So what now?

Soooo we're moving ahead.

We updated our Home study and that has been submitted to the gov't for approval. We need to sign new retainers with our agency, and pay some service fees for translations, facilitation etc of our new documentation. We have a "meeting" with teh coordinator of hte Waiting Children programme at the agency on Friday to discuss our file and determine what child would best fit us.

Our agency receives files for approximately 10 children every 3 to 4 months. There are 14 families in line ahead of us... but it's not that simple. The Waiting Child programme is not as linear as the "other" line wherein applicants are processed by date of registration alone. There is priority of first come, first served, but that is superceeded by the match of the child's needs to the parents' application. For example, if we asked to be matched with a Purple Child, the family waiting in the seventh position also asked for a Purple Child, and one file of a Purple Child was received, the other family would be offered the referral. However, if none of the other families waiting had asked for a child of a Purple hue, we'd likely be offered that child in referral.

Our agency will receive a group of files about children early in November. It will take about a month to process, translate, review and match those files. It is unlikely that we will be matched because of the families waiting ahead of us. Their next group of children will be received early February or March. With any luck, Anna will be in that group.

The hard part of the Waiting Child programme is the referral / application process is kinda backwards compared to the other line. In the non special needs stream, the CCAA offers a child and the family can choose to accept or decline it, then travel is arranged within an average of 6-8 weeks, sometimes less, sometimes more. In the WC programme, CCAA provides information about children and we apply to adopt that child - which adds another BIG step to the process. We will send a "letter of intent" which is called an LOI in IA lingo. That will be considered by the CCAA and usually responded to with a "letter of acceptance", or LOA. Once the LOA is received, the arrangements for travel begin. The whole process, from LOI to travel, can take up to 6-8 months. All that time, we'll have her picture and information about her in our grubby lil' paws. It'll be a long hard wait...

So that's it in a nutshell. Although this process will be much faster overall, the next several months will be uneventful overall.

N