More Ladybugs in Wisconsin!

My sister-in-law, Julie, took this picture of a ladybug on her car window:Cool picture- thanks, Julie!

3 More Marbles

The CCAA sent out a nice Christmas present for a few families on Christmas Eve: 3 days worth of referrals! For those families, I am very, very happy. However, these were 3 very tiny days (April 1-3, 2006), so when I said "a few families", I literally meant a few. In a way this was kind of like adding insult to injury for us waiting families. I mean, why did they even bother to send out referrals if they were so few? Considering the number of families who received referrals with this batch, this was one of the smallest batches (if not the smallest batch)- ever!

On the other hand, they did just send out 3 days worth of referrals at the beginning of this month (December 2nd), so they really didn't have to send out anything else this month. As long as this tiny batch wasn't meant to be January's batch, then I guess this is kind of like a "Christmas bonus". When you look at it that way, then it's kind of nice!

Now if January passes with no new referrals, then I will be upset all over again!Jar #1 now has 1,083 marbles; we are 26 days close to Caitlin!

Merry Christmas!

Paul, Libby and I would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas! We hope your day was blessed and special.

I also wanted to share some ladybug gifts we received for Christmas. They are just too cute!

This is a ladybug Longaberger basket from Paul's sister, Julie. How cute it that??
These are ladybug ornaments from my parents. Remember how difficult it was last year to find even one ladybug ornament? My mom found all these this year, so she decided to go ahead and stock up. Since we may be waiting for Caitlin for many more years, and I want an ornament for each Christmas we're waiting, that's a lot of ornaments we're gonna need. This way we won't have to look the next several years- we're all set!

Ladybugs in EPCOT

Paul and I spent last week at Disney World. Of course we had to visit China in the World Showcase!We enjoyed the movie about the country and the museum, as well as walking through the garden.
Then we visited the gift shops and found this:We also took the "Behind the Seeds" tour at EPCOT's "The Land" to learn more about the hydroponics and such that you see during the boat ride. Part of the tour is about using good bugs to battle bad bugs in agriculture; one of the "good bugs" is the ladybug! I got to help deposit ladybugs into the greenhouse. Do you think that helped any with our luck? :)

3 More Marbles

The CCAA finally sent out referrals! Only 3 days worth, which is pitiful considering that they made us wait 2 months for these referrals, but hopefully, HOPEFULLY they will send out another batch before the end of the year. I know that's probably just wishful thinking, considering what's been going on lately, but one can dream, right?

The good news is that we are FINALLY done with March 2006. It took almost an entire year, but at last we're through the biggest month in recent history (possibly ever), and now we can see if April 2006 really does move faster, since it was a much smaller month...Jar #1 now has 1,086 marbles. We are 23 days closer to Caitlin!

I got another cool fortune in my fortune cookie: I thought it was appropriate!

Some movement on the CCAA front

Well, the CCAA is still reviewing files... In fact, they just announced that they have reviewed all the files of everyone logged in through February 2008! This means they are only one year away from us since we were logged in in March 2009!!! If they continue at this rate we will be in review in less than a year!

Again, when they review they go through your file with a fine-tooth comb. They may have some more questions for us or need more information. Sometimes it takes awhile to get the necessary information so families loose their place in line and are given a new LID. That is why people get a little nervous when they know their files are in review, and breathe a sigh of relief when they know their month is out of review!

For a better explanation of this part of the process please click here.

Now, why is the CCAA still reviewing files if they are not going to send out referrals? That is the question of the day!!

We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Roller Coaster

So now there's more bad news out there... the newest rumor is that the CCAA will not be sending out referrals this month (November), either, because now the new director "needs time to learn how things work". I think they've skipped 3 months so far this year! And even when they did send out referrals, the numbers were shameful.

But that's not the whole story; in order to get a true taste of what this roller coaster is like, I must first explain what the past few weeks have been like:

First we were hoping that since they skipped September, then only sent out a 4-day batch in early October, they would send another batch at the end of October (otherwise they were still crawling along at 2-day batches). Then we hit November and, since there were no new batches, we came to realize that that 4-day batch was indeed intended for September and October.

Then, a few weeks ago, the European agencies were all excited because they had heard that the CCAA had finished matching all of March 2006 (which would be another 3 days, but mostly everyone just wants to be done with March 2006 because it was such a huge month. April 2006 is much smaller, so most people believe that things will move at least a little faster once we get into April).

That rumor continued for a few days, then a conflicting rumor emerged that the CCAA had begun to match. How could they just be beginning to match if we already knew that they had finished matching all of March?

A couple of days later, there was another rumor that "packages were in the air, on their way to agencies". We all held our breath. Could this be the referrals? And is March 2006 in fact done? Could they maybe have even gotten into April???

Nope, all of those packages turned out to be other things; no referrals.

Then another set of packages were in the air...

No referrals.

Today the rumor is that they will not send out referrals at all this month; maybe next month.

What about the promise of a speed up in the fall? What about the assurances of "more referrals in 2009 than in 2008"? It's just not happening.

So you can kind of see what this wait is like for us. Only add to it our emotions and our strong desire to finally meet the little ones that we have been waiting for- and dreaming about- for so long.

A lot of people are beginning to think that this is all because of China's fears about the Swine Flu. Apparently they completely stopped all IA (International Adoption) back with the SARS epidemic for several months, but before they admitted that was the reason they gave out all kinds of excuses. Hopefully that is all that is going on here, that they are worried about this new "epidemic" and just want to see what happens, but eventually they will start back and send out referrals in huge batches! If not, then I just don't know what is going to happen.

Well, here it is November and we did not see another batch of referrals for October. This means that the last batch of 4, sent out earlier in October, was in fact meant for both September and October. We are still creeping along at 2 days of referrals a month. At this rate, the current estimate is that Paul and I may have to wait another 6 years before we get our referral for Caitlin.

BUT, the good news (I hope) is that there is also a rumor that the CCAA is getting a new director. Some agencies say this means that change is on the horizon (good change), but others say that this does not mean anything other than the old director was promoted to another position elsewhere in the Chinese government. I'm choosing to hold out hope that this means that good change is on the horizon, and things will begin to move again soon!

4 More Marbles

Well, after making us wait for what I believe has been the longest time between batches of referrals ever (it's been 52 days since the last batch of referrals was sent out back in August), China finally sent out 4 whole days worth of referrals (note my sarcasm). This leaves everyone to wonder if this was meant to be September's batch, in which case 4 days of referrals wouldn't be quite as dismal (it is, after all, double the batches we've been getting), or if this batch also includes October's referrals, in which case we are still creeping along at 2 days per month. All we can do is wait and see; hopefully they will send out another batch before the end of the month...We have 1,089 days to go; we are 20 days closer to Caitlin!