I just read that the CCAA (allegedly) only referred TWO DAYS worth of LIDs for this month, which was actually for March because instead of referrals coming at the end of the month, they've been coming at the beginning of the next month.

HOLY STINKIN' COW!!!

This is HORRIFYING news to all waiting parents. I was just sick when I saw that. That means that all the people who were LID on 10/27/2005 have been thinking they were "next" for 2 months now. Those poor people thought for sure they'd see their daughters this month. I can't even begin to convey how sorry I am to all those people who are so close yet feel so far away.
And to think of what this means for people who were LID when we were (9/13/06) or after. We were joking about the wait being 3 years. Now that's just too scary to laugh about.
I'm really just down-hearted as I know so many others are.
I had held out so much hope for the CCAA to speed up. I really didn't think they'd want the wait to get past 12-18 months. Now, I'm not so sure. I know that they know the affect this is having on people. I'm pretty sure they care. But, I just don't know what they're thinking.
Are they trying to discourage people from applying without closing international adoption?
(kind of a "I can't break up with you so I'll MAKE you break up with me" scenario?)
Is the upcoming Olympics having that much of an affect on the way they do things?
Are there really too many parents and not enough babies? (it'll take ALOT of convincing for me to believe that!)
I just don't know. And that's the thing---we'll never really know what they're thinking or going to do. They have something we want and we just have to follow the rules.

****I do strongly want to encourage anyone waiting to adopt to consider adopting a special needs/waiting child****

Not as a means to an end or a quick fix. But maybe ONE good thing can come out of this: more children will be united with their forever families.

We really didn't think we'd be able to handle special needs.
We absolutely didn't think we'd be able to handle adopting an older child.
Granted, we haven't "been there, done that" yet, but we did change our way of thinking.
When we were discussing whether to apply to adopt Lili, we kept coming around to the same argument. "Doesn't she deserve a family/love/care?" And that's what it boiled down to.
Yep, we're going to have some issues. Not only dealing with medical issues, but emotional issues, developmental issues, attachment issues, language barrier issues. (crap, that's a lot of issues!!)
But you know what? Like we said in our application letter, EVERY child has "special needs" in their own way.
We're trading the diaper/formula/middle of the night feedings issues for language/developmental/educational issues. We're going to have some "worse" issues in certain aspects and some "easier" issues in others.
But, like Jeff said to me, isn't it amazing what God has done? We were going down one certain path and God was trying to gently lead us down another. Lili was alive for 2 years before we even considered adoption at all. Lili was there waiting for us. We were there waiting for her. And thanks be to God for leading us to each other!!