"The Box"

What is "the box"? It was a box on the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) Website that we used to be able to go to and see our progress. We were able to see and rejoice when we made it through the "review room". We were able to see in black and white how far along in the referral process did they get every month, and how close (or still far away) we were.

A little while ago China removed the box, it can now only be seen by adoption agencies. The problem is that most adoption agencies do not share a lot (or in some cases any) information with their clients so it leaves us in the dark. Some agencies share, but they are usually wrong and this is almost worse than not sharing at all. In any case we are now relying on each other to figure out how far they got every month and as such, most of us have created our own boxes for our blogs. My box is now on the sidebar and I will try and update it every month as we figure out how far they have progressed.

A good month is 7 days worth of referrals, a bad month is 5 days, and a horrid month is ......well just to horrid to discuss. When we started this process they were doing a month of dossiers every month. If we continue at a good month's pace (highly unlikely) we will get our referral in (96 divided by 7) 13.72 months. Let's hope for a pre or post olympics speed up!

It's time for a blog overhaul!

Ok, truth is it has been time for a blog overhaul for quite some time but I have had a few other things on my plate and it was a bit daunting to do.

I have however, taken the proverbial bull by the horns and I am quickly looking for the barrell that I am supposed to jump in to when it looks like the bull is going to get me!

Don't get used to this header, it still isn't quite what I wanted but I am learning and growing and hopefully my next attempt will be a little closer to the image that I have (hazily) in my head.

Enjoy the new things and feel free to comment any suggestions or thoughts!

Thanks!

Gift from hubby that I just had to share!

Happy Valentines Day!

Enjoy your day.