Sunday, October 14, 2007

So Glad to Be Here with You!

Today I went to an Open House that is available to waiting families with my agency. This is the 3rd or 4th one of these I have gone to but today's was the first I'd gone to in over a year. It was a notably different situation for so many reasons.

In the past the wait was less than a year so people were up, excited and anticipating their referral. At today's event the differences were very apparent to me. In the past even though the agency only had 60-80 waiting families, there would easily be 50+ people at the open house. The feeling in the air was one of excitement and talk was a preparations for baby and travel. Travel groups got to meet one another and often set up additional times to get together.

Today, even though the agency currently has about 180 waiting families there were only about 20 people there and the discussions were more questions about the wait, the wait and ...the wait. People in attendance were either next on our agency's list (Jan '06 LID's) or 2007 LID's. I found it interesting that there were only 3 of us with 2006 LID's between March and December and all the rest of the people had LID's in 2007. I find, like a lot of us, that people are just trying to go on with their lives as much as possible until we get closer to our referrals.

As hard as the wait is, our agency director was a upbeat as she could be under the circumstances. On a good note it appears the citizenship laws may be changing for Canada. I knew something was in the works but she sounded like it was a done deal as of January 1, 2008. Is anyone else aware of this? Still waiting for details but it appears from what I heard today the Hannah may come home as a Canadian citizen. This wasn't the change I'd understood but would be a wonderful surprise if it was! Does anybody have details about this?

What am I thankful for today? I'm thankful to have found you! A wonderful, informative group of people online. It was sad to see people's faces fall as they heard of the wait being so much longer than they anticipated. The girl next to me had an October 2006 LID and had contacted the agency recently to see if she might be travelling next June? With a March 2006 LID, June would be a miracle for me! What made me sad was that with all the information available to us, many people who are trying to guess when they might travel, also choose (as they are free to) to not avail themselves to the information available online.

Today, once again, I am thankful for you. The blogging community who shares our hopes, dreams and realistic referral guesstimations based on the current CC@AA trends. The wait is long and rough but being here with you makes it SO MUCH BETTER! Thanks for hanging out here...I'm happy to be waiting alongside you.

18 comments:

  1. Going online, learning and opening myself up to learn and connect with special people like you was the best thing we have done during this wait.

    Keep smilin!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I will ditto what exactly you and Doris said......HUGS!!!
    What is this about the Citizenship? Share the details. I'm in the process of doing Channings....would love to know the details you heard!!
    Hope your doing well. I will call you maybe this week...k???

    ReplyDelete
  3. the online community has provided such support and a vast amount of infomration i would not of had otherwise.
    i agree that it is wonderful to have!

    ReplyDelete
  4. By y'all being online, you have also educated people outside of the IA world. I had no concept of the process and now through various blogs and R#Q I now am (slightly) knowledgeable about the China, Haiti and Guatamala process. It gives us better empathy and makes us more aware of a world outside of ourselves so thank-you all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My understanding is that Bill C-14 will amend the citizenship act to allow for automatic citizenship for IA children under the age of 14years.

    The bill has passed and barring tragedy will be law in December.

    I don't know if a link works from here but worst case you can cut and paste.

    http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/bills_ls.asp?lang=E&ls=c14&source=library_prb&Parl=39&Ses=1

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry the link got cut off. I will try again.

    http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/bills
    _ls.asp?lang=E&ls=c14&source=library
    _prb&Parl=39&Ses=1.


    If that doesn't work google Bill C-14 making sure you are in Google Canada

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey girlie... I can't stand this wait either and I REALLY cant' stand reading all the rumors online, but I love that I've met you in the process of it all :) Miss you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. It certainly has to be tough on all of the families waiting. Once again, I have to say how much I admire your spirit and optimism. Hannah is going to be one lucky girl someday soon!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I honestly don't know what I'd do without the online community of support. You all are great!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I hope the wait speeds up for all of you still waiting. I have all my fingers and toes crossed for you!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am so thankful that I ventured online and stumbled upon all of you wonderful women! The support and information that I have found here has been invaluable!
    I am curious about the citizenship changes - I just sent Ran's application in TODAY!! Urgh!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I learnt so much from everyone on-line.
    You are so right...thank goodness for each other!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Blogger buddies have kept me sane, as have my M3 Posse, which formed from the common bond of waiting for our daughters from China.

    I'm with ya, sister! So glad for my blogger sisters...

    Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  14. I am thankful I have found you too!!! I cannot even imagine my life is I would not have taken this turn in the road to adopt Tate and decide to become of the bloggy community!

    ReplyDelete
  15. hI,

    We are waiting for daughter 2 from China with an LID of 3/22/06/

    For some reason I have obsessed on the wait the past couple of days. Not doing my work and browsing online for connections. My husband and I are hanging on but this is a hard wait.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Catherine you are so sweet. All the others that are on this journey that have not felt the blogger support, don’t know what they are missing. It is truly amazing and wonderful. I will be forever thankful that I made the decision to start a blog and join this wonderful community of support that spans the world.

    (((HUGS))) to all the waiting Moms, hang in there ladies our time will come!

    Smiles! :o)
    Nikki

    ReplyDelete
  17. I will hanging with you for the duration of the adoption and then for many, MANY years after that! I have said it a million times and I will continue to say it, the only good thing about this wait are the people that have come into my life. I love you!

    I feel for the people who aren't informed about what this all has become. How tough that must be.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...