Short update

Well, a brief adoption update that will have an effect on things going forward.

We have been thinking about whether we should change to a referral for a single child or stay with siblings. When we started the process there were more siblings groups available and if we were able to adopt siblings then that would be a good thing. Not everyone is able to or willing to adopt siblings. We didn't have a compelling reason to switch to a single child.

Earlier in the week we got a monthly country newsletter from the agency. This is different than the weekly updates we get. It is more about the country as a whole and what is going on outside of mainly referral activity. The newsletter talked about the trend of fewer sibling groups being available and more families requesting only siblings. It also said that the ages for siblings were increasing (we are on the younger age range for siblings).

All of this would mean increased wait times for families waiting for only siblings, while there are still single children available for adoption. Since we were thinking about switching, we felt that this was something that would have us switch to a single child. So, we have sent in the paperwork to officially make the change to a single child.

Overall it is good if there are more families looking for siblings than there are siblings available, but it might mean fewer single children are finding their families. We also asked the agency about changing the age range, which we had as 0-36 months for siblings. They told us that changing it to 0-24 months for a single child wouldn't affect the timeframe of things.

Although we don't know anything specific about timing of referrals, this change should mean that we get a referral sooner. A little crazy to think as we were expecting a longer wait since we were waiting for siblings, but this doesn't mean we are going to get a call in 2 weeks about a referral. There is still a long way to go.