Some Consider Abortion a "Motherly Act"

I can't even begin to tell you how angered I was when I read an article entitled "Abortion: Why It's the Ultimate Motherly Act." Not exactly the kind of thing you like to read after finding out that you have to wait even longer for your adoption to be completed.

You can read my reaction here.

We Had Our Fingerprints Renewed Yesterday; They Expire, You Know

Check out this story:

Charge Over 1974 Child Slaying in Texas

ABILENE, Texas - Abilene police say a suspect was arraigned today on a murder charge related to the 1974 stabbing death of a boy. A fingerprint that was found at the victim's home was entered into a national crime database in 1994.

An arrest last August in a D-W-I investigation in San Antonio led to a fingerprint match.

Forty-nine-year-old Juan Castenada Bravo was arrested yesterday in San Antonio and transported to Abilene. Bravo is held on 100-thousand dollars bond.

Police say seven-year-old Michael David Niles, who was known as "Mickey," was fatally stabbed in June of 1974 while at home. The boy's 13-year-old sister, Kelly Niles, was wounded. Investigators are trying to determine whether Bravo knew the victims.

So wait a minute...they solved this crime 30 years later because they found a fingerprint match??? I ask you then, why adoptive parents are required to get re-fingerprinted in the adoption process? Apparently fingerprints EXPIRE after 15 months. Since our adoption is moving at a slower pace, we were re-fingerprinted yesterday...a strange sense of violation.

Yes, you could watch COURT TV or read the papers or scan the internet and find many a story of crime-solvers using ancient finger-prints to solve crimes, but OUR government says finger-prints expire after 15 months. I am sure you won't find it shocking that there is a charge, with a check made out to the Department of Homeland Security, for this.

On a brighter note, I guess, is that as of today we are at 13 months since our LID, and I am officially 19 months pregnant. I look pretty good under the circustances, wouldn't you say?

Depressing Update From Our Agency

Dear Families,

It is America World's desire to keep families informed of the latest happenings within the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs). Posted on the CCAA's internal website yesterday was the following: " The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 26, 2005." America World's next LID (log in date) is October 27th, 2005, so this means that we will not receive a set of referrals in this group, unfortunately.

We have heard that a large number of Dossiers were logged in to the CCAA on October 25th and 26th, which could account for the CCAA only processing 2 days worth of LID's in this month's referral batch. As a reminder, each month the CCAA compares the number of children available for adoption with the number of dossiers with the log in dates next in line. Each month the number of log in dates varies, though the average number of log in days processed over the past few months has been 15.

What we can conclude is that the wait time has and will continue to increase. By the time families logged in toward the end of October 2005 receive their referral they will have waited roughly 18-19 months from LID to referral. This means that families with an LID after October 27th will wait 18-19 months or longer for a referral. We will continue to keep families informed of the current wait time through email communication and the Weekly Update on America World's website. Please let me know if you have any questions, and know that you have been prayed for today and will continue to be prayed for through this difficult time.

Speechless

Wow. The CCAA only processed TWO DAYS of paperwork. I don't even know what to say.

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before March 31, 2006.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 26, 2005.

CCAA Update

From the China Center of Adoption Affairs:

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before March 31, 2006.

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 24, 2005.

Our documents were registered on March 13, 2006. It is nice to see some progress, but it is still slowing down rather than speeding up. The delay is not only stressful emotionally, but financially as well. The longer things are delayed, the more we have to re-do. We got our appointment to get re-fingerprinted (a U.S. government requirement - our fingerprints "expire" after 15 months!) More money for this, of course.

It is a blessing that we moved when we did, though, because we had to pay $350 to update our home study (it is good for one year), and if we had moved two weeks later it would have been another $350 to amend the update. Next up is our petition to adopt an orphan application and that is another $600 or so (another U.S. requirement, and the fee is scheduled to increase in June, much to the chagrin of the adoption community).

Please continue to pray for us and for Olivia and join us in praying for China to move faster in this process.