Rumors, rumors, rumors

Well folks, it's that time of the month and the rumors are flying. Referrals are on the way, then they're not, now they are. November 21st is the cutoff? Quite a few agencies are saying this, but how do they know until the referrals are in hand. It is rumored that some agencies have contacts in China who give them inside information. I believe that other agencies make educated guesses. Our agency gives out no information until they know for sure.

I'm taking this all in stride. My original belief is that we'd see referrals on Monday, August 6. I'm still thinking that the 6th is a good date based on prior referral times. As far as the cutoff being November 21st, which would mean that we would finally see our baby's picture, I'm not going to get my hopes up. I'd rather be happily surprised then let down. Until I know for sure, I'm expecting a September referral.

If you're wondering where I'm getting all of the information from, I am part of a forum called China Adopt Talk or as the rest of us call it, the Rumor Queen site. The Rumor Queen site is a site for adoptive parents to share ideas and rumors. Most of the people on the RQ site are adopting from China, but there is a forum for people adopting from other countries. There are over 3,700 members from all over the world.

The pigs get leashes

Gabby and I thought it would be fun to let our guinea pigs have a little more room to run in the backyard. After thinking about how this would work, we decided to get them harnesses and leashes. The first time we put the harnesses on Gabby and I laughed so hard. Now we take them outside and can let them roam a bit without worrying that they can escape. If you want to see pics, take a look on the pet link under Gabby's Stuff.

Adoption thoughts

We've now logged in 20 months of waiting since we sent our paperwork to China. It has been a pretty good month, but where the adoption is concerned it has gone by slowly. We are about two weeks away from finding out if we will get our referral this month. I'd say we have a 50/50 chance of receiving and August referral and a 95% chance of receiving a September referral. Either way, we'll be to China and back before the year is over.

July Referrals

Our agency received referrals for 14 children on July 6. Referrals were for LID dates through 11/14/05. With our LID of 11/21 we could get our referral the first week of August, but I think it's more likely that we'll get it the first week of September.