Why Does It Take So Long?

After a year of working on our adoption paperwork, we sent it to China and received our official "Log-In Date" (LID) on March 27, 2006. This was the beginning of our Long Wait as 3 1/2 years passed until our Match Day on October 13, 2009.

Match Day was a joyous day! We saw a picture of our daughter for the first time, and memorized the few meager details of her life. We happily signed the acceptance letter and overnighted it back to our adoption agency.

Now, we are waiting for China to issue our Travel Approval and set our Consulate Appointment. This time, the wait will only be two to three months, but it is a harder wait, and seems so much longer than the Long Wait. Every day that passes is another day that Carly isn't in our arms. She is our daughter, but she's not with us, yet.

Why does it take so long when China's orphanages are overflowing? There are two reasons.

First, all of China's international adoptions are approved and matched through the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). This government agency is truly dedicated to placing orphans in good homes throughout the world. Their criteria for qualified parents is rigorous and exhaustive (just ask us!), and it's even tougher now that the Hague Convention rules went into effect in 2007. The Hague Convention is an international treaty governing adoptions.

Combine these tough rules with a flood of parents wanting China's children, and you have an overwhelmed CCAA. The chart below details the number of Chinese adoptions over the last several years.



As the number of parents desiring to adopt from China escalated, the staff of the CCAA became burdened with a huge backlog of dossiers that they had to review and approve. In other words, the CCAA is three years behind in its paperwork.

Second, in 2005, during the peak shown on the chart, China's law enforcement discovered that criminals were stealing babies to sell. These criminals were deservedly prosecuted. These babies were not orphans. They belonged to families that loved them.

The sad side-effect of prosecuting these criminals was that orphanage directors became afraid to refer their children to the CCAA for fear that they would be accused of baby trafficking. Remember that China is a communist society. Their courts of law are not always rational.

The wait time for parents hoping to adopt from China grew to three, and possibly, four years, as a backlogged CCAA now had to deal with orphanage directors that were afraid to refer their children for international adoption.

So, you see, the Long Wait became the norm.

We weren't happy with it being the norm, but we survived it. Now, Carly is a part of our family. We just need to bring her home.