We were anticipating a month wait until we received a referral. Obviously, we knew it could go longer or shorter based on the number of babies being born. A month seemed to be the average wait for those adopting a baby girl through our agency. Now that we are officially waiting, I am paying close attention to others who are waiting and referrals as they are given. I love seeing new referrals! I love seeing the baby pictures and hearing the new parents gush with excitement. Of course, I am also aware now that it means we are moving up on the waiting list.

There have been no referrals this week on our agency message board. No one has posted a new picture of a precious new baby. And many people are trying to gauge where we all sit on the list. I know we sit at the end of the list but I am interested in how long that list might be. Rumors abound but the reality seems to be that there are a buttload (if you recall from an earlier entry, we established that a buttload is a scientific unit measuring more than 9) of families ahead of us. I was thinking we were perhaps 9 or 10 on the list. It looks like we might be more like 17 or 18. Unless the stork kicks it into overdrive, we won’t be seeing a referral in August. We will hopefully see one in late September. It is even possible that October would be more realistic.

Our director (who is great at keeping everyone updated on what is happening with the agency and in Guatemala) said there are some referrals which will go out early this week. No word on how many…just “some”. I hope for those at the top of the list, that “some” means more like 5 or 6 rather than 2. I’m sure the wait gets harder the closer to the top of The List you are.

We were also told that the current slow downs in PGN may very well become the standard time line rather than the exception. Previos are very common (kickout from PGN requiring re-submission and waiting for another review). People are spending longer trying to get through PGN and there isn’t much that anyone can do about it. Political agendas are trumping the welfare of these children.

It all just makes me sad. Sad for all of the babies waiting to come home, sad for all of the parents waiting, and sad for us as our hopes for bringing our baby home get more distant. I find it so disheartening to keep pushing my timeline for this baby back further and further and further. We just want to be parents. Why does it have to be so hard?