LID is through the review room!

I don't like to talk much about our efforts to adopt from China because the process is taking such a very long time and there is typically "nothing new". Besides, I am such an impatient person that the whole topic can be uncomfortable for me to discuss. I do have some news now. When a family goes through the process of adopting from China, they must prepare a bunch of information (home study, etc.) and send it to China in a dossier. We started the paperwork in March, 2005. (Some of you may remember how we had to get the help from the office of now-youngest-U.S.-Representative Aaron Schock to clear a paper work snag.) When the dossier arrives in China, it is given a Log In Date (LID). Our LID was in March 21, 2006, nearly two years ago. The dossier is then translated into Mandarin and then reviewed (in what is apparently called the review room). After that there is another wait for the referral (the match), then more time until we get to China.

This whole system is in a bottleneck right now: the "demand" for orphans has far surpassed the "supply", though it seems crude to couch human beings in these terms. This is actually really good news, it means that the culture in China is shifting to be more orphan-friendly, and ultimately it should be all about the kids. That said, this bottleneck was unexpected, so it leaves many adoptive families waiting FAR longer than they thought they would have to wait when they started the arduous (and expensive) process to get things done. Some familes have pulled out of the program.

BUT

Yesterday we found out that the group of dossiers with our LID made it through the review room. We still have a least a year to go, but this is a milestone we have been hoping and praying for THANK GOD! My pic of the day is of a sunbreak in the clouds, because that what it felt like to me when we got the news.