Philippines Adoption Update

It has been a long time since I have posted anything about our adoption journey, but lately not much has changed and we are still patiently (Anxiously) waiting for our referral. However, we did receive a phone call from Kristine the assistant director of Holt International's Philippines program with an update. She usually calls every 3 months or so just to check in with us. She had some encouraging news and I am almost afraid to share with everyone as I am afraid it might jinx us in some sort of way. It is truly all in God's hands and in his timing so I guess I should give up the whole "Jinx" theory.

This year, Holt International had a goal of placing 22 children from the Philippines with waiting families and as of this past week they have placed 23. And there is still about 2 months left of 2008 and I am praying that they place a few more children with families before the new year. Yes, we are hoping to be one of those families. We also found out that there is one applicant still waiting to receive a referral that was approved in August of 2007. We were approved in December of 2007, and that puts us now 2nd on the list. The Philippines program doesn't necessarily give out referrals in order so being 2nd doesn't really mean anything. But they do give preference to those families who have been waiting for a referral the longest. The average wait time for the families receiving referrals the last 6 months has been
12.78 months. We have been waiting 10 1/2 months, so a child for us may be just around the corner.

Since we are getting closer to referral time frames, Kristine said that if she needs to contact us for paperwork reasons or another program update she will first email me to let me know that she is going to call. She said that she doesn't want to get our hopes up for the "Big Call" if it isn't for that reason. Just thinking about seeing HOLT INTL. popping up on my caller id from here on out gives me happy goosebumps.

I am not sure if you guys remember the referral date survey we did on our blog last spring, but 4 people guessed that we would receive our referral before Christmas of 2008. I know my mom and my mother-in-law were two of the four people who guessed that date. God bless those who are optimistic. I sure hope they are right. You know what they say...Grandma knows best! I however am a realist, and chose a later date, but I sure wouldn't mind being wrong in this particular survey.