whole. different. ballgame. than when we started this process four years ago.

At this point, we have chosen not to refile our immigration paperwork that will expire in December of this year. Unless something drastic changes with the CCAA, we are seriously praying about whether we are even still called to adopt.

Thank you for your continued prayer. I have decided to stop posting here, but will update the stats on the sidebar as information becomes available.

Three Years... (sigh)

Had things turned out as expected we would have had a 3 year old at home right now. (Having gotten Marett-Brooke two years ago at the approximate age of 1.)

Hmph.

As I read about families who are getting their children, I don't want to be envious, but I am. To date, the longest wait has been 40 months. People go on and on about how long they have waited and while I don't disagree (40 months is an agonizing wait, particularly for childless couples) our wait will exceed that by several months..... and I find myself feeling a little bitter.

I would love to think we only have another 4 months.....


We marked the anniversary of our Log In Date by eating out at Chin Chin, the Chinese restaurant that we ate at when we celebrated our paperwork being accepted in China. It felt a little sad instead of celebratory, but we wanted to do something to mark our continued commitment to our daughter.

Marett-Brooke, some day we will dine with you at Chin Chin.

I know this post has a selfish tone. We continue to pray for Marett-Brooke and her parents and family.... but it's hard to do that when we know absolutely nothing about the time frame of her life. The longer the wait gets, the more intangible it seems. It's hard to remain optimistic and excited when the referral just keeps getting pushed out further and further.

But, despite some disheartening moments and periods of fleeting doubt, God has been faithful to confirm that He is still in this.

So too are we.

Amen. And amen.

35 Months

Are the months adding up now or what?!

I have zero sympathy anymore for expectant women who complain about how done they are being pregnant.

The way I see it, I've got a minimum of 25 months on them. In fact, I could have had THREE birth children in the same amount of time.

Wouldn't it be nice if someone could medically induce this wait?

On the bright side, at least I didn't have to give up wine.

June 2009 Match Statistics

Referrals were made on June 19th for families with Log In Dates through March 20, 2006.

34 Months. No End In Sight.

Our agency's founders were in town last month to meet with waiting families. We weren't able to attend, but a synopsis of common questions was posted to the CCAI website.

It wasn't encouraging.

Their best estimate is the wait max will reach 4 years, perhaps a few months longer....

It's hard to not lose faith. I'll be honest. Our faith is beginning to wane....

Might The Call change?

And what would that look like?

We are continuing to ask the Lord to be unmistakable in His direction, but I think we are beginning to prepare ourselves for the end of this journey to look very different than what we expected when we began.

May 2009 Match Stats

This post is 22 days late. May has been a little nuts. And other than the passing of yet another month, there's not been anything to report anyway.

The matches that generally occur near the beginning of each month were three weeks late this month. Not sure what that means for matches going forward.... I can't imagine there will be referrals again at the beginning of June.

I wish I could say I'm getting better at this waiting.

That said, we've reached the end of a monumental season for our family! We are done home schooling. The kids have finished their school year and are Mt. Paran bound in the fall! There's a lot of Alice Cooper's "School's out for summer!" and "Home school's out for EVER!" being sung around our house.

(The kids are singing it too! Heh.)

So the end of one season has me wondering about the beginning of the next. Not knowing where in time OR space our Marett-Brooke is, I find my best option to be to rest while I can.

There's a concept.

32 Months

Still no official word from the CCAA, but the "unofficial word" is that only two days worth of waiting families were matched this month.

Unreal.