We are still waiting, which is expected. Our hope is to be “matched” with a baby sometime this year. Then we will have to wait another 4-8 months to go get the baby. For those of you interested in the process I have learned a lot while waiting.
When your home study (HS) is complete you are given a date (ours is 6/10/10) and put on the official wait list. The official wait list is not shared with the public or with waiting couples. However there is a forum where you can voluntarily add yourself to a list. We know this list isn’t complete (and my guess is it only has about 30% of the couples waiting). We added our name to the list in December 2010 and have gone from number 17 to number 13. The forum is public if anyone wants to keep up with us – we are HHB. I like to periodically check the forum to see when referrals have been received and the wait time after a referral to receive a travel call (TC).
I initially thought couples and babies were matched straight down the list. This turns out not to be true for several reasons. The biggest reason falls under the heading of “special needs”. In our adoption world special needs can mean anything from a mother who drank during pregnancy, an extra thumb, asthma, a one-time corrective surgery, to epilepsy, down syndrome, or cerebral palsy. In our initial paperwork we received a list of medical conditions and were asked if we would consider a child with any of them. We marked yes to a few and no to most. This document is often the reason people are matched with a child out of order.
We also receive emails every three to four weeks with a couple of babies with special needs. Anyone with an approved home study can review the children’s medical histories and then ask to be considered. All of the interested families are reviewed and a referral is made. In this situation the HS date once again comes into play. We have been asked to be considered for several babies, but haven’t been matched to with one.
The good news: 13 babies (both special needs and direct referrals) have been matched with couples since January 1, 2011. This is much higher than the usual 2-3 referrals a month.