....and from the photo finish, it looks as if Little-Bit-Of-April wins the purse.
From the official CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) website, the Chinese officials that matches families. This post was updated today:
"The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office in May 2005. The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before April 25, 2005."
This means that CCAA only matched up to the people that have been waiting since April 25th, and we've been officially waiting since May 6th. I'm somehow not all that upset. I feel comfort in knowing that things are going exactly as planned. There's a much bigger picture being painted on our pallet than which day we get to actually see Cadence. It's sad, but not as I would have expected.
I'm also very happy for those that did get notice of their referrals, because it's such a joy to watch families in the making.
However, it looks as if CCAA will be doing another match in mid/late January, and we will definitely be in that batch. At least we will know to expect to be matched, instead of wondering.
This is one of our first posts, from our blog's June 2005 Archives:
"...we are very anxiously awaiting the referral so we can bring her home. We have no idea what she looks like, or her age or even if she is currently in foster care or an orphanage. But we know she is there now. We had originally expected our daughter in September, but we got held up by a few glitches in the adoption system. We have learned that this process is a very fluid one, indeed. Currently, our expected time to go to China, is in November, although that can certainly change if paperwork gets backed up while waiting for them to match us in China. At one time, our Social Worker asked us, 'Why China? Why adoption?' and Scott's response was very poetic. He said, 'We have a daughter in China. She doesn't know it yet, but our daughter is waiting for us to finish all this paperwork so that we can come get her, and bring her home.'....And so begins our journey."
That was his sentiment at the beginning of our journey, before our snag in our paperwork which set us back almost two months to finish our dossier, before our agency waited an extra month after we turned in our dossier to be sent to China, before CCAA started cutting their referrals in half. And I've held Scott's simple words in my head and in my heart this entire time.
I'm at peace knowing that we are aligned with one child that's been, and is currently, moving toward us as we move toward her.
