Since a bunch of people that are not adopting have asked me about how this whole waitlist thing works, I figured that I would just blog about it and share some about that.
Most of you know that we officially were placed on the waitlist last week. We received the number 93. Now, with our agency there are three lists: a girl list, a boy list, and a siblings list. Since we live in a 2 bedroom house and our daughter will be sharing a room we were approved for a girl so that means we are only on the girl list. Some people are on just one list, two lists, or even all three lists. It really just depends on your family and your parameters. As families toward the top of the list receive referrals (when they are matched with a child in Ethiopia) everyone else moves up on the list. If a family that is on all three lists receives their referral then they are removed from the waitlist and everyone on all three lists move up a spot. If the family receives a referral for a girl and they were only on the girl list then everyone on the girl list moves up 1 spot. Ya get it? Pretty easy.
Thankfully we have 2 ways of finding out about what number we are on the list. The main way is through our actual agency's calls/emails. Each month at no particular time we will receive a call or e-mail to tell us of our updated official number. We only receive this contact once a month. Here's the cool thing. Our agency also has a listserv where most of the adoptive families share their referrals and all kinds of wonderful, encouraging, and helpful information. From the listserv, there is an "unofficial" list that is kept. Everyone shares their official number but then during the month when someone reports a referral, we know that we all move up. We don't have to wait until the next month to hear our official number. We actually know an unofficial number. Now, this number isn't EXACT EXACT but it seems to be pretty close! We knew that we started out at #93 but actually now we are unofficially #87. Pretty cool huh?? That is cool for us because we have moved up but REALLY COOL for those families at the top that received referrals because that means they have actually seen a picture of their sweet baby girl or boy and are so so close to bringing them home!
Do you have any more questions? Let me know. Sometimes I take this stuff for granted because we're living it but I do wanna explain things as much as I can!
So what do we do now? We wait! :)
Waiting with Hope,
I think you explained it really well. but I know how it works so I guess I am a bad judge! So awesome that things are moving quickly right now, be you never thought you would move that much in your first week!
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