Hoppin' down the bunny trail

Tonight was the annual coloring of the Easter Eggs at the H house. In the morning, we're having breakfast with the big bunny himself at EJ's school, so expect to see more pics in the afternoon.

Friday - Finally a GOOD Rumor!!!

The rumor sites started buzzing around 3 PM today with news of a few people getting their matches today! At least two have been posted, with LIDs (login dates) that are the same as ours! And, one family in CA who was inadvertently passed over last month got their call today...I'm SO happy for them!

What does it mean for us? Hopefully that the phone will ring in the next few days. Looks like 2 of the 3 calls that I know about were all from west coast agencies.

Today's Rumor Rundown

The rumors this morning started out all over the place again. There are some people saying that referrals are still being matched up, some saying they're already on their way, etc. Many people are guessing that they won't arrive until Monday, but hey, we thought was the case last week! Just stay tuned...check in with us each day. I certainly hope it isn't much longer.

Grandma H sent a cute little blue silk journal for EJ to take on our travels. She has two entries in it so far. The latest, dated Monday 4/2, says "We thought we would get the call today, but we didn't get it!!!! If we don't get it by NEXT WEEK I will exsplode!!"

On another note, where the heck is Spring? Where are the daffodils and tulips? I don't hear the birds chirping or see tender shoots of green on the trees! Here's what we woke up to this morning. Can you believe it? EJ had a snow day today!

Where in the world is Baby H?

Well, of course we know she's in China! But where in China? I just did a little snooping through our agency's emails over the last 18 months, and here's the breakdown:

• 61 from Hunan (7 travel groups)
• 33 from Jiangxi (4 travel groups)
• 20 from Anhui (2 travel groups)
• 13 from Hubei 2 travel groups)
• 8 from Guangdong (1 travel group)
• 7 from Guangxi (1 travel group)
• 3 from Sichuan (1 travel group)
  

These numbers may not be accurate, as some months the travel group was large enough to be split between two provinces. For example, the February 2007 update reported that 16 families were matched with babies in two provinces. Without knowing the breakdown, I counted that as 8 for each province. In reality, this could have been 15 families going to one province and 1 family traveling to the other. But, I think this is a good estimate.

How does the Chinese agency match babies with families?

So, with the rumors saying one of two things - that referrals are still being matched up, or that matching is complete and referrals are on their way, I realized that some of you might wonder how children are matched with families. The following text is paraphrased from another site, and it's the most detailed explanation I've read. Not sure how we know that it's true, but it is what most believe to be true.

1. The CCAA reviews the baby's paperwork to make sure it is all in order. Then, they count up all of the babies that are eligible for matching that month and look to see how far this stack will go in the parent files without sending out a partial day's worth of matches (remember, all the applications are recorded in date order), and they pull all of those parent files. This helps to determine the likely cut-off date for the matches each month.
2. Next they match SWIs, or Social Welfare Institutes (orphanages) up with agencies. This SWI has six babies, this agency has six families. These two SWIs are in the same province and have a total of 12 babies, this agency has 12 families.
3. Finally, they start matching individual babies to individual families. Just as in the review room (where the parent applications are checked), each matcher is assigned certain agencies. Apparently, matchers first look for something that stands out when selecting a family to be matched with a baby: a matching birthday, a baby who looks a lot like a parent, or a baby who likes music and a parent who teaches music. The example our agency gave was that if you are a sporty, outgoing family, you might be matched with an "active" child from the SWI. Upon hearing that, we thought it best not to mention our hiking and camping, and instead reported that we read and listen to classical music each night! (Just kidding!) Apparently Chinese astrology may play a part in the decision as well.

Mid-week rumor rundown

Today, the rumor sites heated up again with all sorts of crazy stories...the referrals are on their way (they've left China), they're still in the matching room (they haven't left China), they might be here Thursday or Friday, they might not be here until next week. Since I've been disappointed once this week, I refuse to be caught up in them any more. I'm done with them all! Yeah, I won't even look. Period. End of story. Well...maybe just one more peek at those rumor sites before I go to bed tonight!

Still no news...

...and the rumor sites haven't given us any new clues today. It appears that the packages that left China last week were actually travel authorizations for last month's referrals. So we have no idea when the matches are coming. Hopefully this week or next. China typically sends them out somewhere between 28 days and 38 days after the last round, which means anywhere from yesterday through next Thursday 4/12. But as we all know, past performance isn't necessarily an indication of future performance, so....we wait!

I don't remember being this stressed waiting to go into labor when EJ was born!