We spent Saturday attending the first of a few baby showers. We got quite a few nice gifts. Thanks for everyone who attended.
Yesterday (Tuesday), we went to the office of our adoption agency. We got to see three pictures of Emily and a brief medical report (essentially saying everything was normal). We completed a one page form saying that we accept the adoption referral. The acceptance form was sent to China that afternoon. Hopefully we will go to and be back from China before the end of the year (possibly be back before Christmas).
A link to a website with pictures of the orphanage where Emily is:
Referral received!!!!! Announcing Gan Jian Ying (Gan is the last name, Jian is the first name, Ying is the middle name). She was born on November 30, 2001. She is located in the province of Jiangxi. Her medical report is normal. The capital of Jiangxi (where we will travel to) is Nanchang.
We will be traveling to the office of our adoption agency in Orinda (California, San Francisco bay area) tomorrow morning to pick up her picture and written information about her, and sign the form telling China we are accepting the referral.
3:45 PM Pacific Time and no call from our agency about our referral. It’s possible it may arrive at our agency in tomorrow’s mail. But I haven’t given up on today. Since this morning, more people have posted on the Internet that they have received their referrrals today.
Referral announcments (proud parents posting information about the receipt of their referrals and the baby information that came with it) are now appearing on the Chinese adoption bulletin boards.
No word on my referral yet.
Rumors are flying this morning that referrals are in the mail! From the rumors (actually posts on the websites of adoption agencies that people are seeing and relaying to Chinese adoption bulletin boards), one agency is saying that referrals were mailed on Thursday. Another agency posted on their website today that referrals are in the mail (it is unclear if they mean that referrals were mailed today since their message was posted today. Or if the mailing was done earlier like on Thursday as the other agency said). More news hopefully later today.
No adoption news or rumors appeared today. It now seems unlikely that we will receive a referral next week (during the week of November 4-8) since rumors usually start appearing about a week before referrals arrive in the United States. Usually, the rumors we would normally hear a week before referrals actually arrive are “this month’s matches have been made and are being prepared to be mailed” or “this month’s matches have been completed and are on the CCAA’s director’s desk for final signature”. I suppose if rumors appear on Monday, there might be a chance of referrals arriving on Friday.
It’s highly unlikely we will get a referral this week (now through November 1). If referrals were coming this week, we would have heard rumors on the Internet last week about referrals being out of the matching room and on the desk of the CCAA’s (Chinese government adoption agency’s) director’s desk for final signature. Usually, this rumor comes out. Then a few days later, another rumor comes out that the referrals have been put in the mail by CCAA. Then 2-3 days later, people start announcing on the Internet that their agencies have received their referrals.
If these rumors start appearing this upcoming week, that will mean referrals should be coming next week (November 4 through 8). Some adoption agencies had been predicting referrals arriving during the week of November 4-8 anyway.
Rumor Central: In the last few days, some people have been told by their adoption agencies that the next batch of referrals will probably come during the first week of November with a possibility they could come as early as next week (Halloween week).
Usually, fairly accurate rumors come out a few days before each batch of referrals arrive in the U.S. because China informs adoption agencies when they place referrals in the mail. Some adoption agencies, in turn, inform their clients. The clients, in turn, relay the news onto newsgroups on the Internet (which many of us participate in). Referrals usually show up at the adoption agencies 2 to 3 days after they are mailed from China. Those “referrals are in the mail” rumors have yet to appear.