How Long?

I get asked a lot "how long?" which I take to mean "how long until we're sent information about who our child is?" It's such a hard question to answer. Once our dossier is sent to China (DTC) China looks it over and gives it their approval. When that happens we are given an official date of entering the process. That's called our Log In Date (LID). This date is really important. It's the date families live by because we're matched with a child by this date. Each week the CCAA, the government organization in charge of matching families with children,
http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp
goes by the family's Log In Date to see who is next in line for the child matches.

In order to answer the question, "how long" it's difficult to say. The 24 month wait from LID is for families getting their referrals now. These families logged in in December of 2005. Every month that the CCAA refers only a few days worth of LIDS, the wait grows. It is taking the CCAA several months just to get through one month of LIDS. There is no way to know how long someone logging in now will wait, though there are algorithms online that can render a guess.

http://people.wwc.edu/staff/stirra/china/stats/statsdisplay.htm#QUICK

We're hoping the wait won't increase but you can't know. People tell me how patient I am but that's not true. There's just nothing I can do about it. Plus, we don't even have a LID date yet, we're still waiting for our DTC.