Our Journey to Ava: December 2007

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Brian's Birthday

We celebrated Brian's birthday saturday night. Nathan & Collin danced to the music playing from the card they picked out for him.

Christmas party

I went to my work x-mas party last week. We finished the night at the Ritz Carlton for drinks and dessert. They had a 17 foot pirate ship made out of gingerbread in the lobby.

Let it snow

It is strange to live in a state that has to make snow for the kids to play with.

Happy Birthday Uncle Brian

Meagan & Matthew helped Uncle Brian blow out his candles.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Stucco!

Today the finally applied the stucco to the front of the house. I cant wait until they paint it because it looks so ugly right now.

Our 2007 Ava ornament

We we're hoping we wouldn't need a 2007 waiting for Ava ornament...we hoped she would be here by now. Lets hope we wont have to be a "waiting" ornament for 2008/2009.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

December 8, 2007

This week our walls and ceilings we're painted, the molding is up and our doors we're hung. Tomorrow our cabinets and counters will be installed. The two pics here are of the kitchen.

Our Garage

Our garage is now filled with our Kitchen and bathroom cabinets and our counter tops. While we we're there we noticed our numbers for the house we're on the floor so we had to take a pic.

It's hard to believe Nathan is now 10 years old! We went to Keiths for his b-day party on Thursday. Angie and her boys we're there too. In the group pic from the left is: Nathan, Tanner, Jake, Josh and Collin.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

We are out of the review room!

After spending 14 months in the review room we finally got word from our agency that we passed review. CCAA has reviewed our dossier and approved us to adopt. Many familes will be asked questions when in review which delays the adoption even longer. Families also get rejected in the review room so it was a great relief to find out that we have been moved to the matching room. Now we will wait in the matching room and collect dust until our turn comes up.

I found some information on a site that I visit that explains the wait a bit so I thought I'd share:

Another agency has issued a letter to their clients that gives a good bit of information. This is another great, heartfelt, letter. Again, in bullet form, here is the informational part of the letter:

As of last month, the CCAA has approximately 30,000 dossiers waiting to be matched.
New dossiers coming in now are significantly less than were coming in before the new rules took effect. They receive closer to 500 to 600 new dossiers a month now, compared to 1,600 to 2,000 per month before the new rules kicked in.

The CCAA receives approximately 80 to 120 requests per month from families asking that their file be closed. (families leaving the China adoption program)

The percentage of Special Needs placements (both older children and children with specific special needs) is rising.

The percentage of Non Special Needs families that switch to SN is also rising.

From the NSN and SN programs combined, the CCAA has matched on average about 600 children per month so far this year. The total for 2007 will likely be between 7,000 and 7,500 matches.

The CCAA anticipates roughly the same annual number of children being available in the next two to three years, with possibly some decrease (stated because of the decline in abandonments and the speculated increase in domestic adoption).

They note that with the uncertainties of how many people will drop out, it is probably not terribly accurate to just divide 30,000 by 7,000. (RQ note: They also give the uncertainty of how many will switch to SN, but I don’t see that as changing numbers any, just changing where in line those particular people are standing. By the same token, anyone who gets started in the SN program right now will also get a LOA and TA before most of the rest of the 30,000, so we aren’t just looking at the 30,000)

They do not believe that the longest wait time will reach 4 years. They believe that the peak in wait times will be when the April 2007 families receive their matches.

The CCAA does care about the wait, and about the future of the program. They are working to “ensure that their services to abandoned children and adoptive families will continue for many years to come”.

The CCAA stresses that while they don’t know how long the wait will get, they do give assurance that those families who are qualified and who are willing to wait will receive a match for their child.