Shedding some light on how the process goes...and goes...and goes....

Basically, the process goes like this...you make the decision to adopt, you apply to an agency, you have your life examined in detail, you get approval from the agency,you apply to Homeland Security to approve you, you submit your paperwork to China to approve you, you get a referral and then you go to China to pick up your child. Amazing that this 2+ year process can be summarized in 4 lines! In the meantime you begin to grow as a person, a partner and prepare to become a parent. Wow! The whole time keeping your eye and your heart on the beautiful, imagined face of your darling, praying that it will be smooth and quick and will really happen. The part about really happening is the part that tests your beliefs, causing you to reach deeper within yourself for the sweet core of peace, faith and more faith.
When our paperwork went to China we were assigned a Log-In Date. Ours is February 16,2006. Your life begins to revolve around that date. Every month or so, the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs processes matches between dossiers(and the people who they are about) and children ready for adoption. They send the match, now called a referral, to the agencies, who notify the waiting families. Once you have your referral, you accept it or not, you wait for consulate appointments, travel approval, visa approvals until you finally get to travel to China. Once you arrive, you are introduced to your new family member and you now begin your life together. Families stay in China approximately 10 days while paperwork is finalized.
China has processed dossiers with log in dates through Oct. 13,2005 so far and everyone in the adoption community is anxiously waiting for the next group of matches/referrals. This will probably be within the next couple of days to a week. Based on how many matches they are doing per month, we are expecting our referral sometime between August and October. If you'd like to visit the Chinese Adoption website, the address is www.china-ccaa.org. On the right hand side of the home page you will see document processing. The bottom portion is the one that states how far along they have gotten in the matching process. So far, they are updating these monthly as they go. Some rumors are that they may stop updating, but for now we can follow along with their process.
I hope this clarifies the process a bit and helps you to follow along with us. At this point, Lily has probably been born. We don't know anything about who she is or how old she is or where she is. We imagine her safe and warm and loved. We haven't been matched with her yet. At least not on paper. She is a strong belief right now. We believe we are progressing through the process at the speed that is perfect for all of us. We feel connected to her.
Thanks for sharing our journey with us.