So, what about China????

BTW, no Ethiopia news...yet :)

Many of you have asked about our China adoption...so let me give a brief update. The following is a statement from our agency's blog:

October 09, 2008
China Wait Time Report: October 2008
The current wait from LID to referral is 32-33 months and increasing. This represents the wait time for families who have a mid-February LID in 2006 and who are next to receive their referrals. For families with LID dates after that time, the wait time trend continues to increase half a month to a full month each month. Families are encouraged to calculate their wait time as a projected estimation, knowing there is no way to predict the actual wait time for each family.The wait time changes as it is based on the number of LID’s from around the world and the number of referrals paper-ready each month. America World will continue to report monthly wait time trends. Families should continue to anticipate a long wait for a healthy referral.America World is committed to uplifting your family in prayer as you wait to be united with your precious child.

So what does that mean for us?
If we continue to wait for a healthy infant female, we could wait, well, forever. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration - but we could realistically wait up to 7 years. That's a long time...and our desire is to meet the need of a child who is currently institutionalized & in need of family now.

So what will we do?
Vince & I have been praying about that, and we feel lead upon completion of our Ethiopian adoption to switch to China's Waiting Children list. 'Waiting Children' refers to all children who are not considered to be 'healthy'. The reason could be as mild as a cleft lip/palate, but could also mean the child has a severe/chronic medical condition. We would have discretion to specify medical needs that we are open to discuss....and don't worry, we are aware of our limitations. Based on the fact that most families who adopt Waiting Children still request girls, we would probably receive a boy referral.

Again, this is still a currently prayerful decision -- we realize many things could change over the next several months/years in the world of adoption -- and it is also our desire to adopt from Ethiopia, again, as well. But we've learned that being an adoptive family requires a great amount of proactivity balanced with much flexibilty -- we're excited to see where this journey takes us!