Sobering thoughts...

When we started along the process to adopt a child from China, allocations were happening at about 6 months after a file was sent to Beijing.

With an anticipated age of the child at about 12 months at allocation, this meant that we believed our child had been born and was already in a SWI (Social Welfare Institute - Orphanage) waiting for a family.
With the current timeframes being what they are - ie. the latest batch of allocations went to families who had their file in China for about 20 months (ours has been there for almost 14 months) it puts us in an interesting position... we are actually waiting for a child to be abandoned so we can become parents. Over and above this is the fact that when our file went to China - his or her birth parents had not even conceived, and would not have even known what lay ahead for themselves, or their child... our child.

Behind this long and hard wait, behind the yearning to become a mother and behind the pain and reality of facing another Christmas childless... there is child who is yet to be born, and who is yet to be abandoned and yet to be found. And there is a birth mother and father, a birth family... who are yet to face possibly the most difficult decision of their lives.

A sobering thought.