2 Year LID Anniversary

It's certainly not an anniversary that we ever thought we would be celebrating! In fact, unbelievable I almost forgot that is was today. If it weren't for my Chinese adoption buddy, Jenn calling earlier today I don't know if I would have remembered. But I guess I have just been trying to put it all out of my mind. So anyway today marks 2 years or 24 months or 52 weeks or 730 days or 17, 520 hours since our papers were logged in at the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs on 3-13-2006. A part of me still can't fathom it. When we signed with our agency in September 2005 the wait was 7-8 months which means families received a referral of a child 7-8 months after their paperwork was logged in. As we went through the home study and put together our paperwork we saw the wait slowly grow to the point when our papers were mailed to China and then logged in the wait was 11-12 months. Since then things continued to change even more drastically. Before we were logged in the CCAA would refer a whole month of LID's each month. In the last year they have referred anywhere from 2 days to 11 days a month which means the wait continues to grow substantially each and every month. This month they referred 8 days which in comparison to previous months isn't too bad and the good news is they finally finished referring all of 2005 LID's and are on to 2006. They referred up to 1/4/2006. What does this all actually mean for us? Well, it means there are 68 LID's between 1/4/2006 and our LID of 3/13/2006. If the CCAA continues to refer 8 days each month we will see a picture of our child in 8 -9 months and then travel to China 6-8 weeks later...YES we are clinging to the hope that by the end of the year we will see our child's face. But we also continue to trust in God's PERFECT TIMING for our family. Our family is not what we envisioned it to be. Doug and I thought we would have somewhere in the vicinity of three children at this point. But God has had different plans for us. One that we know will be much greater than we could have ever planned.

Scripture that gives us tremendous hope & peace:

Do not be anxious about anything , but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4: 5-7

Do not be afraid for I am with you; I will bring your children from the East and gather you from the West. I will say to the North, "Give them up!"and to the South, "Do not hold them back. "Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

Isaiah 43:5-7

I think we will have to have Chinese for dinner! :)