Why is waiting so complicated?

Ah, adoption, never a smooth road, but hopefully worth it in the end. Just to update everyone, we are in line for both Ethiopia and China.

In Ethiopian news, every year the courts in Ethiopia close (I'm not sure exactly why). This year, it looks like that will be from early August to late September. In Ethiopia, the child is not officially yours until the courts say so, and obviously they can't unless they are open. What that usually means is that people don't get referral (info on the child that could be theirs) until after the courts are re-opened. Anyway, the word from our agency is that people who get a referral before June 1st may get through court before the closure. After that, we have a choice (apparently this is the first time they are giving people this choice): 1) be open to getting a referral between June 1st and end of Sept, but know that the court date will be after Sept and travel to pick up the child may be by the end of the year. Or 2) wait on getting the referral until after the courts re-open, wait the "normal" amount of time for a court date, and likely travel in the beginning of 2009. Many have discussed the pros and cons to this, both related to when you want to wait the longest: waiting for the referral longest means you have absolutely no information, but getting a referral sooner (and waiting much longer to travel) is reportedly harder once you see the child and just want them home. So, we are opting for option 1, because in the end, it means getting him home sooner. However, we are told that we are unlikely to even be considered for a referral during that time anyway. The average wait time now is closer to 9 months for a referral, so that puts us into early 2009 anyway. Unless it's different with toddlers (some data suggest it is much faster, like 2 months, but agency says 9+ months). Anyway, there's nothing much to do except wait anyway.

And more bad news: China just referred 3 days worth of LIDs in May. It was 5 days and 8 days before that. There are now 536 days of LIDs before ours. At a rate of maybe 5 per month, we may get a referral in 107 months (almost 9 years). Yeah, I had to go there and do the math. Even scarier math: I'll be 42!! There is still some talk of things speeding up after the Olympics, but we'll just have to (dramatic pause) wait and see what actually happens.