"How Long Will This Take?", and other thoughts...

Hannah and her cousin Jess enjoy a "mister" in the heat at the zoo

**Click on this link to see the whole photo...I can't shrink it for some reason:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x184/stevefayusa/Zoo%202007/IMG_4502.jpg **

Regular readers of Hannah's Blog will remember that this past April, we started on our second China adoption. Many faithful readers ask me, "How long will this take?" Some remember that from the time our dossier was received in China (our "log-in date", or LID) to the day we got our referral and found out Hannah was our daughter was just over 7 months, and that we traveled to China to get her about 8 weeks after that.

Well, that is just not going to happen this time. The "wait" for a China adoption has become much longer. We were among the last to have such a short wait (which didn't seem so short to us at the time!). People who are getting thier referrals now have been waiting for about 20 months from their LID's. And the wait is getting longer. I'm figuring we will have to wait at least 2 years from our LID (4/26/07), and probably more. Rumors are that the wait will be anywhere from 3 years to 5 years. I just can't deal with it being that long, so I am going with 2 1/2 years. I just can't live that far in the future.

Nobody really knows why there's a big slowdown, but there are many rumors. Which of course are discussed ad nauseam on many blogs and listservs which cater to the China adoption community. The official line is that are too many applications from foreigners to keep up with the number of children in Chinese orphanages who are "paper ready", or who the Chinese government has done all their legal things to make them ready to be adopted. Lots of people think there is more to it than that.

It's amazing how many people spend A LOT of time on the internet discussing why they have to wait so long for their referrals. Right, I am one of them; but I generally just read the posts, I don't post much. Even if I wanted to, where would I get the time? Hannah doesn't think I should ever get on the computer, anyway. With Hannah's adoption, I was able to be on the internet more because I worked at a computer all day AND I didn't have a kid pulling on my arm or trying to sit on my lap whenever I went online. This time, I haven't been on the China adoption groups much, and I haven't missed it.

There is one site, known as The Rumor Queen, that is just unbelieveable. The Rumor Queen basically chases down rumors about how long the wait is going to be, and why; which months are getting their referrals, why China has slowed down intercountry adoptions, how long the wait is going to be for people whose LID is a certain date. She has statistics based on past wait times and she extrapolates future wait times. I don't know how she manages to have a life, with all she does to chase down these rumors. I guess I'm glad she does it, because the information is interesting, but I just don't want to get caught up in it. I like to read her blog, but I can't take it too seriously. To me, the wait will be as long as it is, and no amount of discussion is going to change it. (To find out more about the reasons for the Long Wait, and be totally mesmerized and bored by statistics about it, see my "Rumor Queen" link, on the right.)

Fay Family Reunion 2007

This is the first photo I have of our family reunion. It shows one of the highlights of the weekend for Hannah...she got to ride Hershey the pony at Uncle Steve's house. I'm adding more photos later, as soon as I figure out how to make them a little smaller.

Happy Third Birthday

Today is Hannah's third birthday. I can't believe she is three years old already! She's already asking me to teach her to read.

We had a small party planned on the Cog Railway going up to Pikes Peak today. Lindsey even took off work so he could spend the day with us. Four of Hannah's friends were supposed to come, but three of them couldn't make of it. So we went with just her little friend Gabriella and her mom. Gabriella is a sweet, cute little girl who plays well with Hannah...they have a lot of fun together at Gymboree. Hannah calls her "Gabby-rella". Hannah went to Gabriella's third birthday party just last month. Most of Hannah's friends are "older men" (OK, four year old boys), so it's nice that Gabriella is exactly her age. They're also both girly-girls and they love to wear pretty dresses, so it's cute to see them play together.

Before our train ride, we had a little party on a picnic table in the train depot. Hannah had picked out her cake at Safeway, and of course, she picked the gaudiest, most "princessy" cake they had - it had four of the Disney princesses on the top. We sang happy birthday to her, and all the people sitting nearby were watching because the two girls were so cute. There was another little girl sitting nearby so we asked her to join our party - well, we asked her mom if she could. When we got in line for the train, Hannah and Gabriella were walking along together, holding hands. They both were carrying their water bottles, but still trying not to let go of one another's hands. Very cute. We had fun on the way up - the scenery is beautiful, and they had a good time being on a train. It was a beautiful day for the train ride; the sun was shining but it wasn't too hot. Of course, it's a good 20 to 30 degrees colder at the summit, and there are some really impressive views from there. Not only can you see all of Colorado Springs (so tiny you can't really make anything out), you can actually see into Kansas to the east and into New Mexico to the south.

It's an hour and a half trip each way, though. Hannah fell asleep before we got to the summit, and Gabriella fell asleep as soon as we started down. Hannah stayed asleep when we got the summit, so she and I sat inside the snack bar (she was still sound asleep - how can kids sleep through EVERYTHING?) at the summit while Lindsey stood in line to get us a soft pretzel and Gabriella and Vicky (her mom) went outside to get some pictures of at least one of the girls at the summit. On the way down, both girls were sleeping almost all the way down (it was well into nap time by then). So the grown-ups got to relax and chat and enjoy the scenery. It was actually maybe more fun going with just one other little girl than it would have been if all the kids had come.