Adoption Update

I honestly didn't think that I would ever be writing this post. I assumed that by now I would be splashing our referral news across these pages. Unfortunately, it looks like we may be in for a longer wait.

Our program has undergone a lot of changes in the past few years. When we started the process for Maelyn's adoption, it took an average for two years to complete the entire adoption. Then, shortly after we got home with Maelyn, the program changed into more of an online referral system, speeding the process up to just under one year. The program then became the fastest international adoption program available.

Paul and I decided to start our second adoption journey at the earliest possible moment, getting our paperwork ready for our one year mark home with Maelyn. At the time, it felt fast -- and we were a little worried that we were going ahead too quickly. We had barely had time to get used to being a family of three. Still, we knew that international adoption programs change all the time, and since we knew that we wanted to add to our family, we decided to go ahead right away.

We are now thankful that we did go ahead. This past November there were rumours that our program had suddenly slowed down. The process, in some ways, came to a grinding halt. Why? Who knows. Unfortunately, that is the way it goes with international adoption.

We have been waiting for a referral since September and at this point, we may be waiting quite a bit longer. We are crossing our fingers that our agency is going to be able to match us with our child when they receive a batch of referrals mid-February. If we are not matched at that point, then we will have to wait until April/May. After that, it would be September.

On one hand, we are not stressing in the same way we would if we were waiting for our first referral. Luckily, parenting Maelyn and enjoying our time as a family of three is a wonderful distraction. On the other hand, I feel like our child will be waiting longer to join our family, which saddens me.

We are crossing our fingers for a referral mid-February -- and our eyes, arms, and legs!