In Which Connor Pulls An All-Nighter And We Get Some Adoption News

I just woke up!

Jeremy graciously let me go to bed after he got home, and I slept for a blissful four hours.  Connor decided last night that he wasn't going to go to sleep.  At all.  And then he didn't nap today either.  He was actually in a pretty good mood, too-- unlike his mother.  Pulling an all-nighter doesn't really do wonderful things for my sunny disposition.

Thankfully he crashed tonight, so hopefully I'll be able to take advantage of that and get a full night's rest. 

I probably would have felt a little down today anyway, because we learned that the wait for referrals of waiting Thai children now is likely to be 18-24 months rather than the 8-18 months it was when we entered the program.  This is partially because Thailand hosts a Nativeland Tours program every couple of years in which children from all over the world who were adopted from Thailand visit their birth country for a week.  The social workers put aside everything for a couple of months to prepare for the tours, and as a result adoptions currently in progress end up being delayed.  Another reason is the massive decrease of adoptions from China, Russia and Ethiopia, which has caused a flood of families trying to get into other programs.  I'm not sure yet just how this affects our adoption, as that timeline is for people just entering the process.  However, it's likely that we won't be seeing a referral next spring like we hoped. 

Of course this is still nowhere near the wait that many adoptive families experience-- couples adopting a non-special needs child from China are waiting an average of five years or more now-- but we really want to get Ellen home!  She's been waiting for thirteen years for a family now, and I wish she didn't have to wait any longer.  Of course we know that the Thai government is doing the very best it can for Ellen and the other children like her waiting, but it's hard knowing that she's growing up on the other side of the world.

We'll keep sending her care packages and love in the meantime, and hope that the adoption process goes smoothly and quicker than we're expecting!

~Jess